influencers – The Hermits' Rest

Good Influencers

My last post mentioned that I didn’t want to do a lot of the self-promotion and marketing (and shilling for businesses) that stereotypical influencers do. I find it boring, repetitive, and fake.

Nonetheless, I know of a few people who make money from their online presence but avoid the influencer pitfalls. They manage to promote themselves while providing interesting or fun content, and genuinely give back more than they earn in subscriptions or however they earn. If I ever were someone with an adoring fan club, these would be my role models.

Here are three examples of people whose writing, photographs, and “brand” I enjoy. There are more, and I’ll mention them later when appropriate.

My favorite influencer is Franklin Habit, someone I’ve actually met because I took a class or two on knitting from him. He’s a creative knitter, builder of miniature houses, artist, and comic essayist. Reading about his life for the past many years has been a lot of fun. He can be sweet, generous, prickly, and sad all in one piece of writing. And he does NOT hesitate to say what he thinks is wrong in the world (often hilariously).

What I admire most in Habit, though, is his ability to share his life stories yet manage to reveal nothing whatsoever about his personal life. That takes skill. Even if you aren’t a knitter, you might enjoy his adventures in his adopted country, France, and his surprising hobbies. I happily give his Patreon account some money every month.

A newer favorite, who more obviously has a drive for marketing, is Misha from dontcrosssagayman. He’s “everyone’s gay best friend” (not mine, because I already had one before I found Misha). He loves selfies, sashays his way through Austin, Texas, and is very sweet to his adoring crowd of “besties” who really seem uplifted by him. Like Franklin Habit, he doesn’t hesitate to give his opinions and tsk-tsk folks who do him or others wrong. But he seems genuinely sweet and always looking for ways to be kind to others (in a sometimes self-promoting way). I find he gives me good ideas for good deeds and just knowing he’s out there flying his rainbow flag gives me hope for this world. At least he’s influencing for good.

Finally I want to encourage everyone to be influenced by Rev. Jim Rigby, who is the person who’d be my minister if I could do any organized religion again. His version of Christianity, which focuses on being like Jesus was, is admirable, and his analysis of current events is very thoughtful. He’s another one who gives me hope and encouragement to keep moving forward. I’m very jealous of my friends who get to go to his church in an Austin suburb. (note to all my Progressive Christian clergy friends: you all inspire me with your efforts to fight the tide of groups and institutions that are Christian in name but not deed.)

If Nature weren’t my church, I’d go here )they have other good leaders, too)

I’m done with influencers for a while. I just got an urge to figure out what I think of them. I guess I conclude that if someone has thousands of followers but is encouraging them to be better people, then I’m fine with them influencing.

Now for a funny photo of me for my dear Donita

I got my hair trimmed and now see how thin it is. Wah.

I’m no Misha in my Mr Peabody glasses and weird straight hair. I don’t recognize myself. I’m also done with selfies.

I Don’t Want to Be an Influencer

Honestly, I don’t understand why anyone is interested in that “career path.” I’m familiar with a few interesting people who have or would like to become internet celebrities. More than one of them has mentioned feeling weary of trying to stay “on brand” and repeating their talking points (or whatever influencers call them—remember I’m not one). Oh, and artificially big lips and eyelashes, which I assume look good to the influencer subculture.

Early on in my time writing blogs (I’m not sure I’m really a blogger, either), it became clear to me that there was a formula the successfully monetized blogs all followed. There’s a lot of mentioning products so they can get paid in goods, and there’s lots and lots of teasing and bloviating before taking you to the “interesting” content so you have to plow through ads. That doesn’t sound like writing or sharing. It’s marketing. Yuck.

It’s like you have to make a new fake you. This is definitely a fake me.

I like to write things that interest me. I don’t have a brand, unless it’s quirky older woman goes on and on about nature and personal growth. I do have cute animals, but they don’t often do anything totally precious enough to have their own fan base.

Carlton’s most crazed look and he doesn’t even need Snapchat.

Like cats, my animals generally only have one expression, so every photo of a chicken, turkey, horse, or dog in my blog looks the same. It would be hard to influence anyone with this material to work with.

I look like this every day, unless I’ve been fighting, says Carlton

Of course that’s fine. I don’t want my social media presence to be a job. Whenever it veers that way, I veer back to just sharing stories about a rural-life newbie and her unswerving desire to become a good person who enjoys life however she can. That will not garner 200K of fans.

But it’s the real Suna. Rumpled but content.

I think I may want to influence you to share my quest for peace, love, and kindness. In these challenging times, we all can use some inspiration, so if I cheer anyone up, give someone a new idea, or make a reader chuckle, that’s enough for me.

This is intended to make you chuckle. It worked for me.

Thanks for your contributions to cheering ME up! I needed it after my day of breaking browsers and enterprise software products. It really WAS a Monday today.

The Best Shirt EVER

Maybe I’m exaggerating, and maybe I’m not. However, today I am wearing a new shirt I got on Saturday that just gets better and better the more I wear it. I’m not usually this much excited about a shirt, I swear! There is no danger of me morphing into a fashion blogger or an “influencer” (for a really funny article on how to be “Insta-famous” as an influencer, check out this post by my favorite millennial, V.

I was initially drawn to this shirt, sitting there among dozens of beautiful and over-priced shirts at a shop in Round Top, because it was covered in hummingbirds. I pretty much was going to buy it unless it looked like some giant sack on me, just because of the print, but I did feel the need to try it on.

The shirt! Note my hand is in my wonderful pocket! And check out those pressed jeans, courtesy of Kathleen’s dry-cleaning account.

I’m glad I did, because I keep thinking I am huge and tried on a size much too large. Kathleen kept sending me back to put on something smaller. The M fit great, and is still loose enough. I’d never heard of the brand, but I found this on a page that sells the Shana brand:

Shana offers a diverse collection of affordable clothing in today’s current styles. Unique and exciting clothes for women who want to look their best. A portion of all sales is given to Himalayan Hands, a non profit organization dedicated to helping children and their families in Nepal and Tibet.
http://www.fawbushs.com/brands/shana

Well, at least some of my money is going to help people who deserve some help. That makes my shirt purchase part of my do-gooder work, too. Ha! Clever!

Back of shirt, featuring cool pleat and zipper!

Why is this shirt the BEST?

Let me share the ways:

The print is just the cutest ever and in such happy colors.
The pattern fits nicely at the top then flares out, making me want to twirl around. It is flattering to people shaped like me.
It’s really comfortable, and all cotton.
The front has buttons, so you could wear it like a jacket if you wanted to.
The sleeves roll up and have a button to keep them up, which I didn’t realize until I was getting dressed this morning and found the sleeves too long.
The back has a really cool zipper! It’s not just decorative; when you unzip it, the shirt’s back pleat is freed up, thus making the shirt even twirlier.
AND, as I only found out about a half hour ago, it has side pockets. Who doesn’t love pockets that actually work?

So, I have to say that I love my shirt and plan to wear it for years and years. It matches my hair, my glasses, my nails, my active imagination…yay!

The zipper opened, and a better view of all the birds.

I have come to the conclusion that I wear bright clothing to help keep me feeling in a good mood. And from my coworkers’ reactions today, the happy colors, shiny shoes and all that cheer them up, at least a little. And it costs no more than black (I admire people who wear only black and look so chic in doing so; I just can’t do it myself.)

From rainy Austin, Texas, have a good week!