How Hustle Culture Ruined my creativity Part 1….

by Nikiah Seeds

Lately I have been reflecting on my journey with being an entrepreneur, and how deeply embedded my creative life has been within it. As I began to look deeper and deeper at what was happening within my creative world, or rather, what was not happening, I began to see how my use of social media was tied to it, and how the hustle culture of posting constantly in order to gain exposure was killing my creative voice.

For folks that are creatives and entrepreneurs you will know the drill, you create something, write something, have an idea or course you have created and are excited about. With great excitement you create said project…

However that is not the end of it, you must photograph the item you made, or if it is a piece of writing or a course etc… you must now create images to go with it, or make a reel about it or in some way create a post so that folks know it exists. Then you must share and post on all of your chosen social media platforms, insta, tik-tok, facebook, twitter, your newsletter etc… and find different ways of selling your item and do it in such a way that it comes across as authentic, not pushy, but also mysterious and intriguing enough for folks to click through to your web-site and see what it was that you created.

But its not over yet, did you price it well? Is there enough added “Value” to the beautiful thing you have created and want to share with the world? Have you hustled enough so that folks understand that this is a one time offer, or there is only one of this special, amazing thing that you created?

Did you create enough urgency in the folks that may want it? Limited time offers? coupon codes for special folks to buy your course early, or add on a “bonus” to the special thing that you hand crafted? Make sure that price is not too high though because, remember–most people think they could probably make it themselves and on and on and on…

Annnd here is where the ruin of the creative life resides–right here in the hustle to have your product or course seen, understood and loved, bought and paid for…

This is something I have been reflecting on and looking back into my own personal history and trajectory as an entrepreneur over the past 20 years for, because there was a time when it was fun and I loved it, when the creative juices were flowing, and the truth of it is, social media has been instrumental in the building of my online business.

Conversely, it has also been slowly becoming something detrimental to my mental health, my ability to focus and to find my own authentic voice and more recently my creative fire…

Image taken for social media of my candles at Yule.

It’s hard to believe that it was over 21 years ago that I was pregnant with my second child, working as a herbalist and dreaming of owning my own business.

Over the course of that time my journey took me through many twists and turns, through the building and selling of two small businesses, collapsing one and creating another one, parenting two amazing kids to adulthood and finally landing where I am now, which I had thought would be my easy years after paying my dues and hard won wisdom.

Going back all those years ago now though, social media was pretty new, and facebook was the only game in town as instagram did not exist yet nor did TikTok or Twitter..

I had a personal facebook account and really enjoyed posting photos of the creative activities that I and the kids would get up to, mostly for family who were far away.

Over the years it slowly turned into a place where I could really get creative, and I found myself enjoying posting photos I had taken with a creative eye, sharing about the seasonal activities that I would do with the kids and as they grew older and I had more time for myself I would share about my spiritual work , especially because was unfolding in such a way that my creative life was intrinsically connected to it which made it easy to share.

I was also starting to post on my personal facebook page about my business and eventually opened up a separate business page.

During this time I started a blog and also posted there about my creative and spiritual understandings, and it became a place for me to go to as I was learning and growing spiritually. All the while, and unbeknownst to me I was developing many new and various skills, as being a business owner is not just about the things you make and sell, it’s also being an accountant, a marketing specialist, a photographer, web-site developer and so on.

Little did I know that what I was doing was creating my own story, a place where my friends and people coming to my web-site would witness my growth, and my creativity and it would build trust in who I was becoming, and essentially I was creating a “brand” without realizing it.

The process was slow and beautiful and I enjoyed every moment of it, as it felt {at the time} easy and flowing, and social media felt like a safe place for me to express myself.

My daughters sweet little hands as we buried red eggs at our Ostara ceremony {shared on facebook }

Looking back to understand the present:

Fast forward and the year is 2012, I have been involved in both a deep dive animist apprenticeship, as well as working closely with my priestess teacher for several years and I was starting to share some of the wisdom I learned from my initiatory process.

I was extremely involved in my spiritual community and my creativity was at an all time high as a drum maker, as well as teaching and holding ceremonial space for folks as an ordained minister and mentoring folks interested in the priestess path.

Two years later in 2014 I opened up the doors to the Red Moon Mystery school, my daughter was 12 my son 16 and instagram was about two years old, and not at all on my radar. Facebook was the only social media I used still and it was the only place I posted about my work.

Classes filled easily, and I was thrilled when I had 13 join my first intake, then doubling again the next one and so forth each time I opened up the doors…

There was no hustle, just pure creativity, honest and authentic sharing of what was happening in my world via social media, and I was blissfully unaware about things such as “building my brand” or hustle culture, because for me it did not exist-yet.

But things change, and slowly over the years I began hanging out with other spiritual entrepreneurs, buying books on business and learning how to grow mine using social media and other platforms.

I had already taken a deep dive into business when I was selling online with my other small businesses that I sold, but once I got out of that world I figured that the spiritual path would be different when it came to business, which it turned out it was not, not even a little!

The spiritual new age world is a big business and I was joining it, like it or not.

However running alongside this was a deep discomfort it the commodification of spirituality and appropriation that I was seeing being widely accepted as the norm. It seemed that the new age movement was having a “moment” and everyone was jumping on for the ride. Selling everything from “shamanic tea” to writing books which spun off into courses written by white folks who spent a year in Peru or the amazon jungle and how it changed their lives and they were now somehow deep wisdom holders and on and on…

This was deeply confusing for me as I observed the feeding frenzy of what was being socially and totally acceptable at the time {which these days is absolutely not!} and being held accountable to my own elders at the time, who consistently held my feet to the fire and had be check my ego as I sought to humbly find my own spiritual voice in a world that said go bigger, faster and make money while doing it!

There were times through all of these twists and turns, of spiritually growing up, and growing my kids up, that I really enjoyed the process of finding my own creative voice, and I felt at moments on top of the world as I loved teaching, both in person and online. However social media however was becoming a chore, especially after well over a decade of posting on facebook and blogging, and finally I was now using instagram, it was a struggle as I battled my own internal value system that said, go slower, dig deep, do not buy into the ego’ic sales pitch of the new age spiritual movement..

Slowly I found a way that worked for me but each time it was also getting harder and harder to rally myself and find a new creative center within. However over the years the pressure to share on social media became intense, as I literally was relying on it to fill my classes and advertise that I even existed.

So if I was not posting to facebook, my business was slow, added to that ,instagram had finally come into my business which added to the pressure to hustle and post daily!

To be creative, wise, witty….

Essentially over the years I built a business that required social media to function, and I was addicted to the dopamine hit that I was getting from posting and growing. However things were also changing, I was changing…

And in keeping up as a business woman I was also learning the new skills required, things such as the latest version of photoshop, web-site development/ html, Pinterest, keeping my linkedin profile up to date, if I should use Twitter or not, switching to Pickmonkey, the newest version of facebook, navigating new iphones and apps, and and on and on and on.. for years and years on end….

Well you can see where this is going…

Add into this mix that I had been feeling deeply for many years the depth of my privilege as a white person and as a white woman in a spiritual field that was being more and more commercialized and it was not something I wanted to participate in, but here I was…

The changes I was making were good, but I wanted to do more, and I knew that the process I was in was for life and that process of understanding my colonization, white privilege and way of being in the world as a spiritual white woman needed ongoing attention…

Click here to read Part 2