Is this the era of quitting

Social media guru and influencer Vanessa Lau popped back on today after more than a year of turning off the lights on every aspect of her online life.

Lau had grown a massive following on YouTube and Instagram, made huge money with her online training, and achieved her dream of being a popular influencer. As things were looking up for her and her business, she surprised her audience when, one day, she posted a text-only announcement saying she was taking an indefinite hiatus effective immediately.

I won’t say that Lau started a trend, but there have been several similar announcements from prominent individuals who have had enough of the grind of trying to stay influential online.

Just over a year ago, I also stopped posting on my main YouTube channel, but not because I was burned out. I did it because I had taken my channel in a direction that no longer resonated with me.

During the pandemic, I noticed an uptick in a couple of videos about how I switched from Adobe to the Affinity Creative Suite. Those videos were not meant to become a main topic, but because so many people were stuck at home and looking for alternatives to Adobe so they could play around with design, those videos blew up.

At the time, doubling down on that topic sounded like a great idea to garner more subscribers, but after 18 months of that topic, I was bored. I didn’t want my channel to be about Affinity products. I wanted it to be an expression of my creative work and the thoughts around it, but I dug myself a hole, and no matter what I tried to do to get out of that hole, the new audience didn’t want to see that content.

I started this blog to express my ideas and creativity without the influence of social media. I don’t share this space in those places; for the most part, I’m not enthused about social media anymore. And I think there are a lot of people who are coming to a similar realization themselves, albeit more quietly than me.

At the end of Vanessa Lau’s video, she discusses what’s next for her. One significant change she made for herself was to skip the content pillars (what a lot of gurus will tell you is necessary for growth—guilty as charged) and instead focus on core principles of what she believes is a healthy life: Feel Good, Have Fun, Do Less, and Earn Enough.

All of that resonates with me a lot as I work through my pivotal moment of what comes next for me and my creative work. The only other core principle I would add is always making what I want.