Joey dreamed of starting an Instagram food blog.
He’d spend hours laboring in the kitchen, cooking up delicious food, and plating the food in a beautiful and elegant way.
He’d endlessly snap photos of the food. Experimenting with all sorts of different angles and filters.
Then he’d open up his Instagram app, load the photos to post, and hesitate before clicking Share.
He couldn’t do it. He never posted a photo.
The thought of how he would look to his friends was too daunting for him to handle. The judgement was too stressful.
He’d think about his friend, Christian, who would take incredible food photos and post them.
“My photos definitely weren’t as good as Christians,” he’d say.
It was emabrrasing to even think about.
He did have one friend, named Rosie, who he’d show his photos to in person.
“I love them!” she’d say.
It would feel motivating in the moment, but when she wasn’t around, he would always continue to question himself.
“It’s just cause she’s my friend,” he’d say to himself.
Until one day, he woke up with a great idea.
“I’ll share my food pics with friends in my group chat!” to get more feedback, he said to himself.
So he cooked up an incredible dinner, snapped the photos, and shared them to his 12 person group chat.
Silence.
“Wow, not even one of my 12 friends liked it,” he said.
He felt so embarrased.
He considered apologizing to his friends for interupting them with a pointless photo of his food.
The longer time went on -the more embarrased and ashamed he felt.
He was upset at Rosie that she had told him they were good.
“Lier!” he said angrily, why would she say something like that and give me false hope and confidence.
A whole hour goes by and he doesn’t even touch his food.
Then, a notification goes off on his phone.
Rosie gave it a heart!
OMG he thought to himself. He immediately felt bad for his thoughts about Rosie.
Another notication went off on his phone. Another heart!
“Wow, multiple people liked my photo of my food pic,” he said.
So he opens up Instagram, loads up the food photo, and shares it with friends.
Each like that comes in feels so good.
After checking a few times over the course of 30 minutes, he puts the phone down, and carries on with cleaning up the kitchen.
Joey broke through his fear of sharing his photos of food
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Cooking and snapping photos of food is Joey’s form of Art that he creates.
Joey made himself vulnerable, put himself out there, and grew immensely as an individual because of it.
The more Art we create and share, more feedback we get, the faster we master our Art.
We’re inviting you to share your Art with us. Because we’d love to help tell your story.
It’s sharing stories like these with eachother to motivate eachother to learn, stretch and grow as individuals.
Collectively this will make our whole Community stronger.
You are who you surround yourself with, as they say…
If you’d like to share your story, or someone’s story you know, message us at founders@bluedoormedia
Looking forward to hearing from you
Thank you for reading.
Written by: Jake Twomey
Art by: Heather Wilson