Yesterday I went viral on Instagram and it scrambled my head.
C’mon Jodie, you can do better than that.
Okay, I let it scramble my head.
Bingo.
In New York I agreed to a street video with my friend and co-host Chris Do. Zero preparation.
His opening question, "How much do you charge per hour?"
I answered. He probed. I explained that if you don't think it's possible to charge $1000, $2000, $5000 an hour, you'll never do it.
But if you believe there's a way, you'll figure it out.
Belief is the key. You work backwards from there.
But back to going viral.
It was nuts.
Every time I went on Instagram I saw this:
Again...
and again.
Plus cute comments like this:
Not-so-cute ones like this:
And questionable ones like this:
At first I let the dopamine control me. I was checking Instagram every few minutes, reading all the messages, getting involved, watching my follower count go up.
Chatting with Chris about the video (he knew this would happen, by the way):
Reading the comments out loud. Thinking about it all the time. Seeing how the other videos on his channel did.
Then I realised I couldn't focus.
At all.
I went to the gym and struggled to spend longer than 10 minutes on any single exercise. Sat down to write and kept checking Instagram.
ENOUGH.
Decided to take control. Concluded that the universe handed me a way to practice being world famous and work out a system. I made a system.
It's called:
How to gracefully go viral without losing your mind and messing up your attention span
Or HTGGVWLYMAMUYAS for short. (Just kidding.)
Anyway, the system. (Can you tell my brain is still recovering?)
- Delete Instagram from phone
While this was going down I didn't want it to be more accessible than required. Laptop browser only. Annoying, but temporary. Mischief, managed.
- Restrict checks
It was tempting to check every few minutes. But I made it once every 2 hours, then 4, then 6. Set a timer. Got back to normal life.
- Block trolls
Found it funny that the video triggered people into leaving hateful comments, but I blocked all the trolls. Don't care if that's the done thing or not. It felt right.
- Meditate
Scrolling, checking and all the new stimulus meant stillness went AWOL. I had to get it back. Emergency meditation ensued. My Calm app never got so much use.
- Go device-free
Even if deleted, you can always re-download apps. It's too easy to toggle airplane mode off. Your brain tricks you into giving in to dopamine cravings. Go device free.
The irony is, I teach coaches how to show up online.
I help them go viral.
But when it happened to me on this scale, I realized experiencing virality in your nervous system is completely different from understanding it intellectually.
You can know the strategy. You can teach the framework. You can see it working.
Then you feel your prefrontal cortex getting hijacked by notification hits and you understand that going viral is a psychological event.
If you're not prepared, it messes with your ability to do the deep work that got you there in the first place.
The universe gave me a practice run at being world famous. I learned what I needed to learn.
Next time, we got this.
