Writer and social strategist Peyton Dix on the value of peer pressure

What do you think is a common misconception people have about building an online voice and social media strategy?

I think that there’s some one-trick ponying. Or like, [the idea that there is] one thing that’s going to make you or your brand go viral—if you just do a thing, if you just use a certain hashtag, if you just have a certain cadence. Of course, those things contribute. But I feel like the path of success has always been experimentation and always trying things that are new, even if they flop. I’m a pro-flopping radical. I think it’s an iconic thing to flop. You haven’t made it unless you flop first. For a lot of brands that I work with, the goal is not to immediately seek virality. The goal is to find what really works, try a bunch of shit, to throw things at the wall and see what sticks.

Where do you go for inspiration?

Outside. I touch grass, you know what I mean? I think it’s really easy. My instinctive response was almost to say TikTok. It’s just frankly my favorite social media platform. I feel less anxiety when I’m on it, even though it’s still anxiety-inducing. But I honestly feel like my best ideas come to me when I’m off of my phone and out in the world, seeing art or plays or just having a conversation with friends and being like, “Wait, that’s actually an idea. That’s something to build off of.” Not that I’m hanging out with friends to brainstorm. Everything is a meeting, okay? [*laughs*] We’re expensing all the drinks we ever get.

Creative careers can involve a lot of rejection. I’m curious how you dealt with self-doubt and uncertainty, especially early on.

I’m still dealing with self-doubt and uncertainty. I feel like I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m always going to be walking with my anxiety, but we are hand in hand now, which is a different thing. I think we’re allies, even though she tries to get her lick in, here and there. I do think it helps to come to terms with the fact that that is part of being alive—not just being alive, but being online and being public to a certain degree, and having a lot of your work be public facing. I think that the voices in my head have lessened a little.

But in terms of advice: no one thinks about you, and particularly no one thinks about your social [presence] more than you. You are the only one refreshing your page. You are the only one reviewing shares, likes, comments, or rereading something over and over again. I think it helps to kill your ego a little bit. What’s that Jemima Kirke phrase? She was doing a Q&A on Instagram, and she was like, “I think you guys think about yourself too much.” I was like, “Oh, I think about myself too much.” No one’s doing that work but me. If I can relax and realize I’m the only person doing that much negative self-talk about myself, then that makes me have a little bit more space or breath to relax and to care less.

With rejection and not getting opportunities, do you have a process for dealing with that?

I think being public and being loud about rejection is something that helps with it. It’s really easy to feel a lot of shame or guilt around not getting something or losing something. Having discussions with my friends, treating my successes as the same as my “failures,” and naming and talking about both of them—I feel like that lets it sit less inside of me. It lets it feel a little bit less like shame and more just like part of the process of the work that I do and the world that we’re in. I think you can reframe even what rejection means. Not to be very Eat, Pray, Love, but you can see it as an opportunity for something else to come in.

Then people share with you, too, and it’s more of a community experience.

Yeah, yeah. I love when a friend shares their L. I’m like, “Yes, we’re flopping together.” Like I said, flopping is iconic. Do it in groups.

Is there a great piece of advice that you’ve heard along your career journey?

I have a more specific immediate thought, from my very first boss when I was working at The Outline. It was specifically about copy, but maybe it could be applicable to other things. She said to just share everything as if you’re sharing it to a friend, or as if you’re talking to a friend. If you’re writing copy for a brand or if you’re using your own tone of voice, the goal is connection. I think that if you are at least moving from that point, then your ability to connect, to reach others, and to grow comes from communicating from a place that doesn’t feel higher than, but feels equal to [your audience].

What’s the best compliment that someone could give you about your work as a social strategist or your writing?

I don’t think there’s a best kind of compliment to get for writing, except when it’s from writers that you respect and look up to and love. That always feels big. It’s so subjective. Oof. I mean, there’s more of a numerical value on social strategy and branding most of the time—whether it’s clicks, views, people showing up to an event… But for writing, it matters who it comes from. My friend Hunter is always saying, “Read people who are smarter than you.” It’s always going to push you to write better, to read better, to understand deeper the kind of work you want to be making. Then for brand strategy, again, it’s super subjective, but I think the best feeling is seeing people send whatever you’ve made, done, or created to a friend—knowing that it was big enough. Likes are whatever, comments are great, but sharing is actually the biggest goal. You want someone to sit with it. Knowing that someone related and passed it on is something that feels good. If it’s a meme or if it’s just a piece of information, it always feels good.

What would you say to someone who is nervous about building an online presence? For example, an artist who’s scared of self-promotion?

Well, being online is the most humiliating thing that anyone can do. I say that and it’s my job. I hate social media, but the only people who can hate social media are the people that work in social media. So coming from that standpoint, it’s like we’re all humiliated. There’s actually so much camaraderie in being perceived. It’s the best and worst thing. Everyone else is struggling with this, even the people that seem to be really good at it or have amassed a certain following or engagement. It is still, even for them, a form of suffering. I wouldn’t mind if the internet just blew up one day. Don’t worry. But unfortunately, this is a part of branding—getting your work out, getting your name out. But I don’t know, we’re all in the same boat of self-promotion, self-deprecation, and eventually, hopefully, self-love.

What’s your creative process? Do you have any rituals or routines?

I feel like I’m still building them and still learning what feels helpful for myself. I have only been full-time freelance for the past year and a half or so. That was something that all of my friends who were full-time freelance for longer periods of time would say: it’s going to ebb and flow, and what works for you might have to change. There are always things that I’m trying, like getting outside of my own workspace. Sometimes I cannot be productive. I need eyes on me. I need peer pressure. I love peer pressure. I’m very pro-peer pressure. There’s a lot of solitude that comes with writing, even in social strategy. It’s a lot of me working and then coming back to a team. At times I miss having coworkers. I miss a little water-cooler gossip. I think expanding to my community—whether that be friends or former coworkers—to play with an idea has been super helpful, simply just co-working or bouncing ideas off of each other. It makes sure my day feels planned and standardized enough to where I can dedicate real time and hours to work, then back to myself, then back to work again, or to remember to eat and hydrate.

What are you afraid of at this point in your career and how do you deal with those fears?

The thing I’m always struggling with, and sometimes fear even naming, is the idea of, “my time is now”—that I need to capitalize on all the things that I want to do right now because I have a certain amount of access or eyes on me. But honestly, the people that I’ve respected and looked up to, who’ve had very long careers and a lot of legs to their careers, are people that have moved slow and intentionally. Even my peers that move that way are a reminder to me that I don’t need to rush and do everything now. Success is not always reactionary. I was very used to being the youngest in a room for a long time and thinking that my success for my age was something that was an identifier of my personality. But that just happened to be circumstance. I mean, I do think I was good at what I did and I’m good at what I do. I’m 30 now, so everything’s different. I am trying to constantly remove my age in relationship to what success looks like, what career looks like, and what I’m expected to be doing. Good things actually famously take time.

Peyton Dix recommends:

These lacrosse shorts I swear by.

A Mexican Caesar salad with chicken and avocado from Chopt.

The Message by Ta-Nehishi Coates.

Calling your mom.

DtMF by Bad Bunny.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Sarah John.

Print Share Comment Cite Upload Translate Updates

Leave a Reply Cancel reply