Make Your Haters Elevate Your Work

 In Inspiration & Motivation

I’m going to make this post relatively short.

Its purpose is not to rant, but actually the opposite: I want to share with you how changing my attitude towards negativity on social media, helped me to channel my energy into the right actions and greatly improve my work.

Even though I am sharing my own experiences, this post isn’t about me, it’s about you. It is for you.

I am writing about it in hopes that it will make a fellow artist feel better, because I know how lonely and hopeless it can feel when someone hurts your feelings by leaving mean comments on your work or brings you down in any other way. I used to feel this way too. If my post will help at least one person, I will consider my mission accomplished.

So, I am convinced there are two types of haters: 1) ordinary trolls, and 2) competitors turned haters.

Ordinary trolls. These are people you don’t know and most likely wouldn’t even want to know in real life. They have nothing to do with you, they have no idea what your goals are, they don’t care about you, and what’s most important they are not qualified to judge your work. They have accomplished nothing, so they spend time spreading negativity online, putting other people down, because it makes them feel better.

If you become a target of a troll of this type – give it no second of your time and no iota of your energy, they do not deserve it and you have better things to do. So delete, block and go about your day as it never happened. You don’t want someone who wants to hurt your feelings among your followers anyway.

Think of your followers as supporters, people who love your work, respect you and want to see you succeed. They will cheer you on and they will share your joy, and be happy for your good news and achievements. If they are not silent spectators or supporters – you don’t need them, so don’t feel bad about virtually kicking them out of your life. At least you won’t ever have to be a recipient of their negativity rooted in their own insecurities and worthlessness again.

Competitors turned haters. These are the valuable ones, you actually may want to keep. Competitor-haters are the people who might be doing the same thing that you do (photography, makeup, retouching – in the similar area of photography), but they are either way behind you so they are jealous of your achievements, or they are ahead of you in the industry and they feel threatened by your potential. They may even have an unhealthy fixation on you and you won’t even know about it, they will want to put you down directly and indirectly, badmouth you behind you back and spread negativity around your name.

And let me tell you this, while I love and appreciate my supporters, it’s this type of haters whom I owe my growth as an artist the most. It’s not the kind praise of the supporters, it’s the hurtful comments of the haters that made me want to be better, work harder and excel. Not to prove them wrong, but prove it to myself that I am capable of more.

By no means I am saying that I am done growing, but I am definitely light years better than my old-self as an artist and professional, and I am sincerely thankful to my haters for it.  Even more, I love them for it!

You don’t need to worry about your competitor-haters badmouthing you behind your back, as someone wise said “you only need to worry when they stop, because it means you’re doing something wrong and they no longer see you as a threat“.

You know how they say, the world around you is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you perceive it and how you react to it. So, change your perception towards mean comments you receive online and be glad you have haters. Let them ignite and fuel your development and progress with their negativity. They don’t know what you are capable of, but you do, so don’t waste your energy on feeling hurt and feeling down, channel it into the right activities – work harder and dream bigger!

And it’s good karma too – you dissolve a little bit of negative energies dispersed into the world by your haters and turn it into your creative power 🙂

Celebrate your haters and they will elevate you!

 

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Showing 7 comments
  • Louis Amore
    Reply

    It’s so interesting to read this, great blog, just this morning did I have a so called friend I recently deleted off facebook because we never talk, I mean for years so what’s the point right, He said this to me at the end of his sentence

    “Watch the Birdie …. Say Cheese ……It’s not an exact Science ….. And your just an average Snapper with a Hobby ….. Peace Out.x

    I think it was a good decision haha!

    • Julia McKim
      Reply

      Louis, I think of our social media profiles as our virtual homes – if someone is being unpleasant or plain mean, they don’t need to be there. Good thing is that you can “close your door” and leave them outside 😉

  • Veronica
    Reply

    Thank you for posting this! Another type of hater are those who don’t take you seriously because you have a full time job and do makeup on the side- I’m sorry, but I like having a supersteady income WITH amazing benefits and I’m trying to grow my business. Am I restricted with what gigs I can take? Yes.Is my job flexible that I can bounce early to go to a shoot? Heck yes. But that doesn’t mean I’m not serious or lack talent. That just means I work 7 days a week and spend my free time building my brand.

    • Julia McKim
      Reply

      Veronica, those are just naysayers and too many great and accomplished artists wouldn’t be known today if they listened to those 🙂 You need not care about what they think because what you’re doing is a wonderful and fulfilling thing. I hope you will be ready to flip the switch for full-time makeup soon!

  • EJ Rojas
    Reply

    Uplifting post!! Thank you so much for this words of wisdom. It’s incredible how human beings can be so negative on social media and just let anger and jealousy take over.
    Let’s change negativity in this industry by all of us bringing positive vibes around the world.
    Cheers!

  • Gabe
    Reply

    Julia, I can’t believe that you have haters. Truly; you kindly post tips and tons of advice and I’ve found inspiration to become a better retoucher with my own pictures just by looking at yours. I’m very thankful for what you do and I can only wish you plenty of success. How can anybody hate you? Some people should just get a life.

    • Julia Kuzmenko McKim
      Reply

      Thank you so much for sharing this and your kind words Gabe!

      Ironically, right now I am dealing with a Dropbox problem – someone reported MY OWN file that I created to give away for practice and shared in one of my blog posts. Dropbox blocked my entire account during the investigation and even though I already messaged them explaining that it is definitely my own work – it’s been a few days that I can’t use my Dropbox account. I have hundreds of folders for all my clients and colleagues and they have my links to download the images we created together, but they can’t now until Dropbox unblocks my account.

      That’s something so low and malicious, I can’t even wrap my head around this and it definitely wasn’t done out of love 🙁

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