Staying True to Myself

It's so interesting to see who unsubscribes every time I send the newsletter out. Today I “lost” the person who was my first paid customer eight years ago —almost exactly to the day—for a commissioned piece.

In a “double whammy,” an artist I connected with during Covid (who used to host a coloring challenge on Instagram for many years) also unsubscribed from Little Tokens Big Ripples this evening.

My first paid customer unsubscribing feels particularly significant—like a full-circle moment. She was there at the beginning—when I didn’t yet call myself an artist, when I was still tiptoeing around the idea that what I made could matter. She supported my very first step into believing my art had value, and now she’s stepping away as I’ve evolved into someone completely different.

And that IG artist who built community around structured creative challenges likely doesn’t resonate with my anti-performance, presence-based approach. The coloring challenges were about consistency and hashtags, while my practice is about slowing down and showing up whenever I can.

What’s fascinating is that I am noticing this without trying to win them back. I’m not wondering “How can I make my content appeal to them again?”

I’m simply acknowledging the natural evolution of whom my work serves and whom it doesn’t. As Joi, Clint Collide, Diana from Sloppyperfect were sharing in Seth Werkheiser’s Escape Pod call this afternoon—we cannot be everything to everyone. And it is ok.

As I become more authentically myself, some people will naturally drift away—that’s called alignment.

I am so grateful that I’m becoming so clear about what I offer that the right connections are deepening while I’m being able to gracefully release others.