Good day to all of you out there enjoying the weekend. Brian Joseph Johns here of Shhhh! Digital Media.
On Saturday September 20, 2025, I spent the morning working on a coding project connected to the production pipeline that I use for creating audiobook versions of my episodic series such as Era of the Spellbound and more recently, The Butterfly Dragon Heroes Of Our Own: Reimagined.
I wrote the tool in Embarcadero/Borland Delphi (an object oriented Pascal based programming language) two months ago to assist me converting the written text from my published stories into audiobooks in a timely method, however, I'm currently adding a suite of advanced features that will significantly speed up the process, while improving the overall quality of the end product.
I might at some point in the near future open source the project on GitHub, as well as including a number of my other projects from over the years.
As I worked today, I also watched the movie Exorcist III (George C. Scott, Jason Miller) as an Atheist, Buddhist, Taoist with new eyes, though one who holds a cautious Catholic allegiance. This film as indicated by the title has a strong connection to religion, especially Catholicism and was born of the first film the Exorcist, back in the late 1970s, where it enjoyed overwhelming success as one of the blockbusters of that generation.
William Peter Blatty both wrote and directed this film, who also wrote the screenplay for To Live And Die In L.A., which was directed by William Friedkin, who directed the original Exorcist film.
To Live And Die In L.A. is an excellent action packed film involving a secret service agent obsessed with bringing down a counterfeiting ring, and also contains an excellent soundtrack from iconic 1980s band Wang-Chung.
Exorcist III is a very frightening movie taking some time to build up its momentum in the first two acts. The fear factor though is mostly the result of Brad Dourif's terrifying performance as one of the film's main antagonists.
Dourif is known for his work on David Lynch's original adaption of Dune, as well as turning in key iconic performances in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Trek: Voyager, in addition to countless other films.
Another very notable performance is by Nicol Williamson, who played Father Morning, who confronts the film's antagonist, the demon Pazuzu, armed mostly with the element water (my favourite element and the one associated with my own Zodiac sign).
Nicol originally played in the film Excalibur, perhaps the best adaption of the Arthurian legend to date, playing the role of the Druid Merlin: Arthur's mysterious mentor and teacher who guides Arthur as a squire into his future destiny.
Updates
This coming week starting from Monday, I'll be working on getting the backlog of episodes into audiobook format, between working on other coding and possibly some music projects, though I assure you that I'll have at least one new audiobook episode by next Saturday, and two more new audiobook episodes just before the Thanksgiving weekend (for a total of three over the next few weeks).
New written episodes for both Era of the Spellbound and The Butterfly Dragon Reimagined will be coming soon, with Era of the Spellbound being focused on a Halloween geared episode, when young Mila, Nelony and Shaela face off for the first time against Mianamor Selembrosi, who now inhabits the body of a political consultant in Shepperton.
They'll of course be getting some help from Gallea, who like Miana, now lacks her own body, and instead co-inhabits the body of a young woman coping with the challenges of Muscular Dystrophy.
In other events, it was a very tough week in terms of "other" aspects, though I believe I managed to keep an even keel overall while standing firmly here from my home office in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Thank you to those of you whose presence as passengers on my recent path really helped to keep me rooted and firmly where I needed to be, not to mention the inspiration to work on pleroma.
I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and the feast I plan to prep for that weekend. The turkey or chicken leftovers alone should keep my cat and I fed for weeks. I haven't yet decided which of the two kinds of bird I'm going eat for that holiday, but I'm definitely grateful for the fact that I can eat, when there's so many others at this time who are fighting for their meals let alone their lives.
Perhaps this Thanksgiving is definitely a year that we need to consider this when and if we have a little extra to share, either locally with those struggling to make ends meet, or with those in another part of the war torn world who in addition to food, are also struggling for their peace and family's lives.
On The Subject Of Duality And Polarity
And finally, remember that despite the fact that I try to present a very polished presence here on Shhhh! Digital Media, that I too struggle with my composure, my restraint and my own better judgement, often expressing things in the heat of the moment that although I will never retract, can sometimes trigger others who've similarly been scathed by modern social struggles and our strong feelings about what's happening both locally and in the world around us.
I am far from being perfect, nor am I an angel of life and conduct, though at the end of every struggle I've always ended with both feet firmly in balance and where they needed to be in support of what I believe to be right.
Extremity and polarity in terms of our behaviour can be a destructive force in our lives, and can be used against us to throw us off kilter by those seeking to exploit such ends.
Think of the tug of war where one side lets go of the rope, and the other side very quickly finds themselves far to one side and on the ground. I can't stress enough how important it is to maintain a calm balance.
Even those of us who are aware of this often struggle with it immensely. Against many who are seeking to exploit the gains that extreme reaction from their adversaries will afford them in the sense of making us the laughing stock or even worse, the bad example that lets down those who were looking to us for a good example.
Part of this stems from our expectations of ourselves. Part of it from the expectations of others, and finally, our pursuit of the illusion of what we believe others expect versus what is truly ourselves and our nature. Chasing the one that denies us of our self and being is definitely a sociopathic pursuit, in the hopes of pleasing others, and in the end, ultimately pleasing nobody. There is merit in the statement: be true to yourself, however don't be true to yourself on others' terms. Be true to yourself on your own terms.
In Extremis, Equilibrium Noxium
When it comes to being destabilized into extremity and away from a position of balance, and I've often been a target of manipulation by such efforts, I've found that you can as long as you maintain your perspective by firmly hanging on, can use extremity even in the worst of your reactions to put you back on track by using that energy for productive rather than destructive ends.
However, there comes a time when in your extremity, that you have to reel yourself back in towards a position of balance, lest you fall into the abyss of your own darkness or light. Either way, it won't help you or others in the end for you to lose perspective. As I stated in Era of the Spellbound, in order to be able to see clearly, you need a bit of darkness and a bit of light. If either of them are out of balance or into the extreme, you're blind.
This metaphor applies as much to reality and our perception of things, as it does to anecdotes pertaining to our conduct, essence and being. Most people who attempt to push you into extremity, are using it as a means to exploit you or others in some way, lest they're your partner and attempting to unify the both of you as a form of balance, one taking the darkness, the other the light. A position I'd only allow for a life or romantic partner. A boundary I'd highly suggest that everyone defend with fervor. Trust and bias are both very important when it comes to such matters.
Graham Green And The Two Wolves
In the interest of honouring the recent loss of fellow Canadian Graham Greene [Watch Gunless for free on CBC Gem], I'd like to bring up an anecdote that originated from Indigenous culture. This anecdote is often framed in many different ways, between two different extremes that in different versions of the story, represent very different poles of a polar duality and that often, most people overly generalize or simply haven't contemplated the anecdote fully, but like it because it sounds like wisdom, without ever truly consider it.
It took me years since the first time I heard this anecdote to understand this fact, because our concept of good and bad, of positive and negative is often skewed perceptually in ways about which we're unaware. I've tried to reconstruct this anecdote in a way that avoids the oversimplification of duality to one side is right, and the other side is wrong, because although there are many situations where ideas such as this are clear, the vast majority of life comes at us in ways that such duality is not so clearly defined and that requires us to truly consider the context and both sides.
Here's the version that I've elicited here:
Within us all, there is a constant struggle between two wolves.
One wolf is egotistical, critical, brash, intimidating, beligerent and often unwilling to compromise, while the other wolf is thoughtful, civil, diplomatic, endearing, encouraging, inspiring and compromise seeking.
The one that will win this struggle, is the one that you feed.
This anecdote, although at first glance might imply according to most people's concept of what it is to be a good human being, that the second wolf should always win, but in my humble opinion, that perspective would be incorrect, and that is why the parable is very purposely ambiguous. Not giving us a definite answer, but rather imploring us to contemplate it. In all truth, it is far better to be fair in most situations, giving in some situations, while cautious and discerning in other situations.
The truth is that we need both to survive, and that there are times when the first can be protective in situations where the second might undermine us in the interest of a particular extreme.
We're often led to believe that one extreme is the way one should lean to be a "good" person, but as life unfolds, you'll truly find that extremity in this manner is a means by which many seek to exploit others in one form or another, especially the naive.
The truth is that we need both, and that feeding one more than the other is potentially unhealthy. You need to know which one is appropriate for a given situation.
I think that this explanation does well in Graham Greene's memory, and is an appropriate way to commemorate a man who has over the course of his life and career, contributed great moments to the art of story telling.
I'm certain that if he were still with us, that his version of the same story would have likely been framed in the same if not a similar manner. A bit of Shhhh! Digital Media trivia for you, is that Graham Greene inspired the character Askuwheteau (which in Ojibwe means: one who scouts). In Tales of the Sanctum, I modeled the character after his appearance to a degree, and from his characterizations in film and television. I would often visualize him from his many roles when writing for the character.
In the future, when you see or hear of me in a way where I'm standing firm on my ground, perhaps fiercely unwilling to budge and perhaps ferociously so, you'll know which of the two wolves is protecting the whole. If you mostly remember the times when it was the first wolf, then at least do me the justice of recalling the many times that it was also the second as is evidenced by what I've shared over the years from Shhhh! Digital Media.
The Mirror And Being In The Public Eye
The last topic I'll broach in this post which went over my allotted budget about ten paragraphs ago, is on the topic of being in the public eye and perhaps being somewhat of an influencer, however I use that word responsibly, in the sense of it meaning one who communicates ideas for others to contemplate and consider, rather than one who communicates absolutes that one must live by.
Keep in mind that this advice is coming from someone who started out on this particular journey (I've had a few journeys in my life despite what you might be led to believe from people who have no idea) as a writer, blogging his own short stories and novellas from a cold start (zero readers and followers), creating an unadvertised blog, that went from zero to 180,000 unique views over the course of six years. A text and graphics blog only, with little if no other content, starting from May of 2012 and closing shop on that site in August 2018, at which point it became Shhhh! Digital Media with its own domain(s).
From August 2018 until now, there have been nearly 255,000 unique views from a mostly text only web experience, though recently I've expanded into the avenue of audiobooks which I publish freely on both YouTube and TikTok.
That's a total of 435,000 unique views, over which time I've advocated for charities I carefully selected to reflect the values here. If ten percent of those 435,000 unique views each donated just one dollar ($1) over that time period to the (untracked) charities that I've advocated for, that would add up to be forty-three thousand five-hundred dollars ($43,500) that has been raised for charity by my words alone, starting from a cold start with nothing more than a few ideas and some words.
The words I have for you here below, although not always easy to accept or digest and that might challenge your ideas of the way of things, have much value to you, especially if you're seeking to become a content producer and are aiming for a life in the public eye in some way shape or form.
Be Discerning On Your Terms
Don't be fearful of what other people think of you when you read something that goes against their grain, including this post. At the same time, be discerning according to your own compass when it comes what you read, and what you accept. In life, you can read or hear points of view and contemplate them, picking and choosing what you find to be true from your perspective and what you discard. Remember though, not to let yourself be affected by social forces trying to shape you wrongly in that way, in the form of peer pressure or otherwise. Protect your sanity when necessary, be flexible to learn new things, but make sure that its you that is evaluating what you accept and what you don't.
The Messenger Is The Message
I've paraphrased Philosopher Marshall McLuhan [The Canadian Encyclopedia], because one of his observations about media science has become one of the strongest prevailing forces while remaining under the radar to most.
Our inspirations and heroes in life have and will become at some point, become repurposed to promote someone else's ideas. That has happened, will happen and happens every day you see the face of someone popular in the public eye or even something as trivial as a content creator's video on the YouTube suggestions feed.
Their image and the brand they've built of themselves, are associated with a trust they've built with their audience and the bigger that audience, the more power it gives to those who then wield their image in the interest of promoting a potentially unrelated narrative. To promote ideas that might be very different from their own in real life.
This happens all of the time in the media, keeping in mind that most popular people in the public eye have little idea about the multitude of different places their image and brand is used to promote other ideas about which they know little.
You see such media stories and believe it to be something released by the celebrity or influencer of some form, in the context of the reason it was picked by the analytics algorithm or AI filter, which in most cases is to engage you as the consumer of media and prepare you for the advertising pitch. That isn't to say that advertising or business is wrong at all. It is to say however that as society progresses, more and more of these aspects slip under our radar and contribute to creating a very false impression of reality and one that may or may not be intentional.
Commandeered Icon
Remember, that for every time you see someone else's content presented within the context of a suggested video feed, or a news clip or a news story, that it was not put there by them. It has been commandeered in the interest of engaging you as the consumer, while using the trust that celebrity or influencer has built, for a purpose that they are most likely not aware and sometime in a context that betrays their values or intentions.
It is the same deal with the suggested video feed on YouTube and the suggested news feed on many popular news sites. The videos that show up in your feed, can be used as part of a hidden narrative to the ends of the algorithm, or an intervening admin, to turn screws in your head, or just to help solidify an illusion that keeps you engaged as a reader. In the worst cases however, it can be used to manipulate you without your knowing.
Remember that the celebrities and influencers and content producers presented in video feeds, news feeds and media stories of various kinds were not a part of the process that saw them selected for presentation to you, and in most cases, not a part of the process that saw them involved in that particular media story.
The responsibility for that lies in the hands of the ones creating the news story, clip or suggestion feed for your content, from a news media outlet or a video feed with many content producers. Therefore, the real message is the messenger, not the celebrities or influencers or others in the public eye whose identity brand has been coopted into promoting ideas or creating a narrative with which they probably don't coincide.
Awareness: Awakedness Is The Key
More than any time in history, you need to be aware of this when you consume anything in the context of opinion or information, that as you continue to use that medium, there are forces that are crafting an illusion about which you're unaware.
As we get older, especially those of us in the public eye in one form or another, or in my case, one who is hidden beneath an obscured layer (hermetically sealed?) so as to keep my real identity hidden, so that my words and brand can be worn as having originated from any number of different people, all of whom have absolutely nothing to do with having created it, and so that they benefit from my words being delivered or associated in the context to protect whatever it is that is part of their association. In my case, its the content that is the star, not me, hence the iconification of its creator is an illusion itself that can be associated with anyone to promote their league of association.
With most celebrities, their identity is very obvious and symbolic, therefore their image is used in such a way to promote ideas with which they may or may not necessarily coincide.
The messenger is the message.
Whoever they are in using a celebrity in the context of their media clip or even a suggestion feed for a particular user that includers certain video producers on YouTube, is the one who is promoting a particular point of view, or associating them with a particular political sphere, a political party, a particular religion, a particular lifestyle and any other aspect that can be used to commandeer the audience to which it is presented.
On The Spot Disclaimers And Other Distinguishers Of Identity
When you see my posts, sometimes there are a few sentences that appear like a short rant, clarifying my non-membership to certain things, or in denial of behaviour or habits that have been elicited about me that are simply not true. You can in this day and age find yourself to have had your history and reputation swapped with that of others. There are social competitions that occur on that basis daily, where you end up with someone else's life, while that other person ends up with yours. Like the sell that paints me as having had a crack cocaine habit (not true). However, if that is a struggle in one's life, I urge them to get themselves to harm reduction, or if money isn't a problem, then to a rehab program, rather than to weaponize that weight into the lap of someone else, where it will inevitably create a harmful stigma that might eventually lead further to the crisis by ending with the destruction of harm reduction programs as a result of the hostile stigma created by weaponizing the weight of the dependency.
The messenger is the message. The same goes for the celebrities and influencers used in media stories about which they're unaware and in a context to promote ideas with which they do not concur.
My point is that you need to be discerning when you consume content and those who are trying to trick you into buying the illusion, the lie, have a number of tricks up their sleeve. If you are not aware of this, you'll find yourself in a maze of lies without a compass.
When I make statements about my membership or non-membership to a religion here, its truth. You'll find that as you get older, that there are people who alter the context of expression using colour symbolism to denote that when wearing certain colours, the truth of their expression is somehow nullified, and these people might be those whom you trust or people whose identity and brand you trust, who are being used to promote an illusion or a lie and not from the illusory understanding of fiction, but from the truth of an account of reality. We all have the right of belief, including any form of non-belief, but our beliefs and the beliefs of others can be weaponized to create the justification to subject us to treatment by others according to the rules of the impostor religion or belief, and that is occurring more and more as well, and harming any chance for the progress of a secular society, where our beliefs are personal, and matters of policy and state are public. Back to my original point, about celebrities and influencers identity and brand being commandeered to sell a very different narrative.
Secularity does not mean waging war on religion. Secularity is about maintaining a neutrality with regard to religion where matters of policy are concerned, though dirty tactics are often involved to prevent that possibility, such as polarization. There's also the fact that beliefs polarize themselves against non-theist beliefs (as much so as it also the other way around), which pits the secular movement to one side or the other, rather than in a stance of neutrality where it should be. The individual backers of secularity are also often polarized in their personal lives, as a means to topple any social momentum towards the achievement of such a goal. I know from personal experience just how difficult that can be when you're targeted by groups of people attempting to topple you to one extreme or another.
The Messenger Scrutinized
The messenger, the person or people who are making this sell in the first place, using those celebrities and influencers or the content producers on the YouTube suggestion feed, they're the real message.
Whoever is presenting them to you in that context. The algorithms or intervening admins(s) from sites that present the stories and chooses what gets selected for you. The algorithm, or intervening admin(s) that choose which YouTube videos get selected for you to see in your suggestion feed.
There are people who write programs that filter through all of the news stories or YouTube videos and pick the ones that end up in your suggested feed, according to their criteria. In most cases, this is based upon algorithms that draw data from analytics based upon your online habits that they're tracking and those that can be used most effectively for the purposes of advertising. No harm done in connecting a potential consumer with a product they might like.
In some instances, when the people who write these programs are creating the progrmas that give suggestions for the feed of a popular celebrity or influencer, those suggestions can be specially crafted by admins, based upon their own criteria, because what to influence others than by influencing the influencers themselves. Its a modern tool as much as it has become a weapon, and I'd be willing to bet that there are few people who disagree with me on this that have personal experience in this regard.
Therefore, with this knowledge, it falls in my responsibility to make you aware. That's not a trick I'm using to gain your trust or to unscrupulously build my brand, because I'm as imperfect as they come, but things about me that you might have been sold by others are very much untrue. Like my being a Presbyterian (not true). I'm an Atheist that leans toward Buddhism and Taoism in all true, though my beliefs are not my message, because if they were, then those symbols would be very prominent in the logo or implied within by some means. I do my best to remain secular, but in this day and age and with forces polarizing us, this becomes harder and harder as time goes on, and the more there is to gain by commandeering the content (the real star) of one such as myself, the more aggressive and subversive that effort becomes and I'm positive that there are many others far more famous and influential than me who would strongly agree.
This Text Is Not An Attack On Media Or Those Who Bring It To Us
It is important to note that what I'm saying here is not an attack on the conglomerates or corporate entities who bring us the content we peruse on a daily basis. In many cases, those managing these aspects of the overall presentation layer, or those producing that actual media stories coopting the use of others' brand or content have little understanding that such a thing is occurring, or even the means and motives behind it.
For example, the person who manages the overall delivery of content tailored to its users based upon their analytics data and other user media measurement factors, is more concerned with the whole, rather than how that content is selected to arrive at the doorstep of high visibility or influential users of it. That manager might make important decisions about how the content selection process is filtered through analytics data to select relevent content for a multitude of users in accordance with creating an environment to cultivate a fertile advertising biome, rather being involved with the process that targets individual users who would be considered a special case in terms of the content selection process. Like the individual suggested content feed that arrives at the viewing point of presence of an influential political policy maker, or an outspoken activist or a popular influencer on the internet. The content that arrives at their doorstep can influence their message and priorities for the day.
Given the immense responsibility for those in such a position and the potential power of their influence, the process that selects their content is most certainly different from how the content is selected for everyone else. However, the difference of how that suggested content is added to their feed might potentially be directly tampered with by those seeking the further the ends of their personal agenda (the agenda that arises as a result of one's beliefs or membership within an ideology), rather than the media company's overall generic agenda, meaning that specific individuals tasked with handling the selection process of feeds directed at the highly influential can be tampered with by individuals, and misused to the ends of their personal or group ideology or agenda.
What I'm saying is that this text isn't an attack upon those companies or conglomerates who present this content in a filtered form based upon our analytics to us. What I am saying is that how and what is selected to be viewed by the influential can be commandeered and individually altered by those closest to the administrative process for how that program or filter selects content for an influential person, and can be used to create an interpersonal narrative between the one altering that selection process, and the influencer themselves. Hence, that narrative can be used to further personal or group ideology connected to the specific admin rather than the overall company presenting the content, and this can overall have a drastic effect on how the power of influence is used and whose interests it represents. This could even potentially be harmful to the realm advertising revenue and the public's trust, though the main point is that it can be used and misrepresent not only the celebrity or influencer within the content itself, but also the company and people overall responsible for delivering that content, although the most important aspect is how this affects everyone.
Summary About The Message
So, my whole point to this intro to a section of this post explaining to you as emerging influencers and celebrities of the future is to help free you from the hidden shackles that are skewing your perception of reality, including what you read here.
The people who are crafting the content that shows up in your suggestion feeds, are tailoring it for you, and sometimes secretly so to support their individual beliefs, and secretly support their members, based upon the sidedness you show with regard to politics, religion, lifestyle and conduct. However, if you're aware of this, its effect is reduced substantially. Like seeing the same poorly executed juggling trick many times over, you eventually catch on and it loses its ability to deceive you. The real art in magic is in pursuit of integrity of some form, and therefore isn't fooling you. Its opening your eyes to the possible, which can be used either way. For darkness or for light, or for the vision of balance.
Discern your consumption of content and your suggestion feed, because based upon how many other people rely on you for perspective, will be the impetus for someone to commandeer the means by which those suggestions are made to further their own agenda. I say this and include reading between the lines of the content here, and weighing honestly what you accept and what you discard.
I can only hope that I did well by Marshall McLuhan's philosophy, as he was essentially the founder of Media Sciences.
Not A Sales Pitch. Its Advice...
Yes, what is to come below is advice, and its not free. It was paid for by the institution that led to your literacy, ie, being able to read these letters and words on this page and hopefully to comprehend them. An institution that took thousands of years to build on the backs of our ancestors and the technology of language. Its price is beyond calculation, and if you disagree that good advice has such a price, then give back all of the love, time, effort and attention that led to your being able to read, and never read again.
There's a vision and purpose and most certainly a direction at Shhhh! Digital Media. There always has been. This isn't a sales pitch. Its advice I wish that I had access to when I was a youth or even an adult of thirty years, that had I understood, not just known, would have saved decades.
If I'd have had an understanding of these concepts, I'd be at millions of views right now and living much more comfortably with a widely expanded brand and hopefully one that remained undiluted. I'd have in-house artists and developers (a few of whom I know personally) releasing new visual media content every week as employees who'd be earning their honest and hopefully comfortable living. The goal is to get there, but had I understood some of these aspects long ago, I'd already be there and with the team I've always wanted and perhaps the team that I currently miss. Perseverance through the thick and thin is definitely the first piece of advice I'll afford you. If it is your goal to get there, and you're are working from a foundation of honesty and with a good plan, keep going no matter the difficulties.
This post is directed at those of you who seek to, or are already in the public eye in one form or another, as an influencer or social media personality or even a seasoned celebrity or star, and certainly directed towards those who are in the process of readying themselves for such pursuits in the future.
Be aware of what you're getting yourself into, because the spotlight, however humble the one you find yourself within might seem, can quickly become overwhelming and overbearing, and is often far from what most are led to believe about its nature. Depending upon your "circle", those with whom you consider yourself to run, and their cohesion versus the social forces largely at play in this world, there are many things about which you should be aware that will have a drastic effect upon your achieving this goal.
The Audience That You Want
One of the first and most important is that in most cases, the vast majority of your audience and those drawn to your content, they want you to win. I mean, they want you to succeed, because if they're willing to give up their precious time to peruse your content, then they're willing to give you a chance and this is an investment on their part and one that they want to work out in their favour.
Especially if they discover you early. That is one aspect that is in your corner. Most people are independent and free to encourage you without risk to themselves for doing so, and most people in those circumstances will offer you encouragement and often constructive criticism. These people who make up the majority of those who peruse content, online and in life in general, are the vast majority of the world, and most often completely unaware of the other more challenging aspects I'll outline below. These people are for all intense purposes, the kind of audience that you want to cultivate and support.
Awareness Of Traps And Snares
Being aware of certain things in society and the way aspects of it work is tantamount to succeeding. Early in your career, and when it becomes clear of your intent to pursue such ends as a life in the public eye, whether it be online or via other mediums, is when you'll most be at risk of encountering predatory groups who can and will attempt to trap you in one of their snares.
A snare is a potentially compromising situation that they'll use from that point forward as a means to pressure you, manipulate you or even harm you and destroy your career and future. When you're on your way up, from where ever you're coming, if you have potential about you that attracts predatory groups that believe you to have a chance at success, they will find you, but if you're reading this, you're already aware of this and way ahead of the game.
Don't regard this as some kind of conspiracy or negative talk. This is absolutely the truth and despite how much you believe that the world is sunshine and roses everywhere, that there are people who will look to exploit you early on, by creating situations that they'll use to gain control over you in the future. As a group. Coordinated. Almost always when you'd never believe such a thing about other people, or that other people could even do something of that nature, is exactly when they will strike, and when they do, chances are you will have no idea. Being aware of this will help you a billion fold, but there's no guarantees that they won't slip one by on you. So be very realistic, cautious and protective of your own interests and don't put your integrity at risk with someone you don't yet know or have no example from which to trust them. If you feel overly intimidated by what I've just revealed, then reread the previous paragraphs to let you know that there are people who aren't part of these aspects of life, who want you to win.
Ultimately what I'm telling you, is that you'll have to rely upon yourself to watch out for your best interests. Be careful about delegating that expectation to anyone else. It can, and often will backfire on you, especially if and when the prospect of success, fame and money become involved. Predatory groups are magnetically attracted to people that they believe are on their way up. In one way, if you're attracting people of that ilk (you won't be aware of them until they get their first setup in place), chances are you are on your way up, however, predatory groups are in this to take away from your momentum, to give to that momentum to the people on their team.
They'll isolate you. They'll then hermetically seal you away from the rest of the world, and you'll become the fuel for their members and essentially disappear from society, all while them convincing you that your ticket up will be coming in soon. If you find yourself in such a situation, your ticket never will come in.
When predatory groups do this to someone, they do it for keeps and any situations they've setup to hold you down or control you, they'll use without conscience or concern for your well being. Again, if that is too disconcerting for you, then reread the previous chapters to reassure you that there are the kind of people who are worth the effort of such a pursuit as an audience, but you have to watch out for this other side, because they destroy lives. If I thought I couldn't save just one person from it, I wouldn't have said a thing. Be aware of this.
Realistic Finances, Your Circle And Support
Consider the factors involving how you're going to make a living and support yourself, while you're building this aspect of your life. Be realistic. You have to have a roof over your head, and you have to eat and sleep, all the while you're building this aspect of your life. How you build your future and how you support yourself are very important considerations to moving forward and that includes how your brand (you or your content in most cases) is going to earn you a living. If on YouTube, that entails, achieving getting monetized and growing your audience enough to generate ad revenue and perhaps merchandising of some form, or having another gig you do to support yourself.
Don't mix yourself up with people whose values and lifestyle don't match what you're willing to do for a living, or whose lifestyle or values won't accept what you're seeking to do. Some people for instance, don't support the military or birthdays or other aspects of society, that if they take an interest in you, and start supporting you by hiring you through businesses in their circle, the moment you do something that goes against their grain (like celebrating a birthday or holiday), you might find yourself without support. I know this sounds a bit far fetched, but such groups often attempt to infer themselves into the lives of ambitious people and when you take a path or promote an idea which they oppose, they'll secretly pull the plug on your means to support.
They'd see people like you as a future investment, keeping in mind that if they have strict rules about their lives, that they'll expect you to adhere to those same rules if you should happen to find yourself supported by their circle. When you become dependent upon such groups, you're at their mercy, and from the moment you stray from their values, doing something that might seem perfectly natural to you, they'll pull the rug out from under your feet, and if that's how you're supporting yourself, you'll quickly find yourself in difficulty.
Be aware, and never build your foundation as being co-dependent upon the ideals of a circle whose values are different from your own. Gravitate towards those whose goals and interests and values are most like your own, but never leave yourself dependent upon any circle, for its a power over your life that nobody else should have. Keep this in mind and work towards the ends of independence in that regard. Cooperate and synergize, but do everything you can to strengthen your independence. The nature of society is that you'll always need to develop allegiances because moving up in the world is nearly impossible by one's self. When you do get ahead on your strengths, you can then help others to achieve the same. Create opportunity for future generations. Reciprocate for those who helped you during trying times.
One of the best ways to increase your financial independence is to learn to be disciplined with finances and budget. Make plans and lists for your needs, carefully considering your money in and money out, and streamline. Become disciplined in this manner, and it will pay off in droves in your future, no matter whether you're running a humble podcast, or a multi-national brand.
If again my advice is disheartening and seems that I'm indicating things that are negative and unproductive to your future, read the first few paragraphs about the kind of audience you're seeking again to remind you that there are people of that circle that you want as your audience, and that you'll mutually enrich each others' lives. Life is like sunshine and flowers much of the time, however you have to watch out for the horns and thorns.
Form Allegiances With The Professionally Motivated
There are many professionals out there who are serious about this way of life, but there are also many who are predatory in ways about which you have to be aware. The professionals are often very familiar with all aspects in that manner, but in terms of their future and career, they are focused on their goals and the end product and mostly about building healthy and mutually beneficial synergies. If they're someone with whom you potentially might form alliances with, perhaps skill sharing in some form to produce your content or further your mutual brands, then professionalism is your best friend. Focus on your plans, your goals and the process by which you're going make them happen. Taking this process and streamlining it in such a way that it becomes second nature to you, and enables you to increase the efficiency with which you post content, whatever that may be. Improve it by networking with professionals pertinent to whatever it is that you're doing and continue to positively grow it from there until the numbers that you're inevitably keeping an eye on to measure your progress are growing in accordance with your content. There are many online resources that get in depth into analytics and the connection between your content and your growth. Those articles are beyond the scope of this post.
Your Audience, Your Growth And Your Anonymity
When you start attracting an audience, depending upon where you live and who your audience is, you're going to attract attention to yourself and this attention can come at you in many different forms. Some of them beneficial and some of them not so much. You need to be aware of either and what to watch out for that might help you grow your audience, and what might be a predatory group looking to cause harm to you in one form or another. Once your audience grows to a certain point, and awareness starts to become a factor in your life, depending upon the nature of your surroundings and your relationship with the people around you, you're going to be noticed by people. Both online, where most people have no idea who you are locally, but have an impression of you that is based almost entirely upon your marketing, presentation and the analytics of your online habits, though most people don't have access to that, although some can gain it and might if there's incentive enough for them to do so. That could lead to to more business contacts such as for product sponsorship, which is another way to form strategic business alliances.
Most people online won't know you, even if they were aware of your online presence and you suddenly walked by them on the street. Its a layer of anonymity and one that can actually work in your interest to protect you, even when your online presence is immensely popular. In most cases, people won't correlate the online you with the real you, and if you're starting to get popular, then you'll start to have impostors. People who wear your online identity as if you were them, though most of these struggles will pertain to your online identity and presence. When local interest in you starts to increase and awareness of you grows, then that's when you have to start being careful, depending upon your associations and people in your community and the nature of their interest. Did I tell you about predatory groups?
Your Rational Behaviour Is A Commodity That Will Inevitably Be Exploited
Your rational behaviour when in public and under the scrutinizing eye thereof is at the mercy of your health, your homeostasis (your hormone production) and far too many factors beyond your ability to affect and there are people who can and do attempt to affect your stability and behaviour remotely, in ways that you'd outright deny if I tried to explain them to you here. Your body and nervous system is essentially an electrochemical communications system, and every aspect about your rational behaviour and calmness is connected to the health and integrity of your health and nervous system, and that system be biohacked by malicious people.
There as I said earlier, are people who attempt to remotely alter that stability and balance of your rational behaviour, by affecting your nervous system with their body energy and that fact can go two ways, and creates one of the most unjust underground markets there are when pursuing success. The market of calmness and rational behaviour. Some can affect you to push you over the edge into anxiety and anger, all while in front of the public in a venue, and others can calm you using the same or similar techniques.
Despite the appearance that one side might appear to be helping you, the truth is that you're being exploited if you require one to protect you from the other, because the one that protects you will definitely be expecting some form of payment, like giving up the credit for your work to the person who helps you maintain your calm. The two sides, the side that can push you towards anxiety and harsh behaviour, is the business partner of the one that can calm you down, because the value of the one who can calm you, is entirely justified by the one who can throw you off kilter.
What I've found in life in most symbiotic forms of duality involving such situations (not all), is that the two sides that appear to be enemies or opposites, are often secretly working together for their mutual benefit to exploit the vulnerable. In this case, those whom they can throw off balance towards anxiety, while the other side can calm them. Its a scam whose price will almost always certainly be far too much. Learn to build your stability internally as much as you can, through healthy activities and self-discipline. Not only will you be doing yourself a favour, but you'll also be helping others by slowly constricting these parasites until they've nobody to prey upon.
When they're scoping you in attempt to find the groups that can affect you in a way that will open the doors to their scam, they'll often efficiently involve competing groups, ever narrowing down the ones that can have the most volatile and calming effect upon your being. A process that can take as little as months, or even years. If they believe you've got a chance, they'll find you and this will become an aspect of your life with which you'll have to learn to cope.
These groups are arming themselves in the event that you come to represent anything that stands to be a threat to them, and the moment that you do, and whenever you're in the public eye, especially in front of a camera during a live stream or in some other public event, they'll attempt to use what they've learned about who can affect you and how, at the most opportune moment to have the most damaging consequences to your life and career, by provoking the worst possible reaction from you, and then forcing you to pay them for the effects of the group that can calm you.
In this matter, do your absolute best to become independent from such reliance by focusing on your health. Aspects that can help you to manage your hormones and body energy (Yoga, Qi gong, Reiki, Martial Arts, Meditation), and work towards those ends the best that you can. Its imperative that you have a firm grip on that aspect as if you don't, you'll quickly find that your rational calm is very vulnerable to such predatory groups, who can and will push you over the edge into the realm of the reactionary and career destroying extreme rant. For these predatory groups, its a sport of doing this to people. They have no conscience whatsoever, so don't try to appeal to it. Instead, gravitate towards people that help you to cultivate that stability yourself through good health practices and the items I suggested above (Yoga, Qi gong, Reiki, Martial Arts, Meditation). Network with others to find the best approach or combinations to help you in these matters.
Your Value, Your Output And Your Karma
What you do has value to people, even if they can't take your money from you, the impression of being the person who does what you do has value and this value is the target of a host of predatory groups that operate throughout society. Imagine a barter system where your identity, and your output is a currency and that wearing the responsibility for your output and identity has value to other people, depending upon your fame and notoriety and the overall "karma" of what you do. This aspect of you in your being in the locality of where ever you live, has value to other people, enough so that there are organized groups, predatory in nature who will collaborate and cooperate to take that identity and the credit for your efforts away from you and award them to someone else, based upon a variety of factors they utilize to justify taking them away from you and giving them to someone else. Consider it like a game of musical chairs, except replace the chairs, with identities from your local community, and that in these communities where this sort of predatory activity occurs, that your identity is going to become part of a pool in this barter system where people compete to wear it, and you compete to earn it back, or dodge the worst identity in the community.
That isn't to say that a bad reputation or having had a difficult life should be something that encourages people to view someone whose had difficulty with such shallow disdain, but in all honesty, such practices as this predatory identity switching practice in the communities it occurs leads to this sort of stigmatization, and the people who switch identities with you will make the one that you end up with as a replacement, very heavy for you in ways that are difficult to describe in words alone. Wearing your identity will lead to other people being treated with great affection and kindness if your efforts yield goodness.
So your hard work and effort is essentially stolen and worn by someone else, and that is the nature of their scam and the treachery and trickery that leads to them taking it from you. You truly have to live it to understand, but living it isn't something I'd want to see of anyone working hard on building their life and future honestly, but these predatory groups do not operate that way at all. Realistically, these groups are an ever growing aspect of life, as more and more people become addicted to the practice and faulty social architecture they represent. Until enough people in the communities they've setup shop stand against them, they'll likely continue to grow and in such a case, you need to evaluate your situation carefully as your audience grows. Do you adjust and try to cope, or do you relocate as you grow, and hope that your new location doesn't have similar activity? Where ever you end up, chances are your identity will not be your own, and in the hands of predatory groups who are ever growing to epidemic proportions. Harden your shell and insulate yourself the best that you can because when who you are and what you do have enough value, it can and will be stolen from you on a daily basis. Again, reread the positives at the top of this section to feel a little bit better about your goals and the good with pursuing these goals in your life and career.
Narcissus: To Some, You Have No Mind And Simply Are Their Mirror
As you become more popular, people in your vicinity who make up the members of these predatory groups will look at you less as yourself, and look at you as if you are one of them. That is, they operate under the idea that the creativity of whatever it is that you're doing, doesn't originate from you, and they've turned this aspect into a social competition as well, attempting on a daily basis to take it away from you, and attribute it to members of their predatory groups.
You see, most of these groups don't even look at other people or enjoy their content because they like the person creating it. They're interested in it because they're a part of predatory groups who've convinced themselves that everything that other people do is because of them and some form of influence they believe that they excerpt over people who are in the public eye, whom many of these predatory groups believe do not have their own mind, or a mind at all that doesn't come from one of their predatory group members. They literally are looking at you as if you're not yourself, but them, or the other members of their predatory group. They're infatuated with nobody but themselves and their members.
When they're perusing your content, their first goal is to convince other people that it originated from them, or other members of their predatory group, and that you are not yourself, but instead possessed or being puppeteered by them. That's about it.
They're interested in you not because of you, but because to them, you're like a mirror. They believe that you have no mind of your own, and that your ability to do whatever it is that you're doing, originated from them. This is something that they're addicted to doing to other people and something for which they've setup a network of people in communities that target people who end up in the public eye in some way shape or form, and basically attribute all of their effort to other people that are members of their predatory group.
Still interested in the becoming one of the people in the public eye?
The Harsh Reality That You Have To Face To Know If Its For You
We've hit rock bottom, and this is one of the most horrific if not disgusting aspects about being in the public eye. Predatory groups like this exist in communities, and almost operate with the impunity or organized crime where they're rampant and this is not a word of a lie. Even in the midst of the most advanced democracies in the west, in the richest of cities in North America, this activity is rampant.
They're not interested in you at all. They're interested in the fact that you validate their sense of being and existence by the fact that they believe that everything that you achieve, your creativity and ability to do whatever it is you're doing, exists only because of them. You don't have a mind. You're just someone who somehow inherited their weight, for which they look for clues in your content or behaviour of your trying to get rid of it in some way. When they see the evidence of this in your content, they wear that fact as an indication of their influence over you, and it validates their existence. Like a narcissist.
The Traps From The Start Will Surface And You'll Pay To Have Them Removed
Remember when I said earlier on, that when you're on your way up, that there are groups who will attempt to setup situations that they can later use to harm you or manipulate you or to destroy your career?
Right at the beginning, when you're naive is when they'll set these situations up and they'll be the means by which they destroy you. At this point and just before you're about to hit the big time, that's when these situations and their purpose will become apparent, because think of them as being like a curse, put on you to stop you dead in your tracks right before you break through.
To crush you and stop your progress. To label you in ways that don't apply because by the time these situations have built up enough momentum, they're ulimately devastating to your life, reputation and career. Not only that, but these predatory groups? They had a goal all along that entails that their groups, both at the bottom and at the top, will remove these potentially unflattering situations from your life, for a price. That's right. The entire thing is a scam. Create setups and damaging situations that are removed from your person in a way that is paid for from your own efforts. They'll remove the situation from you, but you'll pay for it by giving them the credit for some of your content or something you achieved that contributed to launching you into your pre-success trajectory. Not only that, but the more that you achieve, the more situations they'll create, and the more they'll load you up with, and the more they'll charge you for removing it from you.
Still want fame and fortune?
A Loss Of Innocence: Seeing The World Through The Lens Of Harsh Experience
Why Do People Even Pursue It?
At this point, most of what you've probably been chasing might seem to have lost its lustre, depending upon what you were chasing. If you were seeking validation through the admiration of others, then chances are you need to work on yourself, because validation should come from you and your belief in yourself and what you do. People can see through it when you're seeking their validation to fill your esteem and self confidence.
The fortune? Well, most people aiming for that lifestyle work most of their early lives, up until their twenties or thirties struggling to make ends meet and its only a very, very small few who get discovered, or break through and make it into the public eye on a scale that nets them a financial fortune and net worth. Many, many more people with the same or similar goals, struggle their entire life, most never achieving the fortune they'd so hoped to achieve.
When you see a famous and financial success. A popular influencer, celebrity or star? You're seeing the exception rather than the rule, but almost all of those people who did it. Who broke through and made it to the heights of their goals, all did it not because of the validation they could get from fans, or the money. They did it because there was something in them that drove them to keep doing it, no matter how hard things got and no matter how rough the storms that life could throw at them were.
They did it through many macaroni and cheese dinners. They did it through weeks of instant noodle breakfast lunch and dinner. They did it not because of what they could get from it, though I'm certain that was an aspect in their motivations, I'm also certain that it wasn't the primary motivation.
They did it because they had something to share. Something so deep and powerful within them, that they literally had no choice. Most of them, regardless of the other caveats and traps set by predatory groups and treacherous circumstances kept going, taking each of those lessons with a grain of salt. What better warning in life is there when you know people for their best, and certainly their worst.
Most of those people who faced all of that, and still kept their chin up, could look any one of those predatory people in the face, and truly know them for the first time. I'd be willing to bet those people though, after knowing their contribution to such a person's experience, could never look at themselves in the mirror ever again. That's why they look to other people to find validation in themselves by their belief that those they victimized have no mind of their own. Its like they can't look at themselves in a mirror, but they can admire themselves after knowing the effect they had upon someone else. Despite the hardship they pose to you and your future, they have a purpose and in the end, in order to appreciate the good of the people that you admire, its the contrast of experiences that exposed you to the worst that will help you to understand the value of those you truly value. If you're like me however, you always knew in your heart who that was and why.
The person these predators preyed upon, kept going regardless and in the end, they truly had little or no effect at all, compared to people like the greatest loves of their lives and the people they inspired by their perseverance. The truly inspiring moments that motivated them to say thank you to the people that affected their lives in a way that gave them the momentum to go for it.
To the sense of accomplishment one feels when they create something that moves someone else to fits of laughter, or a drought of tears. To feel the extremes of what it is to live and be alive the many ways that affects us all.
And then to realize that at the end of it all, the audience they found was the same one from the beginning. The audience that wants you to win. They want you to succeed because if they didn't, they'd have never invested their time in checking out your content or your brand or whatever it is that you do in the first place. Best of all, if they got their foot in the door early and checked you out way back at the beginning, then I bet they have a story to tell of their own about the one who made it and just how far they went to get there.
Remember though, that many who worked hardest towards these ends, didn't make it. Many found immense success and recognition after their death, having spent their lives impoverished, yet still persisting in pursuit of their vision with little or no reward in the way of prosperity or fanfare. Some of them after their death, or hundreds of years after, became the icons of history we've learned about by reading their books. Learning to play their music from the score composition and staff. Admiring their (priceless) paintings on a wall in a museum or seeing their art and architecture throughout the world as it stands to this day.
I bet even the poorest of those souls who never experienced the wealth or fanfare their effort generated for later generations, would have something to say from which we could all learn, but that at the time of their effort, that few if any would have paid them much attention. The entirety of civilization is built on top of Nikolai Tesla's work and patents for alternating current, which are worth trillions upon trillions of dollars and are key to making it possible to support a world whose population stands at roughly 8.2 billion people today. A man who died poor and destitute in a cheap hotel room paid for by his benefactors.
Most don't make it. However, those that do, have something in them beyond the want of money, fame and fortune that motivates them to do it and no matter the challenges, keep going in pursuit of their dream and hopefully towards a mutually prosperous ends. However, remember that even the person at the bottom who has been striving their entire life towards such ends has something from which we can learn.
Could any one of you for whom this is the case, go to bed at night, knowing that you gave up? Many of the greatest people made the sacrifices of giving up their dreams to raise their children and families.
Whose to say that a healthy and happy family and friends aren't a vast fortune unto themselves?
Some of us who didn't give up, are pulling for those who couldn't keep going, though most of us who do, simply have no choice because that's what drives us.
Please. Heed my advice, though. It might open doors for you some day and stay away from the people who charge you a price for what you think, as if you owe them for your thoughts, while being grateful to those who inspired and encouraged you to keep going through the worst of it and perhaps someday, you'll know the best of it, though its the journey you need to appreciate until you arrive at the destination, whatever that might be.
I am Brian Joseph Johns and this is Shhhh! Digital Media at https://www.shhhhdigital.com or https://www.shhhhdigital.ca in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701.
This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.
