Day 8 – The Reality of Building a Brand from Scratch
Into another week of trying to become BAD ASS.
✅ Win of the day: Water goal achieved. Small wins still count.
The Numbers (Week 1 Stats)
7,636 total views across 7 days. 44 followers. The views are there — getting people to hit follow is a whole different game.
Remaining faceless on TikTok makes it harder. The platform rewards personality, faces, and social engagement. I've noticed something interesting too — when a paid promo is running on one video, that video performs. But the other videos posted at the same time? They flatline. TikTok's algorithm seems to pull back organic reach when you're paying for one piece of content. Something to watch.
The creators doing well right now? Tarot readers. "Claim this to get rich." "Follow for your blessing." Call-to-action content that plays on emotion. It works — even if it's not the direction I'm going.
Advertising is a Minefield
Pinterest felt promising until it wasn't. Signed up, tried a paid promo, got hit with "misrepresentation and violation" — broken links flagged, catalogue rejected. The frustrating part? Pinterest doesn't tell you specifically what's wrong. Just general guidelines and three attempts to fix and appeal. That's it.
Google Ads isn't much easier. You set a weekly budget, pick keywords, and Google builds the ads — but seeing the actual ads and understanding what's performing is harder than it should be. The charts don't clearly show you how to improve. I'm conscious I could be burning budget without results.
And Printify dictates a lot of my pricing. As a drop-shipping model, the margins are tight. If prices feel high to customers, that's partly the reality of print-on-demand.
A Note on Tools
Shopify's AI assistant Sidekick is a useful tool but it's not without its frustrations — sometimes it sends you down a rabbit hole, changes something that was working, and getting back to where you were is more complicated than the original problem. It's AI — it's learning, and so am I.
See you tomorrow. Keep being BAD ASS. 💛