And I’m not saying that people should just quit TikTok shop. Like I still find myself wanting to post videos, but I know that I needed this break to step away for a second and make sure this is something that I really want to do and it’s worse the time and energy that I’ve put in. Because honestly, I have made a decent amount of money on the side from TikTok. But when algorithms change, it does make it difficult. And I went from a gold star affiliate down to now a Bronx again. And that was really discouraging, especially over Christmas when I was busting my butt, and I just kept having my views plummeting. So it made me not want to try anymore. And I wasn’t doing anything different. In fact I was doing even more than I had done previously and to not see results from that was a very discouraging. But for me, it was also really nice because I did have a good amount in my savings that is basically almost paying off my car! But at the same time, I kind of miss making just my normal regular funny content, and inspirational content that I used to make. I even had started making another account for just Florida content since moving to Florida a couple years ago. But something that was kind of upsetting for me was how much time it was taking away from everything. I have three young children. And literally if you’re doing TikTok shop it’s literally like having a second job. Because it is. I have a full-time job during the day and then I was trying to fit creating videos on my lunch breaks and after work or before work. And it was just a lot. Between filming the content editing the content messaging sellers responding to sellers managing my email and also trying to be a part of two different communities for a couple of months and now just down to one it was just a lot between everything. Then on top of that, trying to be a mom trying to be a wife keeping up with my house doing all of the regular normal day-to-day life things. And of course, I think everyone hopes to make it big on TikTok so they can quit their 9-to-5 and just do TikTok solely but at the same time you’re not guaranteed this. I’ve seen big creators on here lose everything and have to start over again. My goal with this ultimately was just to have a side hustle to help me pay off debt. Which I kind of been able to do, but after being knocked down a couple notches from being a gold creator down to a bronze creator, it really just made me realize. Maybe I was doing a little too much. And it is stressful posting the content trying to listen to 10 million voices on here who claimed they know the secret to being successful on this app. When really the bottom line is, you need to have a good medium between being yourself and sharing products that you actually love. Because people can tell if you’re being genuine or if you’re being fake and just trying to make a buck. Ultimately that’s what it’s about. When people stop on your video they want to feel like they can trust your opinion about that item. I got to the point where I literally just kind of gave up on it. I’m still in the stage of trying to figure out what I wanna do if I want to continue or not. I think if I do, it’s just gonna be on a much smaller scale. I’m just gonna focus on my top items that I enjoy and just go from there. I’m not gonna try and take on more than I’m willing to at this time. And if I do review something, I’m gonna do it solely because it’s fun and it’s something that I absolutely love. Not that the things that I’ve gotten I didn’t like because I only would apply for samples that I knew I would like for my children or my husband would like. But even still. I’m going to narrow it down a much more going forward. Because if you’re not having fun doing this, then you really shouldn’t be doing it. Because it’s going to stress you out more than it needs to. And that stress is gonna show through in your videos too. So I guess what I’m saying is as my mother would say choose to be happy! - @mandy248224