We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mao. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mao below.
Mao, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Well, I think there are actually many factors that shaped my resilience for many many years! First of all, it is passion that creates this resilience for me personally. The profound love for art, enabled me to navigate through harsh criticism, hate speech, but also the lack of support. Thinking back on how I started, it was a way to express my emotions, dreams, which I was not able to bring out in real life. To bring these personal issues onto digital canvas meant a lot to me.
In my first years of using Instagram, back in 2018, I posted my art with no big thoughts behind, but as the time passed I found mutuals, supporters and friends! People who genuinely wanted to support me, no matter how “ugly” I considered my art to be. This at first “small” support grew to an intrinsic motivation that kept me going.
Community support plays a crucial role at this point. Connecting with other fellow artists and supporters helped me to understand that my art has value, that it means something to other people.
Year for year I stumbled upon similar individuals chasing the same dreams and to know that I am not alone – keeps me going even now.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
A big thank you for being interested in my work again! My artist name is Mimao but feel free to just call me Mao. I’m a freelance illustrator based in Germany and I specialize in using digital mediums to bring my artistic visions to life.
My work explores the intersection of history, culture and my personal imagination. Whether it’s crafting intricate character designs or immersive concept art, I always try to balance art and history. Drawn to details & symbolism I always try to find a way to sneak them in, especially focusing on Chinese inspired themes and history.
As a freelancer, I currently enjoy the freedom of Independence. It is my burning passion but also a way to earn a little bit of income.
Recently I have been working on a new Youtube video that I will hopefully post soon. Writing the script can be tough but the creation process is super fun.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
What immediately comes to mind is something I personally find super underrated: Emotional Intelligence in Online Communication. The skill I always worked hard for was the ability to convey emotions through written words, while truly understanding the emotions of others. Developing and utilizing emotional intelligence online has become super important for social media recently. Prioritizing accounts with high engagement, posts are likely to get pushed out more, contributing to a positive cycle of visibility and interaction. Instagram specifically is having an eye on the way we engage, chat, comment and share. Therefore, the more you welcome your community with open arms, the greater them and Instagram will reward you for it.
Another quality I have come to understand is authenticity. Being “real” with the people who look at your art is a key quality to greatly enhance presence on instagram. People often underestimate that individuals seek genuine, real and relatable content. No matter how perfect the art is, the influencer’s flawlessness or successful the life of someone. People want transparency, they want to see real challenges, experiences and content with human touch. Understanding this simple thing took me very long actually! I always thought behind the scene glimpses were unnecessary, sharing my work-in-progress too embarrassing or not good enough, something out of my daily life would be uninteresting, but I was wrong. It helped me greatly to connect with my community, fostering something like value and trust.
The last skill or quality might be a little bit boring but helped me to grow a lot! As we all know Instagram frequently updates its algorithm, greatly affecting other artists and my strategy of posting. Which has thought me the quality of being adaptable, means staying informed about these changes and adjusting your content strategy accordingly. The struggle with hashtags or Reels have been the biggest ones recently. Leading me to not be lazy or rely on the coincidences but to analyze other posts based on what is working well for them, while maintaining your unique voice and style.
The advice I have for beginners is to approach social media with a conscious mindset. Don’t rely, like me at first, for opportunities to come your way. Catch them, chase your dreams and be ambitious, never give up even if something is not going your way! Develop your own skills and be just the way you are.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
A wish of mine was always to collaborate with my first and current drawing app: Autodesk Sketchbook! I genuinely think it is one of the best beginner friendly drawing apps and super underrated. Easy to use, not complicated and most importantly free! It just been my great companion for the past years and I would love to thank them for this!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/mimao.chan
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/mimao_chan
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/@mimaochan
