Meet Indie P. Jones

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Indie P. Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Indie P. below.

Indie P., thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

I wish I could point to a single defining moment, a single instance in time, that helped create the person I am today, but that’s not how real life works. I grew up in the 80’s as the youngest of three daughters to a hardworking Southern single mama that struggled to keep a roof over our heads and food on our plates. As a bonafide member of Gen X, I was told frequently by my mama that I should be grateful for the fried baloney sandwiches and generic corn flakes we had to eat, because there were starving kids in Africa that would walk barefoot for ten miles to have such a wealth of food. Instead of making me grateful for the riches on my plate, I was instead consumed with guilt that I had so much and others had so little. I was raised by my large Catholic family to believe that no matter how bad things were for you, there was always someone else who had it worse, and it was our moral responsibility to offer any help or hand up in case we needed the same in return someday. However, it was when I became a mama myself at the tender age of 19 that I truly learned the meaning of generosity, not in physical goods, but in spirit and emotion. I learned to be generous with my love, my praise, my time, my energy, and my forgiveness. I began to understand the correlation between generosity and self-sacrifice and how to walk the fine edge between the two. As I grow older, I have found that the rewards for living with a generous and giving spirit come not from the praise and thanks I receive from the receivers, but instead comes from the joy I feel within myself at knowing I helped make a difference in someone else’s world, no matter how small. Giving of myself to others has become second nature to me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still struggle with being generous to myself. The old guilt still remains and plagues me with anxiety and doubt anytime I offer myself the same kindness, empathy, and compassion I give to others so freely and without second thought. In fact, being on the receiving end of generosity from others still engenders feelings of unworthiness and denial, even as I accept with a thankful and grateful heart. Like anything else in life, it is a journey of growth that I continue to travel each and every day. I will never stop trying to do more, be more, and love more. It is necessary now more than ever before in our current world, and I will continue to give as long as there is need.

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?

My name is Indie P. Jones and I’m a regular Kentucky gal that has strong opinions on politics, social justice, and animal rights. For a long time, I felt so alone after moving to an area of my state where the vast majority of the population differed with me on most of my closely-held thoughts and beliefs. Then came the pandemic and the emergence of TikTok in 2020. It wasn’t long before I tentatively made my first video and I was shocked when complete strangers began to interact with me and I realized I wasn’t as alone as I first believed. Even though I am a socially anxious introvert with chronic depression, I found myself immersed into a whole new community of like-minded folks who became my friends and supporters. I found my own voice and my own niche of creativity in crafting content about social and political commentary with WTF News reports and “WTF Did I Just Watch?!” I met people all over the world, gained lifelong friends, and built a support system with others who share my same struggles and worldview. I learned how to affect positive change through social advocacy and how to use my platform to shine light on the struggles of marginalized groups. I’m still just a regular Gen X gal in southeastern Kentucky, but now I’m no longer alone. I have over 273,000 of my closest friends and allies right here with me, and together, we can change the world.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’m sure I could think of a lot more than three, but the one most important quality I would encourage anyone to embrace is humility. Never forget who you are and where you come from, and never forget that there will always be someone better than you at what you are doing. That leads to the next quality and that’s sincerity. People can tell when you are being performative or fake, but they will recognize genuine authenticity and will respond in kind. They will be more willing to forgive mistakes and offer their loyalty and support when you humble yourself and take responsibility for those mistakes and make amends. Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, always know when you need to take a break. Anytime you deal with a large social media platform, you will be under constant pressure to do more, be more, and be present for your community, but that can take a heavy toll on your mental health, especially if you already suffer from pre-existing issues like anxiety and depression. It is essential to recognize when you need a break and then unplug completely so that you can give back to yourself as much as you have given to others.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

If there are no challenges, then you aren’t growing. My current challenge is how to grow my platform without disappointing or alienating my current following. After four years, my content has begun to grow stagnant and my views are beginning to suffer for it. Creating content, especially when you do it around a normal 9-5 job like me, is time-consuming and difficult to do. There are quite literally hundreds of thousands of other content creators and trying to create content that will set you apart can be daunting. The biggest challenge I am struggling with now is how to create new and different content that will draw in new viewers while also keeping the current and loyal ones happy. Thankfully, there is no pressure on me to do this for my financial security, so that is one less thing to worry about, but that doesn’t take away from the pressure I put on myself to offer quality content for my viewers.

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