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

Paul, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

To say I “manage” my own social media doesn’t do justice to what I do on social media. It looks a lot more like falling down the stairs over and over again. Sometimes I manage not break anything and land on my feet, sometimes I wind up a mangled mess sprawled out on the landing wanting to quit and never come back but most of the time I bang around without too much fan fair until I try it again the next day. There is no “management” of social media; it’s just showing up and dealing with people. Messily. People are messy and communities are messy and it’s one of those things that you must make your own because it’s going to different for everybody. The best thing I ever did in the early stages of my Instagram was to just thank people for being there. I answered every DM, I responded to every comment, I was flattered and thanked every share and story and repost and whatever. I was grateful people would give me any attention but it also gave me insight into the kind of community I wanted. People who were brash and trolling me be good for engagement, but they were toxic to my sanity. If the choice was between a thousand good followers and a million mediocre followers, I’d take the thousand any day. When the numbers slow down, the followers stop coming, and the engagement shifts to some other metric; I’d rather spend time with the few than endure the torment of the many.

Paul, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Paul Mignard, I’m 45 years old and live in Central Virginia with my wife and kids. By day, people pay me to write code but online I go by Sketchy Sermons where I draw interesting people who say interesting things; usually Christians.

I’ve always been a person who doodles but I never had a formal art education and really didn’t seek to do much of anything online. One habit I did pick up though was drawing in church. I found myself constantly distracted in church services or really any kind of long form event that lasted longer than a few minutes. I found that drawing and sketch noting especially kept me in the moment and engaged in what I was doing. I started sharing my sketch notes of church services and after honing in on an art style I started sketchy sermons and formally posted my artwork online! Some people showed up but in the beginning it was a lot of work without a whole lot of activity.

I got some great advice early on that complex art and ideas weren’t a great suit for instagram; the content needed to be quick and punchy and that when I started drawing people and their interesting quotes and things took off from there. I branched out and sold stickers and prints and was able to secure multiple book deals just from building up my skills and sharing them online.

I’m enjoying social media but the skills that served my well at 5k followers became difficult to scale when I hit 20k followers so I’m always learning. I wish I could say I did it perfectly and followed a plan but it’s been a beautiful mess and an experience I wouldn’t change. I have no idea what’s next but I’m still enjoying the ride!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My goal on social media was never to build a big page but rather just to encourage people and build them up as much as possible. I create comic-like portraits of people and I imagine it’s a strange and interesting experience to get tagged by me in a post to realize that I’ve not only been impacted by something they said or wrote; but that I took hours to try and draw them and give my audience something that’s more than just a quote or a pithy saying.

It’s getting interesting because AI can do what I do much better, much faster, and with shocking accuracy but I think there’s still a market for human effort. There’s something special about a watch assembled by hand, there’s something special about a home-cooked meal, and even online there’s ways to show people attention and gifted them your time and talents in a way that’s more personal and meaningful than retweet or a share.

I’d recommend to people when starting their social media presence is to remember that they’re not building a page or a following but a community. It goes both ways always. If you want to build on social media you have to *be* on social media. Answer all of your DM’s. Respond to all of your comments. Comment on posts that other people make and provide good commentary. We think our posts and our stories and our reels is the social media but engaging with people on your chosen platform is really where the work is done. Make friends, do favors, be fun and encouraging and figure out how to enjoy your time on social media. If it feels like an obligation or a chore, then your page will feel like a chore.

It sounds like work because it is; but’s it good work and when done right can also be fulfilling.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I find people who don’t draw generally think that who people who do draw find it easy to draw. Meaning – you just whip out your sketchbook and these amazing illustrations just flow out of your fingers and you’re so excited to post them because it came out just right; just the way you wanted it to and it all happened because of this amazing talent you were born with!

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Creating art is a struggle that emanates from the depths of our worst insecurities. We put our offerings out here on social media *praying* that no one is too harsh on them because we are one sideways comment away from throwing it all in the trash and becoming a bureaucrat. It’s worth doing, but I found that making art has to do so much with battling my own insecurities more than it has to do with creating pleasing images.

You’d think it gets easier; the art improves but the line of perfection moves with it and we’re always trying to reach some state of contentment that never seems to come.       

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sketchysermons.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sketchysermons
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/sketchysermons
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sketchysermons