Female Hustlers 2020 Spotlight: Ruby Dhal
Ruby Dhal, Writer and Spoken Word Artist
Female Hustlers 2020 Spotlight: The Real-time Power That Deserves Your Absolute Attention!
Ruby Dhal is the author of her latest release ‘My Hope for Tomorrow’ amongst two other titles that elaborate from poetry and prose. Residing in London England, she is no stranger to capturing the hearts and minds of her audience through her live spoken word performances, that shed light on themes of love, healing, mental health and self-discovery. In showcase of all her achievements and impressive 300,000 following, we thought to give our readers an insight to who Ruby is and all that drives her trade and passion for writing.
1. What inspired you to initially start your hustle and what would you say was the breakthrough moment for yourself to date in your career?
I started sharing my writing online after I experienced something really horrible in my life. My writing came as a result of my need to heal, and words were the best form of medicine for me at the time. I didn’t realise when my words became relatable to others and steadily, I found my page gaining momentum in the number of followers that I head, spreading further than a handful of my friends and family.
The breakthrough moment for me was when someone suggested that I compile all the pieces that I share online into a book. I didn’t consider the possibility of writing non-fiction or poetry before that because my dream had always been to write fiction and become a novelist one day. I had been working on the first draft of my novel for many years – even though I’ve scrapped that one and have started another – and my plan was to approach a literary agent and proceed with traditional publishing.
I’m glad that I decided to self-public my poetry first because it allowed me to gain deeper insight into the publishing world, as well as create a readership for me when I do publish my novel.
2. Was there ever a time you came close to giving into any doubts of yours and how did you manage to overcome it; to continue motivating yourself through it?
Absolutely. Self-doubt is a horrible seed that can plant so many other negative emotions and – eventually – defeat your mind and your willpower to pursue your goals.
Sometimes Instagram – and social media in general – becomes stagnant and the number of likes or follows don’t increase for days, weeks and months. That can take its toll on creatives like myself whose career is dependent on the amount of readers that we have online.
The way that I dealt with this is by reassuring myself that likes, follows or shares doesn’t determine the quality of my work and the impact that it might have on others. At the end of the day, we create for ourselves and if that creation is having a tiny, positive influence on someone else then that’s great. It doesn’t matter how many people your work affects; it matters whether it makes its mark at all.
Social media can be quite pretentious sometimes and it does negatively contribute to the downfall of a lot of creatives who get caught up in the numbers. I dealt with this by reminding myself that the numbers weren’t important, only the quality of work that I was putting out there was.
3. What is your biggest tip for other female hustlers out there who want to be making a living out of what they love?
Write down your purpose. What is it that you want to achieve with your project? Something as basic as ‘to make money’ can’t be what motivates driven people. What makes an entrepreneur, or a creative, different is the need to make an impact. To change something. To create their mark. To cause a shift in their environment. Whatever it is, you need to figure out what your purpose is and once you figure that out, you need to measure each day afterwards on the scale of whether you’re doing something to deliver your purpose.
Another thing I’d recommend is to not get lost in numbers or in the business of things. Sometimes turning what you love into a business can take its toll on you because your passion and what the market wants can be at odds. I’ve always followed my heart but I do listen to my readers because at the end of the day – my words have the purpose of healing their hearts. That’s why I intend to create as much as content, and write as many books, as I can to contribute to their healing.
4. How do you plan on making 2020 the best year yet for you and your hustle?
In light of everything that’s happening right now, it’s difficult to make a clear-cut plan on what I’m going to do to make it the best year so far. I do feel that ‘productively’ it will be hard to gain momentum, especially since we’re social distancing and the effect that it’s having on many people – both mentally and emotionally – myself included, is vast.
So, for now I intend to take things a bit easy, use my time at home to reflect and re-energise so that when things do return to normal, I’m able to use all that energy into some quality poetry and prose.
I’m taking things easy for now. I have faith that everything will pass slowly and in the interim I will create as much as my capacities allow me to while I’m in a bustling house, but on the whole – I will focus more on rest and recovery so that I’m ready to hustle when all this passes.
5. Any other side projects that you have going on that you can give us a little cheeky insight to?
Currently I’m working on my fourth book, which is a self-help/prose book and the biggest compilation of pieces that I’ve created so far. The first draft is complete and it’s in the editing process. I intend to release this later in 2020. I’m also working on the first draft of my debut novel, I’m approximately 80% through and have the last 20% (the hardest, for me, I believe) to push through. Wish me luck!
6. What social media platforms can our readers find you on the internet?
Instagram: @r.dhalwriter
Check out her books: https://www.rubydhal.com/books
Website: https://www.rubydhal.com/
Written By: Fatima Elmusbahi
