Here’s a fact about me you may not know: I do my best work when I am in community – when I am working alongside other people who are also working on a project. It doesn’t have to be the same project or in the genre, but simply that we are all working away, separately together.
It is like playing in the sandbox as kids or as adults, when we are co-working in the same space or going into a coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon in the fall – college professors are sitting all over the place, grading. You just don’t recognize this until you have your own stack to grade. Somehow you are more likely to get it done in a group.
This is my third year working on #The100DayProject – and my personal project is 100 Days of Engaging Video. I am a livestreamer and have been since 2015. I don’t feel as confident with my “static” videos as my live stream videos. I have improved, though, and the last few I made felt really good to make and to share.
I have a YouTube account I don’t promote much, unfortunately, and since many folks on the 100 Day Project at on Instagram, I have been making more IGTV videos in addition to my livestreams.
Most recently I have been repurposing my videos on IGTV to YouTube and next will put them on my JJS Writing Camp facebook page as well. Every day in every way better and better and better.
Because my son came home from college, I have taken the last week off from video making and now on Instagram there is a rumor I can turn my lives into IGTV videos, so this may change my entire strategy. This is exciting!
The 100 Day Project itself, however, has been much more fun because I was bold and asked members of the if anyone wanted to start an Instagram engagementgroup to encourage each other. Well, more than fifty people responded. I created five groups and they have been off and running for the last six weeks with only one blip. Two of the groups have done Zoom sessions that were very fun. People are inspiring each other even though the groups are anything but niche: we are all doing our thing and enjoying the others who are doing their thing.
I realize in writing this blog post I am going to amplify outreach and marketing for the next six weeks as an experiment and it will become a regular part of my reporting. I think I will do some “mano a mano” (reaching out to individuals as well as sharing in groups and spaces. To borrow from Anais Nin, I know my business will blossom when I am bold – and my videos showcase me doing what I do for clients, audiences and readers so it is time to be real with it and engage in my life work as I make these videos. I actually started this with the facebook version of my last video, I just hadn’t recognized it as such.
I have never given as much energy to my 100 Day Projects because I never had this level of consistent, mutual support. I have made friends within this small and mighty community that will surely last long after the challenge is over. Separately together, much like how things have been during the Covid-19 Pandemic which we are continuing to learn and live through –
Do you have communities you turn to for support in your projects?
What were the characteristics of your favorite. most effective support communities?
Finally, here is my most recent IGTV video for your viewing pleasure.
Finally, a closing question – I would love if you would respond in the comments:
Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, bestselling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Next week’s theme of Aware of Abundance #5for5BrainDump program will focus on using writing as meditation to focus and release blocks or an upcoming writing circle or writing for social media programs.
