5 Lessons I’ve Learned in 2022
The best word to I can use to describe 2022 is growth: for both this social media page and myself. One of the coolest things about creating content is that you can watch the progression of your work over time. Looking back at some of my very first posts of 2022, they look nothing like what I am doing now. And in my humble opinion, that’s because things have improved! I’ve said it before, but one of my favorite parts about this whole project is the ability to use the creative parts of my brain and constantly try new things. One of the biggest transitions I’ve made was using my own voice and face to teach mini-video lessons. Just getting over the sound of my voice and the way my face looks on camera felt like a huge accomplishment. And then the creativity continued to take off from there.
I wanted to share 5 big lessons that I learned this year in the hopes that I can look back at this list next year and see if I’ve carried over the same lessons into 2023. I’m also hopeful that this will inspire someone else to try a new project that’s been on their mind. These aren’t groundbreaking thoughts, but I think these lessons are important and can be applied broadly to almost anyone’s life.
I am my biggest barrier to publishing content: one of the biggest bottlenecks of my production process was the amount of editing and redo’s I would do because I didn’t like the way something looked or sounded. What I realized over time was many of the details that I thought were a big deal were often overlooked or not even recognized by people viewing the page. Part of this is striking a balance between quality and quantity but shifting my balance closer to quantity seems to be advantageous to growing the account.
It is difficult to know what will go viral - try new things and see what stick: this plays off of the first lesson. When I increased the quantity of my production, I was able to try new ideas. And occasionally, some ideas were better than others! I remember some nights I would be sitting on my couch after posting something and it felt like nonstop notifications were coming in from new accounts I didn’t recognize. And then other posts seem to only get the usual attention. I’m still learning more about how social media algorithms work, but not being afraid to try new things and then revisiting why certain techniques are more effective than others seems to be a worthwhile strategy.
Frequent check-ins with my “why” - motivates and consolidates: this is part of my reflection process that has been integral for me continuing this project when it seems like I’m investing way too much of my free time with little to no return. The motivation part is certain fuel to my fire, but the consolidation part it what I think will help my long-term success. Striving to become more efficient in all aspects of this project while constantly learning and trying new things is not easy but necessary.
Define and target a specific audience: this seems obvious to most people but it is so tempting to broaden your content to reach a wider audience. But the content that ends up being some of my best work revolves around topics that I am very familiar with and that I can freely talk about without sounding like a robotic audiobook. Making the content relatable to my target audience also seems to help with engagement with the content and the possibility of it being shared with others in the same field.
Time management begins with writing down my goals: I’ll be honest I was never someone who used “To-Do” lists almost ever in my life. In fact, one of the biggest reasons I started writing down my goals this year was just to keep track of all my ideas so I didn’t forget them. But once I started organizing my goals in “Now”, “Soon”, and “Later” categories, I found myself accomplishing more of my tasks in a timely fashion. Also there is definitely a sense of satisfaction when looking at a whiteboard with lists of tasks and being able to check them off and look back at all you’ve accomplished.
