The Work Alchemy 30-Day Video Challenge is complete! 30 days ago, I pledged to post 30 videos in 30 days. And I did it – I even overshot a little, as I kept thinking of new things to learn and teach and share, so ended up with 38 in total.
And what an experience! So much learning, growth, sharing, and connection. More work than I thought would be involved, balanced by many more rewards than I expected.
People kept telling me how inspired they were by what I was doing. I encouraged them and now I encourage you to take that inspiration from me or anyone else whose work energizes you and turn it into action for your business! It’s through action that you have more income and more impact.
Here are the learning highlights from the Challenge:
1. Big projects are a great motivator! They inspire and energize me. So I’m now building my business around a series of Big Projects! If you’re like me, you can do the same. If you are more empowered by incremental growth, then roll with that. The point is to be in touch with what works for you and then put it into action!
2. Having a focus point heightens your energy. One of my Challengers told me that she felt an accountability to do a video even when she didn’t feel like it, and that consistent application of her efforts had an unexpected effect. I often say that taking action changes the landscape and you see opportunities you didn’t before. Still true! But there’s an additional level. Not only do the opportunities become visible, but you have a heightened energy to step up and into them. (relates to #5 below) A focus on impact works the same way. The more you focus your business on impact, the more empowered and energized you feel to take the action needed to rise to opportunity.
3. Rest is needed after a Challenge like this. I’m feeling that need right now, and I’m going to take a week of relatively less activity before I start my next Big Project! If you feel your energy start to wane in your business, do what might feel counterintuitive – take a break. That rest time will shift your perspective and you’ll come back with more energy.
4. Flexibility turns problems into possibilities. Some things didn’t go as planned, and I had to adjust quickly. The improv class I happen to be taking during this time may have contributed to that, but the Challenge has certainly given me the opportunity to practice being flexible over and over again! Your ability to adjust makes a big difference, quickly changing a failure into a new opportunity.
5. The fast pace and the almost constant discomfort as I added new thing after new thing has made me less bothered by discomfort. It seems that picking up the pace itself is a way to move through discomfort more easily and readily. I just didn’t have time to wallow in my anxiety. Things went pretty speedily from AAAAAHHHH! to OK, OK, you’re fine, yes, I feel uncomfortable to what’s next? So, with the appropriate amount of rest and rejuvenating time mixed in, you can pick up the pace, get a lot done, and reap big rewards.
6. Video is powerful. OK, I knew that one already. But doing videos has allowed me to reach far more people, and more importantly, talk to and connect with them, one of the biggest rewards of this Challenge. If you want to connect more with your audience, think about what might inspire them and invite them along for the ride.
7. Last on the laundry list of learning, but certainly not least, the thing that has kept me going above all else is that I know that this Challenge has been valuable for YOU. I keep hearing it over and over, and that has been so motivating. It affirms what I know to be true about impact: the effect I have on others is just as important as my own development, and the two together – WOW! That’s Impact!
The numbers reveal how much can change in just 30 days when there’s focus, motivation, and energized action, plus a modest ad investment:
# videos: 38
25 on Facebook Live, 3 reshoots because of FB Live pixelated videos (due to insufficient upload speeds in my area), 8 just on YouTube, 2 in the Work Alchemy Video Challenge Facebook group
Facebook page Likes/Follows: +16/+18
I’ve focused my attention on those who have already visited my page, so it’s not surprising that there hasn’t been dramatic growth. I’d prefer deeper engagement over numbers.
Email subscribers: no net change
This outcome is a little disappointing, but in fairness, I didn’t promote opting into my list. There were ups and downs during the Challenge, more than usual, suggesting a shift in my audience. That’s a good thing when my message and my audience become more aligned.
Work Alchemy Facebook group, a new group created for the Challenge: 26 members
A nice start! I’ll continue the group with another name and it will continue to grow.
Facebook ad investment: $44 for 8 posts
2522 people reached, biggest success was 453 video views for 7 Tips to Increase Your YouTube Views on Facebook (this by Facebook’s measure are 3 second views, so it’s an unknown whether people actually watched most or all of it)
Most of these ads were promoting Facebook Live videos to my Facebook page visitors, so they expanded engagement with my audience from those already interested.
The biggest effect has been on YouTube: at the start of the Challenge I created the Work Alchemy YouTube channel with a single video. Now there are 26 + 6 more about to be uploaded from this week, for a total of 32. The stats for the current 26 videos, added progressively over the 30-day Challenge period are:
YouTube video views: 396
YouTube channel subscribers: 4
One more new addition during the Video Challenge: a new magazine on Medium, Business With Impact. All updates on the Challenge were posted in Medium, as well as in the Work Alchemy blog.
Stats summary:
A significant increase in engagement on the Work Alchemy Facebook page, a small increase in page Likes and Follows, and a big boost in visibility by creating the Work Alchemy YouTube channel. Watch the videos yourself to see where the action is. I invite you to subscribe while you’re there!
Overall, I’d call the Work Alchemy Video Challenge a big success! A great deal of valuable learning on many levels (and I’m sure that will continue to roll around in my head, with more insights to come). A big bump in engagement with the people who matter to my business the most, YOU, and a whole new platform (YouTube) that is showing great promise.
I’d love to hear your comments on the Challenge, so please leave a message below and I’ll respond.
If you’d like support for your own videos, marketing, or other aspects of your business, go to the Work Alchemy Facebook group and click on +Join Group. It’s about to have a name change, which my group members will decide in a poll I’m running today.
Thanks for joining me in this Challenge! You’ve made it all worthwhile.