Last night, I launched #omchat on Twitter.
Five people participated. That was exactly five more than I had anticipated, making the night a huge success.
I’m totally serious. Let me explain.
The @omchat Twitter account, which I created about two weeks ago, had racked up about 79 followers, mostly because I followed people, tweeted to them and sporadically began tweeting yoga-like content. The sort of stuff I would want to read. The sort of stuff missing from the Twittersphere and part of the reason I started #omchat in the first place.
But beyond this:
- I don’t have a branded blog for the chat.
- I made my logo in about two minutes with Photoshop.
- I told next to no one about it.
I’m not bummed. I had a lot of fun chatting with those people (@hopebordeaux @Raquelitaruns @Yogaholics @CatSkiUtah @mihaychuk). And by leaving the training wheels on, I was able to test the waters and see what I should do differently next month. Here’s what I learned:
1. The spark is important, but keeping the light burning is essential.
When I get ideas that excite me, part of me jumps on them right away to create something tangible (registering the @omchat name). Then I quickly sketch up my idea to see if it’s worthwhile (writing the #omchat webpage). Then all the barriers to success show up (starting from scratch, building a network, what if I’m not good enough, feeding content 24/7 to Twitter, what if I’m not good enough, I have a full-time job for crying out loud, what if I’m not good enough?!).
The drive to create burns out a little, just enough to cause me to fumble around in the dark even though I know what I’m doing, and, heck I’ve done this professionally (at my job) to great success!
But personal projects are always more difficult to pull off than those for someone else. Because at the end of the day, my high standards can result in extreme personal failure, rather than failure due to the variety of legitimate barriers I listed above.
2. If you build it on social media, they’re not just going to come.
Social media is the anti-Web. When the Web was in its infancy (I’m talking animated rainbows on websites) we were connected because our circles were smaller. Fewer people were really good at the Web, because fewer people knew how to use the tools. So the ones who really had something to say, and said it well on a platform of their own creation, stood out.
Flash forward to clicking “tweet this” and all of a sudden you’ve got a 100 spammers with variations of the same woman’s stock photo befriending you because you mentioned “Plumpy’nut.”
The tools don’t require knowledge anymore. They just require your keystrokes. Webrings are unnecessary, because we have Google. Ironically, Google’s trying to bring that back with Google+, but it’s too late. Because who wants to return to the Dark Ages when you’re living in the Golden Age of Facebook? Who wants to visit just three, stellar websites, when there are 156 million blogs in existence? (Good job, by the way, finding this one.)
Social crowds everything out. No longer can you build, be stellar and expect results. You have to do all that, plus be persistent and LOUD.
3. If you set the bar high, but you don’t put in the work, you’ll never reach it.
People don’t lose weight by skipping dessert and working out only once a week. You have to constantly show up. You have to do that 10 minute interval training workout that made your heart burn for, what, 15 minutes after?, so that you thought you would pass out before #omchat even started.
This is why people laugh at the self-employed. Because if you truly show up, even though you have “all the time in the world” to take a vacation, you never can. You’ve got to work. And you’ve got to want to work.
4. Thinking in your head that people will show up and people actually showing up are two different things.
Trusting in the Universe to bring you Twitter chat friends is so completely yogic, but the truth is, it’s not going to happen if NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT YOU.
The Universe knows about you. You know about you. But when you’re trying to host a Twitter Chat, this assurance is simply not good enough. It was important that I set a date and follow through, even though I thought I’d be typing to myself. By the very act of turning the chat loose (although the timing looked too soon), I was creating space – holding it – for future space fillers.
This is not different from the first few yoga classes I ever taught, when nobody knew me or what I offered. But they took a chance then, and they’ll continue to take chances now. You’ve just got to start.
5. It’s all part of the path.
Few people enjoy overnight success. When Oprah joined Twitter she surpassed millions of Twitter followers in a day. But the thing is, Oprah already had that audience. She cultivated, nurtured and fed that audience for years before Twitter was even conceived. Be suspicious of instant success and sudden sensations. The thing about such phrases is they always negate the “getting there” in favor of the joy of having “made it.”
The truth is, there’s no such thing as an instant success. Everyone has to work in this life to develop what they’ve been given or what they decide to create. Life is the ultimate level playing field.
Besides, if something bombs the first time, the good news is there’s nowhere to go but up.
Follow me @omchat and @cbaginski on Twitter. I’ll see you next month, Oct. 2 at 9 p.m. EST/ 6 p.m. CST for #omchat. Even if only one of you shows up.
