10 years ago, it was summer 2014 and I just successfully raised money with an IndieGogo campaign to go make a film in Nepal.
I was about to book my ticket when an old friend from high school contacted me.
“Hey, is this still Jordan’s number? I saw that you’re going to Nepal, I wanted to ask if you needed help with your project...”
She continued to explain how she needed a break from her life—her hometown, her career, her friends. She’d been following my travels online for the past 5 years and wanted to try the lifestyle for herself.
Her job was in social media marketing, so she offered to join me to do that.
From Bali to Nepal to India, we collected content for a new YouTube channel.
I was just getting into video again after spending 6 years focusing on writing science fiction. As far as I was concerned, every piece of video content we would make needed to be a fucking masterpiece.
But in all this, I missed out on a grand opportunity.
What I didn’t realize in those pre-pubescent days of Instagram
(but my friend did, very well)
was that everything we were documenting could have been "re-purposed" in myriad ways
and not just for the purpose of social media marketing.
Now obviously we could split up our content for platforms:
• the long “films” for YouTube
• the quick clip/photo with a caption story for IG + FB
but what I learned from her on that trip was that any photo you take,
any video you capture,
any business card you collect,
is an opportunity for reflection.
Storytelling is the #1 way to create a connection with another human being.
Spin a yarn the right way, and the point you’re trying to make has a much better chance of sticking.
Creating content in the context of storytelling—be it written, spoken, or just visual—is a healthy way of digesting what’s happening to us in the everyday.
It’s why we journal. It’s why we like to talk with and vent to friends. It’s a form of expression.
So all those people we met from Bali to Nepal to India
did not simply offer us marketing content for our YouTube channel
but a chance to reflect on and learn from our travels.
This is one thing I’ve recently realized can be an important exercise for us humans:
make content, even if it’s not “content.”
Because just like when we journal, or simply have a great conversation, the results are palpable.
Are you ready to re-purpose your creative energy?
This was an excerpt from the first module of Content Vines, a new e-mail course I'm putting out to see how it lands.
If you find yourself in a position where you're ready to get more sovereign over your life,
making money doing your own thing
while thriving on creativity
and human connection,
or you simply want a fresh perspective on your perhaps stagnant entrepreneurship journey,
then maybe you'll want to check this out.
Either reply to this e-mail or enroll for free now:
