This Friday, we’re doing a #ContentWritingChat “recap” in a slightly different style.
First, it’s Julia here, sharing the direction #ContentWritingChat is headed, in more depth.
I’m sure you all were shocked by our Tuesday announcement, sharing that we’re moving to a once/month format!
? ANNOUNCEMENT: #ContentWritingChat is changing!
Before I get into the “why” behind the switch, first things first… I want to thank each and every one of you that show up every Tuesday.
It’s a big deal that we have so many “regulars” on the chat. It’s rare to find a community that contains this much loyalty.
Just take a look at our last 90 days of data from Keyhole, a Twitter real-time tracking tool. It shows quite a bit of traction.
Plus, we have people from all over the world joining us during the live hour… even Russia!
So, if you’re one of our regulars, serious gratitude is in order. We couldn’t call it a “community” without you!
Next, as you heard, we’re switching our chat to the first Tuesday of every month. This is a big change from our weekly chat hour, every Tuesday.
There are two big reasons why I’m making this change. Let’s get into them.
A few things, focused and honed-in on, can be much more profitable than focusing on many.
My word for 2018 was “strategic.” And I’ve been applying it to EVERYTHING. I invested more, chose higher-level routes, and sunk my teeth into some deep things this year.
One of those deeper things was launching my first ever live masterclass, an introduction to my 6-week training program, The Content Strategy & Marketing Course.
An even more far-reaching project of mine for 2018: I’m writing my third published book, Woman Rising, which will be a memoir of my success story thus far in live. How I left a cult at the age of 21, where I was controlled heavily, mentally and physically abused growing up under my dad’s religious regime. I left this abusive environment six years ago in the middle of the night, went through a journey of emotional and mental healing, and forged my own success: start a company that now has 75+ team members, write two bestsellers and make it to the top 30 in my industry.
This story is heavy. It’s beautiful. It’s going to be a raw, rich, storytelling-style read. This particular style of writing is my favorite. I truly believe I’m tapping into my most gifted realm by writing it. I have a close circle of 10-12 friends reading it, and they’ve been absolutely blown away so far.
What I’m finding as I write each chapter (I’m on the 5th) feels a lot like punching through a new barrier. Last week, talking to some people from my past that have also left the same cult, I found out that my grandfather’s cult is heavily active and there could be hundreds of people, especially women (this particular religion hits hardest on women – both my mom and I were beaten) in abusive situations now. As we speak, my dad’s cult goes on. My siblings are in his house, and my mom is there, too. My grandfather’s cult lives on in another state in the U.S.
With this story, I have many goals. The horizon is broad, and huge. I want to reach women on a massive scale, and show them that success can be had for the taking–that they have what it takes to be whoever they want to be. No matter what they’ve been told.
To make this HUGE story happen, I need more time.
I need more mornings where I can focus on this book.
#ContentWritingChat comes secondary to this gigantic project, and getting three more Tuesday mornings back in my month will be huge for better focus on Woman Rising.
This year, more than ever, I’m focusing on growth at Express Writers.
In the past months as I’ve researched, tested and analyzed, I see very few connections from our Twitter chat that lend directly to our growth.
Most of our attendees are writers, so they have no interest in the content creation services we offer directly from Express Writers. A few have traveled directly to my book and course, which is great! But, that’s been 1% or less.
Given that very simple fact, it doesn’t make sense to pay hundreds of dollars in time, investment, and design to run #ContentWritingChat.
We’re not a publicly-funded company, and we have zero VC investors. So, every dollar that goes into producing the live hour you join every week is from my pocket. I have to make sure we’re getting ROI out of our carefully-delegated funds.
When you run a business, you quickly realize that channels where money is going must mean ROI. And if they don’t, it could be time to cut back.
The good news is that switching to once-a-month means that we can devote more care and attention during that once-a-month period and provide a education-filled experience for our participants.
We’re also listening to your answers from this Tuesday and we’re going to modify the format just a tad: more Q&A time, and a little bit of actionable “to-do” homework at the end! This is to make the live hour go even further and mean more, for each one of you. I want to treat it like a live class and put extra attention into it, which is more possible if we slim down to once per month.
Thank you all for joining us live this Tuesday!
And now, I’ll pass the “pen” over to Rachel, who is going to share with you a few key tweets from our live hour this Tuesday, May 15.
Many chat participants are just like Bill. They want to join a discussion they can confidently contribute to. For that reason, we’re all about covering the topics you are interested in!
Tony knows that a great chat guest host engages with the other participants. This is something that we want to make sure always happens with each #ContentWritingChat. That interaction with the audience is crucial!
And of course, you always want to make sure a guest host knows their stuff! With our switch to a monthly format, you can still count on us bringing in amazing experts who can really bring the value.
A2 The chat should have people who appreciate and share knowledge. The guest need not have 10k followers, but should have good knowledge on the topic of the chat.
What makes a chat so special is the people who join during every live session. They’re the ones who are engaging, sharing their thoughts, and making the conversation happen.
Another change we want to add is wrapping up each session with a Q&A featuring the guest host. It’s the perfect opportunity for participants to get their questions answered. We love what Alexandra said about a Q&A making the chat fell more exclusive and high-level.
To make the chat more actionable, we’d love to add a “homework” feature. This means there would be a task assigned to you at the end of each live chat. Don’t worry though, it won’t be anything too crazy!
Many of you seemed excited for this addition, including Maria. As she said, it helps motivate people to take action instead of just talking about it.
Gene feels a group assignment provides accountability and creates a tighter community.
Not everyone was cool with the homework idea though! But that’s okay because you won’t get a failing grade nor will you be banned from future #ContentWritingChat sessions for not participating. Haha!
A7: I love everything about #ContentWritingChat. If I may suggest one thing, consider reducing the number of questions? We have such a great community that it’s so easy to miss people’s insights while we’re focussed on answering a question.
We also asked for suggestions on where we can improve. One tip was to decrease the amount of questions. This could make it easier for people to keep up with other responses that have been shared.
Darcy is all about continuing relationships outside of the chat so we can all support one another.
And of course, we’re glad to hear many of you love the chat as is. Don’t worry, Eddie! We won’t be changing things up too much!
Ken doesn’t want to see too many changes either, but he’s ready for the homework!
We’re excited too, Rachel! And we hope all of you will continue to join us on the first Tuesday of every month.