Zero to Launch: Day 001

— Friday, December 17, 2021, 12:30am —

Today started off strong, but now at the end I’m feeling exhausted.

Did I do better than yesterday. Yes. Was the last half frustrating? Yes.

My goal is to document as I go—

In theory, this is great. In actuality it makes 1 task turn into 10 tasks, with each being dependent on the other.

Create new website, film making the new website, create hub for sharing filmed content, editing/sharing filmed content, setting up accounts to share content, optimize shared content. I know most of this will get better as I go along, but what I’m most frustrated by is not even getting to the creative part I wanted to work on and being stuck in the admin bits of it. I know they’re required, but maybe too I’m jumping into them too quickly, trying to optimize them too soon. But I want to document this. I think it would be amazing to have a record of it. But even that process takes time and then coordinating when to edit it without having an entire stockpile.

I think I’m going to have to chunk my days and expect the journey to take longer than if I were just catapulting everything forward. It’s either that or do everything twice— once to completion and a second time as a tutorial. Which might not be the worst idea.

Basically, I feel in the trap of the logistics.

What went well today?

• Posted 3x TikTok videos (AKA overcame the fear of sharing! Cuz one was of me singing and dancing :D)

• Conceptualized direction of website & how to connect all my interests

• Landed on keeping my domain & handles as tara terpstra derivatives (double checked all)

• Making the homepage itself say, welcome to the tara portal rather than it be a separate project or pseudo name

• Came up with the tagline ‘Where dreamers come to expand their world.’ I’ll probably change it based on copywriting best practices, but for now I like it

• Chose a temp image for the homepage banner that closely fits my concept (only took like 2 min! go me curbing that perfectionism!!)

• Activated a patreon account

• Started list/rough video of SquareSpace tutorial content based on things I needed to look up/wasn’t super intuitive to figure out

Tasks & Thoughts as result of today’s activities:

• Patreon— NEED: Profile picture, banner, description to be complete profile. THEN NEED: Tier rewards & merch designs

• Socials— LIKE: Universal profile picture, banner and description across platforms to present a unified brand. Signal to audience they’re in the right place

• Share— SquareSpace tutorials videos, where to post/how to film (Is the one I did too rough?) Ultimately, I’d like to create a database to share all these tips. Like a quick resource guide on the fly, get to the point so you can get your answer quickly and stay in your flow. Maybe the easiest way to do this is to create a blog post about each one. Focus on building the blog first and doing video second. I can always come back and record the content on the blog and it will already be documented here. Wow did we just solve our problem by making this blog post!!

— MIND THOUGHTS—

I think I’m feeling the pressure of jumping into video. I love the idea of it, but the execution of it brings on so many skillsets that are new to me. Video editing for one, plus all the setup to actually get good picture— understanding camera settings, lighting, framing the composition, audio, getting all the shots to make it interesting, tumbnail images and outlines and scripting and soooo much, not to mention actually editing and posting the thing! It’s a bit overwhelming. I know it’s where I want to go with it, but right now blogging feels like it comes so much easier. Ha! I never EVER thought those words would come out of me. You’re funny universe. Okay so blogging it is. Honestly it’s great because I can write. Learn to outline my thoughts (or practice rather, for scripting), create graphics for the posts, use screenshots and articulate my way through the choices, thought processes, basically everything I did here. Okay cool, so that’s the plan.

Self-Love Progress—

Lol. Blank.