-Originally written on April 20, 2023; Edited and scheduled on May 13, 2023-
I have been creating on TikTok for over a year, since February of 2022. I started with the DFP posts and have since tried a few other kinds of videos:
- Kdrama react videos,
- Korean language videos, and,
- at the time of writing this, three days into a writing habit video series.
Which has gotten relatively decent engagement, I might add. I say that, knowing it’s only been three days. And I still need to post the 3rd day’s video.
But let’s talk about TikTok because it has helped open doors for me. I’m not talking about success, though that has happened a bit (I hit 400 followers in April of this year, which is big for me).
It’s also led me to:
- friends that I enjoy talking to,
- an online community that I am a part of (and thriving in), and
- it gave me the push to start creating content. To publicly create content for a real audience.
Now that’s not to push aside the chats I’ve had with offline friends, because they did also help in pushing me towards content creation.
I had spent about a year on TikTok before I started posting. I enjoyed watching videos, getting new ideas, and just getting a taste of the world outside. Especially since Covid had been going on for almost a year.
Posting videos has pushed me to move outside my comfort zone, and I’ve gotten more comfortable on camera than ever before.
Part of that is because of my mindset. When I decided to start posting on TikTok (and had decided on what I would post first), I made the executive decision to treat it as a learning experiment. And that made all the difference. I was more relaxed while making the videos. Also, I tried not to let the worry get to me by how I looked or sounded, or by how many views or likes I got.
I only paid attention to views at the beginning (and I still kind of do that). When I say I only paid attention to views, I still didn’t try to pay attention that much. My focus was and still is on being consistent. I finally succeeded at what I had failed to realize at the beginning of my Disney Film Project (the blog side): posting and maintaining a consistent schedule. I have not missed a single Monday in over a year. Okay, I have not missed a single Monday at all since I started posting on TikTok*. And that’s been such a good thing for me.
What does my current posting schedule look like on TikTok?
I post every day and twice on Mondays.
There will be another post that goes into my writing videos, but I do post those every day. On Mondays, I post both a writing video and a new DFP video. In the past, there were some weeks where the DFP video was the only new video I posted that week. Which was fine. I’m still learning how to be better disciplined at planning, creating, editing, and posting.
Having both the writing videos and the staple DFP video series on my schedule keeps me consistent. And they are my highest priority at the moment for video content. Not because they have the potential for money, but because I enjoy making them. They keep me moving forward with the DFP project, where I’ll be all caught up with my DFP blog posts in September. They also keep writing daily, which is a HUGE win.
As a mid-post announcement: I’ll be bringing back the blog posts for the Disney Film Project beginning on September 4, 2023! I haven’t written a DFP post in months, if not over a year (I’m pretty sure it’s been over a year). But as my TikTok series gets closer to the blog posts, I will be getting ready so that they can be released on the same day every week.
TikTok wasn’t what I thought it would be when I first started. But now I am gaining skills and pushing myself in ways I had never thought I would be moving. I am surrounded by incredible creators who I admire and can learn from just by seeing their content and then practicing my skills as I create more videos.
Where will my content creation career take me next?
I’m not sure, but I am excited to learn, and that is probably an emotion that I haven’t felt in a good long while, especially when it comes to learning.
When I need a break, I have a fun bonus project, which has nothing to do with content creation. I’ve been saving TikTok food videos and have been slowly adding them to a recipe book. That way I can keep them to be able to use and enjoy later on.
To be fair, my eyes are bigger than my stomach, or should I say, it’s easier to save a video to my Favorites collection on TikTok than it is to then take that recipe and copy it down in Evernote. But I do it, and it’s great. Capturing the recipes has helped give me a different challenge to face when I need a break from working on videos, writing, or reading.
So how has TikTok changed my life? In such immense ways that I am truly grateful for its existence. I do thank God daily that the technology is available for me to pursue this as a current hobby and future career.
*There was one week where I had procrastinated, and by the time I was creating and editing a DFP video, it was quite late. When I finally was able to post, it was just minutes into Tuesday morning. Good thing I’m not grading myself on lateness. A video was still posted, and I’m counting it. And I haven’t made that mistake again!!
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