I started this blog in college but allowed my school and work-life to push this to the back burner. This month, I decided to stop making excuses and come back to blogging.
Restarting wasn’t easy. I had to set aside time to execute and produce content I was proud of.
Although starting over is challenging, I believe it was the best decision that I made this year. I posted more in 30 days than I have in 3 years! I am so proud of myself for sticking to it, even on the hardest of days. Today, I am going to share 5 best practices for anyone who wants to start creating content:
Plan, plan, plan: Preparation is key. If you are juggling a 9-5 and content creation, automation is your friend. There are so many tools and resources to help make your life easy and even post your content for you! You just have to take the time to find them and set them up properly. Be specific about EVERYTHING you need to do to prevent over committing and schedule your time appropriately, which brings us to the next best practice.
Be realistic about time: Producing content almost always takes more time than you think. Be sure to cut your work into small chunks and give yourself some cushion time to prevent overwhelm. I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take me to film and edit my first IGTV video.
Clean your camera: I shoot all of my content using an iPhone 11. Before I shoot, I always make sure to wipe the camera in order to capture quality photos.
Provide value: Your audience wants to learn more about you, but they also want information that is beneficial for them. As you become more purposeful, you may lose some followers. Don’t be discouraged because you will replace them with the audience you are meant to serve. When you are intentional about your content, your ideal audience will find you and will likely engage with your content more than anyone who unfollowed you.
Be authentic: Everything I share is relevant to my self-care journey. I don’t share anything that I wouldn’t actually use or wear. People sense when you are inauthentic. We often look to others and emulate what they are doing. Create your own aesthetic. To do so, you may need to try a couple of different looks before you land on one that you and your audience love.
As you can see, I learned a lot during the #mjconsistencychallenge over the last 4 weeks. It forced me to step outside of my comfort zone, yet it was 100% worth it.
As a result of being consistent, I was able to achieve over 1000 blog views, 2 brand features, and an increase of 20+ followers in less than 30 days.
I appreciate all the love and support you all have shown and I hope you all continue to join me in this #bloglife! Email list coming soon!
This week my energy has been off and I noticed something wasn’t sitting right in my spirit.
After doing some journaling, I think it had a lot to do with the passing of Naya Rivera and Nicole Thea.
For some reason, my mind kept going back to Nicole’s story in particular. She was 24 years old, a content creator, and such a fun dancer. After watching a few of her dance videos, her personality reminded me a lot of myself. It broke my heart when I learned that she passed away 8 months into her pregnancy.
I think I felt it the most when I thought about my own personal birth story. It’s part of the reason why my mother named me Destiny. My mom spent 6.5 months of her 9-month pregnancy in a hospital fighting for my life after doctors told her that I wouldn’t make it. They were not supportive at all. They had completely given up on the delivery of a healthy baby but my mom never gave up.
I now feel a personal connection to women who have pregnancy complications and face challenges like my mother. I can only pray that I don’t have to experience something similar if I ever decide to have children.
Thank you for allowing me to share my feelings with you all. I give myself permission to not always be ok and work through these emotions. I hope you do the same! If you would like to share how you have been feeling lately, add a comment below.
When I was introduced to the idea of meditation, I didn’t think it was for me. First of all, anytime I tried to sit down and “meditate”, I wasn’t doing anything but thinking about my long to-do list with my eyes closed. When I realized I wasn’t taking the proper steps to truly practice meditation, I decided to take another approach.
I started going to free mediation classes at work. It was super helpful to have someone there to guide me and coach me on the proper breathing techniques.
After going to a few sessions, I decided to give it another chance on my own. I knew I liked having a guide, so I decided to give the Headspace app a try. I instantly fell in love. During the week, I would take 5 minutes to center myself before my commute to work.
Now that I no longer commute, I have been working from home since March. I quickly found myself skipping my morning routine, which meant I wasn’t as productive during the day. Recently, I decided to reintroduce a self care routine that includes meditation, prayer, and sometimes journaling. I go into my workday feeling so much better. Apps like headspace help me start my day with a clear mind.
If I can take 15 minutes to scroll on Instagram when I wake up, then I can set aside 5-10 minutes to start my day with intention.
What about you, have you tried meditation? Do you have any tips from your experience? Let me know in the comments below.
Wow I am finally doing what I told myself I was going to do years ago.
In 2017, I started a blog and I quickly found it hard to stay consistent. I allowed work, travel, and everything in between to push this project to the back burner for quite some time.
Well…we are finally making a comeback! For the next 4 weeks I am participating in the Mattie James consistency challenge. I am bringing destinymcclain.com back to life with a brand new focus. Shout-out to Mattie for the motivation!
These days self care has been essential to my sanity. Without setting aside time for myself daily, the last three months may have lead me to a very dark place.
On the blog, I will be sharing my self care routine and how I maintain a healthy mind, body and soul! Each day you will find tips for haircare, skincare, and much more! Let’s get started!
