So today was the day. For a while now I have been wanted to share hairstyling tips with you all on you tube. A while ago we did a test video in the salon and uploaded it to facebook. We used an ipad and did some curls on a brunette dolls head after work. It wasn't great. The lighting wasn't crash hot and the brunette hair made it even harder to see the curls, the quality was ordinary and it was a little shaky. I hadn't made it back to doing a better video.
Lately I have been putting a lot more thought into how we can participate more in the online community and help our clients even once they have left the salon. So today I went to the salon set up a video camera, finally used the tripod mum brought me for Christmas a few years back and shot a video on how I style my hair. You see I have the Gadiva tape extentions in my hair and lots of people have been asking me about how I go shampooing, blow-drying, styling and just generally managing them. So this was what my video was based on. I was really happy with the lighting, the tripod kept the camera still, I explained all the products I used, the tools, the techniques, I was quiet proud of myself. I didn't expect to be an overnight you tube hit but I was excited to have a video to direct people to when they needed help with styling extensions.
I arrived home and set about uploading the video to the computer to do a little editing..... this is where my excitement started to turn to frustration. First it just wouldn't happen after a lot of fiddling around and some help from my much more patient husband the video was on the computer, now to edit it. I looked at the length of the film 55 mins .... ooops. Now keep in mind I did explain what I used to shampoo and treat my hair, how the tape extensions are attached, how to blow-dry your hair (I planned on speeding that up on the editing) then curled my hair and explained the finishing products. But my plan was for three, five minute you tube clips and I had 55 minutes worth of footage.
Then the computer was struggling with the size of the files and was running super slow and after 2 hours I felt like all my excitement was gone. I failed, it needed to be re shot.
So I had a shower. I didn't need a shower - I had one to shampoo my hair before shooting the video but there is something clarifying about a shower. The water clears my head and seems to ease a cranky mood. In the shower I remembered something I once read in a book, by the founder of the collective magazine. 'If you fail, fail fast'. What does this mean, well I had fun shooting the video, I lost an afternoon in frustration on the computer but really I hadn't invested much, I failed fast. When you fail fast you can get up and start again fast, and I had learned something and a favourite Buddhist proverb of mine is " let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so let us be thankful" and I did learn a few things today. So refreshed from my shower, out of my frustration and feeling excited to try again tomorrow.
I wanted to share this with you, as being a young person, a mother, a business owner, and someone that is always doing my best to push myself outside my comfort zone, things don't always go to plan, but I am always learning. Sometimes the fear of failing holds me back as I am sure it does others, for a long time I was worried about making a video in case I looked like an idiot or what do I say on this blog, could I handle negative feedback? but at the end of the day back yourself, give it a go because its worth it to learn, its worth it to feel great when it does work and its worth it to move forward.
#motivation #reflection