Out of our hands.
What a rush! Our voting week for Telus STORYHIVE’s Documentary Series is behind us, and what an amazing experience. I’ve never felt so close to the project and felt so much responsibility to give this project everything I can. The amount of support and love we’ve received from our friends, family and even new friends has been nothing short of life changing. In the week leading up to this past Monday and the 4 voting days, we’ve gone from being a passion project whose meaning was limited to our crew, to being something that most of our friends and family not only know about but are also cheerleaders of. It’s such a beautiful thing. I truly believe that people can really relate to what we are trying to do here. This project is no longer just about us. It’s about unleashing the GuitarBorn in all of us and the mutual inspiration that this project has created. We are just as inspired by those who find inspiration from us. Gotta be paradigm or something 😊.
The marketing strategy that Hilary developed and executed was pretty comprehensive. And by “comprehensive” I mean friggin' crazy. To really get quality engagement from our followers and gain new followers it takes time, tireless effort and consistency… sound familiar? But at the core, the strategy and approach were actually quite simple. We need to EARN votes, not just ASK for them. We EARN votes but providing our audience with interesting and meaningful content! I’m reminded of my years at V Strategies helping my customers communicate with their audiences. In today’s world of smartphone scrolling, you need to grab attention first and foremost. What will it take to get people to do a double take and scroll back up to read or see what we want to say. Beyond that, how can we SERVE our community and not just be about helping ourselves. Our content provided a combination of heartwarming and inspiring community features, beautiful photography and video content, interesting POV tours by Cliff and finally some good old fashioned musical entertainment with a Facebook LIVE concert!. EARN votes, don’t just ASK. Not only do I think we got some great voting activity, I truly believe we inspired our community this week!
Regardless of whether or not we receive this grant from Telus, GuitarBorn will happen some way or another. We’ll find a way simply because we have to. It’s all in the hands of the judges now. We literally did EVERYTHING we could and I’m so proud of our CREW; Cliff, Sally, Hilary, Jonard and Paige. It’s an honour to share this experience with these beautiful people. No matter what happens, we should all be so proud! This will be something we look back on years from now and smile.
We won’t actually know whether or not we’ve won until September 7th, the day before Hilary and I’s 11th wedding anniversary.
What an amazing anniversary gift it would be…
-- Noel
