Reflecting on the First Month of Small Kindness

And what I have learned…

And what I have learned... It has been just over a month since I launched Small Kindness so I thought now would be a good time to reflect on all that has happened and what I have learnt! I set up Small Kindness because I truly believe that small changes can really make a big difference and that you can have a business with kindness at it's core. If you are interested in how and why I set up Small Kindness you can read all about it in my first blog post Introducing Small Kindness.

Although I had a clear idea of what I wanted Small Kindness to be, it's mission and values I had no real experience in setting up or in fact running a business, marketing, social media or indeed how to make soap (read all about my soap making adventure in my learning to make soap series). I didn't know where to start when it came to setting up my website and blog, but luckily for me, my partner, Mr B, did. He helped me to set both of these up, showed me how to create a sign up form for my Newsletter and a contact form for the website. Although I still think I would need some help setting up a form, I'm now pretty much running, editing, updating both the website and the blog myself. Anyone who knows me, knows I am a bit of a technophobe so this feels like quite an achievement. But none of it would have been possible if it wasn't for the help (and patience) of Mr B (❤).

Once my website and blog were up and running, the next big step was to set up my social media accounts and to start posting. To be honest I hadn't really used social media that much. Like most people I had a personal Twitter and Instagram account which I only used to follow people and I posted about once a year, if that. And I hadn't been on Facebook for about 5 years.

So pretty much overnight I went from hardly ever posting on social media to posting everyday, on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram. I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to post and how I wanted that to look but I had no idea what I was doing, or even how to post on all these platforms. It really was quite terrifying. And it took me forever to do a post - to the point that Mr B would have to tell me to 'just post it'! I had to read and reread everything multiple times as I was worried about typos or saying something wrong.

And the other thing I needed to get my head around was it wasn't just posting a picture. On Instagram you can post a single picture on your feed, do carousels (multiple pictures you swipe through), share pictures/short clips to your stories (help! what are my stories again?), post videos on Instagram TV and post short video clips on Reels. It was a lot to take in, and as a social media novice it was all a little overwhelming.

Also the whole point of Social Media is, unsurprisingly, to be social. This is something I am definitely still working on as someone who is naturally quite shy but as well as replying to comments on my posts I really need to start interacting with other people and accounts and share their content that reflects Small Kindness values to help grow this community.

As well as getting to grips with all things social media I was also writing a blog post every week and it was getting to the point where I was actually spending so much time worrying about these things that I forgot to do the one thing I really needed to do to make Small Kindness a success - to make soap!!

Thankfully I am now much quicker at my social media posts, I don't have to bug Mr B to read everything before I post it to make sure it sounds ok (unless I have a migraine). I have even tried a couple of Reels - the first one took me a ridiculous amount of time to do, and I am well aware that it was something relatively simple that my youngest step daughter could have done in about 2 minutes, but it was actually good fun!! And thankfully there are programs that let you schedule your content and simultaneously post to multiple channels (I use Publer) which really helps getting it done quicker.

The one thing that has really helped me get over my fear of posting content is reminding myself that there is no getting it wrong or failing. As long as I always keep coming back to kindness and ensure that it is always at the centre of everything then nothing else really matters. This fear of getting things wrong, of failing has made posting on social media much more difficult than it needs to be and it is something that has come from my last job, where we were constantly made to feel that what we were doing wasn't right and we were always second guessing ourselves and what we were doing.

Although I did find social media a bit of a struggle to start with, I really love the Small Kindness weekly challenge. The simple prompts help to remind us to be kind to ourselves, to others and the planet. It has really helped me to include kindness as part of my daily routine and I love hearing from people about what acts of kindness they have seen, received or done. It makes me feel very happy to be building such a kind and supportive community. And continuing on the theme of community this week saw my first ever newsletter go out. This was a joy to write and it was intended to be a small kindness in your inbox from me to you.

Another thing that has blown me away when I reflect on this month is the support I have received from my friends and family. People spending their time checking my website and blog, testing all the opt in forms work, making sure it looks ok on different devices and signing up for my newsletter. And on social media people have been sharing, commenting and liking my content. And actually reading this blog and letting me know you liked it - it has been a really heart warming and joyous experience.

So what have I learned this month? Firstly, that it is ok to not know everything and to ask for help! There was so much about setting up websites/blogs/social media posts that I didn't know. But asking Mr B for help and learning so much from him has been invaluable. As was asking our family to check the website and blog and getting my youngest step daughter to tell me all about Reels and how to do one (she is totally skilled at it). Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it.

Secondly, I am learning to trust myself, follow my gut. If I am not sure about something, trust that instinct, step away from it, work on something else. Be patient and give myself time - when I do this I am always able to work out how to move forward. In a similar vein I have the habit of over thinking stuff (I am a natural worrier) and I have to remind myself just to go for it, there is no 'wrong'. If it doesn't quite work out how you had hoped, that's ok, learn from it and try something else.

And most importantly always have kindness at the core of everything, consider the impact on people, the planet and yourself.

Last lesson learned (today in fact) is always (ALWAYS) remember to press the save button after every edit (this is not the first time I have written this blog post!!) I know I still have a lot to learn but I am really enjoying the journey and I can't wait to see what this next month has in store for me and Small Kindness.

Stay safe and I'll be back next week with some more soap related fun! Take care Kelly xx

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I am Kelly Townsend and this is the Small Kindness Blog. I am a scientist, a bee lover, a rewilding obsessive, and I want to spread Small Kindnesses through the medium of soap. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for your daily dose of kindness (as well as to see how the soap making is going!)