I haven’t experienced a learning curve so steep since arriving home from hospital with twins. Engaging fully with digital marketing has brought me back there. Honestly. Then it was sterilisers, double buggies, nappies, baby monitors, car seats, baby harnesses, and breast feeding to be mastered. In last year, it has been Canva, Capcut, captioning videos, splitting videos, jpgs and pdf, stories, reels and carousel posts. And that’s all before I ever got as far as content.
One piece of advice around content I received was to identify my potential customers’ ‘pain points’ and to produce content that provided ‘an answer’. So, if I was into orthotic foot wear, I’d be creating content re sore arches, knees or hips and promising relief from all by what I had to offer.
I struggled a little to find how to fit the chance to rewild faith and explore spirituality in to this framework. I realised after a few frustrating attempts that what I offer is space, either with others or alone, to connect with the capacity to find your own answers. Or to take another step towards finding them.
I have been part of leading many retreats as part of various organisations and groups. I have also led workshops and weekends online and in person. This weekend was my first go at running a full weekend, for which people would pay that bit more than for a once off walk or workshop. If, as I hope, this work can be more impacting for those who engage with it, as well as financially viable for me, then retreats are an important new step. Hence the focus on digital marketing.
What struck me from the weekend was the power of giving people that space. My belief that people have their own answers was affirmed in spades. I offered those who came the chance to slow down, gave some prompts to reflection, facilitated some time in silence together indoors and outdoors. They were invited gently to share something of their reflections with each other, insofar as they were comfortable to do so. This happened in structured and unstructured ways, in our retreat space and out as we walked along the shore. Those who came, each left with some new insight and resolve. Some left with more questions to ask in relation to a direction that had become more clearly appealing.
The gospel for yesterday was of the Transfiguration. I have had many questions about that over the years, not least that it was a gathering of men at the top of the mountain. However, what struck me as I read it yesterday was that idea of fulfilment. The story is one which illustrates how Jesus was the fulfilment of both the Law and the Prophets. I realised that while I felt a call to this work, I have often felt I was mad to try and do it outside any institutional structure. Yesterday I had a sense of a promise that was fulfilled. Not fully, but it became real in a way that I wonder might ever happen. And in a way that made all that climbing of those new learning curves more than worthwhile.