How Documenting My Journey Online Brings Me Valuable Business Opportunities Documenting my journey online has brought me friendships and professional opportunities. Here's how you can do the same.
By Dejon Brooks Edited by Chelsea Brown
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I don't know about you, but I've always been told to keep a journal. With the rise of journals, journal prompts, self-care and mental health in general, more and more people are starting to get into journaling.
What if I told you that there is a way you can turn your thoughts and life experiences into something that allows you to build friendships, get high-paying jobs and lots of other opportunities?
In this article, I will show you exactly how I did it at the age of 22 and how you can do the same, no matter how many followers you have online.
Related: 4 Ways Documenting the Journey Has Become More Popular Than Celebrating the Outcome
Where I document my journey and what I share
I started documenting my journey toward the beginning of 2020. I created a brand new Instagram account and posted one thing I learned throughout that week. If you look at my Instagram posts, all of my captions are maxed (2100 characters), were written from the heart and weren't trying to sell anyone on anything.
In these weekly public journal entries, I would write about:
My wins
A failure I felt comfortable sharing
Something new I discovered
Something on my mind
And everything else in between. The goal of these posts was to document my journey authentically.
As I did this, my journal started accumulating, I gained more followers, and opportunities began coming my way. Some of these opportunities included making new friends, companies approaching me for work, business opportunities, press opportunities and so much more.
I'll break down each one of them.
Clients/customers/friendships
As I would consistently post about my journey each week, occasionally, people would find my content and slide in my DMs. This would lead to a multi-day conversation, and before you know it, we are both on a Zoom call learning more about each other.
As crazy as it sounds, I've met most of my best friends over long distances through Instagram. I speak with them multiple times a week, send them memes, and we all help each other out and try to add as much value to each other's lives as possible. I've even met a few of them in person!
As someone who grew up playing video games, I was used to having long-distance friendships, but I had no idea it was possible over social media.
Related: How These Creative Go-Getters Used Social Media to Score Awesome Career Opportunities
High-paying jobs and business opportunities
About a few times a month, recruiters, managers or often CEOs themselves will reach out to me, admiring my work and offering me jobs.
I already have my own projects going on, so I'd usually turn these down, but there were a few times when I did take the opportunity — and that opportunity opened even more doors for me. It also allowed me to expand my skill set. Some of these opportunities were part-time, full-time or contract work.
All the offers I receive are amazing, but due to my limited time and energy, I can only do so much at once.
Speaking opportunities
I'm not going to lie. Getting my first speaking gig was complicated, but after I landed it and showcased my experience online, I've consistently gotten additional speaking opportunities as a result of consistently documenting my journey online.
Another trick to get more speaking/workshop gigs is to make it easy to contact you. I do this by providing a convenient email address for speaking, press and all other inquiries.
Natural press
Similar to speaking opportunities, the easiest way for me to get a journalist to reach out to me for features/articles was to put myself out there by creating content and making it easy for them to contact me.
I am almost certain that you've heard the phrase, "get two birds with one stone." From my experience, documenting your journey online allows you to get ten birds with one stone. Not only are you creating a record for yourself and future generations to read, but you're also positioning this information in a way where it brings tons of relationship and professional opportunities your way.
If you do not have any followers at all, get started today — and be consistent. Your work will pay off in boatloads years from now.
