Let’s talk about the LifeViewers project and how it all started.
In the early stages of our relationship, Veronika made it clear to me that one of her goals was to launch her own blog. And it would be about kindness, cheerfulness, playing more often and all kinds of soft and fluffy things. Now, me being me – I just didn’t pay enough of attention to it at the time. I was genuinely happy about it though, even if the topic wasn’t my thing. I thought to myself “I’m happy that there is something that she wants to do”.
Talks about blogs and new beginnings
And so, the discussions about the blog just kept on coming up more and more often. Shortly after last Christmas, I thought to myself, that a video blog could enhance the overall experience. In my opinion, you can reach out to wider audiences and get a lot more engagement this way. But no! Veronika was not interested, mainly for two reasons.
1. She didn’t like the idea of filming herself too much as she didn’t feel comfortable with it. Video just didn’t seem to be the right format for what she had planned.
2. She made it very clear that it’s important to her to have it as only hers, and I respect that. Everybody should have something of their own as it adds a higher meaning to ones life. That’s my opinion anyway.
Some ideas are too great to let go
Well, somehow the thoughts about video blogging and capturing actions on tape really stuck in my head and I couldn’t get them out. Just weeks later I came up with an idea – why not have the video blogging as a separate, but combined project? A project with its own purpose, but where we both would be equally involved. I must note, Veronika wasn’t all too much into it at first, but it didn’t take too much of convincing as we were at the point in our lives where we wanted a change. Both of us are dynamic fast learners, who work hard and can create fun out of noting. And yet there we were – stuck in a boring routine in a small, shared room somewhere in London, slowly settling down.
We both knew that this kind of a project was exactly what we needed, as it would push us to do things differently and see each day as a new opportunity. To keep trying out new things, travel, meet new people, and get out of our comfort zone.
After reaching agreeing on what the project will be about, we started thinking about a name. Something that would self explanatory, easy to remember, catchy and most importantly, available on all social media sites. As one can imagine – not that easy, but it seems we were in luck.
How LifeViewers came about
I think it was late April, when one morning I woke up and the name was in my head – “Lifereviewers”. We both liked it and it was ready to be registered on all social media sites. After another short chat, we shortened it down to “LifeViewers” as it seemed more “catchy” and easy to remember. It was available on social media, so we decided to take it.
I must have been over excited about it as literally next morning I woke up after having dreamt up our tagline –“…because life is worth living!” I know it sounds a bit cheesy. I know that for some, it might mean to go out and seek for thrills, adrenaline and all that, but it just made so much sense. It still does. And as much as it is about pursuing adventure, it’s also about not giving into the routine. It’s about organising yourself to a point where you can welcome new things in your life. And truly enjoy them. Once we agreed on the tagline, we reserved our domain name and social networking sites.
Then started the development process. We needed to develop so many things, like the logo, strategy, mission, social media guidelines, video guidelines, some ground rules, create the website itself and much more. Besides, we had agreed that Veronika would launch her blog (cherishyourinnerchild) before launching LifeViewers. So she was busy working on her project as well as I was busy with mine. All of what you see now (and will see in the future) had to be done on late evenings and over the weekends. Plus we also needed our time off somewhere in-between. So, I hope that this paints a basic picture of how full our days have been so far. If anything – we only expect them to become even busier.
First filming takes and having fun at failing
And just two weeks ago we finally took our first take on filming. We gave opinions about the locations we were visiting and tried to answer some basic questions. Of course, we felt awkward, well out of our comfort zone, shy and even without anything to say at some points. Never mind all that – it was so much fun!
Chances are that only short moments of what we filmed will ever be included anywhere on our projects. But I believe that the fun and joy we had filming it was well worth it. It felt like finally all our efforts came together even though we failed to achieve what I hoped we would achieve. I can honestly say that I have never felt happier at failing than I felt then and there. We took away so many lessons that no theory would ever teach us.
What’s next?
At the moment we’re still just about month and a half away from publishing our first video. I can say that we still don’t really know how it’s going to happen and where it will take us. We can only prepare so much for it. We have our purpose, we are pushing our limits, and we are ready to work harder than anyone else and we have each other. The short journey that we’ve had together so far has taught us many lessons. And I’ve also realised just how happy and proud that I have partner, so smart, understanding and willing to reach for the limits. Thank you, Veronika!
I think we are as ready as we will ever be.
It’s time to get the camera rolling and we will see you all on our YouTube channel on 31st of October.
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[…] to our year in review blog – it’s been a *whole year* since we first started thinking about our project! Around this time last year, we picked the name and started planning our first shooting locations, […]