KC, a British branding expert, is currently offering a free mini course on Instagram where she teaches aspiring IGers how to better promote their page by creating effective combinations of photos, videos, tags and descriptions.
Lately I have found that Instagram is my favourite social media, as it is really (almost) purely visual, whereas I prefer to read other people's ideas and experiences through their personal blog. I have perhaps also become more confident in shooting, and actually I look forward to being able to afford to buy the flash box to take good pictures of my handiwork!
So, I took the opportunity. After a brief introduction it became clear to me that KC's lesson was aiming higher than just sharing keyboard tricks, or perhaps I should say lower, from the basics, i.e. creating one's own profile. KC explains that the first step is to identify one's Soul Brand Essence, practically one's essence, who we are, and then address our audience and, with the right communication of head and heart, meet the people who may be interested in what we offer.
This task resonated with me, but like a thorn in my side, like an old obstacle I never knew how to overcome. The first time was in the 2000s, when, while I was raising my daughter in Milan and growing content in my Ayurvedic Massage work, a young tenant of ours encouraged me to start a blog, and I ran away from the idea. Then, about ten years ago in London, a kind soul friend of a friend created my first web page for me. Despite the fact that I was then expanding on the achievements and knowledge I had made during 27 years of living in Milan, and starting the most overwhelming and beautiful adventure I had ever had - Jewish studies and the most complete life ever - I could not bring myself to write about it. Finally, I arrived in Modena.This time - above all to bridge the physical distance between me and the worlds where, over the past twenty years, I had met my clients, albeit instinctively and randomly rather than through targeted marketing, decidedly by word of mouth - I turned to a professional to transform that web page into a real site, this one from which I am writing.
Yet, I have not yet been able to answer that question: Who am I? To whom do I want to address my work? Why am I able to give them a service or product of interest? What aspects of my identity intersect between the two different categories that distinguish me?
Soon we will enter the month of Nissan, and then it will be Pesach, from the Hebrew pasach which means " to pass over ". The festival of Pesach is a commemoration of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, whose Hebrew name Mitzrayim means 'narrow place'. (for more about Pesach). Pesach is the festival of questions, when we are encouraged, almost required, to ask as many as we need during the ritual Seder.
A dear and esteemed mentor, in trying to help me to give impetus to the Atelier of Ethical Wellbeing that I had opened in Modena, once told me '..., but you are the one who has to give the final push'. A vision that naturally reminded me of childbirth, which takes place from a 'narrow place', yet which as a mother I experienced differently, with a c-section.A 'narrow place' of the person is also the neck, with the throat, as a pathway between the heart and the mind, halfway between which is the mouth, from which our voice comes.
All this suggests to me that it is time to free that channel from an oppression that I believe has formed out of fear of asking, thus of saying. I admit that I am ashamed of my delay in addressing this aspect that is so important to my independence and usefulness in the world. I find consolation in these words of Rav J. Sacks z'l: "for our health and survival, first we must build the new, then we can face a dark past not as victims but in a constructive way".
Shalom, LiOr.