My 2020 Vision: Create Better

Welcome to a new decade! I missed the blog in December (I did get one gift guide up) but something had to give to make Vlogmas work on YouTube. My hands have already hit a few wrong keys and I realize that I’m a bit out of the rhythm of writing for many reasons, but it’s good to be back. A few days ago I had a thought in the shower as I was trying to rewrite a line of my Instagram bio. The line at the time read “Former magazine editor blogging about fashion and beauty,” which was definitely suitable when I was a full-time freelancer and is still true in many ways. But it isn’t exactly current. 

I haven’t been a magazine editor for almost 1.5 years at this point and while I do blog about fashion and beauty here, I also have a YouTube channel and a following on Instagram where I create content for other creators to help make their lives easier. To eliminate the stress. To find intention. To create better.

When I realized this I practically leaped out of the shower and reached for my laptop to start putting some thoughts together in the form of iMessages to my work wife Caitlin and I wanted to share them here with you as well. The phrase create better stuck with me so hard and I know that this is where I want my focus to be for 2020. Not just for my blog but for my YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok (yes, hello, I’m on TikTok now apparently), Jumprope, and so on. I’ll talk more about this in my YouTube video coming out on Sunday but I wanted to give you a sneak peek here about this phrase and why I’m excited to have it guide me through the next year.

To me creating better is all about quality over quantity and finding the parts of creating that you excel at and bringing those to the forefront. It isn’t about suddenly mastering video editing from start to finish. I still edit most of my videos but I’ve invested in an end screen, animations, and fonts to make my videos feel more polished than the standard editing capabilities of iMovie allow for. I’m by no means the best at it, but I’ve learned what I’m good at and what I love to focus on and I’ve learned where I need to outsource. 

So I’ve now changed my Instagram bio and I’ve even created a new landing page for my professional website austentosone.com from Instagram so that creators can instantly find the resources that they need. And by the way if you’ve been missing my more career-focused blog posts please go subscribe to my weekly career newsletter as this is where the majority of that content is now. 

Let me know what under the umbrella of “create better” you might like to see from me in 2020! It’s going to be a great year. I can feel it. 

yours,

Austen