Hello woowoo followers and stumblers. This is the first entry in the ‘process’ or ‘behind the scenes’ series - I'm not 100% set on the name just yet. 

But the idea is to document the process, or the journey of building woowoo, not just the adventures. 

The woowoo project is fulfilling my woowoo’s in a few different ways - the obvious one being spending more time doing crazy things, and meeting and sharing stories of people doing the same. 

The less obvious way is actually going through the process of building something from scratch, learning and practising new skills, and consistently producing. 

With woowoo, the aim is to help more people set out and do the things they love. Sharing my process, the ups and downs, the challenges and things that I'm trying out, might be another way to help people achieve it for themselves. 

Wherever this project goes, this series should make a nice ‘how it happened’. At the very least I hope it will document some lessons that I can carry forward to whatever comes next.

So.. let’s get started, what’s the current status of things? 

Current status:

For now, instagram is the main channel I'm using to judge visibility / awareness. 

• Posts - 14 / reels - 8. 

• Followers - 20.

• Following - 128. 

Some other metrics: 

• Youtube videos - 1 (woowoo, happy to post the video! More on that later). 

• Interview outreach - 10 (roughly).

Each post I'll add those numbers, and maybe some others, to keep a record of how things grow and change. 

Now for some more context around those numbers…

Some deep dives:

Reels:

I thought that I cracked the code with the reels in Freiburg. I posted 2 ‘smooth’ bike lane shots showing off the Freiburg scenery with a track playing in the background. The 1st one was viewed 956 times, and the 2nd one was viewed 1,613 times. 

This feels like a lot right now (will be funny to come back and compare in a few months). 

But.. The 3rd reel, in the same style, was only viewed 170 times. 

Ok, we’re only talking about 3 reels in total - which could mean nothing, it could be chance or posting time, or a whole range of things i haven’t considered or realised yet. 

I’ll keep trying them, and see how it changes. 

Posts:

I changed the tactic a little bit here. Instead of waiting for the big, milestone events (eg. the skate event in Lisbon, or a big bike tour / event), I will try to share more in-between events and photos. 

Whilst I would love to be able to only post updates from huge, crazy adventures, the reality is those don’t happen every week. 

For now, I will work with what I can, get out there more, and continue to practice my skills and be present.

Outreach:

This topic is a bit of a strange one. 

Woowoo will be at its best when I'm sharing stories from all kinds of people, doing all kinds of things. 

The problem at the moment, is that it’s hard to get in contact with those people and ask to interview them in a way that feels genuine, rather than just ‘using’ them to grow woowoo. How can I actually use this as a platform to support them? 

I am trying a few different approaches, from cold outreach, to working more at building a connection before asking. 

Something else that might work soon in the future, is to boost some interview posts. This would mean more awareness for both sides, and may be a way that woowoo really helps people who are trying to grow and make it work as well. 

So a small apology (especiallly to TCR no.8 riders), if i’ve reached out to you and you thought it was rude, or not done in the right way - i’m still trying to figure it out! 

The first youtube video:

This is scary, and exciting. 

The first video is now live on youtube.

That’s my face, on the internet, for the world (or 17 people) to see. 

It took just over 2 months from doing the actual bike ride to getting the video live. Not because it took that many hours to work on it, but because I was never working on it constantly, with ‘real work’, and other things that I had to do. 

I reworked it two or three times, with help and constructive feedback from my sister. It feels good to get something live, now it’s time to work on the next one! 

Making this movie is living the idea of ‘work with what you have’. The video was shot on my phone, and editied in imovie (which is free). I used a mixture of figma and photopea (both free design software), for some graphics and picture editing. 

I have spent a lot of time looking at new cameras, go pros, drones, imagining how cool it would look with all that fancy equipment - but first I wanted to prove that I would do it without that stuff. So maybe after a couple more videos I will consider upgrading.

Looking ahead

What’s the plan for the next few months? 

Well, I’m gonna keep posting, reaching out and practising my photo / video skills. 

Keep training on the bike, there are already discussions of some big events next year! 

I’ll take my camera to practice some sports photography at a triathlon happening just outside of Freiburg, and again when the Tour of Germany passes through. 

In September, I want to make a film whilst I'm at the Bohemian Border Dash Camp, a cycling festival on the border of Germany and Czech. 

And at the end of October I'm planning a 25hour bike ride - still early days, it might be a relay event, or I’ll just see how far I can cycle over a 25 hour period (I’m not ready for 25 hours straight just yet!). 

I think that covers the major updates and initiatives of the last couple of months working on woowoo. The next post will probably come in a month or two, after the bohemian border bash, and 25 hour ride.

Woowoo! Go do something that makes you sing or dance 🚀