Starting anyway

A year ago I sat in a room in my house looking at the camera on the back of my phone, and pressed record. I had no idea about editing or thumbnails or colour grading or any of the language that goes with the world of making videos. What I had was thirty years of sitting across from people in boardrooms and exit interviews and difficult one-to-ones, and a feeling that maybe some of this stuff was worth saying out loud.

This week marks a year of my Youtube channel. Seventy-five videos. Over a million views. 75,000 HOURS of people watching my big face on their screens. A year ago none of it existed.

I could write this whole newsletter about the numbers. They're interesting, although I'm still a nano channel compared to the big guns. What interests me more, though, is what the year taught me, because I think some of it has very little to do with YouTube and more to do with standing at the edge of something new.

The first thing I've learned - or relearned - is that starting doesn't require certainty. I had absolutely no idea whether anyone wanted to hear about the things I had to say about working life. What I did know was that people I'd been talking to were describing things I recognised completely: bullying, burnout, uncertainty. So I started before I felt ready and learned as I went.

The second thing was that I assumed the hard part of getting started would be the technology, the skills, all the things I didn't know. Of course, there was a learning curve and I'm still climbing it but that wasn't the hard part. The most difficult thing was making a decision that my stories and experience had value in themselves. I kept worrying that there were people better qualified than me to talk about this stuff. Then the comments started arriving from people saying thank you for putting into words situations that were happening to them too. They felt less alone, and I understood that it was never about qualifications, it was about shared experience and recognition.

The third thing I didn't see coming at all. Sitting alone in a room talking to a camera is quite a solitary activity but then people started talking, not only to me in the comments, but to each other too, recognising shared experiences. Someone would write something vulnerable and three strangers would answer with warmth. Time and again people wrote that they hadn't realised other people felt the same way. My channel became not only a place to watch videos but also a place where people saw themselves in each other and felt some kind of solidarity.

That, in the end, is the thing underneath all three lessons, and underneath the whole channel if I'm honest. It's what the comments section has turned out to be doing, strangers supporting strangers in difficult times, and that's become a big part of why I press record every week. Not to build an audience for its own sake, but because I think the world is full of people whose talents are going unsupported and unnoticed, and I'd like to spend whatever years I've got left changing that.

Maybe you're at the edge of your own career transition right now, leaving something, starting something, or just pondering want your working life to look like. Here's what I'd want you to take from my experience - you don't have to have it all figured out before you begin.

Useful links 🔗

Most of my readers and Youtube viewers are in the UK and I share the Acas link in here a lot, because it's the best free, practical advice going if you're dealing with something difficult at work here. But I know plenty of you reading this are not in the UK, and ACAS obviously can't help much if you're in Dublin, New York City or Toronto.

So this week I went looking for the equivalent in some other countries, the bodies that do the same job of providing free, impartial advice. I've made the massive assumption that my readers are in English-speaking countries - do correct me if I'm wrong!

Ireland: Workplace Relations Commission
Australia: Fair Work Ombudsman
New Zealand: Employment New Zealand
Canada: Employment and Social Development Canada,
US: no single equivalent, but the Department of Labor and the EEOC cover most of the ground between them

What am I reading? 📚

In 1978, Vaclav Havel wrote this essay, The Power of the Powerless about how power actually works in a system where almost nobody believes the official ideology, and yet everybody keeps the system running anyway. Still relevant today?

What am I watching? 👀

Remember when we all thought that clothing brand, Patagonia, was one of the good guys? They're doing this to drag queen climate activist, Pattie Gonia.

What am I listening to?👂

This interview with Kimberlé Crenshaw as she releases her new memoir, “Back Talker” on the importance of speaking back against the things we want to change in the world.

Joy-giving things 😍

We went to watch the Women's T20 cricket at Edgbaston. The atmosphere for the India v Pakistan game was brilliant.

Have a great weekend when you get there

Lucy

ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org.

If you're a purpose-driven professional wondering whether coaching might help you think through where you are and where you're heading, I'd love to hear from you. Express your interest here.

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