A slightly different sort or article from me today… and I’ve no idea if it’ll be of interest or not, but it was always my intention to try and share a little more of the behind the scenes and update here on what I’ve been up to in a way Insta wouldn’t really like!
It’s far to say some weeks are more interesting than others, and they can be quite varied - depending on the work that’s come in, but I’ve felt compelled to write this week, as it probably is reasonably representative of what I generally get up to… a mixture of working on business-y related goodness, working on the house and life in general… it’s fair to say life is always busy though and I’ve always something I could be doing - but I am getting better at not feeling like I should be working ALL the time, and try to have some evenings off every week (though even then my phone is often close - replying to comments or editing something… and the fact I’m writing this on a Saturday, having not had the time to write it through the week is probably telling too!).
But, last weekend we had a gorgeous weekend away in a part of Cornwall neither of us had ever visited - the Helford River, about 6 miles on from Falmouth. It was work… it’s part of a very small, local hotel group that I’ve been working with the last couple of years, but it’s very nice work it’s fair to say… though I think it’s easy to see through the screen us having a wonderful time at beautiful little places, and forget that it’s work as obviously you don’t see the ‘behind the scenes’, but hopefully this helps to shine a bit of a light on that sort of thing too…
Because for most weekends away, I’d chuck a few bits in a bag half an hour before going, and crack on - not thinking much about it. But when it’s ‘work’, there’s a good chunk of hours research happens before hand… looking at the local area, understanding what are the ‘must see’s’, to make sure we’re capturing the place in its best light and showcasing it to the best of our abilities. It also involves taking wayyyy more clothing than I would usually (Cot especially takes this quite seriously), to try and help the content ‘pop’ - I even iron my clothes - something that happens rarely indeed!
There’s the drone to make sure it’s charged… a couple of tripods and camera equipment too… I even make sure my slightly ropey old car is clean in case it’s seen on the content somewhere (we’ll gloss over the fact the wheels don’t currently match after one of them broke thanks to a pothole!)… and then we’re off!
On arrival, before we unpack anything or touch anything in the room (because I have a remarkable ability to make any hotel room, no matter how beautiful, look a state within 2 seconds of unzipping my bag!), we spend usually about an hour, making sure we get nice content of it… videos and still images… a tripod set up if we want both of us to be seen in the content… we take close ups of taps running and the shower and all the little touches that might only be 1 second in a video, but are important to create content we’re proud of that we feel does a good job representing the place… this is all on a friday evening, after a full week of ‘work’ too!
We were able to get there a little earlier than anticipated.. so after this, had time for a quick walk and ‘recce’ of the gardens, so we had a bit of an idea of what else we might want to film… and then headed back to get ready for dinner! Which was lovely - but again, requires photos of every bite and videos… and videos of us cheersing on the terrace with our drinks… and then we went for a ‘walk’ which in reality was 50% walk and 50% photoshoot with tripods at the ready… followed by a game of snooker (with tripods and what not at the ready!)… before bedtime!
And this was just the first night! Now… this might sound like a whinge - it is absolutely not… all the above is work, but I am very lucky to do work I enjoy! I still get excited about capturing a new place and working out how best to get across its feel and essence in the videos I weave together… but, I do think lots of people see the lovely food and the stay and the fun we have (and we do always have fun!), without seeing the many hours of effort, thought, skill etc. taken to allow us to do what we do…
Even the saturday - we went for the most gorgeous swim in the crystal clear Helford river… most people would just chuck themselves in and have a lovely swim… but when you’re capturing content… you go in to test the waters… come back out… set the tripod up and get it filming… go back in for 20 seconds… come back out - reset at a different angle… etc. and repeat 5 times to get the right angles and moments… before putting the camera away and enjoying yourself…
I’ll stop with the blow by blow account of our working weekend haha but it really was lovely (and if anyone would like to wave a magic wand and send insta back to 2020 when a couple of photos and a lovely caption was all that was needed that’d be grand). But for context, the lovely weekend away probably also has around 12 hours of ‘work-work’ before, during and after it to make it happen.
Monday.
So, that gets us through to the start of the week. Cot went off to work… she heads off earlier than I’d like, leaving the house before 7am. I am not a morning person - definitely a night owl so I tend to stay in bed for a bit, catching up on messages and comments before reluctantly dragging myself out of bed for a shower, and heading down for coffee.
Monday mornings always start with clearing the deck of any emails or messages. It’s not a day I usually post on Insta (I figure most people are in the same boat as me, looking to crack on with their week rather than scrolling insta!), but I like to try and get on top of any little admin type jobs as I find it hard to work on the house when I know there’s computer work to do… computer work comes first because that pays the bills, and usually comes with deadlines or some kind of urgency - the house doesn’t on any counts haha!
So, it could be accounts or a VAT return to do… messages from my agency or bits like that. Then, I sort any content that might need doing - in this instance, I spent about 6 hours editing and stitching together all the content from the weekend’s stay into the 12 individual stories required by the brand… making sure everything looked lovely, had some kind of cohesive narrative, and then added text captions to each slide, picking a ‘royalty free’ song (copyright issues mean any adverts can’t legally use normal music - though lots seem to do it anyway - I personally play by the rules - I definitely don’t fancy going up against sony or something in court over a copywrite violation hahaha!). I then sent this over to the brand for them to check they were happy with it!
The rest of monday I spent on my hands and knees doing the painful, tedious but very necessary job of starting to secure the subfloor in the butlers pantry! The floors in here are pretty bad - clearly for decades water has been spilling out of the sink and washing machines in here… because lots of it is in really bad shape. Fortunately Admirals is well built enough to be considered massively over engineered… so the fact a couple of the joists might have lost a chunk of their depth to rot, there’s still more than enough good wood left for it to not matter structurally!
I probably follow a similar approach, and securing every floorboard down to every joist might not strictly be necessary - but I absolutely LOVE how solid and quiet the floors feel, once I’ve laid the oak over the top. There’s so little bounce or rattle (which is good for the lower ground floor too as I don’t want to disturb my guests with my slightly less than dainty footsteps!), it really feels luxurious, so, whilst a dull job, it’s one I feel is important!
About 800 screws later, I’ve a pretty good blister on my right hand (why do I never wear gloves!), my back and knees are done and I’m a sweaty mess so call it a day at about 7pm having covered about half of the floor in there. I shower, cook our dinner and spend the rest of the evening doing a bit of holiday research! We’re heading to Tuscany later in the year.. WHOOP!
Tuesday
I spend the first few hours doing computer work… finalising the brief and content ideas for something I’m filming Wednesday and making sure I’ve everything I need for it… and I’ve an advert going out Wednesday morning so I like to make sure everything is right with that as I typically post at 7am. The rest of the day was spent doing the rest of the floor!
Wednesday
Comes around… I post my ad at 7am - and on days I post I get up, make a coffee and take it back to bed, and spend the first 2-3 hours of the day keeping on top of comments and replying to people as well as using that time to make sure I’m engaging with the accounts I follow. Instagram seems to like it when you’re visible, so I make the effort every week to spend a good chunk of time watching, liking and engaging on others content. It’s also important to try and keep ones finger on the pulse in the little sector I work in… what content is performing, what isn’t… are there things I need to be aware of… the marketeer in my likes to analyse and check and I’ve data and spreadsheets and all sorts of gubbins, that I use to try and do the best job I can.
But I’m also a bit old fashioned and there’s plenty I see that I can’t abide… no matter how well a trend or style of content might perform, I just can’t bring myself to do it… But, I feel better for understanding it at least, and always strive to do the best job I can for the brands I work with. I’m not a very serious person, but take what I do very seriously indeed and treat it like I would any other business or job, giving it my all!
Which might explain that the next few hours saw me filming in the garden… wearing a sparkly onesie, whilst soaking myself very inelegantly from a camping shower, and then running around the garden in an inflatable dinosaur costume haha - it was very, very funny, and very very sweaty, and all will be revealed soon (ish!). I spent that evening finishing off the floor - punching down any last bits and using a multitool to undercut some bits ahead of laying the floor… And then we watched ‘Project Hail Mary’ - it was bloomin’ brilliant!
The room isn’t far off now ready for the floor… but first comes the wallpaper! It should be here early next week - and I’ve actually done a massive u-turn on what I thought I’d use! Lots of people ask me why I don’t become an interior designer or ask if I’ll design their rooms… but this feels like a good example of why I don’t think it’s something I’d be good at - don’t get me wrong… I could certainly have a go… and probably it wouldn’t be a disaster (famous last words!)…
But, I aren’t someone that has a solid, fixed and finished vision in my head when designing a space… not with the finishes at least! I’m good with layouts, use of space, what goes where and the practical stuff… electrics, lighting, cabinetry and all that jazz I find really easy… but the rest then comes to me in time.
It helps that, as I’m doing everything myself, I get to spend countless hours in a space and in that time, the space pretty well tells me what would look best… I spend so long in there, with the samples all up that, in time, the decision is easy - and usually obvious after long enough… if it isn’t clear, I just give it more time (or haven’t even considered the ‘right’ choice yet - as I hadn’t in this instance - with none of my original picks speaking to me, and rummaging out something I’d had stashed in a cupboard for about 5 years!).
I’m not going to tell you what I’ve chosen yet.. but I’m quite excited. It’s certainly bolder than I’d anticipated choosing!
Thursday
Well, most of that day was spent editing my dinosaur shinanigans. It probably shouldn’t take all day - but I’m better at DIY than I am video editing… I also like things to feel at least reasonably well put together, though this bit of content is very different from my usual style which didn’t help (and makes me a bit nervous - hopefully you’ll see it in a week or so - and it’ll make you giggle!). We went for a walk after work to the seaside for a bag of chips and a pint - very nice indeed! Even at 8pm the sea was absolutely full of people! Plymouth in the sunshine takes some beating! We got home and I pulled together a post for instagram that evening, that was the same as last weeks substack. I hadn’t thought to share it to instagram too - I’m not sure how interesting it was but it sparked lots of conversation last week, so I picked 20 pictures, added the text, and wrote a bit of waffle ready for the morning!
Friday
I posted at 7am, not knowing what to expect.
Well - it went a bit wild, and definitely struck a chord. 7am to 9.30am was spent madly trying to keep up with comments before needing to get up and shower - I was popping to my folks for coffee and a catch up for my Ma’s birthday (which turned into coffee and a catch up followed by a pint!). Home by 2.30pm, and I spent the rest of the day glued to my phone trying to keep up with all the comments and messages… as of 1pm Saturday it’s had 24k likes, nearly 4,000 comments and I’ve had goodness knows how many messages… my thumbs are sore from replying, but I’m very, very happy!
Such an overwhelming, and positive response, with people all confirming they’re here for joy - not controversy - hurrah!
Some really, really interesting messages and conversations came off the back of it though. Mainly that there’s a LOT of people out there that don’t understand they’re in control of the algorithm (it gets a lot of stick, but all it’s doing, is responding to human nature, and on an individual level too!).
One woman reached out saying hers had changed recently and she wasn’t sure why so I asked a few questions and it turns out she’s recently gotten into a programme about traveller communities… and then has started watching social content around it - often which is full of bile and vitriol and whilst she doesn’t comment or engage, she said she often went down rabbit holes reading comments on these posts…
So it was amazing to see so many people realising they are indeed in control!
And that folks, brings me to this morning, and writing this little article here. The rest of the weekend is going to involve lots of digging, a bit of a social media detox after probably 15 hours at it on Friday responding to everyone… a few pints in the sunshine… a walk and catching up with some friends on Sunday… they’ve accepted an offer on their house so might need to move into the lower ground flat for a while which would be fun, and a lot of work getting it sorted haha so, watch this space!
Finally… music listened to this week has been a bit mixed… a bit of Kneecap to keep energy up whilst sorting the floor (and an audio book - I listen to a lot of fantasy - dragons and what not!)… ‘this is the kit’ one of my favourites whilst doing the gentler computer work… certainly two different ends of the spectrum!
I hope you’re all having a brilliant weekend! I have no idea whether the above is interesting or an enjoyable read - so let me know below… and as always if you’ve any questions about any aspect of this waffle, please let me know! And if you’re subscribing, free or paid - thank you so much… if you’re not, and you made it this far - well done - and what are you waiting for?
Greg X
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.