About a year ago I started to advertise and gather some people together to try and build a community around what we were reading.

I read 64 books in 2020 and I was wanting to set a goal for myself and keep myself accountable for 2021.

So, I thought to myself, “Why don’t I do a DSM 2021 Reading Challenge! Then, every year I will add people to the challenge and it will kind of grow into a cool thing.”

I was hyped about the DSM 2021 Reading Challenge.

I was writing weekly emails to encourage and help people meet their reading goals.

I was blogging about it.

I was reading at least one book a week.

Everything was awesome.

Except, it wasn’t.

Full disclosure.

I personally invited well over 20 people to join me on the DSM 2021 Reading Challenge journey.

I only had seven (7) people signed up…actually one of those was myself so that I could see what the emails looked like coming through on my end. So I had SIX (6) people sign up.

By the end of January, JANUARY, I had 2 people reading my emails.

TWO.

By the end of June, I wasn’t even opening my own emails anymore.

I learned an important lesson: I had a lot to learn about email marketing and Goodreads can do what I am trying to do a lot better (even though I have a small, personal disdain for Goodreads…but that’s neither here nor there).

Was it worth it to try and start a new initiative? Yes.

Did it help me get in a groove of consistently writing? Yes.

Will I do it again? Absolutely not.

It was a lot of work for zero payoff. 

I created a super cool app and everything for it (Thanks, Glide).

But, man, it was a lot of upkeep and I didn’t market it well and I eventually just didn’t try to add more people along the way. Sure, I asked people and brought it up whenever.

I had plans to do a giveaway for people that finished their goal and everything.

…

The big takeaway, though?

Try It!

Go try something new. Don’t try my particular idea and approach (because, duh, I didn’t do it right and it tanked)

But do go and try that idea you have.

You will learn and grow, at the very least…and that’s worth a lot more than you might think.

Afterwards, I used Glide to do a bunch of other small projects and it has been a blast to learn no-code app design and create these super fun and functional apps.

I even have a few can pay to have access to over on my PayHip store! (I’m a big fan of DSM’s Brain, which you can learn more about here)

So, was it all a loss? No way!

It gave me the push to learn more about email marketing, project management, and app design. 

Did I fail? Yeah, so what? At least you don’t have to now!

Want to work with a total failure like me?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am not the best at what I do. I have no idea who is the best at what I do because I don’t know if anyone does anything like I do…

I am adaptable and flexible and willing to take an “L” just to learn and try something new. 

If you are game to try something out, then so am I. Let’s get started talking and see what happens! Whadda ya say?