Daddy's First Blog Post and RadShop 2.0

Hello. It’s Beth, your resident bird dad. 

I’m sitting at a cafe in Burbank called Coffee Commissary with my friend Ben discussing the new Sonic movie trailer. He doesn’t feel strongly enough to tear it apart whereas I’m enjoying it as a dumpster fire. It’s 12 noon now and since 10am I’ve filled one page in my sketchbook, finished a whole pot of black tea, and begun writing my very first blog post on Radshop 2.0.

A year ago I did a soft launch of Radshop to test the waters and over the last year, I learned how to have a shop. It may be obvious, but “having a shop” and “running a shop” are completely different beasts and I’m feeling ready to actually run a shop now. 

Also hello small elephant in the room, this is my first blog post! I write blog posts now! 

I’ve been reading James Clear's Atomic Habits, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and Greg McKeown's Essentialism all at the same time. Yes, I realize that is a lot and I'm prone to binging activities. When it comes to self-betterment and academic studies, I let the reigns go on my all consuming desires but I don't want this to be a flash in the pan so in the effort to digest all the information I’ve been injecting into my eyeballs, it occurs to me that including it in this blog would be both helpful for me and you! 

SO!

Point number one that Beth would like to remember and that may benefit you, the reader: Whatever you're doing that serves your ambitions, make it 1% better every day. This point comes from Atomic Habits, a book that was released this past month and that I picked up after listening to the author on Matt D'Avella's podcast The Ground Up Show. Clear delves into the ideas I'm about to elaborate on in more detail so I encourage you to listen. (I do not know if "James Clear" is a pen name but boy howdy is that strong choice if you know you're going to be writing easy-to-read self help books!)

Small changes add up to big results so aim for 1% improvements in your life. It doesn’t feel like much in the moment and doesn’t amount to much at the end of the week, but 1% every day for a month, for 3 months, for 6 months, and for 1 year can create massive waves. This is the same idea behind the "Don't break the chain" calendar I put up every year. It's giving 10 minutes a day to washing your face so you feel better about yourself. One of the most obvious applications of this for me was Twitch streaming! In January of 2018, I decided I would double down on consistent twitch streaming in the effort of becoming a partner. I limited my streams to exactly 4 hours, 1pm to 5pm Monday through Friday and I stuck to that schedule as best as I could. I was already streaming every day anyway, but creating that strict schedule allowed an audience to know exactly when and where I would be. That was the "1% change", and seven months into making that commitment, it paid off. With the numbers I was pulling, in July of 2018 I applied and was invited to become a twitch partner.

What kind of a partner can this shop become if I make the same small commitment to it? I’m doing more than 1% today and I think that’s good on the days where you can. Since I’m re-launching this website tomorrow, it feels like the right time to pour a couple extra percentages into this project. 

I recognize that this post is all over the place but hey! It’s the first time I’ve done it and the first time you do something is never the best time you do something so cheers to keeping this up, even if the next post is only 1% better

-Beth