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mindfulstudyquest · 2 months

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❥﹒♡﹒☕﹒ 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲: easy tips to form healthy habits ( based on this alessya farrugia video )

lately i've been having trouble being productive and finding a healthy balance between study, passions, exercise and free time. i've been searching for a long time online for advices and ideas that could help me find my serenity, and my searches led me to this. i hope you appreciate it.

pro tip do not try to improve everything all at once, you're gonna fail. just try to incorporate something small in your routine to start forming healthy habits. it might take months, but one year from now it will all be worthy.

𝟭. don't hit snooze ( ⏰ )

the "snooze" button is definitely my worst enemy, i simply don't want to get up and start a new day that will be tiring and hard, but when i realized the reasons why putting off the alarm is so harmful for me i seriously started to stop doing it. you will actually wake up even more tired and sleep-deprived after the second or third alarm goes off, since falling back to sleep after having already woken up causes your brain to begin a new "sleep cycle" that takes 75 minutes to complete, abruptly interrupting these cycles brings unpleasant side effects such as tiredness, irritability and headaches.

bonus start waking up at the same time every day, this will not only help consolidate your routine but is scientifically proven that it significantly reduces levels of anxiety and depression.

𝟮. don't check your phone (📱)

i've always spent at least an hour scrolling through social media right after waking up every day, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's not exactly the healthiest thing in the world. do not go on your phone for at least 30min/1h after waking up. i know it seems hard ( i have a severe phone addiction so i understand ) but i guarantee you that your days will be so much more stress free and productive. why? going on your phone as soon as you wake up gives you an instant hit of dopamine ( for more info, check this post ) that is gonna literally ruin your day, because your brain is gonna pretend more and more dopamine for the rest of the day in order to function properly.

𝟯. have a glass of water ( 🫗 )

you didn't drink for 8 hours or more so it's time to rehydrate your body. i hate drinking water as soon as i wake up so you can try adding some lemon juice to give it more taste, you can also try some herbal tea if it's winter and you don't feel like drinking cold water first thing in the morning, but avoid caffeine ( and theine ) for at least one hour after waking up. exactly like the hit of dopamine that your phone gives you, caffeine and similar stimulants will have the same effect on your body.

𝟰. have a cold shower ( 🚿 )

ok, i'm not one of those gurus who tells you to get up at 5 in the morning, take an ice bath and run 12 km before 7am, but switching to cold water for the last two minutes of your morning shower will have some benefits invaluable for you and your body. first of all it helps to wake you up, because it stimulates the nerve endings and makes the brain more active, it also helps to tone the skin and make the hair shinier. it's a difficult thing, but doing something like this in the morning will help your brain cope better with the workload during the day. it also reduces stress and anxiety, since the cold can activate the production of endorphins ( known as "happy hormones" ).

𝟱. physical and mental care ( 💕 )

take five or ten minutes to just look after yourself, do skincare - it doesn't have to be a deep session, just a little moisturizer and lip balm -, meditate, journal, cut out a few minutes from your morning routine where you leave out for a while all the negative thoughts, stress and anxiety, your body is your temple and you must treat it with reverence, your mind is your home, your safe place, and deserves your attention.

𝟲. get direct sunlight ( ☀️ )

apply some sunscreen and go get some sunlight, the benefits are so many that i couldn't list them all: i quote, production of vitamin D ( very important especially if you are a woman ), improved mood and, in general, physical and mental health, sleep regulation, improved skin. i know it's not always possible, especially in winter when there is very little sun, but for example if you have the chance to walk to school or work on a beautiful sunny spring day, take it!

𝟳. make the bed ( 🛏️ )

why should i make my bed if i'm going to have to sleep in it in the evening anyway? well, this is the mistake that i very often make and i admit that i am guilty of it. however, not making the bed is exactly the reason that pushes me to go back there immediately and sleep again. making your bed in the morning as an act of discipline will not only improve your self-esteem and make you less want to go back to sleep, but it will make your room seem cleaner and generally improve your environment, making you feel more productive and satisfied. completing that little task in the morning, even if it's small and simple, will give you motivation and will push you through the day.

𝟴. high-proteine breakfast ( 🥞 )

make sure you eat a balanced, protein-rich breakfast that will keep you feeling full until your next meal. it is useless to limit calories especially in the morning when we need an extra boost, this will only make us feel more tired and irritable and will significantly decrease our productivity.

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rwby-redux · 3 years

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Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Natural Resources

“Let’s talk about natural resources!”

Behold, the five most sleep-inducing words in the English language. I won’t blame you if your eyes start to glaze over, though you might not want to scroll past just yet. While it’s not exactly a glamorous topic, it is, undeniably, an important one for us to consider when dissecting RWBY.

The availability of resources (water, minerals, metals, stones, soil, textiles, spices, oils/waxes, timber, and various plant or animal products) is what defines the people inhabiting a region, and more specifically, their way of life. It’s the art of making do with whatever happens to be lying around. Making lemons into lemonade. That sort of thing. While getting these details right is important, I’d argue that not getting them wrong is even more so. Trust me: you really don’t want your audience to get sucked out of the immersion because your desert-dwelling society lives in log cabins. Or because your coastal city exclusively imports grains from the countryside when there’s an entire ocean they could be fishing out of.

You get the idea.

Today’s post is all about putting RWBY’s natural resources to the test. Let’s see if it can manage a passing grade.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, I want to quickly establish the two main talking points we’ll be going over.

What resources are available in RWBY’s settings, and are they being used to their full extent?

What effects would those resources have on culture, trade, and international relations, and how might that manifest in the show?

And for the sake of both of these points, we’ll be focusing on one example in particular:

Food.

Who doesn’t love food?

Food is one of those cultural cornerstones that tends to get relegated to background noise. It’s not the sort of thing your audience is meant to pay attention to, but it’s undeniably important for adding flavor (heh) to your worldbuilding. We’re not talking exclusively about the ingredients, either—food can inform more than just the recipes. Consider how cuisine can shape things like mealtime etiquette (Is it considered bad manners to clear your plate? Do guests eat before the host?) or religious traditions (Are certain dishes reserved for holidays? Is fasting a requirement for some holy meals?).

Culinary culture, at its heart, is dictated by the availability and evolution of whatever resources are part of the setting. It sort of goes without saying, really.

Which is why I want to try something a little different. Rather than launch into a sweary rant about RWBY’s poor implementation of natural resources, I want to analyze three specific scenes that focus on food: What foods are present in those scenes, what their real-world inspirations are, what significance they carry for the canon’s lore, and what their inclusions achieve (or fail to achieve).

On today’s menu are the food-fight from V2.E1 - “Best Day Ever,” the dinner party from V5.E7 - “Rest and Resolutions,” and the soirée from V7.E8 - “Cordially Invited.”

Bon appétit.

Ruby clutching a carton of Udder Satisfaction-brand milk. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:Maki Kuronami.

This punchy and upbeat scene was fairly memorable for juxtaposing the off-screen murder we saw take place literally minutes before. All things considered, it’s a decent way to start a volume. Have your characters engage in some lighthearted fun while showcasing the animators’ creative use of food as impromptu weapons. The cast is saved from any disciplinary actions by Ozpin, whose choice to condone their antics is tempered by his cryptic remark to Glynda: “After all, [they won’t be children] forever.”

The focus of this moment is placed on the animation, tone, and foreshadowing—as in, we’re not supposed to be thinking about the worldbuilding, and speculating on the implications of food in this scene.

But that’s what we’re going to do anyway, because holy shit, there’s a lot to unpack here.

Let’s start with the obvious: what food we see. Admittedly, it isn’t much. Several of the animation assets are generously reused throughout the food fight (probably as a cost-saving method), so the scene ends up with frames that have like ten whole watermelons in them. (Yeah, I know, it’s supposed to be part of the gag. That doesn’t make it any less weird.) Anyway, here’s a list of all the food I could clearly make out:

Apples (red and green cultivars)

Baguettes

Canned soft drinks

Carton of milk

Cherry tomatoes

Cream pie

Ketchup

Leaks

Lettuce

Nondescript sandwich

Sausage links

Swordfish

Watermelons

Whole roasted turkeys

My first impression was that the food selection was very Western (as in, American and Eurocentric). That’s not entirely a coincidence either, as the art directors have said on more than one occasion that Vale draws heavily upon Western aesthetic. [1] I’ve said before that I think copy-pasting your worldbuilding from IRL cultures without altering it in any way is lazy, banal, and reductive, and I stand by that claim. For now, though, I want to set aside that criticism to explore the implications of a Western-centric palate in Vale.

The immediate thing that struck me was the presence of dairy. Fun fact: Did you know that 65% –70% of the global population is lactose intolerant? The enzyme needed to digest lactose in adulthood is predominantly found in people of North and Northwestern European descent, and to a lesser extent, the Middle East and Northwestern India. Lactase persistence is a relatively new genetic novelty that evolved about 10,000 years ago, and statistically it’s an uncommon trait to have.

If Vale’s roots lie in Western culture, then it stands to reason there would be similar parallels. For example, we can infer that Vale domesticated milk-producing livestock like cows, buffalo, goats, sheep, or bison. Perhaps it was the first (or only) country to make dairy products like cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, or ice cream as a result, which makes it a potential exporter of those goods. Depending on the prevalence of dairy in Valin cuisine, international stereotypes could then emerge, or slurs/insults based on their agriculture and diet. You get the idea.

If we assume these parallels are an accurate portrayal of Valin cuisine, that carries some interesting implications for this setting (the school) in particular.

Consider: We’re repeatedly shown that students at the Huntsman Academies are often from countries other than the one their alma mater is based in. All of Team JNPR, for example, is from Mistral, while half of Team RWBY hails from other countries (Atlas and Menagerie, respectively). And in case you think this is a pattern unique to Beacon, Sun Wukong (a student at Haven) is from Vacuo.

The reason why I bring this up is because the cuisine of the other kingdoms is incredibly diverse. Vacuo is well-known for entomophagy (the practice of eating insects and arachnids) [2] while Mistral has a very grain- and plant-heavy palate. If the student body is culturally diverse, then surely the academies would put in the effort to make their meal selections reflect that? Especially if we assume Vale’s dairy-heavy food would be incompatible with a number of their students.

But more to a point, I think the schools offering a wide variety of multiethnic food wouldn’t just be accommodating, but symbolically important too. The core theme of the series, particularly within Volumes 1 – 3, was about embracing cultural diversity. If the schools wanted to further adhere to that creed, then expanding their menu to incorporate food from other cultures would be a great way to reinforce that idea.

Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about (if you’ll forgive the nerdy reference): Remember that scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrived at Hogwarts? The school prepared dishes from their cultures, like bouillabaisse and blancmange. [3] It’s a scene that continues to stand out to me twenty years later, and one that feels like an apt comparison here (in no small part because of the Beacon-Hogwarts parallels).

It’s a neat idea, and I really wish the writers had put more thought into the significance of the food in this scene. Like many things in RWBY, interesting ideas or potential often get wasted due to a lack of foresight.

Speaking of waste, did anyone else find it incredibly weird how much food the characters wasted in that scene? Like, I get that the early volumes of the show weren’t meant to be as gritty or realistic, but it was still really jarring to see all of that food get tossed around the room while a bunch of teenagers played in it. From a lore standpoint, it wouldn’t make sense for characters to be so indifferent to food waste when it carries a disproportionate impact on their survival.

Let me backtrack a bit. In this world, the Grimm make it difficult for people to expand their settlements, which in turn means that land scarcity would be a real concern. By extension, there would be agricultural constraints in the form of resource allocation (like soil, nutrients, and water), which would place a limitation on food production.

And just in case it needs saying, food is kind of important to not dying.

While food waste IRL is a major issue, it could never approach the scale that it occupies in RWBY’s universe. Which is why it baffles me that the kids were perfectly comfortable with—even gleeful about—wasting an entire cafeteria’s worth of food. If the writers had taken the time to actually consider the largescale implications of living in a world with bloodthirsty monsters, then food waste should be strict cultural taboo by virtue of food being disproportionately harder to obtain. The very idea of a food fight should realistically be an appalling thought to these characters.

That goes double if a Huntsman’s dietary needs are anything like an Olympic athlete’s, and require anywhere from 3,500 to 8,000 calories per day. Not only does that make the food fight scene culturally repugnant, but self-detrimental too, simply because they wasted the fuel they would’ve needed to sustain their typical levels of physical activity for that day.

No wonder Glynda was pissed.

Concept art of the food from “Rest and Resolutions.” | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:General Esdeath.

The next episode to prominently feature food takes place three volumes later. Thankfully, the artists were kind enough to release concept art for the episode, so I don’t have to go re-watch it frame-by-frame.

In terms of borrowing from real-world cultures, Mistral is perhaps the most egregious example. On one hand, this makes speculation easier because all I have to do is click on the Wikipedia article for Japanese cuisine. On the other hand, this makes speculation harder because its inclusion means having to justify traditions that don’t make any sense within the context of RWBY.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For those who might need a refresher: the episode prior “Known by Its Song” focuses on Qrow’s solo outing around the city as he fruitlessly searches for Huntsmen to recruit. This leaves Team RNJR back at the safehouse preparing food for about 15+ guests, and you’ll notice that it’s all a very traditional East Asian fare. Credit given where credit’s due, it makes a lot of sense for this scene. The food choice isn’t just there to reinforce Mistral’s Japanese aesthetic—contextually, it makes sense that they’d be preparing local cuisine. The Huntsmen that they’re supposed to be hosting are Mistrali, so there’s logical reasoning behind that decision. It also makes sense for Ren (a native-born Mistrali) to be supervising Ruby (a person from Vale) with the food prep, since it stands to reason she’d be unfamiliar with cooking those dishes.

And if we’re being completely honest…

Ren: You’re going to overcook that. Ruby: No, I’m not, shut up!

(Seconds later Ruby’s pan starts to smoke.)

Ruby: Fine! You take over.

^ QED.

At this point, it goes without saying that any praise I give RWBY should have an asterisk next to it. Because, yes, while this scene works in theory for all the reasons I just mentioned, there’s still one little snag.

There are, admittedly, multiple reasons why I condemn facelifting aspects of real-world cultures and applying them to fiction—from the aforementioned laziness to the risk of cultural appropriation. But the reason I want to emphasize now is context.

You probably noticed that all of the food RNJR cooked consists mostly of grains and vegetables. The absence of meat is likely based on traditional Japanese cuisine that, up until 1872, prohibited meat due to the sixth-century influences of Buddhism. The reintroduction of meat into Japanese cuisine didn’t become accepted until the Meiji Restoration, when the then-emperor held a New Year’s feast that incorporated Western dishes. Although there was some initial pushback, it didn’t take long for people to embrace public consumption of meat.

Historically, it makes sense that Japan shunned meat-eating because of religious precedent.

But here’s the thing: Mistral isn’t Japan. Mistral is a fictional country within a fictional world that, by all rights, should have its own fictional customs. You can’t just “borrow” Japan’s pre-Meiji vegetarian cuisine and slap it onto your setting without considering the implications. Buddhism doesn’t exist in Mistral*, so how the hell does RWBY plan on justifying that writing decision? Look, I know that this is nitpicky. But it matters—not just for this one example, but for all of them. As RWBY’s writers continue to filch real-world ideas and integrate them into their story with zero self-awareness, the inconsistencies pile up.

If your ship has one tiny crack in the hull, it’s negligible. But a thousand tiny cracks become a lot harder to ignore when you’re knee-deep in water and bailing out the side.

Concept art of the food from “Cordially Invited.” | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:NVDelta.

I have a lot of not-so-nice things to say about Volume 7, but thankfully that’s a post for another day. My disdain for the party scene notwithstanding, I think there’s a lot of interesting subtext we can tease from the hors d'oeuvres, and what they tell us about the upper echelons of Atlesian society.

Courtesy of concept art and (as of Volume 8) overhead views of the capital, we know that Atlas has an agricultural district. Farming likely only became possible due to the heating grid altering the urban climate, allowing the city to support non-native species. This would include things like peaches (from the caprese), zucchini (from the grilled rolls), and wheat (from the tart crust made of flour).

I can follow the logic and see why an artificial climate bubble could theoretically allow a polar country to farm. As long as you don’t overthink it, it makes sense.

But as the existence of this post would imply, I did overthink it. And I have questions.

Lots

and lots

of questions.

For instance: Atlas may have gotten around the issue of living in a desolate icy hellscape, but it can’t change Solitas’ latitude. Given Atlas’ location on the globe, it almost certainly experiences polar nights and midnight suns.

“What’s that?” I’m so glad you asked.

Why don’t we let my cousin Oskaar explain.

Or, if you’re not up-to-date on your ten-year-old memes, I want you to picture yourself standing in Tromsø, Norway. I want you to imagine the brisk air on your face as you glance up at the dark, hazy sky. Now, go ahead and take a look at your watch.

It’s two in the afternoon.

While technology can fix a good number of things, it can’t change the axial tilt of the planet. If, as we’re assuming, Remnant rotates in a manner similar to Earth, that creates the unavoidable issue of day-night cycles where people can go for months without seeing the sun. You could maybe farm grains in conditions like those, but peaches? Unlikely.

And that’s not even addressing the gratin. Have you ever Googled pictures of an oyster farm? They’re massive. You would need robust indoor aquaculture if you wanted to sustainably farm oysters on a large scale, and even then, it would be expensive as hell.

With all of that in mind, it begs the question of whether or not Atlas is entirely self-reliant for its food production, or if specific items are imported from Mistral or Vale. It seems more likely that certain foods wouldn’t be domestically farmed, due to operating costs or a lack of proper growing conditions. It also puts an interesting spin on the appetizers we see Jacques Schnee serving at his manor. Are oysters, peaches, and other “unobtainable” foods considered luxury items? Are they regarded as status symbols of wealth? Can a person in Mantle go their entire life without ever tasting certain foods, due to their pricing or rarity?

Lest anyone forget, the three examples I provided? They only focused on food. There are literally thousands of other natural resources we could discuss ad nauseam, and what they mean for the worldbuilding (and by extension, the story). How do certain resources affect a society’s culture? If a society lacks access to papyrus- or goatskin-parchment, might they instead develop a writing system like cuneiform, which is etched or stamped into clay tablets? What about resources that are considered sacred or spiritual, like China’s carved jade?

And that’s not even getting into trade or international relations. Let’s say, hypothetically, southern Mistral is comprised of dense tropical rainforests. That carries the possibility of people stumbling upon a vast pharmaceutical goldmine of alkaloid-producing plants, fungi, and bacteria. How would that, in turn, shape the people of that region? Do the people living there become world leaders in the production of lifesaving medication? Does the region become wealthy due to trade? What if other people try to invade the region in order to gain control over these resources? Does colonialism lead to exploitation of the indigenous groups that first discovered these natural pharmaceuticals? Over time, do the indigenous groups assimilate into the culture of the invaders?

Despite what RWBY would have you think, there are other valuable resources out there besides Dust. And it’s important going forward that we consider their relevance, and how they can shape the geopolitical landscape of Remnant for generations to come.

[1] Rooster Teeth. “Exploring Cut Concepts | RWBY Rewind: Vol 6, Ch 2.” YouTube video. November 11, 2019. 28:11 - 28:38. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1691&v=JY3ok42PKIk&feature=youtu.be] Pat Rodriguez: “So, yeah. Mistral and Haven were very, very Eastern Asian kinda-themed. Vale back in the day was more, like, European, old-school kind of fairytale-ish.”

[2] Myers, E. C. RWBY: After the Fall (Book 1). Scholastic Inc, 2019. “Yatsuhashi ordered the crab steak and desert lotus tea, and Fox ordered fried crevice worms, lightly toasted cave beetles, and water.”

[3] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scholastic Press, 2000. Page 251. “The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.”

* And no, I don’t care what Eddy Rivas said on RWBY Rewind. RWBY isn’t our world. Saying that the Buddha existed in Remnant is like saying that Zeus exists in Game of Thrones. This isn’t like His Dark Materials where worlds are the-same-but-different, and share elements of each other’s settings. Unless Remnant is some sort of alternate-timeline Earth (which it’s not), then there’s no reason why it should’ve developed the exact same religions as us.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #natural resources #it only took about a century but it's finally done #in case anyone's wondering why there haven't been any updates #i've spent the last month trying to reduce my time on social media so i can focus on personal stuff

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esdchange · 3 years

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Seasons of Change

This blog is to document my experience with the ESD change challenge. This feels a bit funny, in a way, because my life has been nothing but change for the last four months. For four months I lived out of a suitcase, moving around weekly, my belongings scattered between England, Portland, and Chicago. There's been an endless revolving door of goodbyes. I feel suspended, craving consistency, waiting to land somewhere firm and familiar.

So I guess when looking at the change challenge, I'm coming from a place of needing stability in my life over anything else. I know I need to eat better and sleep more because my head is nearly always foggy. The switch between COVID work monotony and the whirlwind of a summer spent trying to soak up every moment at home was too fast, too drastic to process. My first thought is to spend my time with the change challenge trying to get back to a good headspace and a healthy lifestyle. When asked in class, I immediately thought of making lunches and packing lunches from home. This came to mind because that very morning, I had eaten cheese and crackers for (nearly) the fifth meal in a row. The fresh fruit-filled farmers markets and cosy kitchens of my life in Portland, where I worked from home, had a steady income, and hardly left the house, made a more inspiring (and convenient) location to make big, nutritious meals. Since arriving in Cambridge I've been struggling to get back into the swing of running to and from the city center several times a day, and getting used to trying to budget my savings so I don't run out of money by the end of the year. Although I don't live in college accommodation, many of my friends here have similar experiences. Turns out, sharing a gyp with 15 people makes it hard to want to cook every day. This feels like the most obvious choice for me, with clear sustainability outcomes (reduced waste buying lunches in town, setting myself up to be a good lunch-packer in the future).

All that being said, there are so many other changes I want to implement instead. Things that feel more exciting to me or would make me feel more interesting. I've always wanted to learn Swedish; I'm a half-Swede who is useless with the language and I know that Cambridge has a great language resource center that I want to take advantage of. Katherine and I have talked a lot about how much it would mean to us to know the languages of our Scandinavian halves. Trying to tie that into sustainability isn't as clear to me, but I think there's something to be said for being bilingual when sustainable development requires global cooperation. Yet, (nearly) every Swede speaks English, so is it too much of a stretch? Looking at sustainability on a small scale, one other change I would like to implement is being on my phone less and trying to get my overall phone screen time down to under an hour a day. I hadn't thought about this much until I read in The Uninhabitable Earth about how each switch of a light is a small addition to overall global emissions. The exact quote is, "Each of us imposes some suffering on our future selves every time we flip a light switch, buy a plane ticket, or fail to vote." It got me thinking about how the longer I spend on my phone, the more I have to charge it, and the higher the likelihood I'll need to replace the phone sooner than I would if I used it less. This is something I struggle with a lot - even keeping up with our ESD groupchat feels like a full-time job requiring a charge every few hours. These two things, being on my phone less and learning a new language, are two goals that many of my friends share. They often come up when we get to talking about how we envision our best selves. A lot of this is inspired by social media, because we have access to the people who appear to be what we want to become. I know that this affects me when it comes to "sustainability" or "environmental" influencers - it's mostly because of the guilt (and education) provided by seeing someone online doing sustainability better than me that I have stopped buying fast fashion and try to shop entirely second-hand.

My problem with change seems to be making excuses which tell myself that the change isn't really that important to make. At the core I seem to lack discipline; I've never had a skincare routine or managed to keep up with reading before bed. I can't motivate myself to journal. I've always wanted to run a half-marathon but I've never stuck to a training plan, even though I run often and it would definitely be within my skill set. I tend to count myself out before giving myself a real shot at making a change. Maybe that is out of fear of failure, maybe I get bored, maybe I just get overwhelmed and then the change doesn't feel possible anymore. Thinking about it for this challenge makes me more sympathetic to all of us as we try to make changes for the planet and our communities. I suppose I'm easily caught in the trap of 'what's the point?' once a change feels too small to make any discernible difference in the world. But in the same way that sustainability influencers have changed my thinking, we all have some sway in our own circles of influence, no matter how small. So I suppose if I can make a change in my life then there might be someone at my college, a family member, someone on our course, a friend from home, a friend from Portland, my boyfriend, anybody, might feel that if I can do it, then they can as well.

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topicprinter · 6 years

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Top 7 Lessons I've Learned From Spending $152,010.53 Of My Own Personal Money On Facebook™ Advertising THIS YEAR ALONE!Proof:Ad Account 1: imgur.com/a/jQLCcerAd Account 2: imgur.com/a/KMG14xTSide Note: That may seem like a huge dollar figure to some, but others that's a daily/monthly budget. That said, I'm not bragging or presenting that figure as being HUGE. In fact, last year, I sat next to a guy in Dallas TX who spends $50,000 - $100,000 PER DAY! The rest of those sitting at that same dinner table was spending similar amounts. Okay, onto the lessons!👨‍🏫 LESSON 1: A Compelling Offer - This may sound obvious, but you'll be surprised at how many people (including myself) push an offer that the market doesn't want or need. I don't care how seasoned you are at marketing, at the end of the day you can't polish a turd. In other words, if the offer sucks, it's not going to sell! I've even had zero response to offers I gave away for free!Before you give up on your offer though, make sure that you've done a thorough job at testing (I cover more on testing in Lesson 3 below.) The main thing is to look at how you package your product/service. People must view your offer as having more value than the money their trading for it.To boost the perceived value you may need to test different price points, and/or add extra bonuses offers that complement the offer. In some cases, it may even mean raising the price because people may decide "it's too good to be true" and conclude it's a scam. Believe me, when I say, people hand that word out like it's candy. Either way, make sure your offer is a no-brainer decision for the audience your targeting.Another big mistake is creating an offer that is too broad for any specific audience to target. It's a lot more difficult (and expensive) to sell a generic product or service to a broad audience. Instead, get more strategic by creating your offer around a specific niche.For example: If you sell a workout program it's smart to frame it around mothers who want to lose weight by doing yoga. In Facebook™, you can target moms who also like yoga.Another niche could be future brides who want to lose 10lbs before their wedding. You could target engaged women who like 'Weight Watchers' or other weight-loss programs that they most likely failed at.If you offer a sales guide, you can get more niche by framing it around Realtors.Before creating an offer and kicking off a Facebook™ ad campaign, I'd recommend testing to see if sells or not to your existing email list. If it doesn't sell to people who know, like and trust you then you can bet it won't with ice-cold traffic!The Bottom Line: If your offer is proven to sell and targets a specific niche audience, the bigger your chances for Facebook™ advertising success.👨‍🏫 LESSON 2: Stick To Copy Principles - It's easy to overload your brain with "new and improved" strategies that sell. Truth is, not much has changed since the mid-1900's on Madison Avenue when advertisers were sipping on an Old Fashioned and writing copy. The only difference is the platforms we have to sell on.For example, Photography has the same core lighting/posing principles whether you shoot with film or digital. Again, the difference is the tools we have available.The most effective copy strategies that get people to take action the most is fear. Not saying you should scare the hell out of your audience, but instead teach them.I just paid a guy $150 to do a radon test for a house inspection. I asked him to sell me on why I should do it...his answer? "Because of high levels of radon cause lung cancer." SOLD!Another way is through urgency and scarcity. That's why I ALWAYS include a deadline to register for a webinar or to take advantage of a deal. Humans procrastinate, and until you give them a reason to pull out their credit card right now they'll have already moved onto something different.Whenever I feel like I'm trembling away from copy principles, I'll flip on QVC or HSN and watch how they sell. These shows have been selling products the same way for many decades and haven't changed since. It just works!Another bonus tip is that controversy sells and works well with social media. Dan Kennedy said it best, "If you haven't offended somebody by noon every day, then you're not marketing hard enough." I apply this in most of my Facebook™ ad campaigns and frame it as "us against them".For example, if you sell design work you could talk about how they should fire their designers. Believe me, the designers will show up in your ads ready to throw rocks. "Okay Brandon, I don't want rocks thrown at me!" - It's a good thing because no publicity is bad publicity. And also, because now it becomes a movement for your buyers to prove to their now-enemies that they stand for what they believe. I mean...how do you think Trump won?The Bottom Line: Stop falling for the shiny new techniques for selling, and focus solely on the principles of selling that have worked for many decades and more to come! I could write for days on various copy tricks (like how emojis grab attention). More importantly, before flipping on an ad I recommend learning how the consumer thinks with these two books that are packed-full of copywriting principles: 'Cashvertising' by Drew Eric Whitman and 'Expert Secrets' by Russell Brunson.👨‍🏫 LESSON 3: Always Be Testing - Failing is an important part of success no matter what you do in life, and it's no different when it comes to Facebook™ advertising.I CONSTANTLY fail a ton and often times it leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I'm even cut out to be a marketer in the first place 😂 But...I never give up, and no matter how months pass by I keep pushing forward. To put that in perspective, I've spent almost a year on one campaign that's just now starting to convert. That's worse case scenario but enough tweaking and you can truly turn ideas into long-term businesses. That's why I'm willing to spend that much time; because I know it can result in yearly salaries once it's dialed in.I'm going to break down what's necessary to test, based on my personal experience...Ad Creatives: The image of the ad is what grabs the attention most, and that's why I recommend a thick red border with a baby crying hysterically...just kidding! It's not necessary to be obnoxiously loud. What's more important is to is an ad that resonates with your audience.My personal experience has been keeping the ad creatives real and relevant. Ad creatives that work well are collages, amateur-looking (NOT stock photos), testimonials, hyper-speed videos. Turn images b&w and they may perform better too.Ad creatives constantly burn out, and do so weekly! NEVER be afraid to add new ones. I've made the mistake of getting emotionally attached to an ad image because it WAS performing but fizzled out. I kept trying different audiences and copy and wasted so much money. Now I'm constantly testing new images/videos and always finding new winners. Pretty exciting stuff and a big hurdle I had to overcome.The Landing Page: This goes hand to hand with the ad itself. When someone clicks on your ad, they want to feel confident that the landing page matches what the ad states. Otherwise, it's called 'bait and switch' when they land on your page. If you invited them to a webinar in your ad, it must take them to a webinar registration page. If you offer a product in your ad, it must take them to a sales page for that specific offer. If there's any disconnection (words, imagery...etc.) then this is going to put a huge dent in your conversion rate.I've read many split-testing books and here's what I've personally found to be the most effective on sales pages:a.) The Headline: The headline sets the tone for the entire page. When someone reads the headline they should know exactly know what pain points they have, what your offering, and how your offer will benefit them. You'd be surprised at how many sales pages I've seen that I've reached the bottom of the page and still have no idea what they're offering. So be clear about that!b.) The Price Point: Once I have the headline dialed in, I focus on the price. When I'm sending traffic to an offer I like to keep it under $50 so I try to make sure the value exceeds that cost.I'll split test prices at: $47, $37, $27, and $17. If it doesn't sell at those price points I'll even go down as low as $7.A recent campaign I did just this, and as soon as I did that it started to sell. I'm averaging $9.38 CPA's (cost per action) which means I'm only losing $2.38 per sale which can easily be made up on the backend. I call that a success!Side note: I put a lot of hours into thinking, creating, and marketing this product, but I don't allow emotion to get involved when it comes to reducing the price of my product. I'd rather have a product that sells 10x as much at $7 than not sell at all at $17. All I care is about being profitable so I can scale to the moon.Also when it comes to pricing, don't give them too many options to choose from. Too many choices result in no choice at all.If you're driving an immense amount of traffic then I recommend testing other things, like moving different sections around, button text, button color but personally I haven't seen much of an effect by testing this.The Bottom Line: Test ad creatives, headlines, and price points.👨‍🏫 LESSON 4: Avoid Overlapping - This is more on the tech side of ads, but when advertising you should have an ad that shows to a cold audience ONCE. Then set up a separate ad that retargets those who clicked but didn't' buy.If you neglect this, you run the risk of what's called: Overlapping. This will depend on your audience size, and your daily budget. However, when overlapping occurs you're essentially showing the same ads to the same audience which may cause ad spend to hike because you're competing with yourself. It could also prevent your ads from spending at all.The Bottom line: Avoid overlapping by excluding people who've visited your landing page and people who purchased from your cold traffic.👨‍🏫 LESSON 5: Follow Up (Advertising Is Just The Beginning) - Some advertisers collect leads by giving away freebies like eBooks, cheat sheets...etc. Instead, I choose to send traffic directly to an offer (under $50) or send them to a webinar registration page. The reason is it sets the tone that indeed I have an offer and that I am NOT a charity for freebie-seekers.Once you have a buyer, they're more inclined to buy more. Whether you're profitable, break-even, or in the red with your Facebook™ ad campaign you can scale even more by up-selling, or cross-selling through email marketing.I try to email my buyers every day and it's proven to be profitable. I've also created businesses within my business by partnering with people and selling their product, as well as adding a phone salesman to sell higher priced offers.The Bottom line: View Facebook™ advertising as only the beginning, because the money is in the back-end of your business.👨‍🏫 LESSON 6: Have An End Date - Most advertisers (including me) want to flip an ad on and just let it keep going. That used to work in the earlier days but now it's about scheduling an end date on your ad set because of 2 reasons...1.) It forces Facebook's™ algo to optimize faster and find similar people that resonate with your ad.2.) It adds urgency which gets people to take action!I'll notice with my campaigns 33% of sales will come in the last day during a week long campaign.The Bottom Line: Facebook™ algo optimizes more effectively when you schedule an end date at the ad set level. Also people take action when there's an end date.👨‍🏫 LESSON 7: Mix In Other Ad Platforms - A lot of my Facebook™ advertising success comes from integrating other ad platforms. My 2 favorites are YouTube, and Perfect Audience and use both for retargeting purposes.When someone lands on my sales page and leaves without taking action I'll stock them as they surf the web.Creepy? Absolutely. Profitable? Yes, here's a Y.T.D. screenshot of a YouTube campaign I'm currently running: imgur.com/a/lzQbehdWhen someone visits YouTube after they leave my sales page without buying, a video ad of me teaching/pitching will play before their video (they can skip it of course!)Perfect Audience allows me to put banner ads on websites they visit after they leave without buying.Bottom Line: Retarget your Facebook traffic using other ad platforms.👨‍🏫 BONUS LESSON 8: Get Your Rewards! - If you find yourself spending big on Facebook™, get a business credit card of some sort that will offer cashback or travel rewards.That was a mistake I made all throughout 2017. Now I have the U.S. Bank Edge Select card attached to my ads account which earns me 3 points per $1 spent on Facebook™ advertising. I set it and forget it, and then by the time I remember I have around $2k - $3k in cash rewards that pay for one hell of a vacation :)

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