#lookingbackandsayingyes (while casually promoting yourself)

The end of the year is a great moment for looking back. To help you do so, I have made 5 fun questions for you that you can use to reflect.

How to use these questions?

For every question find a photo / gif / screenshot that you can use to illustrate your answer. Then share it on social media. One every day is probably smartest, but you can create them in 1 burst and then post them daily. Use #lookingbackandsayingyes to post yours (and find others).

Not your thing?

Wait! There is a bonus effect.

Because maybe you are the person who thinks: I don’t have time for this. Reflection questions are a (maybe nice but) useless exercise anyway.

Hold on. Consider this.

What if you would use these questions for self promotion? Or to be exact, personal branding. It is easy!

How to use these questions for personal branding?

If you would like people around you (a.k.a. your network) to know you are (or want to be) an improv teacher, they should be reminded that you do improv / teaching. And what better way to do so, then to share some 2020 moments that (also) say ‘remember, I teach improv?!’.

Don’t underestimate the effect of mentioning again what you do / want to do. 5 days of reflecting will do wonders for your ‘personal brand’.

The 5 questions

Okay, let’s get to it. Here are the 5 questions. Share 1 a day on social, any social will do (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, etc). Use #lookingbackandsayingyes to have other improvisers find you.

1. What was a fun moment in 2020?

Share a highlight, an awesome achievement, a ‘lucky me’ moment. If you only do 1 update, do this one.

This is great for personal branding because it allows you to brag, to show off what you did well or how others grant you amazing opportunities.

2. What was a challenging moment in 2020?

Share a struggle you have faced, and how you have overcome / dealt with it. This can definitely be a lighthearted update, if you want. “I thought I would hate online improv, but here is a screenshot of a Zoom jam where I am wearing a funny hat”.

This is great for personal branding because you show resilience, vulnerability and that you also understand resistance to change or making mistakes (just like your students).

3. What was a surprising moment in 2020?

Sure, the entire year 2020 came out of left field. So which sides of you came through that you didn’t know before. Any new hobbies, new friends, new skills or other discoveries.

This is great for personal branding because you show your flexibility and creativity, perfect traits for improv teachers.

4. What was a learning moment in 2020?

You are the kind of person interested in learning new things, developing yourself, constantly improving. I see you!

Think of all the ways you learned: by taking workshops, by reading books, by following a course, by googling topics, by talking to others, by going into a rabbit hole of YouTube instructional videos…. What was a moment you learned something new?

This is great for personal branding because it shows that you are a continuously developing professional. Yeah, you are!

5. What was a teaching moment in 2020?

You have been teaching, even when you didn’t realise it. Maybe you taught workshops online, or back in real life. But maybe your teaching was different: helping your niece with math, writing a social media post that your followers loved, explaining the Black Lives Matter movement to your parents.

This is great for personal branding because you are a teacher through and through, even in uncommon situations.

Last but not least: don’t let the promotion bit get in your head. If needed, forget all about it. Focus on the questions, have fun finding a (relevant of silly) image with it and enjoy the response.

Want to see mine? Check out #lookingbackandsayingyes.

Can’t wait to see yours!