All of a sudden, we’ve experienced a huge shift in our lives.
People are staying at home. Office-based employees are now working from home. Frontline health workers and police can not go home to be with their families so they can serve the people, especially those who are infected by the Coronavirus.
These things happened in just one snap of a finger.
As for me, being an online freelancer since 2017, staying and working at home is normal. The only thing that we did to prepare for this was to go to the mini grocery store nearby and stock food supplies and other essentials. It was like nothing unusual is happening around except for that all members of the family are here at home.
Actually, I was a bit worried that I’m losing clients because they are perhaps affected by this pandemic as well. I kept on making connections with prospective clients. I thought, yeah, everyone’s chilling but I gotta keep hustling. I gotta put food on the table.
Meanwhile, hubby told me that his friend who’s currently working overseas wants to learn what we do as freelancers. So, I got this idea of conducting a skillshare session within our Facebook community to help out friends who are temporarily out of jobs or are looking for extra income while on lockdown.
What’s the common task that hubby and I do? Podcast editing.
I taught him how to edit podcasts. Why not teach this to others as well?
I learned the value of giving. KINDNESS first.
Because I cannot be on the battlefield right now (kudos to all our frontliners!), aside from giving donations, I can still step up and provide value to others by sharing what I know.
So, hubby created a Facebook group where we would conduct the skillshare session. I wrote the copy for posting on socials to announce the event. He prepared for the demo. I prepared the slides. Few people have signed up, surprisingly. These all happened in a span of days.
Then, Saturday came. There was no backing out. It was our first time to have this kind of event. It was actually our first time to go live on Facebook.
Few members have shown up. I loved the engagement and conversations during the session. They were really keen on learning how to edit podcasts.
I realized we can make a difference, no matter how small or big it is.
I am extra grateful that I am already working from home even before this pandemic happened and that I can make an impact even on a small community.
Shoutout to LJ (hubby) for also stepping up and helping me make this happen!
And, as one of my coaches asked in one of his newsletters, “Would you be proud of the person you’ve become when this crisis is over?” Hell YES!
How about you? How can you step up in times of crisis?
PS. If you are a podcaster or planning to launch one, now is the time to put yourself out there. People are out of their routines, yes. But, we will get back to our routines / new routines soon. Let your podcast be part of them. Let your podcast be their favorite. And, if you need help with setting it up or editing your episodes, you know who to call.