A GUIDE TO EVENTS | MY ONE MILLION READERS PARTY!!!

And all that counts,

Is here and now,

My universe will never be the same

I’m glad you came

The Wanted – Glad You Came

 

So, a few days ago I hosted my second blog party! With the first being to celebrate I’m NOT Disordered reaching 100,000 readers, and this time to celebrate one million readers, I’ve learnt a lot over the years – including lessons learnt from actually attending events. So, I thought I’d share my experiences and any advice I’d give on attending and organising an event…

INVITATIONS

So, I guess I’ll start with everything I’ve learnt about pretty much the first step in an event journey – the invitation… Now, don’t go thinking about a piece of paper with fill-in-the-blank text and yellow balloons – this isn’t a child’s Fifth Birthday party! In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever attended an event where there’s been any kind of actual image of the event details that could be labelled an invitation. Despite this though, when I started working on my one million readers party, one of the first things I created for it was a PNG with the basic information for the event because I knew it would be more memorable, appealing, and easier to share in emails and on social media rather than a lengthy bulk of text with the ins and outs.

Mostly though, when I’ve been invited to events (including large conferences/meetings), it’s been through an email – typically just checking whether I’m free on a particular date and then a follow-up to my response with the actual plan and details. But for me – in all honesty – the most important quality to the invitation isn’t its appearance and aesthetics; it’s the meaning behind it.

CELEBRATING ONE MILLION READERS!!!

Having been a Blogger for almost nine years, you’d think I would never run out of words – that I would never become speechless. And I think this should be especially true considering I’m a mental health Blogger, which is arguably the most challenging topic to communicate to others effectively enough to stir compassion and empathy. However, seeing that I’m NOT Disordered has reached over one million readers?!

As with a lot of the milestones I’ve celebrated over the years of my blog, I wanted to use reaching one million readers in a way that would help others. I think it’d be fair to say that usually, my means for helping others has meant advising readers on ways to safely manage their mental health or how to navigate upsetting situations. So this time, I wanted to do it a little bit differently, and considered all the occasions, situations, and stages I wish I’d been advised on during my own blogging career…

NEW BLOGGERS:

The most obvious and first step to advise on, are for the early days of your blog… When I created I’m NOT Disordered in 2013, there were three well-known mental health blogs – one by an ex-service user, one by a psychiatric nurse, and one by a Police Officer who was really passionate and interested in mental health law. 

Whilst this meant that there was a niche for a blog written by a psychiatric hospital inpatient (as I was then), it also meant I had no one to turn to for relevant and actually experienced advice and guidance. And the absence of this meant I got a very terrified and intimidated feeling that almost filled me with a sense that I had to learn things the ‘hard way.’

1.     Don’t be embarrassed to read/watch online tutorials

2.     Utilise hashtags on social media to connect with other Bloggers

3.     Trust your heart as well as your head – don’t second guess yourself

4.     Consider pros and cons to keep your worrying productive and reasonable

5.     Never stop being yourself – no matter how different that may be

“IT FEELS SO SURREAL” | EVERYTHING I’M THINKING ABOUT ON THE WAY TO ONE MILLION READERS!!!

Some people may think I’m a bit eager with this blog post, but I think that it’s in my head a lot at the minute because if my daily statistics continue at the very lowest, I’m NOT Disordered should reach one million readers before the end of the year. And figuring this out, meant that I’ve began organizing a private event to celebrate the milestone. Which, again, has drawn my attention to the fact it’s going to happen… When I was telling someone what the party was for, I was asked how it felt – the notion of having one million readers – and I told her it was surreal. But that’s not all that’s in my head around this momentous occasion…

Small beginnings should be recognized and remembered…

Instances like this – getting closer and closer to one million readers – make me so grateful that I can remember the very beginning of I’m NOT Disordered. For those who don’t know the story…

It was January 6^th, 2013 and I had been a psychiatric inpatient since summer 2012 after a suicide attempt left me on life support. I had just had a 1:1 with my Key Nurse and we’d decided that I would start writing a little bit about the abuse I’d experienced when I was younger every night. Agreeing to do this felt like a massive step forward into recovery and it inspired a sense of wanting to document it. So, when I got back to my room from the 1:1 and saw my laptop lying on the bed, I realized that rather than document my progress in one of the many notebooks I wrote in, it might be a better idea to do it online.

I thought that at least that way, my loved ones – family, friends… could join me on the journey and be better placed at understanding what I was experiencing. I hoped that in doing this, they would be able to be even more supportive, they’d be able to help others struggling with their mental health, they’d feel more confident in speaking up about any difficulties they have too, and they’d be better educated in mental illness so as to dispel any stigmatized thoughts and opinions (because even your loved ones can have them!).