Author: oliviajlopez

BEAUTY HAULS & REVIEWS CONTEXTUAL REPORT

BCM302

TIKTOK PAGE: Oliviajlopez

Knowing that this is the final digital artefact and contextual report is bittersweet. Looking back at all the digital artefacts I’ve begun, developed or neglected indeed shows my growth as a person finding my way and footing in the digital world which has been exciting, fun and at times challenging to keep up with. For my final digital artefact, I decided it was best to continue a previous digital artefact that I enjoyed and found had utility for myself and also for others who consumed my content. My digital artefact I had named “Beauty Hauls and Reviews” and focused to publish my content through TikTok.

Background

I began this digital artefact journey wanting to make an impact in the beauty and makeup industry. This is ultimately the industry that I have wanted to focus on and delve into. Its been my passion and hobby since the age of 13. As I’ve been involved in some form or another in the beauty industry, I felt I had enough knowledge and expertise from watching others, for creating content surrounding the beauty and makeup industry and found it was important for my future. Before studying for my bachelor of communications and media, I had never had that push of encouragement to begin doing something in this industry and for that, I’ll forever be grateful to have had that push and ability to ideate, test and reiterate as well as scrapping and beginning all over again when failure was experienced.

I wouldn’t have labelled myself as a content creator when I began the DA, but seeing how far I’ve come since taking the DA seriously, I can see in my future labelling myself in this way especially or more specifically as a TikTok content creator. I’ve come to love the process and the responses that my followers have had with me and the content I’ve published. It’s a truly exciting and surreal experience to see and hear from followers and be able to interact with people on a topic I love.

Pitch Blog Post & Video

Proposed Utility 

For my final digital artefact, I began with the intention to grow my online presence in the beauty and makeup space on TikTok. I never intended this DA to become a “beauty influencer” type of digital artefact and nor did I ever expect to see the growth that I have seen in the past 3 months. I simply decided that to pursue my passion, I needed to make this a passion project rather than focusing on the fact that this was an assessment, I framed this digital artefact as a passion project and hobby. This mindset and framing of my digital artefact gave me the extra passion and drive to work on the digital artefact without feeling as though it was a hassle or burden. 

Apart from the desire to grow my presence on the platform to help others, I wanted to set myself as a beauty content creator from Australia. The majority of content creators in this space are from other countries, with the vast majority being from the United States of America. It is difficult to be a part of this beauty tiktok realm as Australians unfortunately often miss out on new product launches and brands that are exclusive to stores Australians cannot access. I wanted to create content that focused on Australian brands or products that anyone could easily access and purchase for themselves if they wished.

Methodology

The intended methodology with the DA was to continue carrying on my previous DA by posting consistently once a day. I never mentioned this previously as I hadn’t realised this prior, but I posted these daily videos at around 9 pm-9:30 pm which I believe had a successful impact on the growth I experienced throughout this process. Although I intended to post at least one video daily, this was not always something I could achieve but in saying this, I ensured that if I had some time away from posting when I did make my return, I worked harder and created content that was trending or that had an important utility to my audience that ultimately saw growth.

I generally spent my weekends batch creating content to then edit daily as needed to post to my account. Occasionally I posted 1-2 videos a day. Knowing not all people enjoy waiting for a part 2, I often decided the best way to reach my audience and have them return for part 2, would be to post the content videos back to back. This certainly saw part 1 videos have far better results but it did also pull people back to my page and potentially have them select to watch the other videos.

Alongside my video posting and the intended schedule I had created for myself, I decided to document my progress through monthly reports. Consider the end of this report as my October update. I stuck true to this schedule although there were times I should have posted the updates sooner, I still persevered and wrote up a blog post update that included progress reports and exciting things I discovered and found to happen in that particular month. To see those progress update blog posts, please follow the links below.

August Update

September Update:

Intended Audience / Starter Pack

My intended audience is easy to describe yet hard to pinpoint due to TikTok’s algorithm. It’s difficult to determine if the audience consuming my content fits my exact intended audience but with the interaction and growth I’ve experienced, I feel I can safely assume my content has reached my desired audience. These people are part of my below starter pack.

I imagine my audience to look, feel and be a part of the beauty side of tiktok in one or multiple ways pictured in my audience starter pack. I feel I fit this starter pack as I have also been heavily influenced by the recommendations given by other TikTokers in the beauty realm.

Collaboration Element

This new feature to collaborate with another person developing their digital artefact was interesting, and if you used your opportunity wisely, it was an excellent way to get feedback and advice from a new perspective. This insight has the potential to assist you to create further improvements in the development of the DA. I decided that the best use and collaboration for my DA would be to contact Kira Sweet. 

I decided to reach out to Kira back in week 5. My DA had progressed from the beginning statistics I had recorded earlier that month but was not seeing any steady or consistent new followers, comments or views. Kira was part of the creative services team providing fellow DA peers advice on their TikTok pages as she has grown her own and managed other TikTok accounts quite well and had the knowledge and experience I was lacking in this area. Although reaching out made me nervous, the whole process was easy and quite delightful! She had put out a post on Twitter looking for any DAs she could lend her services to, so I replied and we got to talking. We ended up organising a date when we could meet on zoom. She analyzed the content I had already published and provided me with a document full of different ways I could improve my content and begin seeing growth on TikTok and in the niche I specifically have chosen to be a part of.

This zoom meeting was extremely insightful and I found it to have helped me immensely. In the meeting, we discussed points of improvement and ways I could get my content and my message in this niche more defined. Everything we discussed in the zoom meeting was sent to me afterwards which helped me go back and take a look at the document which I did multiple times throughout my DA’s progress as a way to go back and find inspiration when I felt I was lacking ideas. 

The ideas that were brought forward in the meeting with Kira and me were in the document provided to me and after analysing my content now, it is evident her advice helped a lot. I began to recognise the names of people who were regularly interacting and consuming my content. For me, this meant that I was beginning to see the signs of growth and improvement in my content and my niche and ultimately suggesting that I was growing in this niche. I was beginning to see my presence make an impact. Due to this, I would say that without the collaborative element, my DA may not have done as well as I have seen it achieve. I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration that was included in this digital artefact assessment task.

Feedback

The feedback I received mainly came from my collaborative element and what Kira and I discussed when analysing the content I had already produced and published to improve upon for my future content. If I was to give feedback to myself looking back at how I’ve managed my DA, I can certainly see areas I could have improved on. I would say that the weeks that I consistently posted the content that was trending and where I was actively and consistently posting were my best. My downfall areas where I hadn’t noticed as much interaction came from the moments I had taken a break. These breaks certainly had an impact where occasionally I would notice losing a few followers or not getting the interaction I normally received. My feedback to myself is to stay consistent and persistent. I cannot truly continue this DA if I do not love it, and of course, through the development of my previous and current DA, I’ve come to enjoy the whole process and can confidently say, I LOVE IT! 

The biggest indicator from my audience that suggested I was on the right track was the growth, likes, saved, shares and comments my videos began gaining. This was the best feedback I could have asked for. Of course, comments asking for follow-up content were great! They gave me video ideas and had the commenters come back to my page. Listening to my audience and what they wanted to see was a key factor for the continued return of my followers. 

The October Update

I began October with the below statistics.

Now I have ended, well almost ended the month with these statistics.

This progress is amazing, especially for me because it shows me that the advice that I was given and the content I’ve been creating and publishing to my audience are doing well and I’m on the right path.

October saw the biggest growth. I was producing content that was trending and using hashtags that were highly ranked. I found that this month was one worth creating content for because Australian beauty stores were having sales and launching Christmas products. Christmas always has the best deals and therefore makes content recommending products highly ranked. I simply hope that after this DA is submitted, my TikTok page can still grow like that of my TikTok page used as a DA.   

Advice to future digital artefacts

Do not start a DA if you strongly do not love the topic. Your DA will feel like a chore if you don’t choose wisely. Begin creating your dream content and do not care what others may think because all that matters is that YOU are proud of yourself and what YOU have produced.

Overall, looking back on my DA, I could not be happier to say that I didn’t feel as though I was impacted by FIFO, that’s an achievement I’m very happy to report. After 3 years and many moments where I felt as though my DA had failed, I’ve finally found a DA that I not only love but am proud of. It certainly wasn’t easy getting here but I’m certainly proud of myself and the perseverance that these last 3 years of creating and publishing content have allowed me to accomplish. When you love what you create, it shows!

TIKTOK PAGE: @oliviajlopez

BCM313 Narrative Interview Reflection

BCM313

As part of my narrative interview presentation, interviewing my mum gave me further insight into things I never knew about my mum’s career history. I had always known my mum as this strong, independent and In charge woman. In contrast, whilst interviewing, I discovered she preferred to refer to herself as personable, adaptable, open and flexible when it came to working and her career. These skills were not only what she felt she had, but skills I feel I have as well. As this was something I learnt from interviewing her, I thought it would be best to see what she felt she learnt about herself.

When asked, my mum simply said “I realised the importance the people I met during my career had on me. At the time, I didn’t realise they had left their print and impact on my career heading forward. The little things that they said didn’t seem like big deals but looking back at those moments, I see how important they were in shaping me and my values”. 

This was really interesting to hear her response because it too highlighted for me my club of life and those who have left their mark on my working career including the skills and values I take to approach my work. Unless brought to our attention, or we are asked about the subject, it’s true how much we can miss from that moment until you take the time to reflect and tell your story again to someone new who was not present at the time of the story. 

Whilst conducting the interview, my mum began to re-member a story about a time a boss of hers upset an employee from my mum’s store she was managing. Not only had she begun to tell this story without having been asked for a story example, but it also came about when I asked her to tell me who she felt left an impact on her career history. Quite clearly, this particular boss did. In telling the story, she was using the absent but implicit narrative theory. She didn’t realise it at the time but coming back years later and telling the story, it was evident the impact this person had on my mum’s career and the values she took forward with her as her career progressed further into the different manager roles.

I found it very interesting that when I asked my mum about her club of life, she wasn’t able to provide a family member. This didn’t make it into the video as it became a private moment, but it got me thinking why she may have felt that way, as I would have very confidently said my mum would be a huge part of my own club of life, both personal and as part of my career. She played a critical part that allowed me to get my first job. This got me thinking, maybe she didn’t mention a family member because no one else in her family understood her job as a manager at all the different levels she was in being that no one else in her family worked in this industry. This was something  I wanted to touch on as I never expected the answer I received. She kept mentioning her same boss from the story prior as her biggest support but also all the co-workers and managers she worked alongside her that became crucial in her club of life throughout her career.

As the outsider witness listening to the stories my mum brought to the interview, I recognised my work style was similar to my mum’s. Having grown up and watched her be the boss lady that she is, that people either loved or hated as she was strict but in my opinion very fair, I recognise the skills and values my mum has that have influenced my working style. I too like my mum began working in retail at the young age of 15 and have worked my way up. I see myself as a strict but fair employee who takes pride in my work and strives for the best outcomes possible. These I easily recognised having come from my mum and having watched her in her earlier retail career.

This narrative interview was mind-opening. Having to create interview questions and delivering an interview with someone I know well, I couldn’t help but smile and laugh especially for the moments I recognised my mum and her working style. I’m quite close with my mum and reliving memories from her career made us both laugh, unfortunately, had to be removed from the interview, but overall, I felt I was able to show to my BCM313 peers who my mum was, what she valued in work and was able to learn so much from the experience.

References:

Carey, M & Russell, S 2003, Outsider-witness practices: some answers to commonly asked questions compiled by, viewed 18 October 2022, <https://narrativepractices.com.au/attach/pdf/Outsider_Witness_Common_Questions.pdf&gt;.

CAREY, M, WALTHER, S & RUSSELL, S 2009, ‘The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry’, Family Process, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 319–331.

Russell, S & Carey, M 2002, Remembering: responding to commonly asked questions co-ordinated by, viewed 18 October 2022, <http://narrativepractices.com.au/attach/pdf/Remembering_Common_Questions.pdf&gt;.

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Beauty Reviews & Hauls September Update

BCM302

September was a good month. My intention was to grow my presence on my TikTok page and that’s exactly what I noticed happen. I found September to be an inspirational month. I had the motivation, the content ideas and the time to create content and post on a consistent schedule which I believe truly helped with the success of September.

I began the month with the following statistics.

And ended the month with these statistics.

September saw a brand reach out to me and challenged me to determine what rates I should charge as a new content creator. Although the offer was discussed and rates were exchanged, the brand never ended up reaching out to me to decline or to negotiate. This tells me maybe I had rates set too high. Nevertheless, this didnt deter me, if that brand didnt see my poential, someone else will.

I never set goals on how many followers I wanted to reach but I decided in September to try to reach 800 followers for October and if I stay as consistent as I was in September, October may be even better than before. My fingers are crossed and hopefully I can reach that milestone.

If you’re not following my page, @oliviajlopez on TikTok!

Listening Essay- Ashley Tank

BCM313

I struggle with listening tasks not because I don’t want to hear but because I’ve always considered myself a talker. This made the task of listening to understand rather than listening to respond a challenging one for me. I decided to listen to the conversation with Ashley Tank. Ashley is the Executive Director Global at UOW, where she oversees all things global that affect the university and the students in a global environment and setting. Upon her introduction, she describes her role as requiring “collaboration” and continues by mentioning that “I’m a collaborator. That’s one of my values”. This stood out to me because I sometimes feel I lack the skill of collaboration but only when I’m in the right environment and with a positive group, do I feel as though collaboration is the only way I can get through a task. This simple description of being a collaborator showcased the importance of working together no matter the scale or level you’re working at and highlighted Ashley’s first value.

As the interview progressed, and conversation around Covid and the change it brought began, Ashley re-membered a story of how she acquired her current position. She had been asked by her then director to “pop into a meeting” to listen to an upcoming project which lead her to “managing the whole thing” referring to the project from that initial meeting. Hearing Ashley’s story about how she acquired her current position made me realise that her club of life member had left a major impact on her story of how she got to her position. Her then director felt that Ashley was more than capable of “managing” because of her previous role and experience in managing inbound and outbound students studying abroad. Further into the interview when asked who Ashley felt knew she was capable of taking on this role, her immediate answer was her then director who believed in her ambitiousness but then also her husband who believed in her. The concept of re-membering a story being recounted introduces the idea that it’s not always the outcome of the story being told that is most important, but the people we find ourselves mentioning that are important to the tale and ultimately are the people that we find to be important to us.

To re-member is ‘to call attention to the reaggregation of members, the figures who belong to one’s life story …’ (Myerhoff 1982, p.11). Michael White further developed the term, introducing it into narrative therapy. This development brings to light the idea that people’s identities are shaped by what can be referred to as a ‘club of life’. ‘Club of life’ initiates the concept that for all of us there are members to our club of life who have a part to play in the way we come to experience ourselves (Russell & Carey, 2002).

Whilst listening to Ashely’s story, it became evident that her then director was not only a crucial member of Ashely’s club of life but also an outsider witnessing her abilities to manage the new project. They had known that Ashley was beyond capable of the role she has now acquired and believed in her to take control of the project. An outsider witness in narrative therapy is “an invited audience to a therapy conversation” (Russell & Carey, 2003). They are invited to listen and acknowledge the story of the person they are listening to, also making me an outsider witness to Ashley’s story and interview.

Listening to Ashley’s interview, I found myself drawn to her stories and language. I connect her comments to my life and can see how we have similar ways of working and similar values. Ashley goes on to mention that she “is the type of person that needs to know everything”. This is something I can strongly connect to as I value curiosity and knowledge in my work life. It is apparent that Ashley feels the same with the way she uses body language to emphasise the importance of this desire to “know everything”. These hand gestures show a sense of realness and as an outsider witness to this story, I can feel her authenticity which Russell & Carey describe a preferred story to be and this is clearly Ashley’s preferred story to describe her work values. “This sense of ‘realness’ or ‘authenticity’ only comes when our preferred stories are witnessed and responded to by a significant audience”  (Carey & Russell, 2003)”. 

I believe after listening to this interview with Ashley Tank, that re-membering and more specifically, our club of life members are those who shape us and allow us to develop our own preferred stories on how we ended up in the position we are in today and an outsider witness like Ashley’s then director, have the ability change the projection of our career goals.

Peering for the Final Time!

BCM302

I’ve been following Jess Jenkin’s & Georgie O’Brien’s DAs this semester. Jess has and is reigniting her photography Instagram page while Georgie is on the resources team promoting Building 29. While these 2 DAs are different from one another, they share the commonality of following interests of theirs.  

Jess has documented her weekly progress update on Twitter in the form of tweet updates with images of the progress she has made or the work she is editing. This was an excellent way to document the progress but I believe that she could have benefited from further interactions on Twitter to promote her Instagram page. I feel this DA could be improved with a collaboration from anyone from the creative services team to provide feedback on her DA or to elevate the experience of the viewer of the page. 

Although work has begun on this DA, I feel as though Jess would benefit from truly working on the DA, posting Instagram stories, and more images to her feed or quite possibly seeing a change in the platform she is using to see if her following would grow, as this is something that has not grown at a steady pace. I believe there is a lot of potential in this DA and I truly want to see Jess feel she has created a DA she is proud of, with experience that could assist her in achieving a dream job role. As this is not yet the end of the DA, I hope to see more, but specifically more of what she loves. 

My suggestion to improve upon this DA is to reach out yourself to collaborate with a member of the creative services team to enhance your potential future client to fall in love with what you create, and Jess you have some stunning images. I would also suggest trying new platforms to promote your work or a new posting schedule to have more interactions, I’ve found that interactions are extremely helpful. Possibly researching your niche and other creators could help with the DAs development, growth and exposure. My suggestion for this is to try and follow people who are in similar fields to you and see what works well for them and your niche and just give it a go!

Georgie’s DA is already underway with the rest of the Resources Building 29 team. Georgie’s role within this group is the social media content producer and visual design manager. She has used her Twitter weekly updates to promote the UOWbuilding29 Instagram page as she has been creating posts that can be found on the page. I feel as though the page has a strong brand and aesthetic which with the continued development of the social media page should hopefully be recognisable amongst all UOW students in the future.

This DA has progressed steadily and I think it has done well with its branding. I believe Georgie could improve her weekly Twitter updates by submitting them weekly as this is something I have noticed to have been lacking. I appreciate seeing the tweets come through and I can forgive this with the amount of work I can see she has created and posted, but I enjoy seeing everyone’s weekly update at the end of each week.

As our DAs require an element of collaboration, I think it could be interesting to see how Georgie and her team have incorporated that element outside of those who are part of the resources building 29 teams. I think this could help further spread the information being provided about building 29 and the resources it has on offer for UOW students.

As for improvements, I think posting consistent weekly updates, but also I would love to see maybe more about the future of this DA’s development. Are there plans to pass on the social media pages to the next set of 3rd-year students? I think this could be an interesting topic Georgie and her team could discuss and maybe put out on their page to see what others think also.

Overall, the work that has been completed is exciting and honestly looks amazing. I’m very impressed and cannot wait to see these DAs continue to grow. I would love to see these digital artefacts help both these girls get into their dream job roles and enhance their skills in their chosen fields. My big tip for this blog post is to do what you love because when you love what you do, not only does it show but it helps you with your future but it gives you confidence and makes you happy. I’ve learnt the hard way that if I didn’t wholeheartedly love my DA and what I was creating, then it was obvious and minimal if at all happened that felt worth discussing/documenting. I just hope that both Jess and Georgie are loving their DA experience as much as I have this semester!

Beauty Reviews & Hauls August Recap

BCM302

My goal for this subject has been to grow my online presence through my Tiktok page and I have had some progress. I feel like the past month has been going fairly well.

If you didn’t know, I began this DA last year and fell head over heels for the process of creating content featuring beauty products. I have always been that youtube beauty community obsessed girly girl and that really translated into my everyday life where I would document my hauls to my friends on various platforms. In a way, I feel like, and I say this with some hesitation, I feel like I was made to be a content creator/ beauty influencer. For this reason, I felt TikTok would be the perfect location for me to produce content, it’s trending and I can work around my busy work and uni life that it just made sense.

I wanted to accompany my DA with monthly recaps that showed my progress. Regardless of this DA, I was documenting my monthly progress and I wanted to share this with my #BCM302 cohort. I began August with these statistics.

Within the month of August, my best-performing video was actually one that I posted towards the end of the month. https://www.tiktok.com/@oliviajlopez/video/7135791589623942401?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

And I ended the month with these statistics. I had a video begin to pick up again in views and likes and decided to pin the video. It became my highest viewed video and still continues to get interaction and is my first video to hit over 10 000 views. And as you can see, ended with over 18 000 views in August.

All in all, I felt August was a good learning month and allowed me to find new things that worked and I’ve begun testing new hashtag strategies to improve my reach with views which I will elaborate on in September in further detail. August was my month of experimenting and experimenting I did. I’m excited to have more to speak about in my September update!

If you haven’t already and would like to follow along with my journey, you can follow along at @oliviajlopez on TikTok!

Are these the last Peer Reviews for BCM?!

Uncategorized

I think I say it every round of peer reviews, I never enjoy these. I often feel uncomfortable although I know I am only providing feedback and notes on potential improvements if needed, I can’t help but always feel out of place.

For this round of peer reviews, I have decided to follow Jess Jenkins’ journey on the creative services team. She is providing the service of photography and the development of aesthetics. After viewing and reading the pitch, I felt a bit lost as to what this DA was called and where I could access such a service if I needed to. Although there is a link to a previous DA’s Instagram page, there is no exact place she is advertising her services that make me understand what services are being provided. I felt as though there needed to have a specific platform/s that would showcase what was on offer and potentially clarify how clients would be gained if there were no services being advertised. This I found confusing as I’m struggling to see how I can keep up with her journey in photography and aesthetic development without a defined platform.

It seems as though this DA is something that Jess enjoys and has found a passion for, which is something I love to see when someone is developing a DA. As someone who is not a photographer, I can appreciate the hard work that photography and aesthetic development require, and I look forward to the DA’s growth. I do wonder how this DA assists in Jess’ future. I assume photography is the industry she may like to pursue but she also mentions social media management so I’m curious to see how both of these will relate to one another or if they do, how and why wasn’t this shown in your pitch. I would have enjoyed getting to see what could be created.

This semester I will also be following Georgie O’Brien’s journey on the B29 Resources Team. This DA Pitch was clear and effective in explaining what the purpose of the DA’s development was. As someone who does not have access to building 29 or have any knowledge of what can be found there, this is quite interesting. I enjoyed getting to hear the excitement in Georgie’s pitch video and to be able to see who their target audience is as well as how the B29 resources team intend to get their content across to their audience was really well done. I liked seeing direct links that took me to the platforms that were being used as part of this DA. 

I did find the DA pitch video speaking to be a little fast, but this is something I know I commonly happen to do which to me means the person is excited and passionate about their project. This I can forgive because I much prefer to hear a fast speaker than someone who may not actually have any proper interest in their DA. I do question how this DA has relevance for Georgie’s future as promoting UOW’s building 29 is only truly useful if it had a correlation to a future prospect. I assume social media management as Georgie and the team appear to place a strong focus on their social media channels to promote this particular building.

Overall, I’m excited to see what happens next with these 2 DA projects. I chose to follow these as they are quite different to one another but also from my own which could give me inspiration on how I can better develop my DA.

Are these the final peer reviews for BCM?

BCM302

I think I say it every round of peer reviews, I never enjoy these. I often feel uncomfortable although I know I am only providing feedback and notes on potential improvements if needed, I can’t help but always feel out of place.

For this round of peer reviews, I have decided to follow Jess Jenkins’ journey on the creative services team. She is providing the service of photography and the development of aesthetics. After viewing and reading the pitch, I felt a bit lost as to what this DA was called and where I could access such a service if I needed to. Although there is a link to a previous DA’s Instagram page, there is no exact place she is advertising her services that make me understand what services are being provided. I felt as though there needed to have a specific platform/s that would showcase what was on offer and potentially clarify how clients would be gained if there were no services being advertised. This I found confusing as I’m struggling to see how I can keep up with her journey in photography and aesthetic development without a defined platform.

It seems as though this DA is something that Jess enjoys and has found a passion for, which is something I love to see when someone is developing a DA. As someone who is not a photographer, I can appreciate the hard work that photography and aesthetic development require, and I look forward to the DA’s growth. I do wonder how this DA assists in Jess’ future. I assume photography is the industry she may like to pursue but she also mentions social media management so I’m curious to see how both of these will relate to one another or if they do, how and why wasn’t this shown in your pitch. I would have enjoyed getting to see what could be created.

This semester I will also be following Georgie O’Brien’s journey on the B29 Resources Team. This DA Pitch was clear and effective in explaining what the purpose of the DA’s development was. As someone who does not have access to building 29 or have any knowledge of what can be found there, this is quite interesting. I enjoyed getting to hear the excitement in Georgie’s pitch video and to be able to see who their target audience is as well as how the B29 resources team intend to get their content across to their audience was really well done. I liked seeing direct links that took me to the platforms that were being used as part of this DA. 

I did find the DA pitch video speaking to be a little fast, but this is something I know I commonly happen to do which to me means the person is excited and passionate about their project. This I can forgive because I much prefer to hear a fast speaker than someone who may not actually have any proper interest in their DA. I do question how this DA has relevance for Georgie’s future as promoting UOW’s building 29 is only truly useful if it had a correlation to a future prospect. I assume social media management as Georgie and the team appear to place a strong focus on their social media channels to promote this particular building.

Overall, I’m excited to see what happens next with these 2 DA projects. I chose to follow these as they are quite different to one another but also from my own which could give me inspiration on how I can better develop my DA.

BCM313 Narrative Reflection

BCM313

I have always disliked change and disruption in my life because of the uncertainty it brings into my everyday routine. I am the type of person who has always had a set wake-up time with enough notice of what my work week and/or my school/uni week or the combination of the two was going to look like. With this being said covid really challenged me because of the consistent yet unpredictable change it brought.

It was 2020 right after I had moved into my new house with my family and I really needed consistency. I value and appreciate having the ability to work and earn money as for me this means independence. With this in mind, I knew I needed to find a new job with more consistency. The job search began and as a joke, as I had been sitting on camping chairs in a newly built house and the TV on the floor and almost no other furniture thanks to COVID delays, I applied to work for a furniture business.

Two days later, I had an interview. I had only ever been a part of uni interviews prior to this but I practised some responses with my mum and developed answers that would make me sound like the best person for the job. Two days after the interview, which was intimidating and left me feeling unsure if I would receive a call, I received the call with the job offer. I was really unsure if I wanted to work in this environment because it was so different to the job role I had previously. My mum always says that you cannot succeed if you do not try and reminded me that if I started the role and gave it a chance for a week and didn’t like what was happening, then I could easily leave. So I gave it a chance.

That first week was better than I expected. Although the change of job role was new and different and really made me change my ways and weekly routine, it was a good difference and a great example that you shouldn’t knock it until you try it. During my first week I had the opportunity to learn all the programs and apps that the business used, made my first sales including a sauna sale which I had no knowledge on saunas and learnt as I went and even got to build new furniture models, but with this also came irate customers who were upset about the delays covid brought. These interactions scared me because I was new and didn’t have all the answers to give these customers. Instinctively, I made it a priority to learn all I could about products, shipping, warehouse, delays in shipping and even products and their benefits.

Fast forward 2 years, and I have now become the showroom manager!  With my hard work and determination in the furniture business and the ability to take initiative and aim to learn as much as I could about all the areas within this business, I was given the management role. These past 2 years brought many challenges, especially with the uncertainty of shift availability due to the lockdowns, but because my hard work stood out, I was given other work opportunities within the business.

To re-member is ‘to call attention to the reaggregation of members, the figures who belong to one’s life story …’ (Myerhoff 1982, p.11). Since the introduction of the term “re-membering”, Michael White further developed the term, introducing it into narrative therapy. This development introduces the idea that people’s identities are shaped by what can be referred to as a ‘club of life’. ‘Club of life’ initiates the concept that for all of us there are members to our club of life who have a part to play in the way we come to experience ourselves (Russell & Carey, 2002).

When I look back and re-member, my biggest supporter and the highest ranked member in my club of life is my mum. I have always looked up to her and have always pushed myself to do the best I can to make her proud. She encouraged me to take a leap of faith and make a change to my daily routine and it has paid off over the past 2 years. Although my mum was the first person I turned to, this is not to say that other members of my ‘club of life’ didn’t assist with my decisions during this time.

Although my mum is number 1, I also came to realise through this reflective narrative that my best friend Teagan, inspired me to find a better job, so I asked Teagan to give me her perspective. 

This task of re-membering provided the opportunity to re-engage with a past experience (Russell & Carey, 2002)that I would have otherwise forgotten about, bringing attention that the people I have surrounded myself with have similar shared values and views of how I saw myself at the time.

References:
Russell, S & Carey, M 2002, Remembering: responding to commonly asked questions co-ordinated by, viewed 21 August 2022, <http://narrativepractices.com.au/attach/pdf/Remembering_Common_Questions.pdf&gt;.

Beauty Hauls & Reviews

BCM302

It is pretty obvious once meeting me that beauty & makeup is more than a love or a passion, it takes up the majority of my life. It is what I dream about in my sleep and what I know in my heart will always keep me sane.

As my DA is a continuation of a previous DA, I wanted to continue to pursue this topic because DAs can feel like a lot of straining work when you start an idea you don’t truly love and have the time or ability to commit to. As this DA ended up becoming a hobby of mine from previous semesters, I know that I can commit to creating and publishing content for BCM302 and truly give it more than just a little bit of thought, I can give it my all.

My strategy for this DA is similar to the strategy I use outside of uni. This means staying up to date with all the latest trends and product launches and creating content to reflect what is trending and new in beauty and makeup. Although this will mean purchasing products to review and haul and therefore can be expensive to keep up with, I know I would have purchased these products regardless if they were for my DA or simply to grow my collection. I love trying new products and growing my makeup collection and in the meantime, I’m getting to help others who view my content, letting them know if what is being featured is worth the splurge. Most times it is but its good to have someone tell you if something is worthless to save you your money because beauty and makeup is not cheap.

I am beginning my DA with these current statistics.

Content will be published daily to my TikTok account @oliviajlopez. I’m always experimenting with the best time to post my content during any day to get the best results and will document my results throughout the progress and duration of this DA. I also hope to find the best hashtag combination for the highest results of views, likes and shares on my content. I hope to document this progress and what I’ve discovered monthly to my blog which I will advertise on my Twitter account for anyone interested in my progress.

Though I’m aiming to continue to grow and build my DA, I am focusing on the development of my online presence on TikTok, but also within the beauty realm. With this, I have identified that I am not aiming for a particular number of views on a video or to reach a particular number of followers, though this is a good way to know that I am building my presence, I am more so looking at the comments, recommendations & suggestions viewers of my content are asking to see from me as a big integral part of my DA’s success. Interaction with anyone consuming my content is important to me as it helps to build my presence in the beauty space on TikTok.