What you get

in exchange for
17 hours of your time

(Findings after 100 days of singing on the internet.)

#the100dayproject wrapped last week. For those who aren’t intimately familiar (or don’t follow @ElleLuna on Instagram), the gist was this: Choose one action — a passion project that you love — and spend a little time on it everyday for 100 days.

Then, record your progress on Instagram.

So, I decided to sing. Now, I’ve been a singer my whole life, but it hasn’t ever been much of a focus. I have that tragically-lucky burden of being good at a couple things (I geek out about user retention just as much as I do about reharmonization), and — not a surprise— I’ve always felt compelled to prioritize my more “traditional” talents.

I decided to join the project, like, 24 hours before it started. I didn’t start with any grand vision of celebrity or finding myself. With full transparency, I was mostly drawn to the project as an opportunity to experiment with Instagram growth tactics. (I know. That would be me shoving myself under the rug, I suppose.)

But I started nonetheless. On Day 1, a non-techie musician friend of mine told me I should probably start tagging this stuff so that people could find it.

On Day 22, I got asked to be in a little Instagram interview. On Day 45, I launched an interactive Kickstarter for what will be my next album and tour. On Day 47, I gigged (for actual money). On Day 51, the album got funded — including some donations from “strangers” who found me via Instagram.

On Day 88, I met Elle Luna IRL (#the100dayproject leader and writer of The Crossroads of Should and Must). I even sang for her at the SoundCloud offices.

On Day 103, I introduced myself as a singer without flinching.

Now, I wasn’t perfect. I wound up with 80-odd posts in 100 days, a solid B on the report card. But, as my dad once said when I got a D+ in Intermediate Econ, three credits is three credits.

In short, here’s what I learned:

• The path is made by walking. You cannot think your way into being a graphic designer. Or recording an album, or becoming a famous fashion vlogger. It literally doesn’t work like that. It’s all about chipping away little by little, with great consistency. Which is why…
• I blinked, and a portfolio exists. Look through all the videos I’ve created since April 6th, and it looks like a lot of progress. It is! But let’s do some math. Start to finish, each video took me about 12 minutes to plan, record, and upload. I did that, like, 86 times in 100 days. That’s 1032 minutes, or just over 17 hours.
• Habits will help you, if you let them. Those 17 hours may seem like a lot to you, or they may not. But the more often you spend 12 minutes a day doing something, the less of a big deal it becomes to fit into your calendar. I recorded at my housewarming party, while on my lunch break, during rehearsals, after working out, and everywhere in between.
• You don’t have to go it alone. I participated in this project with a giant community on the internet (and two friends in real life, Anita and Astrid). In life and in love and in creative pursuits: find the people who get you, and let them encourage you when you need it — and vice versa, of course.
• Done is better than perfect. If we’ve learned anything from Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck splitting up, it’s that perfection is but a myth. But seriously. Perfection is usually just an excuse not to start or an excuse not to finish. Focus on consistency, and incremental progress. And as Elle Luna drew so beautifully:

• Oh, and bonus: You may learn that you hate it. Whatever it is. Sometimes, you think you want that “cool” job, without knowing what it really entails. The fastest way to see if you’ll actually enjoy yourself is to… yep, start researching, start practicing, start building.

As for me, I’m onto the next hundred days. I’ll keep recording (and you can always send me your requests for 15-second cover songs on Instagram). And, later this week, I’ll begin rehearsals with my guitarist for The Human Jukebox Project.

I can’t offer you any quick feel-good summary about being discovered by Justin Bieber’s agent, or even about finding your bliss. But I do feel a little more like an accurate representation of myself. And that’s pretty cool.

Though, I mean, if you want to talk licensing — I’m available.

Thanks for reading. If you want to keep in touch, you can find me singing on Instagram at @alexashoen.

I also write emails once a week about how to apply content marketing strategy to your own life and career… and now I guess I’ll be talking a lot about the album, too. If that sounds cool to you, go ahead and join my TinyLetter mailing list.