February

A few months ago, I suggested post ideas, one of which my cohost would illustrate – a winter wellbeing post:

• It was in progress but incomplete, and with winter finishing it needed to be up
• The founder mentioned posting this on stories instead as there are many event posts pending, and this post idea was to keep active when we first joined IH
• Despite agreeing, I felt stories wasn’t the best location: we wouldn’t reach a new audience, and it has many slides (which would mean many stories)
• However, she suggested spreading out the posts and keeping it under a highlight to counter these issues, so I agreed = importance of trying to keep posts within deadlines

Collaborations

• We have many potential collaborators /ideas for the next few months that can fall through or work out = we’ve been getting slightly confused. The founder organised this through a Notion table to help keep track, which was beneficial
• We got in contact with a matcha brand, enlematcha (EM) to host an event. I asked for their event availability to help us understand what days to suggest to other collaborators = beneficial to know who to prioritise. This furthered my connectivity and interpersonal skills to stay efficient
• With many old collaborative Notion pages, I created a document containing this information. Setting this up early on was beneficial for busier periods = keep organised and informed my future professionality
• The founder asked us about hosting workshops at a Festival. I was nervous since we haven’t facilitated workshops yet, but I suggested we show our interest and make the craft before hosting it which helped

2026 goal setting video

• I added photos to this video to emphasise the feel of the event
• I realised the footage I took was quite repetitive, reflecting a need to think further about various shots
• I made this as a compilation, but didn’t love the outcome. I noticed I don’t prefer editing compilations as much as I do other formats
  • However, I struggled to ideate further, with the focus on aesthetics
  • Simultaneously, I saw a different content style from IH Tokyo. I found the ideas interesting and engaging, ideas that I had never thought about for the same reason, so I decided I should catch up with the founder at some point to discuss if perhaps the style is changing

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUscTM4CLXP/?igsh=MXdiaW1hb2RmdmI4dg==

RG meeting

• As they had contacted us, I hoped they’d have an idea on how we could collaborate, especially as their workshops are higher priced
• However, we were asked if we had ideas, which surprised me, also considering we provided our pitch deck (has various ideas listed). As a result, we referred her to this again and decided our ideas couldn’t be priced at their bands, concluding with no collaboration
• It made me reflect on the need to have aligned collaborators, since they seem to be more of a business whereas we are community-first
• It also reminded me of the importance of researching potential collaborators as this could’ve been concluded this over messages

Content changes

• The founder mentioned she wants to find more content creator volunteers, focused only on being consistent with posts, ideally in Tokyo. I was confused by this, since that inferred London too and I post consistently
• She apologised for not asking me about it before, said it can include weekly posts, editing, memes and trends and that I’m welcome to make more. This confirmed my previous thought and since I still wasn’t 100% sure, I decided to plan content based on what I’ve understood, and plan a meeting
• She sent me inspiration so I spent time developing ideas, which I will do for each event and found helpful
• In a sense, I felt relieved as it meant I could look into more styles, but also realised it would take more time during events, so communicated that my focus will shift further onto content
• With these changes, that I was interested in, but also needed to adapt to, an event upcoming, and other event preparation I was beginning to get overwhelmed so I just listed all my tasks on Notion to break them down and keep organised

Self-Care Zine-Making event

• We finally introduced the event which was useful to avoid repeating notices, and everyone was familiar with how the event will run
• I spoke to attendees, but will speak to them more to build further connections
• It was successful, all 14 signees attended and I got all content, especially aligning with my updated ideas. These updates made me more excited to edit too
• We made a tour video inspired by a trend. It’s supposed to be continuous and the main table wasn’t shown, which caused a couple editing difficulties so next time I will show inspiration beforehand
• I asked the founder who said:

Repeat it slower [clip of main table] and bring in effects

This was a useful idea but effects were limited as I edited it on Instagram (thinking it would be a simple edit), so next time I wont do this

Tour video:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DW-6mMdMZbr/?igsh=NmJjaHhkd3MxanY1

• I also made POV videos, including a POV still (inspired by the below)
  • These performed very well. On TikTok the POV still increased our followers by 400%, so I will make more. I also believe planning this was useful, which I had recently been brushing off since I struggled with ideas

Inspiration:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT7ysK8DPS9/?igsh=ZzJwMHY1anczeXgx

Originally I used the same caption from the inspiration, planning to credit them. But, I loved the founder’s feedback which was to:

Alter it to “introvert friendly” to fit the branding

POV still:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVFNOHxjG0f/?igsh=ZHdlcXR5ZDFtM3Zw

EM collaboration

• In our meeting, we decided to do a matcha making and journaling event
• We said she’d send over some description points, which I asked for to make the Eventbrite, but these included a different price and title to what we agreed. I thought it best to ask the team their thoughts
• As we had a deadline, I started making the description while waiting. My cohost said:

Add more about journaling [and] put the focus on making your own matcha

These were great points as it was what we offered for the collab and was useful as a selling point

• The founder eventually said she was worried about the high price and later suggested doing early bird tickets. I loved this idea and we consistently did this for other events
• Early bird tickets gave me an idea to first exclusively promote them on our Whatsapp and mailing list, especially as we need to be more active on Whatsapp – something we brought to many future events
• Sending this to the Whatsapp chat/mailing list and posting the promotional post was chaotic as:
  • I ticked off “absorb fees” (adds Eventbrite fees onto original price) accidentally
  • The team didn’t provide me access to the promotional post
  • There were misunderstandings
  • I edited new points onto the Eventbrite
  • I needed to make a caption
  • I was requested to add a survey from a past collaboration to our email but wasn’t given a link
• Ultimately, I knew something needed to change, so I:
  • Made Eventbrite and caption templates
  • Requested they send over posts as soon as it’s done
  • Now know not to tick off absorb fees
• I searched how to partially refund those who bought tickets while absorb fees was available and sent out an email, problem-solving and also learning the refund process as I haven’t done it yet