See a Need? Create a Challenge!

Being a community leader has put me in a position where I am always looking for ways to help support our members.

I want to see everyone doing well with their blogs. I see so much potential in people and love challenging them to bring out their very best.

I wanted to write this post, mainly for community leaders, because we have seen so much growth and success for our members in the NeedleWorkMonday Community. With every challenge we present each participant comments that it has helped them grow in some kind of way.

With that, we noticed that the efforts don’t stop when the challenges end. Instead they continue to strive for perfection by achieving the goals they have set for themselves. It’s been really amazing to see.

Let me give you some examples.

When we noticed the publications in our community were becoming mundane and all beginning to look the same we knew we needed to encourage improvement.

Once upon a time every post didn’t involve a tutorial. Every post didn’t include a finished project either. Instead we would post about the beginning of a project and why we chose to do it. We’d then share a little background along with photos of what we’ve accomplished so far. Then over the course of a week or two we would gradually share more of what we’ve accomplished until the completion of our work.

It was kind of like a follow along keeping each other in suspense as we awaited the final results.

To help motivate our community to get back into this mode and to help people not feel as if they had to finish a project before posting we presented the Tease Us Challenge.

Here’s a snippet from the challenge post:

We enjoy being teased with a sneak preview or just a peek of something amazing. We love reading your story and most importantly, we love reading about you and your journey as you bring your heart and soul here to share them with us.

_{First Place Winner @irenenavarroart}

The first week participants were to be creative in giving us a sneak peek of their projects. We had so much fun making guesses of what they were. The following week was the reveal of their completed masterpieces.

We saw a need so we challenged it. Since then more and more members have shared ongoing projects from week to week. We have also seen an improvement of elaboration on posts and are getting to know our members much better.

Best of all the publications in our community have become more unique and one of a kind. We are reading more than just tutorials again. 🤩

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For the longest we have been reaching out to our members personally to encourage them to improve on their photography presentations.

What good is it to share an amazing project with us that we can’t see clearly?

There have been several outstanding works of needle art that get under supported due to the fact that the photos are blurry and hard to make out mainly because of poor lighting.

We get it. Not everyone has the best setup, or an high end camera or the knowledge for taking exceptional photos. However, we truly believe that anyone can make an effort with just a little bit of research, a decent cell phone camera and the motivation to capture the best lighting possible. It also doesn’t take much to use the editing apps that are readily available on our phones.

To stress the importance of having clear presentable photos we made a three week challenge out of it called FOCUS Your Needlework.

Here’s a snippet from the challenge post:

You’re familiar with what our expectations are when it comes to quality. The way we showcase our work plays an important part in this. The way you display your work should be just as important as the amount of effort you put into creating it.

We want to see your BEST photos of your finished projects!

This will be a runway for your needlework. A showcase for your handmade items. The glamour shots of needle crafts.

We then added some photography and staging tips on the announcement post in hopes to further motivate people to do their best. I just knew we could be seeing better presentation efforts but some just need that extra boost of courage and for someone to believe that they can do it. 😊

We were truly amazed at the level of improvement submitted by the entrants.

It was very evident that extra effort was put forth and creativity was a top focus.

Not only did the quality of photos improve but the way these items were displayed did as well. Some brought out the dress mannequins to make their finished garments look neater. Others took it outside to the natural lighting. We also saw efforts of avoidance with laying pieces on the bare floor. There were creative uses of fabric pieces to help highlight the details of the work.

Many have expressed their appreciation for this challenge because it was the motivation they needed to do better. We learned some were just afraid to go out on a limb to enhance their photos. They didn’t think they had the ability to exceed their expectations. But once understanding how vital it was to FOCUS their needlework and upgrade their exhibitions, they accepted the challenge and did it well.

^{@clareartista}

I’m happy to report that once again it didn’t stop at the challenge. We are continuing to see some superb photography efforts and our community feed is looking quite sharp. 👌🏽👏🏽☺️

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We read through so many different posts throughout the week to hear the heartbeat of our community. We created a challenge to help us finish hidden away and forgotten projects which we call work in progress. We named this the WIP Challenge. This was a huge success as we supported one another and got those projects completed. Many of us felt so accomplished and motivate to finish even more.

A lot of us have accumulated very long lists of “To Do’s” and the “One day I’ll get to its”. We said why wait and created a Needlework Your Bucket List Challenge. Boy oh boy was this FUN! People were doing projects they didn’t think they would get to for months/years. The encouragement was to stop waiting and just do it. The turn out was incredible 😃!

So the challenges we do are not just about fixing up our posts or making the community feed look amazing, it’s also about being that support our fellow members need.

We see a need and we challenge it!!

Hearing what the majority are needing and setting up opportunities for them to accomplish that through challenges has really made us stronger. It keeps everyone engaged and involved and eager to do more. It shows your members that you care and are willing to create an atmosphere for them to grow and learn. It also is a great way for us to continue to showcase our skills 😊.

The cool thing about this is that the experiences and takeaways from these challenges will transfer to other communities as well. Meaning the blog improvements that are worked on for one community’s challenge will be evident as that member posts and interacts with other communities (ie. photo improvement, elaborations etc).

We hope to continue creating fun and unique challenges that will get us a step closer to our goals and keep us in the game for consistent success! 🤩

I woυld lιĸe тo тαĸe тнιѕ тιмe тo perѕoɴαlly тнαɴĸ мy αdмιɴιѕтrαтιoɴ тeαм @ĸαттycrocнeт αɴd @lαυrαмιcα wнo нαve вeeɴ ѕo αмαzιɴɢ тo worĸ wιтн. Tнey вoтн plαy α нυɢe pαrт ιɴ looĸιɴɢ αғтer тнe coммυɴιтy αɴd мαĸιɴɢ ѕυre we αre υp тo dαтe oɴ тнιɴɢѕ. I αм ɢrαтeғυl ғor тнeιr нelp αɴd ιɴpυт oɴ тнe cнαlleɴɢeѕ we do. Tнαɴĸ yoυ lαdιeѕ! 🤗💝

Thank You All for Reading ~

^{@purpleglitter}