What I Learned From Hosting My First Group Meeting for Writers on Zoom

I'm interested in learning more about this aspect of community building

Hello Friends,

Today I confronted one of my fears: technology. I have to say that it went pretty well. I think I even learned a few things.

Last weekend I scheduled Zoom meetings with two different writers. In talking to them, I realized that many of their questions overlapped so I thought it would be nice to schedule a question and answer session and offer it to all paid subscribers.

Although I've spent a fair amount of time as a guest on various podcasts, and in classes, organizing this meeting was a new thing for me. My computer tends to be temperamental, and I was afraid I'd sign in and have it not function at all (I did a fix for a bug after an update a couple months ago, and at least I'm not experiencing the freezes I used to get).

The idea is that I'd like to give my paid subscribers an opportunity to chat with me every now and then. I feel it's important to limit these sessions to paid subscribers because in the last week there has been a massive uptick in hostility. I've probably blocked more accounts in the last 3 days than in the rest of the time I've been on this platform.

Putting the link to the meeting behind a paywall is an effective way to avoid disruptions. But, as always, I offer a variety of sponsorship tiers.

I announced today's meeting a week ago, and I was pleased to see that a bunch of you upgraded to paid in response to those announcements. The meeting itself went well, but I want to make sure that those of you on the other side received the notifications I sent out. I sent paid subscribers an email with the zoom link, and I included the zoom link in a chat thread.

I just want to verify that everyone who wanted to was able to attend. As I was chatting this morning, I kept glancing at the control panel fearful that I was keeping somebody waiting. If something like that happened and I didn't see it, please contact me and let me know. Like I said, I'm new to hosting these meetings and I don't like to waste anyone's time.

One of my participants asked about my expectations for a weekly meeting. Honestly, as for today, my mission was simply to arrive on time, get the equipment to work, and make sure nobody was left waiting. Hopefully I achieved that much.

It's very useful to chat with people face to face, even if it's through a screen. Participating in a conversation helps me get a better idea of the information I need to provide to help all of you succeed.

It's long been the case that platforms such as Medium and Substack are overrun with articles that claim it's possible to earn a gazillion dollars with a few insider tricks. Then the authors of those articles offer to sell you a course. Some of those courses are legitimate, but not all of them.

There are writers out there who have much larger followings than I do. However at 50k followers on Medium, I do have a good sense of what sounds legitimate. Yes, I think some of the writers with 300k followers know a few more things than I do. Still, I think you should spend some time experimenting with platforms before you spend money on courses.

You have to learn enough to understand how much you don't know. I'd like to be your resource during that process.

I remain interested in reading thoughtful and compassionate articles written by professionals. That is what Medium is looking to Boost, and Boost is the best program I've found to help new writers start to build their platform.

As a Boost nominator, I can provide some feedback as to what will work and what will be rejected. I also like to provide encouragement about what are inevitable bumps in the road on a writer's journey.

It's important that we support each other. Too often, when things don't go as we'd hoped, we turn to self-blame when other explanations might provide more actionable insight. Writing requires a vulnerability. Nobody likes getting rejected, getting edited, or observing as a story fails to find an audience. I can help you sort out those feelings and come up with a more effective strategy.

Please leave a comment if you're interested in attending another meeting in the future. I'd like some feedback on what days work and what times (and time zones). I recognize everyone is spread all over the world, and perhaps 8AM CST on a Sunday wasn't a great time slot for most of you.

Maybe in the future I'll just wait for somebody to suggest a meeting time and then offer the link in the chats. I think you can unsubscribe to the chats if those notifications become a burden. I'm learning about this at the same time as all of you.

I consider my first hosted meeting to be a great success. We had a thoughtful conversation, and I'll be contemplating the items we discussed throughout the rest of the day. Most importantly, the technology didn't break down!

Thanks everyone! I look forward to hearing from you!

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