In less an hour, the Red Notebook website goes live. And it’s a little surreal.
What started as a spur-of-the-moment idea a few weeks ago has grown into an idea bigger than I expected. My initial thought was to share from the notes that filled a little red notebook that I took everywhere with me. I initially planned it to be a few tweets, one or two videos and that would be it.
But as I explored the idea further, I realized that there are two sides to this scenario: on one hand there are entrepreneurs, business professionals, coaches, mentors, etc. who have dozens of metaphorical (and maybe literal) little red notebooks of their own. And on the other hand, there are thousands of entrepreneurs, business professionals, students, etc., who would love to take a peek at these notebooks and learn from the wisdom and experiences within those pages.
So, this became something bigger than me, and bigger than any one person with my network. It became this awareness that we can build a community of people who want to share knowledge with each other, and who want to connect and network in order to achieve personal and professional success.
As the concept grew, I also realized I could not do this myself. I already have far too much on my plate running Fundi Bots. So I reached out to Ivan Kabandize, who had earlier sent me a Twitter message inquiring about a tweet I had made, in which I mentioned my need for a PA. The tweet was mostly self-reflective and only half-serious. But Ivan’s earnestness and desire to work with and learn from me was something I saw value and potential in, so I asked him if he would be interested in helping me launch The Red Notebook. But I told him one of the terms was that he’d have to be up at 5AM for a call every day.
And so for the last three weeks, we’ve been having fairly regular 5AM brainstorming calls, to slowly roll out and build our social media platforms and brainstorm different content ideas, and now, here we are, a few minutes away from launching the site.
So, What Kind of Content Can You Expect?
1. From The Trenches
First, I want the primary focus of our own content on the Red Notebook to pass a “from the trenches” filter. Essentially, we don’t want to bore you with platitudes, clichés and idealisms. No, we want our content to be from people who’ve walked the walk and are either still going through the battle, have had some sort of success, or (more beneficially) failed and recalibrated.
So our pledge to you is that the vast majority of what we share, who we interview and what we create will be from actual people who have done actual things. In all our articles, interviews, YouTube videos, Instagram and Facebook Lives, and Twitter Chats, we will talk with people who have been in the trenches, building businesses and careers.
Yes, we will have some content that may slip through this filter, but if they do, it’s only because we believe their value is extremely beneficial to you.
2. A Focus on Africa
Second, the Red Notebook is an African platform for an African Community. Our primary focus will be on Africans, or Afro-centric products and services. If we make exceptions for this, it will again be because we believe the value added is exceptional.
Disclaimer: A couple of articles written for our launch date don’t meet this criteria, but they will, going forward.
3. Personal and Professional Growth
Lastly, the Red Notebook is about growth, and we want to ensure that we share content that will help you grow yourself as an individual, build your career, and help you start and run your business successfully. So the content will be diverse, but focused within those three broad areas.
But, in all this, we will be experimenting heavily with multiple content formats and ideas, so we hope you’ll walk this journey with us, as we walk it with you. We’ll try a lot of things, and we’ll probably fail at many of them. But my personal philosophy towards failure is to very quickly test theories and assumptions and discard what isn’t working so you can focus strongly on good ideas that give good results.
So, welcome, and let’s get started.
Don’t forget to follow us on our different social media pages so we can keep the conversation going. We leverage social media heavily, so please take a minute to connect with us and follow us on the following platforms: Twitter – Facebook – Instagram – YouTube – LinkedIn and Telegram.
And as I always say, onwards and upwards!
Solomon King
Curator – The Red Notebook and Founder, Fundi Bots
