The Nature Journal Show has been my main creative project for the last three years! This past season was especially exciting and eventful as I made some drastic sacrifices to allow me to focus more energy on nature journaling and creating better episodes of the Nature Journal Show. In case you did not see every episode when they came out you can check out the season finale. Read on to learn about all the thought that went into this year.
Season Two: Sacrifices and Scope
By moving out of my home of the last seven years and getting rid of most of my possessions I created more flexibility for focusing on the show in 2022. This flexibility and the money I saved from not paying expensive cost of living in California allowed me to travel to a variety of biodiversity hotspots and unique ecosystems nature journaling, teaching nature journaling, and creating educational videos. The Nature Journal Show explored from the rough intertidal zone of Baja California Mexico, to the moss-laden cloudforests of Costa Rica, from the endangered reptiles of the Galapagos Islands to the most biodiverse place in the Amazon Rainforest, and more. All of this on a limited budget while testing the potential of nature journaling for helping in the conservation of biodiversity and creating tools for education for sustainable development.
Grand Strategy
The mission of the Nature Journal Show has not changed since 2018. I want to help you see more in nature and get more out of your nature journaling. My personal mission goes hand in hand with the mission of the show: I want to use nature journaling to save the world. Reflecting on the last year we can see how I strategically worked on that combined mission. My central question for the year was:
How can I spread nature journaling to the most people and have the biggest positive influence for the planet?
- I studied the research on diffusion of ideas and tipping points. (See Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point”)
- I reflected on the current demographics of the nature journaling movement. Where are there the most nature journalers and most nature journaling resources? Then I overlapped that with where it seemed nature journaling can have the biggest impact to save the environment and improve people’s lives.
- This mapping showed a clear disparity between where resources were and where the needs were.
- Tropical Latin America was an obvious starting point. My skills in Spanish and experience in Latin America would also make me a much better “change agent” (See “Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M Rogers, generalizations 9-12 p. 400)
- Locations were chosen for their potential to set off international tipping points and initiate self-sustaining nature journaling movements.
- Locations were also chosen for their critical need of conservation work and innovative forms of nature education.
- I spent weeks developing a project proposal and applying for funding from National Geographic.
- When I did not receive the grant I created a new plan to self-fund the project.
- I hired an agency to help me improve my educational social media content and also monetize my social media presence. My plan was to increase my Patreon support by 400% through an ambitious social media campaign. This growth by the end of the year would allow me to sustain the Nature Journal Show and help finance all the educational work I was doing. ( see below to learn whether this worked or not.)
- I worked diligently on my already fluent Spanish language skills so that I would have the nuanced and persuasive vocabulary to successfully communicate nature journaling concepts and help develop curriculum and standards for nature journaling in Spanish.
- After extensive emailing, and networking I made connections with individuals and organizations most likely to use nature journaling and spread it within their own networks.
- I chose events and locations that had the most networking potential and influence. Science field stations, community hubs, conservation organizations, birding festivals, environmental film festivals, research centers, etc.
- In each location I intentionally tried to identify and collaborate with individuals that were “super-connectors.” These individuals have more rich and diverse social ties than average, are opinion leaders, and are essential conduits of information and resources. (See Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point”)
- Followup and sustainability support plans have already been in effect to help sustain the progress made.
- In order to be sensitive to on-site needs and local relevance I designed longer stays in each location and lots of flexibility and “listening” time at each location. This flexibility and openness allowed for me to learn what was salient to communities instead of just imposing my outsider perspective. A background in ethnographic fieldwork and cultural anthropology paid off here as well.
- While on-site I developed plans for 2023 to follow up on projects started and to apply for more funding from National Geographic. All of these new ideas were refined and improved based on real world experience and collaboration with local networks and salient issues in the communities that I had amassed over the last months.
When Things Went Wrong…
It would take many thousands of words to describe all the challenges, obstacles, and travel misadventures from the last year. If you really like to see me struggle through those things then you should follow my Instagram and check out my Instagram stories. (If you don’t know what Instagram Stories are check out this page.) However, I will create an abbreviated list of things that went wrong.
- My flight to Quito got canceled when I was getting ready to head to the airport. Luckily, I was able to find another flight last minute and I didn’t miss my connection flight to the Galapagos which was two days later. #americanairlinessucks
- The internet in Galapagos was so slow that it was going to take 3 weeks to upload one video to my YouTube channel…
- The agency I hired to help with my social media campaign and video editing and web design was so bad that they kept mis-spelling my name and editing my videos as if they were some kind of aerobic workout video with crazy music. Since the cost of hiring this agency was my biggest single expenditure in my budget I had to cancel after about 5 months. I don’t consider the experience a total failure because I learned a lot about delegation, and virtual teams in the process.
- During our nature journal voyage around the Galapagos Islands, John Muir Laws got Covid and I had to lead the group for the remainder of the trip. Luckily, John (aka Jack) ended up being fine after his quarantine and no one else got Covid on the trip. However, there were some challenging moments that tested my leadership skills.
- My bus broke down while crossing the Andes and I had to hitch hike out of there. I had a live show scheduled that night so I had to hurry to Quito to get internet in time.
- On my second day in Costa Rica I lost my money pouch with my passport, all my money, all my credit cards, and documents. Unfortunately, I was traveling on public bus. When I realized what had happened I retraced my steps, searched around the bus stop, asked everyone in town, made a sign, called the bus agency, the bus driver, and did everything I could. Despite having no money and no way to prove who I was I ended up getting out of this pickle and many people helped by sending me money on paypal.
- Later, while trying to get to a science field station in southern Costa Rica my bus broke down and was leaking diesel fuel on the road. I decided to try and Uber to my destination so I would not lose my reservation for that night. My first Uber got rear-ended and so I was left on the side of the road in an unfamiliar town. I finally got a second Uber and we made it over Cerro de La Muerte but then got a flat tire. Finally, I made it to the field station after almost eleven hours of travel.
- Last but not least, I made a bad decision trying to save money. After weeks of waiting it was finally time to pick up my new passport in San Jose Costa Rica. To save money I decided to stay in a bunk bed dormitory in a youth hostel. That night I heard the guy sleeping in the bed below me coughing suspiciously. It sounded like the dry cough that Jack had when he got Covid in the Galapagos. Two days later I felt a tingling in my throat.
- However, I was already on my way to another science field station. After another long bus ride, wearing a mask in case I was getting sick, I got dropped off in the medium sized town of Cañas. It was getting dark and I needed to get to the station. I ended up going with an illegal taxi driver who overcharged me and left me outside the entrance of the park, which happened to be locked. It was a long night but I finally made it to the science station.
- I ended up stuck for 10 days at that station because I came down with Covid and was very sick. Luckily, I was able to isolate myself from other people while there. I was coughing so much that I couldn’t sleep for five nights in a row and somehow dislodged or fractured a rib from so much coughing.
- I barely got over Covid and my quarantine period in time to not miss my flight back to California. However, someone on my plane got stung by a scorpion but I will save that story for another time.
Conclusion
Despite all the challenges, Season Two of the Nature Journal Show has been extremely successful. We have explored so many place together and taken nature journaling to new heights. Thousands of people have learned about the power and potential of nature journaling in the last year, especially in the places that need it most. All of you reading this, those of you who subscribe to my newsletter, follow me on YouTube, and especially my Patreon members have made it possible. My Patreon members are the ones who make this all financially possible and they get the pride of knowing that they are supporting this movement. We are aiming high, we are actually trying to save the world. In the meantime we can make some nice nature journal pages, exercise our brains, and have a few laughs. Patreon members get access to special perks as well. You can learn more about my Patreon here.
