Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to a special
Christmas
or Hanukkah
or Kwanzaa
or festive atheism
or holiday season
or Wednesday
...vegan nugget.
Welcome back.
I thought for today’s holiday video I’d change things up and film outside in the beautiful snow.
Then I remembered it’s Iowa and my face would fall off if I was out there too long.
But don’t worry!
With this magic board behind me, the only limits are our imaginations!
Okay so there may be other limitations.
So today, I wanted to make a year in review video, looking back at all that’s happened
with Bite Size Vegan in 2016.
And to be honest I meant to do one of those last year, as well.
I mean that’s what Bite Size Vegan’s about, right?
Condensing complex information into engaging bite size nuggets.
Veganism simplified.
Well, simplified but not reductionist.
It’s a tall order because there is so very much that needs to be said, and so many who
need to be heard and so very, very little time.
I wanted to capture the whole of this year, try to distill it down to the
highlights and key points.
Leave you with the main take-aways and resources.
As well as of course linking to the holiday-specific videos, like the Vegan Christmas recipe playlist,
the Vegan Holiday Survival Guide, Twas the Night before Christmas (Vegan Remake), and more.
They’re all linked down below and up there - somewhere.
And maybe—even in some small way—convey some sense of what this year’s been like for
me as well—because it’s been quite a year.
It was the first year without Ooby, the heart and soul of Bite Size Vegan.
In addition to the weekly content, I’ve written and delivered speeches throughout
the United States, Canada, Portugal, Ireland and England.
I’ve also visited slaughterhouses around the world, looked into the eyes of hundreds of
living, breathing, sentient beings moments before being murdered.
I’ve heard their screams.
The channel has grown, the views, comments and messages and emails increased.
But it’s also taken a hit with YouTube’s ongoing subscription and notification issues
which continue to persist even now.
And when one of the speeches started to take off, YouTube censored it
against their own policies.
All the while the backlog of tasks has continued to mount.
So, it’s because of what a year it’s been that I don’t have that video for you today.
The administrative and foundational work behind the scenes of Bite Size Vegan has expanded
to such an extent that the videos have become an afterthought by necessity.
The very core of Bite Size Vegan itself.
I tried to make a simple outline of the workload and various projects and areas taking so much
time away from the videos, but kept ending up with something out of A Beautiful Mind.
That’s ridiculous.
Let me try to bust out a big picture view…
One of the main time sucks...which, does not sound holiday cheery at all….
Is team-building.
Bringing on a team of volunteers is a priority, but before opening that door, I need to have
a system in place for how to match people with the various projects and iron out communication
and the like or I’d be spending the same amount of time or more managing that I am
now with working with the projects themselves.
So that takes time and is super boring.
Here’s a pig with a hat!
Part of building the team is finding the best formal structure for
Bite Size Vegan going forward.
And that is a lot of paperwork, consulting, phone calls, emails, legal stuff...
And look! A cow with snow boots!
It’s a cow… just go with it.
Within all of this are a bunch of other subtasks and whatnot, but I'm trying not to slide back into
the Beautiful Mind moment….
One of the sub-projecty things recently busted out was a total re-vamp of the
Nugget Army page on Patreon.
It’s been on my list for many months, and when Patreon asked to feature Bite Size Vegan
as a “creator of the week,” it gave me the kick in the pants that I needed.
So after a good month or so of ___, with the indespensible assistance of Bite Size Team
helper extraordinare Andrea (she’s from ze Germany, So dass ich manchmal Deutsch sprechen
kann, aber normalerweise nicht, da wir über Sachen reden, die mir auf Englisch sogar verwirrend
sind), as well as some stellar page-proofing from patrons Steph and Kris, the page now
has greater specificity of goals, updated description and even an infographic of where
the pledges go that I’ll be updating as we go along, and improving as I find better
ways to quantify with clarity the highly variable nature of Bite Size Vegan.
Wow!
This is such a festive video!
Look!
Holiday stuff I made when I was more appropriate with my video timing!
So this wasn’t the holiday special or retrospective I wanted to make.
And I may still give the year in review a go…but I wanted to at least give you a glimpse
into what’s been going on behind the scenes, and why I’m more absent from social media,
even slower to reply (if I even do), and releasing far less content than I have in the years
of Bite Size Vegan.
This is all with the long-term in mind of reaching more and more people with more and
more free education.
I want to thank all of you for every single view, comment, thumbs up thingy, and especially
for sharing the videos and utilizing them as resources and teaching tools.
Thank you for your stories of how the videos have sparked change in your life.
Thank you for remaining open to change.
Thank you for being patient with me through the growth pains and
all of my flaws, failures, and missteps.
I never cease to be amazed at hearing how the videos and speeches
have reached people around the world.
I can’t wait to get back to focusing on content production.
There are so very, very many topics on my list, and so much more to cover.
So happy whatever the heck you may celebrate or not.
(that would make a really great card).
Do see the description for resources.
And please bear with me a little longer through this phase of growth.
If you want to be a part of the behind the scenes messiness (because this video made it seem
so exciting!), come join us in the Nugget Army.
We’re pretty cool…
okay they’re pretty cool.
Oh look it’s snowing!
Now go live vegan this holiday season, and I’ll see you soon.
These are videos.
They're also linked down there.
Oh my god it's hot!