Praxis Program Reflection: What I've Learned & What I Will Do Next

I’ve spent the past 9 months enrolled in a life and career development program called Praxis. After having an overall poor experience with college education, I needed to find a new method of getting set up for success. So here’s everything I’ve done in Praxis.

Since I focused my Praxis experience around the goal of pursuing careers in content creation, a lot of my creative work went into producing content for my own YouTube brand, Metal Tops Inc.

For one project, I was tasked with creating a landing page for the channel. A landing page isn’t like a normal website with multiple pages and long descriptions. Instead, a landing page consists of one page, with a clear grabber, few brief info sections, and call-to-action (CTA) at the end. At first, I was a little stumped on how to engineer the page, but after thinking over a few concepts, the idea hit me. I compiled some clips from videos I had public on the channel into a short video to play when the page is opened. The channel name, type of content, and website are listed clearly at the top, with brief keyword descriptions under that. Scrolling down brings you to some positive comments from viewers of the channel. Below that are the channel icon, banner, and CTA in big words, with a clear button that will take you to the channel.

Another project I worked on was a skill showcase video covering a new skill I had set out to learn. The skill in question was using Descript to replace words messed up in a script. Essentially, you download the program, submit an audio file of you speaking (which they have a script for), then they’ll provide you with an AI voice of yourself that can be used to dub over sections of audio you're speaking in.

A personal favorite is the social media marketing campaign. Over the course of a week, I planned and executed a campaign designed to market one of my new videos. Apart from the video itself, I created and posted promotional media and teasers, as well as advertising for the video on multiple social media platforms after it was released. The video recapping the project is available to watch on my website.

Speaking of my website, that’s another project I’m rather proud of. I’ve had experience creating websites from courses in high school as well as for fun every so often. Using Wix, I went to work and created a basic but pleasant website to showcase myself and my work. It features a homepage with a welcome blurb at the top that takes you to the about me section. Below is an introductory video covering the basics of Alexander Radha, followed by a connection to my LinkedIn page. The About Me section briefly goes over my defining qualities before delving a little deeper into myself over two more sections, with a current update at the very bottom. Next is a portfolio page displaying all of my other Praxis projects. Then there is a blog page (the place you are now!) where all of my Praxis blogs can be viewed and read. Lastly is the YouTube channels page, where I feature links and brief descriptions of my current active YouTube channels.

I could go on for a while about the other projects I’ve done, so I’ll refer you to my website's Praxis portfolio page if you want to find out more!

https://alexhradha.wixsite.com/my-site/praxis-portfolio

One of Praxis’ benchmarks was a reading of a series of informational books, all separate entities written by individual authors. While I didn’t read as much of them as I would have liked to (I’m a very slow reader), what I did read provided some of the most valuable insights and assurances I’d ever gotten.

A book that stood out to me and is fantastic to read is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. One of the biggest grabbers comes on pages 189-190 where Carnegie recaps twelve of his points in a neat even section. This section is essentially the twelve commandments of becoming a social wizard. While I had already been employing multiple of his points, there were some I hadn’t thought about until then. Since referring to all twelve, I’ve noticed further enhancement to my social life, with the vast majority of all my person to person interactions going smoothly, even in events of disagreement.

The next nugget of wisdom comes from Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. While the book is more so about finance and managing money, what stood out to me lies on page 28 and is called the cone of learning. It refers to how much information we retain based on how active or passive the activity is. For example, you’ll remember 90% of something by physically doing it, while you’ll only remember 50% of watching that same thing in a video and only 10% of what you read about it. As someone who struggles to sit down and read for a prolonged period of time, I can definitely relate to this. As such, I took away a sense of action rather than observation. If you’re going to embark on something new, jump into it and get your hands dirty. You can watch all the videos and read all the articles about how to make a well-edited YouTube video, but you’ll never advance as quickly as someone who learns by editing videos all the time. (I speak this from personal experience.)

Atomic Habits by James Clear was also a great learning experience. A huge point I struggle with is changing habits. I had always been told just doing will build the habits, but even if I stick to a month of doing something, the habit is extremely hard to build. James Clear brings up the notion of rewiring your thinking around new habits which I found very enlightening. There’s always some notion or prediction tied to an action, so in order to make an effective change, you need to rewire in order to change that notion or prediction to something desirable. After reading that, I thought back to when I kept poor personal hygiene, opting to shower once or twice a month. Once I rewired my thinking so I believed showering daily would make me feel cleaner and brighter, I stuck to it. Nowadays I’ll shower daily with only one or two days a month being missed.

While I could talk about all the new content strategies and life lessons I’ve learned through doing hands-on projects and the readings we’ve done, there are many other things I picked up during my time with Praxis.

One surprising thing I learned towards the end is that I am a pen and paper person when it comes to tracking events. Since I do a lot of my business and work online, being in front of a screen for many hours a day, I discovered keeping track of my calendar and events using online methods were ineffective. One day, I went off on a limb and wrote something down in an old notepad I had laying around. Later that day when I needed that information, I remembered it perfectly. At the end of the day, I spent some time reflecting on the event. I realized my keyboard is more than just a tool for typing words, since I use it for editing videos and images, video games, and more. Compare that to writing being exclusively for putting words on paper, remembering something I write over something I type is much easier.

Something else I learned about myself is I cannot work in small and dark spaces. Over the course of Praxis, I struggled with keeping my work and sleeping spaces separate. At first, I used a portable folding wall to keep my bed separate from my work space. However my desk was in a dark corner, which ended up making me much more prone to getting tired quickly. Afterwards, I moved my work space right next to my window, but crammed it between my bed and a wall. While I had plenty of natural light, I didn’t have any room to move around or spread out. This in turn boxed me in and often affected my work. Afterwards, I did a third reshuffle and made the grand mistake of putting my desk in the dark corner, while also cramming it between my bed and a wall. It took some time, but eventually I noticed not only was I getting more worn out every time I worked for long periods, I was also beginning to feel boxed in again. On this fourth reshuffle, I moved my desk completely out of the corner. Now it faces a straight wall, I have plenty of room to spread out if I need to, and there is tons of natural light with my window to the right of me. Since making this move, I’ve been far more productive and my concentration and creativity have boosted incredibly.

To make a long story short, working in a dark corner is no match for working in an open space with plenty of natural light. Something about being boxed in the dark will keep your mind boxed in as well.

I’m very proud of all the work I’ve done over the course of Praxis but here is where I’ll highlight my favorite things.

First is certainly the website. I loved working on it and even now, I see areas on it I can improve on (something I plan to do promptly). There are more sections I can add to it, things I can change to look smoother, new developments that can be implemented, the possibilities are endless. It’s something I’ll continue to make better long after the program is over.

The content marketing campaign is also a highlight project. While the quality of what I put out then compared to now is below my standards, the experience of developing a campaign and seeing the feedback and response to it was rewarding in both the praise and what I learned. I’m definitely going to utilize the skills I’ve learned in marketing that project to provide mine and hopefully other content excellent campaigns that drive people in droves to see what’s up.

The big third highlight for me is definitely the “Cut It In Half” exercise. While it’s not a big project, we had to take one of our blog posts, note the word count, and cut that count in half. When I started the project, it wasn’t something I thought I could handle, but after diving in and cutting out absolutely everything I could, getting the word count down to half wasn’t that difficult at all. I discovered just how much filler there was in what I wrote. While I love to emphasize certain emotions and use every extent of my diction and vocabulary (something you get praised on in academic settings), reading the cut down version was undeniably smoother, quicker, and more efficient.

The next steps for me are to capitalize on the opportunities I have. A big one is being in a great position to grow on YouTube in the coming couple years. On top of that, I’m also connected with people who have been in the industry for a long while, giving me access to several unique insights and opportunities to help myself grow. I’ve also been given the opportunity to jump right into working for other content creators via the YT Jobs website, where creators can put themselves out and/or hire people to edit and create content for their brand.

I’m also aiming to improve points on my personal development, such as budgeting better once I have income and learning to cook for myself and others. Hopefully, these will culminate in being able to move out and live on my own soon.

To say enrolling in Praxis was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made is an understatement. These past nine months have given me more insight into the professional world as well as my own development than college could ever give me. I’ve learned a lot about not only the real world, but also myself. I plan to take all of the great experiences and connections I’ve gained and use them to reach my full potential in life. With my future right in front of me as opposed to another three to four years away, I am more excited than ever to jump in!