All things Becky15 Higgins/beggy Higgins

Not gonna lie, 8 min in I turned it off. It wasn’t horrible, BUT I made a tally sheet...lots of rambling, new “seeds” analogy of planting seeds and documenting...and so far all of her seeds are about death and how preserving their stories is SO important. She “LITERALLY” did or said something 4 times (a personal grunge-worthy pet peeve), but just 1 “guys”, and so far zero “cultivate”. She did brag on herself, her books and podcasts, but for about 30 seconds than moved on. If I was brand new and didn’t hear any of her other classes, I wouldn’t recognize how hard she is trying to sound professional. I can see her reading off some sort of script and working hard to stay on point, and yes, there are interesting pieces of insight where she acknowledges that this way isn’t the only way, and that there are others you can gain inspiration from.

I will likely go back to it later, but I don’t know if I can be unbiased. I do know it isn’t the worst she has done (so far in 8 of 24 minutes) but I have listened to speakers with more honestly. The one time she did get animated and come kinda “off script” was when the rambling and guys popped up.

I will report more later

I’m honestly surprised it’s free. I figured she’d charge $$$ for her guru knowledge. It’s interesting that the thing she should be an “expert” in she doesn’t charge for, but something she and Becky Proudfit have no formal training in, they think is worth hundreds of dollars. It seems like Becky Higgins is confused about her business plan again.

Never mind, she’s told us over and over she does business in a way we lay people wouldn’t understand.

Thanks for the cliff notes. I was burned once by a class by her, I won’t go back-even for free.

I read that Meghan Markle gave Kate a Blank notebook to break the ice when they met. Obviously, it wasn’t a BH notebook or I bet Harry & Meghan would still be in the monarchy because Kate & Meghan would be bff.
Stacy

Guys, I LITERALLY cannot take another over-use of a buzzword!  Now excuse me
while I go intentionally  plant  ...oops, I meant to say --- CULTIVATE --- my garden with new SEEDS. 




We see what you did there 
Don't worry---every store in the universe has nicer notebooks with cute covers, and they're about one or two dollars!  Extra bonus---no ridiculous SHIPPING fees! 

I just started the course. "Welcome, welcome!" Her audio setup is not great for someone who podcasts weekly. I am surprised by the sound quality. Dem P pops! Not sure how long I can hang in there. At least, no vocal fry, yay!

Lesson 1 | Intro

02:15 "I want to kick this off by talking about seeds." Oy vey, so it begins. She focuses on "the more recent seeds planted in her life." She then proceeds to enumerate the seeds. Seed n°1: the end of her brother's - I quote - "mortal life" and her father sat by him and made audio records of his life stories as he was dying from cancer. That became a portfolio folder as a tangible piece of his heritage. Seed n°2: another cancer story about someone Becky knew who felt the desperate need to document her life. Becky had her write 1 short story at a time to create a collection of pieces of who she was. Her acquaintance couldn't keep up with the project and went silent. Becky goes on about how this person had posted a lot of her life on Instagram and mentions we'll circle back to this later. Seed n°3: Becky's father-in-law's Alzheimer. Look, this is so far very depressing and anxiety-inducing. "RECORD NOW BEFORE YOU DIE!" Yikes. Nobody's going to read my albums, stories, memories when I die. That's not why I document. Becky, girl, you need to step away from the death lens a bit, kthanxbye. "Guys, I'm not a morbid person but there's also a paradigm shift and a totally unique perspective that comes when you have that mindset of closing a chapter." Ok Becky but we're not all life story-preserving Mormons. We're in the midst of a pandemic, ligthen up the mood a bit. I just want to walk away from your free class and I'm only 7 minutes in. 

07:15 "I have more seeds to share and they're not all about death." And now she rambles about her own mortality and hypothetical death again. 

08:30 Something about documenting for ourselves immediately followed by "if you have kids..." Ok, Becky, you're struggling with the idea of just scrapbooking for the sake of creative play and self time without having to teach lessons or pass on testimonies. A lot of religious (particularly LDS) lexical field use: preaching, testimony, mortal life, life on earth, mission, etc. so far. 

09:24 "Ok, let's talk about more seeds." Mmm, maybe let's not? Let's just get crackin'? Seed n°4: "You guys, my husband documents NOTHING." "You guys, I get it!" This is about being the family documenter while also guiding someone else to write their own stories because you can never do it from their POV. I don't understand how this is a different seed than evoked before except that you are now not only the family scrapbooker but also the nagging partner who has to get their SO to write down their life stories one at a time. You know, like Becky failed to do in the seed n°2 anecdote or something. Everybody must document their life and if you're a documenter, it's your responsibility to take this course and make sure they get around to it... Yikes. 

11:16 Social media documenting. She goes on about thousands of posts on social media about her life, her brand. I've lost count of the amount of times she's already mentioned her podcast, Becky Proudfit and cultivating a good life. "Heaven knows that anything technology-based is basically temporary." Back into the children and grandchildren tirade. How will they know about her life when apps become obsolete? This is all about documenting for future generations. Seed n°6: "Why is that we are less likely to reach for autobiographies and family history books?" Who's going to tell Becky about the oversaturation of the memoir and autobiography market? Anyhoo. Again, this is about how family history books (what?) are not something people reach for. We're being invited to be curious about why we never for those books our ancestors made for us (?). Becky moves on to her selling point: it's far more appealing to read short stories than one long book. Methinks most scrap albums are a collection of short stories and not "one long book" as she claims. I think Becky lives in a different world than mine. I have not heard of a single relative writing a long book about their life for their offspring. In case you needed it being pointed out: we are still stuck in the family legacy aspect! Seed n°7: all documenting is so valuable, there's not a better or one way. How is this a freakin' seed? Now she goes on to say most of us aren't even doing any documenting. I guess we're entering the shaming angle of her sales schtick? I'm not feeling many positive feels listening to this introduction. 15 minutes in. 

16:08 Seed n°8: "I love the scriptures and I study the scriptures regularly and I keep thinking about what we're able to learn and understand from the scriptures." She goes on about how hard it must've been for these people to preserve the word of the Christian god. Ok, whatever. No. These were not individual people floating about and desperately trying to record what their friend Jesus has said. Historically inaccurate, period. This class is starting to really get on my nerves as a childfree atheist who is absolutely *not* interested in passing on their life story or making their partner write about theirs. "When we document about our personal journey [...], isn't that our own personal scripture?" No, Becky, no. This angers me because historical Jesus (let's assume he existed) never wrote or passed down his story. This is just some bullshitty way of sacralising a basic autobiographical craft and mixing religion in as much as possible.   OH, LOOK, A PROJECT LIFE APP PLACEMENT!  

18:00 "The opportunity is NOW, our time is NOW!" "Documenting has NEVER been easier." So, after the shaming, we've moved on to the time-sensitive pressure. This is your basical, classic (and super negative) advertising strategy. I hate it so much. I hate it even more when it's so blatant. I'm ready to leave this stupid introduction behind (and frankly, the whole course) but I'm 18 minutes in and there are only 5:30 left. I can do this for the sake of reporting back! 

18:30 Becky's finally rounding up the introduction. Apparently, everyone wants to know they matter and leave their legacy in some way. If you don't feel that's true, it's because you have not acknowledged this for yourself. Having a book of our experiences is the evidence humans want to leave of their existence. Again, there's never any basic crafty, storytelling pleasure. It's all about making sure your legacy is out there in the world and will remain after you die. Per Becky, t'll bring you peace of mind. Also, she just "honey-d" her listeners. Yuck. Leaving such legacy is excellent modelling for those in your circle of influence, particularly your children, she repeats yet again. "Your stories deserve a sacred place to be held." It's all very LDS Hausfrau. Finally, she believes we are here on earth to share and documenting our stories helps us share. Yadda yadda. "As all these feelings are catching fire to my soul recently..." I CANNOT WITH THIS CRAY-CRAY LANGUAGE. Seeds, fire, sacred, etc. This is all biblical jargon. You're going to love this intro if you like your morbid "pep" talk with a heavy dose of Christianity which I'm sure some people do (and I say this sans snark). This is utterly unappealing to me. Becky has moved even further away from her general PL audience than she had in the past few years during the decline of the physical PL empire. Clearly, she's targetting married, Christian women with children and a sense of family recording duty. She ends the whole thing with one of her typical: "YOU'RE AMAZING" and you have this in you, you can do this, just hang in there with me through the lessons. 

Yawn. Also, I may be stuck inside because of the pandemic but I have way better things to do than listen to these neverending rambles which include a lot of self-boasting, biblical references, "you guys" and legacy-based logics. Like, actual crafty time. 

Finally, because I've heard the word "seed" way too many times in the past 23 or so minutes, take it away, Monty Python! 

I'm being petty, and didn't want to comment on this in the NYC article because that is super important and I didn't want to take away from the discussion of how important it is to have POC folks represented by talking about a white chick, but I love that it talks about "pocket scrapping" and not a mention anywhere of Project Life or BH. I do dislike the article they linked to describing pocket pages because the pictures are super dated, but no BH talk in the NYC article warms my cold black heart.

Alas, cultivating one's story allows for a great deal of creative harvesting. Our farm girl lied (ha) fallow on who'd reap what she sowed and underwatered elsewhere. The Magnolia seeds needed a bigger place to grow and bloom, methinks. 

sleepingbooty Now that's taking one for the team. I seriously have a brain bleed just from reading your narrative.

I agree! you DEFINITELY deserve hazard pay (or at least a VERY large glass of wine) for listening to all that blathering nonsense!! That was just the INTRO?!? a 25 minute INTRO?!? heavy into 'duty' and morbid 'it's your responsibility before you die' language?

Who is her editor, anyway? who said to her, "Becky, THAT is IT!! THAT is the hook that will get people to jump on taking your course!!"

I believe this is the article: NY Times

I hope I get paid in cloudy Design A PPs!



That was the introduction which counts as lesson 1 in Becky's classroom. There are 4 more lessons: How to Get Started, Pulling from What You've Already Done, Overcoming Hurdles + Staying Motivated and Conclusion. Per OSHA ("Oh SHut Ahp!"), my head would most certainly explode if I were to power through with all the lessons... 

23:50 of intro, yes! Loads of seeds and enough death talk to make a funeral director appear out of thin air. 



 Now, do I proceed with the next lesson and see how long I can make it before I throw in the towel?... 

ohmygosh, really?!? I kept scrolling, waiting for the end... but there wasn't one!! and you DO find the perfect GIFs for things; it's amazing.

eta:  I think my title would be a toss-up between 'Deep Dive Documenting' (looove the alliteration in that one, except I never learned how to dive when I took swimming lessons), or... hmmm...

ahh-  how about this one?  "What my Eyes Have Seen and my Heart Has Felt"  (although, that one could get sticky, as it implies that all the stories therein are actual first-person experiences-- so no 'as told to me by my relatives' or anything like that.  But on the other hand, it has the word *felt* in it, so I could include crafting stories in that one.)


Maybe I'll keep looking.  the list is long enough, I should be able to find *something* that's absolutely PERFECT, you guys!!  

But are there any stories? OMG.