Isolation Motivation
Hello gorgeous people, it’s Naomi here from Naomi Butherway Entertainment! Having all been through such difficult times the past couple of years I felt it was time to share a bit about my own struggles and triumphs. In years to come sentences like ‘that’s as foolish as launching an Entertainment business in Jan 2020’, will become a common phrase to poke fun at anyone with a crazy idea. Well, in the words of William Blake, ‘hindsight is a wonderful’ thing because that is exactly what I did. Optimistic and driven I launched N B Entertainment in January 2020 not knowing what was just around the corner.
January began and I started slow drumming up business; calling, emailing, knocking on doors, flyering. The business really started coming in and by February it was absolutely amazing. I had managed to secure multiple weekly, bi weekly and monthly bookings, a mixture of exercise sessions and sing-a-longs. On Friday 14th Feb 2020 I completed my most successful day to date with 5 Vintage Valentines shows. Safe to say I was exhausted but it had been the most rewarding and exhilarating day, with such wonderful feedback! Entertaining is my life, and I felt I had begun paving the way for me to earn a good living whilst staying in Birmingham. Surrounded by my loved ones and doing what I love to do every day, I was so happy. Plus the added bonus of making a positive difference on people’s lives.
March 2020 the cancellations started. It was an uncertain and frightening time for everyone and of course working in care homes who are the most vulnerable the homes locked down quickly, one by one. The staff seemed as gutted as I was but I think we were all under the impression it would be behind us in a couple of months. Of course this was not the case. I decided I did not want to leave my classes in the lurch so on March 24th I began Isolation Motivation. This was a simple video uploaded every day to Facebook and YouTube, with a different activity for anyone who wanted to join in at home. Chair fitness, tai chi, line dances, aerobics routines, sequence dances and sing-a-longs. I even enlisted my artistic friend to make videos on paper folding and fruit carving for something different and exciting for people to do while stuck at home. The feedback was great and I know it did me a lot of good too! It gave me something to achieve every day, an outlet to do what I love and some purpose to make other peoples day a little brighter. It does make me proud to say I did 100 days, 100 different videos of 100 different activities. This is something I will reflect on in years to come and hopefully share with my children. It is all still on Facebook and YouTube if you wanted to take a look.