SEPTEMBER STORYTELLING CHALLENGE 2026
Revisit the September Storytelling Challenge to see what it was all about and what participants got up to.
THEY GOT CONFIDENT SHARING THEIR OWN STORIES.
Whether they were still trying to make their first few videos or they had already made plenty, it was easy to overthink what to say and how to say it.
For years, I struggled with that too. What finally made it click was stopping scripting my videos and changing the way I approached what I wanted to say. Instead of trying to remember the right words, I found a way to talk through my ideas and experiences far more naturally.
That’s the approach participants took throughout September, so that they could spend less time second-guessing what to say and feel more comfortable simply pressing record and saying it.
"I don’t even know what to talk about."
THE STORIES WORTH TELLING WERE ALREADY PART OF THEIR LIFE.
They didn’t need to sit down and invent something profound to talk about.
They thought about what they already talk about when there isn't a camera pointing at them. The hobby they could talk about for hours. An experience that changed how they think. A place they visited. A person who influenced them. Something they believe that they haven't said out loud. That's where their stories came from. The September Storytelling Challenge gave them 13 prompts to start pulling those things out of their own life and turning them into videos.
WHAT THEY DID ON DAY 1 OF THE CHALLENGE.
The aim was to follow a story structure I shared at the start of the challenge while telling the story as naturally as they could. Daily prompts included either an Experience prompt or a Perspective prompt; they’d choose either one, then pick a topic that fit the kind of videos they wanted to make.
For example: photography, business, finance, travel, hobby, everyday life, or whatever mattered to them.
INSIDE THE COMMUNITY DURING THE SEPTEMBER STORYTELLING CHALLENGE.
Throughout September, they became more comfortable talking naturally on camera by sharing their own experiences, interests, lessons, and knowledge.
SOME OF THE VIDEOS THAT WERE CREATED FROM THE DAY 1 PROMPT.
AND HERE’S A LITTLE BONUS THAT CAME OUT OF SEPTEMBER’S CHALLENGE.
An ongoing story was unfolding back and forth between Bklyn Tich and Soul Toucha the Poet in the MTDV community: The Saga of the Snoopy Cups.
(Below is the full playlist of videos, in order, if you want to see how the saga unfolds.)
THEY ALREADY HAD SOMETHING WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
They just needed to start getting comfortable talking about it naturally on camera.
WHY I CREATED MAKE THE DAMN VIDEO.
For the last decade, I've been figuring out how to make filming fit around real life, not perfect days. Building a business, raising two young kids, and trying to capture moments without feeling like I had to turn every outing into a film production.
Over time, I realised the biggest obstacle was my over-the-top camera setup and my mindset. I was the one getting in my own way. I would overthink. I’d want everything to be perfect, and I was obsessed with making every video “cinematic”, which made the process (and whatever I was actually doing) less enjoyable.
So I started simplifying the way I filmed and what I carried with me. I focused on documenting and sharing thoughts and experiences, instead of producing. This allowed me to film in a way that naturally fit around my busy life instead of competing with it. That's exactly what Make The Damn Video is all about. Getting you to make the damn videos in the first place, without worrying about trying to be perfect or overthinking your way out of it.