Thank you!
You guys are amazing! With over 1,300 votes in the HopScout contest, I came in 11th place. Thank you for all of your votes…it means so much to me that you all would take time out of your busy days to vote for me. Your comments and endless support have touched me deeply.
Unfortunately, though, I was not chosen as a HopScout editor.
I was under the impression (until last Thursday…the day before the contest was supposed to end when they in essence, changed the rules) that the top 20 highest-voted videos would automatically move to the next round (why else would I have pestered you endlessly for almost 2 weeks to vote!). That wasn’t the case, apparently, and the contest was really judged on quality and content.
Since that was the case, I didn’t deserve to win. My video wasn’t great and didn’t really answer the question they posed. In all honesty, when I started making the video I didn’t even know what HopScout was. I probably wouldn’t have put the “my kid would rather play with toilet paper than a brand new toy” line in there since they are a daily-deal site for toys. Oops.
I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t disappointed. I am. This feeling is all-too-familiar. I feel like I am a 13-year old girl again, searching endlessly and with tears in my eyes at the “final cut list” for cheerleading tryouts and not seeing my name. But I refuse to be a sore loser.
I will admit, though, that I do feel a little “used”. And I was. This whole video thing has been a (brilliant) marketing campaign to get the word out on their company by begging us to have our friends vote. And it worked…like a charm. They went from just over 2,000 “followers” on Facebook at the beginning of the contest to now over 13,000. I was somewhat okay with being “used” when it benefitted me, now that it doesn’t benefit me, it rubs me the wrong way. Is that selfish on my part, or what???
Irregardless of my feelings about the contest, the company itself has been gracious in dealing with the problems, issues, and complaints that have come up. They have been encouraging and positive throughout the process.
My prayer throughout this whole process was that God would allow it to happen if it was meant to be. And now I have my answer! Besides, the fact that I didn’t do my Bible study for the 2 weeks of this contest is a good indication that my priorities have been completely out of whack.
Thank you, again, for your kindness and support! As I said last week, I am so thankful for the sense of community I have found with you. And of course, I have these amazing fellas that make life as sweet as can be…
you are a winner, with or without a contest. I love your site and ideas, and I thank you for being real. God Bless you and your family as you take the time to teach us to be better moms & dads and to spend quality time with our own kiddos
Blessing, Sue L
I'm sorry it ended up that way. I considered trying to do the video and all that, but knew I wouldn't be able to muster enough votes to even show up. They should have been clearer with the rules, in my opinion… it was completely confusing. You have such a great and helpful blog here, I have no doubt you would have been exactly what they were looking for… their loss! Keep up the great work with your beautiful family and this amazing blog!
I voted for you to support YOU not the company. You have support for what you do, you don't need to be on a "team of cheerleaders" to know that what you do cheers people on. Thank you for inspiring me to play/create with my children. Besides… toilet paper is way more fun than shiny toys.
Ditto to the post above! Don't let this get your spirits down…even though it probably was a marketing campaign. Now you know how many of your readers appreciate YOU! You would have had many more votes but I kept getting a "you already voted" message. Thank you for all you do. I have tried to blog and I know it's a lot of work. Best wishes to you.
I also voted for you- and this post reminds me of exactly why I voted for you. You have exactly what it took to be one of the editors, but I really don't feel that they were completely forthcoming with the contest rules. I was honestly shocked not to see your name on the top 20 list.
Sorry for your disappointment, but I appreciate your humility and realness in all of this.
I'm sorry you feel that way! Sometimes it can be hard to trust that God does things for a reason but you seem to be doing it well! If you had become an editor you may not have had time to continue doing this blog that we all find so helpful and love! Keep up all the great work!
you are amazing Jenae! keep up your great work for God & He will continue to bless you in ways you can't even imagine:)
Charity said,
Jenae, I am so sorry that it turned out this way. You are an amazing talented woman of God, so I hope this will not discourage you in any way. I love your blog, so keep up the good work you are doing! Love ya!
I follow your blog. Thanks for always sharing such great ideas. I think we have similar taste and thoughts on things.
I know how disappointing it was to not move on to the top 20. My situation was a little different than yours. I don't have a blog with lots of followers…yet! ;) But, I knew I would LOVE this job and that I could do it WELL. So, I decided to put myself out there and make a video…know that God could overcome my shortage of votes if He wanted this for my life right now. When I submitted my video, I read all the terms and Q&A's, etc. I was filled with HOPE when I saw, from the very beginning, that they would be choosing the top 20 based off of votes AS WELL AS quality and content of the video itself. I put my heart into my video.I also did my very best to get as many votes as I could without compromising my integrity. I even asked hopscout about their thoughts on hosting a giveaway to encourage voting. They discouraged this idea for the sake of fair play. I ended with 246 votes which I was stoked about, even though this placed me well below the top 20.
All that to say, I was not chosen for the top 20….but MANY of the top vote getters did. When I looked at who had moved on, it appeared that votes did play a fairly significant role…and those who had less votes, had AMAZING videos. Truly GREAT. I would have chosen (and did vote for) those same videos because they were outstanding!
I'm not trying to put down on your feelings of disappointment here. I truly felt it too. I had no idea how excited I was about this until the opportunity was gone. However, I would like you to reconsider your thoughts and judgments toward the hopscout company. From the beginning, I felt like there was hope for me, with a few or a ton of votes!The clarification that was communicated later in the week was not something they HAD to express…it was simply to encourage us that they would be looking at the whole picture and not just one piece of it. They were expounding on what was already printed for everyone to see.
The heart of the company seems to be solid…despite the inevitable "misconceptions". They continually expressed genuine care about each contestant with personal responses and attempts to bring clarity in misunderstood situations.
Sorry this rambles a bit. My hope would be that you are able to give this company the benefit of the doubt.
Love your blog and will continue to read and take inspiration from it!
Jenae,
I wanted to let you know that your site is amazing, and a great resource for every mom. I so appreciate the time that you have taken to compile all this information and present it in a fun, family-friendly, God-honoring manner. I learned of your site through the hopscout competition, and will now be a 'regular' here. Thank you for what you do!
Janea, I feel a little like you as well. I got my video up early and wasn't as concerned with the creativity and content because I thought it was based on votes. I was #27 I think in the end, but though maybe I still had a small chance if there was cheating in voting going on. I really wanted a shot at the top 5 as well because it sounded like the perfect stay at home job for my passions and it would have been a huge blessing to our family financially. I prayed throughout the whole process as well that the Lord would only grant me this if it was the BEST thing for our family, and while in my mind I don't understand why it is not, believing in God's complete sovereignty I have to believe that it is not. I'm really thankful to have found your blog though! Keep up the great work on here… its a great resource for SAH mommas trying to teach there kiddos like me :) blessings to you!
Thank you for this post. I can tell you put thought into it and you were careful to choose your words. This was a brilliant marketing ploy for them and we were all used, and I think most of us realized we were being used shortly after we posted our video. I was frustrated too.
In one of the first posts on FB form Hopscout they said, "don't worry about having a perfectly edited video. Just get it posted". This isn't a direct quote, but it's the same, basic idea. So I made my video, still pouring hours into it's creation and made something that I was proud of. I then marketed for them for free for a full week. I was on FB several times a day commenting on posts, watching other's videos and commenting on them, trying to encourage all the players, and just trying to make my name known in their community. None of this paid off in their contest. I'm still not sure what exactly they were looking for. The vote score, the video quality and, the video content were all over the place! They all had varying ranges of excellent to bland, high and low. It wasn't a popularity contest like many had accused, it was marketing, plain and simple.
As far as the cheating thing goes, here's what I know. The system needs to get fixed before they ever try anything like this again. "Like"ing them on FB would have been more fair than what they had set up. I only had 180 votes, but a huge list of comments from different people giving their recommendation. Some of the highest voted people had nothing but votes and comments from only a couple people. After the contest was all done, I actually saw one of the winners comment that she had voted for one of the losing videos 50x in their house and hoped that their cheating hadn't disqualified him!!! I was blown away. Now, maybe the name I saw was a duplicate name, but it was an unusual name so I find it to be unlikely. Maybe it was all in jest because I saw the Hopscout comment on the same thread and there was no mention against the cheating. If it was all joke, it was tasteless and inappropriate considering the circumstance.
Losing is never easy, but neither is feeling used. I'm sure I would feel different if I had won. Many of the videos chosen were better than mine, many answered the question better than I did, all of them had more votes than me. The rules did state that there were other factors, but the advertising they did led many to believe otherwise.
It was a learning experience for everyone. Hopefully, Hopscout will learn from this as well.
Here is my only consolation on the matter: I learned how to film, create, and edit movies; I learned how to use Twitter; I was reminded how blessed I am to have my beautiful children; I was inspired to start my own blog!!! Watch for it, it's gonna be GREAT!!!