FAQ

What is a WINK?

Our definition of a WINK is a piece of advice someone gives to their younger self. WINK is an acronym for "what I now know." For example, a WINK to my 18 year old self is to never sign up for a credit card without reading the contract! (Especially if said credit card is from a popular underwear store!)

What if my WINK isn't interesting or relatable enough?

Have you ever heard the saying:

"You don't see the world as it is.

You see the world as you are."

My beautiful friends, perspective is everything. It's not up to you to judge your story. And imagine someone in the world being a little worse off because you didn't think your message was important enough. You never know how vital your story is. And there's no way for you to know how many people it can impact. Tell your story. We need it.

What makes a good WINK?

What is the Submissions Process?

This is a bit of a trick question because there's no such thing as a good or bad WINK. Your story is your story, and there's no need to assign your personal experience a positive or negative connotation.

However, there are a few technical tips we offer to create an authentic and transferable WINK:

Take Your Time: Create an environment that allows you to fully immersive yourself into the past situation your WINK is related to. Really feel the emotions of that specific moment.
Specificity: Rather than offer a broad piece of advice, we ask that you provide a WINK that is directly related to a specific moment in time. We aren't looking for a broad WINK that could be applied to your whole life up to this point; rather, we're looking for particular moments in time and a WINK that directly correlates to that point.

Does it have to be funny / emotional / outlandish / heavy ?

Please don't assume your WINK has to be anything other than what it is. Your story is valid, period. Humans tend to want to embellish and entertain, it's in our nature as storytellers! But our goal at theWINKhub isn't necessarily entertainment:

The goal isn't to tell the best story.

The goal is to tell YOUR story.

The Submissions process is as pain-free as we can make it; we've worked hard to streamline the approach for our WINKERS! (Do we have that term? Jury is still out!)

Complete the Submissions form (find it HERE) by filling out all of the required information and using the correct format to submit your WINK. Correct format is as follows: "Using what I now know, I would tell myself at/as..."
The WINK team will reach out via the provided email within 48 hours of your submission. Sometimes we ask for more details so we can fully create the story for our audience, sometimes we may ask for supplementary resources like photos, or we may just reach out to make sure you're a real person! Either way, we commit to sending an email back to you upon receiving your submission because we value your story, your time, and your vulnerability. You deserve to be acknowledged.
If you're chosen for a podcast interview, that would be next - specific directions applicable to each scenario will be given in the follow up communication.
Publication! Whether you've chosen to remain anonymous or want to stand in your story for the world to see, we'll publish on any or all of our platforms.

What if I want to remain anonymous?

All WINK submissions can be anonymous to the public. Whether we share your story on theWINKhub Podcast, publish right here on www.theWINKhub.com, or on any of our social media platforms (@theWINKhub on all), you have the right to remain unknown to our audience.

Here's the caveat: at this moment in time, you cannot SUBMIT your story anonymously. The WINK team follows up on each submission, which is why we ask for a regularly-used email address in the application. There's a few reasons for this, but the main one is that we want to make sure we're providing real stories from real humans. Rest assured, publication of your WINK is not dependent on revealing your identity. Only the submission process requires your information and it never leaves the WINK team.