Coach Greg Adams 
My Last Blog Was Deleted! WTF?!
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com
All my work is gone! Just like that? I’m still not sure what happened to be honest with you. But, my previous blog was eliminated from the internet, never to be found again.
Well, to be fair, it wasn’t something that I spent a lot of time working on or prioritizing for that matter. But, I had major plans for it. Every week, I would look at my production schedule and think, “I need to commit a few hours a week on my blog.” Of course, weeks would pass and I wouldn’t even look at it.
It wasn’t until I checked the links on my website that I discovered that the blog was completely gone and the links were busted. Like this blog, the original blog was produced on WordPress, but instead of being a stand alone blog, it was linked directly through my Yahoo web hosting site. Apparently, Yahoo no longer allows WordPress to be managed through their platform directly? Who knows? But I’ve been semi-investigating this issue to determine the exact reason, however it was one of the many things that I’ve needed to do, and the investigation itself got put on the back burner. Just another task on a long list of things to accomplish.
Being a one-man band with a new, growing platform has its issues. I’ve never being much of a delegator and I’ve had to consider hiring an assistant or outsourcing tasks to a hustling virtual assistant who probably lives in another timezone overseas. But, much of my content is produced at my home and needs to have a personal touch. The personal touch is what connects with the audience. Many of my subscribers or followers are not looking for business solutions, or even products for that matter. They are looking for solutions to issues in their personal life. They are also looking for people they can relate to that have shared common experiences. Sure, some of them can be sold some tangible “products” and merchandise. Some may purchase them out of loyalty to support your platform. However, an assistant overseas or a business manager/publicist wouldn’t make my life easier, it may actually muddy the waters and complicate things if they do not understand the speed of social media.
Content creators can be relatable one day and an afterthought the next. I’ve seen “business partners” and even ex-girlfriends or spouses delete entire channels because of a personal fallout. Some take to the airwaves to direct attacks against their former partners because they were disgruntled.
The time that it would take to discuss what needs to get done would hamper the production of my original content. Add to the fact that I also work a full-time job, my schedule is extremely tight and training an assistant does not seem possible. And, honestly, I don’t have enough work to support a full-time assistant and that would result in a revolving door of personalities that I would have to train and re-train. And, because the content is the main event, more or less, my needs are for someone who’d desire to focus on majoring in the minor tasks and not get involved in the overall production. Having partners in social media requires infinite trust, an understanding of hierarchy and a willingness to work around the clock. And, most of it is free work.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Successful business-men, turned content creators like Gary Vee (Vaynerchuk) and Grant Cardone may have a team of assistance helping them and I would love to grow my brand in a way that can rival them. At the same time, I have to realize that they had businesses that thrived that allowed them to hire assistants early in the process.
With that being said, my task list is not shrinking any time soon, it’s actually growing exponentially. Every time I set a new goal to produce and grow a YouTube channel or create more content, more tasks get added to my list. For some, content creation alone is a daunting task. For me, that’s the easy part.
As my audience and support grows, so do the emails, comments, social media direct messages, requests for collaborations, business ideas and sponsorship inquiries. This is where my ambition collides with the realities of “success.” Content creators must protect their image and brand like a guard at Fort Knox and stay vigilant against willing “partners,” rotating “assistants,” and people looking to break into content creating by offering “help.” It’s also not a place for slick salesmen looking to capitalize on your audience’s personal connection with you. It’s a place for hustlers! It’s very grassroots and creators are connecting personally to their audience and that connection must be maintained. They can feel when they are receiving marketing emails or scripts that are meant to hard sell products. They want to hang out with you, not go to a sales seminar every time you appear on screen. Soft selling is always game, but the hard sell model is not going to work. And, the audience knows when you’ve hired someone to reply to their emails or when you’ve been paid by a sponsor to “sell” something that is indirectly tied to your content. So, creating content many times is a lonely task and some goals never get accomplished or slip through the cracks.
Nevertheless, my original blog is gone. I understand the importance of having written version of my videos and podcast online because the majority of my catalog is either in video format or podcasts. A blog or website is not the mothership, but having a decent blog could bring traffic to my video content through keywords and Search Engine Optimization. And since I’m a published author as well, it only makes sense to have a blog to partner with everything else that I produce.
So, here we go again! My Free Agent Lifestyle blog 2.0 is here. Please excuse the on-going construction. Enjoy!
Coach Greg Adams 
Recent Comments