A Breath of Fresh Kittens (Life’s Good)
My kitten friend looks much healthier than a couple weeks ago. Plus she’s letting me pet her more and more (without hissing and clawing).
Her body is filling out, she’s hydrated, she’s nourished, she’s conversational, and she is cuter than a battleaxe in the cranium.
When I brought her fresh water today I watched her take a healthy shit in the neighbor’s yard.
Life’s good.
I’m two weeks into this.
By “this,” I mean writing on Medium.
I appreciate Medium. In some ways, it’s a dream come true.
I spent many years avoiding social media, for different reasons. I deleted all my accounts — and while I didn’t look back, I knew I would eventually have to buck up and start using it.
My attitude with Medium is this:
· I want it to be where I focus much of my material.
Before I opened my account, I took six days and wrote 30,000 words of content and began posting on Sept. 16, 2024. I posted in bulk. I wanted a backlog of material for folks to thumb through.
None of this material is monetized, nor do I plan to monetize my backlog.
And I’m still building that backlog.
But I have tapered off from posting in bulk, since much of what I made in that week is already up. (Much of it, but not all.) I am developing a healthy and doable writing schedule for online content, always working ahead of my current posts.
Other folks have different strategies, and I’m happy with that.
I don’t claim this is the best strategy; I claim that it is mine.
I am a beginner. My profile says I’M PRACTICING! Because I am practicing.
Marketing
The best marketing, as far as I can tell, is the opposite of gimmicky.
Marketing is not the same thing as advertising. Advertising is a function of marketing, but the way things are panning out, it isn’t even the primary driver of good marketing.
Organic content is where it’s at.
Personal branding is an ongoing process of revealing who you are to markets. And that’s what I’m doing here: revealing things.
I started with the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life, the thing I am most ashamed about, and I’m keeping it moving.
Humor and comedy are my focuses.
But not everything I turn out will be humorous or comedic.
Life is too magnificent to see everything through a lens of sardonic parody.
For Now
I am a settling into the platform.
Medium has a variety of voices.
I love the depth and thought put into many pieces. I love the quirk and the pun, the life lessons, the practicable insight.
I’m settling into the platform, and my post schedule is this:
· Minimum of 1 post Monday — Saturday
That’s it.
I’m not concerned with only producing comedy and parody; I’m concerned with revealing myself, both to me and to others.
It is a process I immensely enjoy.
When others do it, I am given value.
Yesterday
In the last couple weeks, one of my part-time jobs has turned into a fulltime contract.
It is not online, and it’s not strict entrepreneurship, but it is entrepreneurial. It’s a real opportunity that fills me with gratitude.
I contract through a contractor, and he provides invaluable mentorship.
All that to say, things are getting busy here. Which is normal for me. Things are often hair-brained busy.
A late night on Sunday turned into an un-Bob-ly hour on Monday morning.
It was a good day. Plus I went 8 hours without tobacco. Not shabby at all.
Because I work ahead with my content — because I have at least 7 or 8 pieces ready to fire off — I didn’t freak out when I got home to make my daily post.
I was able to care for myself for a little bit.
I came home and took care of my kitteny kitten friend, read a couple pieces on Medium, hit the gym for some light cardio, grabbed dinner, and went to bed early.
I have a business trip coming up on Thursday, and I have a scary amount of work to do before and after, but working ahead makes me feel secure.
It keeps away the maniacal pressure of NEEDING SOMETHING NOW, NOW, NOW.
Full disclosure: I still approach content with that pressure when I write.
But having a handful of pieces gives me some breathing room.
And I like breathing.
Swivels in, Swivels out.
Read how My Wife Left (Because I Snored)
Check out how to Turn 4% into 5%.
Let’s meditate on The Other Shoe
