I'm gonna be honest: after publishing over 3,500 videos across 11 different YouTube channels for the past 20 years, I want to take a break. But I also don't. It's been such a big part of my life for decades... but doing something different for a bit is still ok, right?
While wrestling through this with a creator coach on my team, he suggested I get back to writing again instead of recording podcasts and videos. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. (Thanks, Anthony!)
But I knew I didn't want to write only about the creator economy and business growth strategies. While I love those topics, I also deeply care about other matters, like faith, family, and community.
Do people want to read about anything else besides creator business strategy from me? That's all people want from me... right?
Shortly before Christmas, I decided to just go for it. No more wondering, wrestling, or worrying. Just do it.
So, I set up my website as a blog instead of a pitch for creator business and life coaching. Within a few days, I had already drafted several posts and quickly confirmed what I was feeling: I love getting back to my 2005 writing roots.
However, the real test of my commitment to this new direction came two weeks ago. I looked at my email list. Almost all of them signed up to receive my creator business insights, and now I was going to tell them that I'm taking a hard left turn.
I drafted a quick summary of my new direction and clicked SEND. I basically told them, "Hey, I'm going in a different direction. You can expect some creator business stuff, but also more about whatever I'm wrestling with around other topics, like faith and family."
I even reiterated for clarity:
"You're gonna get religious posts. I know for a fact you didn't sign up for that, so here's the unsubscribe link if you want it."
To my surprise, not only did not a single person unsubscribe, but I also received a more positive response than I had received from any other message in the past few years. I received emails, DMs, and text messages from people excited about the more generic "Whatever Tim is wrestling with" posts. Weird.
Then I posted about the new direction on my social media accounts and my email list doubled! I did not expect that.
So now I'm wrestling with, "Why was I so hesitant to add family and faith to my public wrestling with business? What was holding me back?"
This is what I've come up with so far:
When I first experienced some success on YouTube I subconsciously became more of the kind of person that experienced that success. I eventually started to believe that I needed to be more and more of that person in order to achieve more success, which resulted in publicly tempering some of the other parts of me.
From a branding perspective, it makes sense to be clear about who you are and what value you provide. This makes it easy for new people to understand what you do and how it benefits them, and they will follow you for more of it. When it comes to branding, clarity wins every day.
But after doing that for 20 years, the other parts of me really wanted to be shared, too. I just feel timid about doing so because I feel like it introduces a lot of fuzziness to the Tim Schmoyer brand I've created over the years, not to mention the additional layer of vulnerability it introduces. But I don't think I care as much about that anymore. I think I now favor honesty and transparency over clarity and the risky nature of vulnerability.
A personal brand is just that: personal. I'm more than just a creator coach. I'm a husband, a dad, a homesteader, a teacher, a leader, and more.
Apparently, the people who are still paying attention to my posts and emails are okay with the real and authentic Tim appearing in their feeds. This is humbling, exciting, and still a bit scary.
So here I go...
P.S. Just to be clear, this isn't about a new career direction or anything. I still love online video, YouTube, and the creator economy. That's not changing. This is more about what I give myself permission to discuss publicly online. 👍
