You won't regret this...

Good morning!

Welcome to Social Studies.

Here’s the agenda for today:

• My case for why you should have a side project

• Stuff I’m digging this week

In 2020, I was working at YouVersion as a one-man social team.

We were growing super fast, but I felt insecure. Total imposter syndrome.

I wanted to see if I could do it on my own. From scratch. New brand.

I was living in OKC at the time so I started an account just highlighting cool stuff around the area.

Cool photographers. Cool restaurants. Cool art.

You get the idea.

I experimented. Failed.

Experimented. Failed.

Experimented. Saw small sliver of success.

Then I repeated this process for 3 years.

I’m originally from KC so eventually I started an account from there too.

My grand vision was to build out a hyper local media company that catered to each market and monetized through local businesses.

Buuuuuuuut we started having kids and I didn’t have make time for it.

I tried to hire people to help build it out, but that never worked out.

So freaking what?

So… I had a big vision.

It flopped.

Here’s why it was worth it:

1) I learned how to build an audience from scratch.

When I started at YouVersion, the brand already had a collective following of like 5 million.

I’d never really gone from 0 to anything.

I didn’t set any records, but I stumbled my way from 0 to 30k ish followers.

2) I made a little money.

For 3 years my total income from this project was less than $100.

A local cookie company gave me free product in exchange for a shoutout and I launched a local apparel line that netted $47.29.

In June 2023, I met the founders of a local media company who had successfully built what I had envisioned.

They were interested in expanding into KC and OKC and eventually acquired the accounts.

I helped out with their paid growth strategy too.

Am I going to retire off of it? No.

Was it a super fun way to end the project? Heck yes.

Am I going to put Founded Local Media Company (Exit 2023) in bio? Also heck yes.

3) I met cool people.

Matthew McConaughey posted a while back about asking his son what he was hoping for as he headed out for summer camp.

He replied, “I just want to meet new people and do cool things.”

That’s about the best reason to do anything.

I made a bunch of connections with local creators and local businesses.

I’ve also spent time getting to know the founders of the company that bought my accounts. They even claim to read this newsletter… shoot me a text to prove it. 😎)

4) It added to my body of work

As a social media pro, your No. 1 asset is your body of work.

It’s how you prove that you know what you say you know.

Prior to this project I could prove that I knew how to grow the following of an established faith-based app.

After this project I could prove that I knew how to launch and grow hyper local media companies.

If I’m hiring a SMM, all things being equal, I’m going to hire the person that has the biggest and most diverse body of work.

Stuff I’ve been digging:

Hey! You’re still here!