Why Now is the Time to Start a Blog

In a world where everyone is documenting their entire lives with video clips, reels and stories, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to start a blog. Except now is exactly the right time for me to do this. Although I never could get into Tik Tok as a social media platform, I still adore Instagram and use it daily. Sometimes personally, sometimes professionally. I don’t always post content on my feed, but I do like engaging with other creators. They have something I don’t: the interest to make video content.

Start a Blog Now to Spend More Time Doing What I Love

I’d rather sit at my desk for hours writing a blog and doing research than stand in front of a camera and try my hand at the latest video trends. It’s not that I think I’m too good to dance for the camera, it’s that this creative era is about doing things that feel good to me. And frankly, fiddling with my phone to capture just the right piece of content only to sit and edit it for a while doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. I don’t even like tea.

So instead, I’m doubling down on a medium that many people are saying is dead. Who knows if it’s dead or not? I’m very much alive and that’s all I really need to worry about.

The problem with content creation is that we often fall prey to the trends and fast track to monetization. Yes, I could start a YouTube channel or subscribe to TikTok and start making videos and earning money from those platforms for the content I create, but it’s all a long game in my mind.

I had several YouTube channels over the last few years, with nothing really sticking or holding my interest long enough for it to matter. And whenever I try to log into TikTok to try to post something, I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noise over there I can’t imagine adding to it. And if it’s going to take a while to monetize a platform, I figured the best platform to monetize would be my own.

Getting Clear on the Kind of Life I Want Now and Later

As I continue to explore my creative era while engaging in a one-year sabbatical from my consulting business, I am getting clear on the kind of life I want to live. It’s always a work in progress, of course, but giving myself the gift of time to figure out what’s next is helping me hone my focus in interesting ways. For example, I am loving the process of painting canvas and my pieces are for sale. Down the road though, I realize that painting on canvas may not be optimal for the kind of life I want to live.

I fully intend on traveling on a full-time basis, or as close to a full-time basis as I can get within the next couple of years. And last time I checked, painted canvases don’t travel so well. That’s not to say I couldn’t host little pop-up shops as I travel. That would be super cool actually, but maybe there’s another way. Maybe as I continue to explore my options, I start working with digital art. Or I create a digital stationary shop. All things I love that never get my attention.

When it comes to my novels, I usually carry a stock of paperbacks in my home and drop them on Facebook once in a while to sell, or attend markets. Does it make sense to travel with paperback copies of my books? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s why I’ve updated the books and turned them into e-books. They’re easily accessible and while I don’t love reading from an e-book, many people do. So it makes sense to continue to build that library for myself and others in a way that supports my travels.

Start a Blog and Create a Place for All The Things

As for my courses, I’ve recently added my first non-business course about solo travel for women. It might seem like that came out of thin air since I’m not publicly talking about travel on any of my platforms, but it’s been a major part of my life for years and a top priority for me.

As I said, I fully intend on traveling on a full-time basis in short order and that course can not only help others do the same, but also support me in my career by selling it from wherever I am. There are more courses to come, obviously. You might not know this about me but I’ve created over 100,000 hours of training content in my career for other organizations. I’ve only created a handful of courses that I’ve sold myself. It’s time to start putting my skills to use in ways that benefit me and those who want to learn what I know.

Understanding the Long-Term Impacts of My Work

And of course, the blog content itself is something that will eventually generate income. But that brings us back to the long-game of content creation. I’ve been creating content of one form or another long enough to know that there are many ways you can monetize your skills, knowledge and abilities, and digging into my creative side is helping me figure out just how I want to do that.

For now though, I’m writing about the changes happening, what I’m learning and what I’m making. It would be a dream to travel and write about it, but I don’t know if I want to have a travel blog, per se. It will definitely be a part of what I’m doing, but maybe it won’t be the entire focus. And for anyone who feels the need to remind me that niching down is the fastest way to earn money, I’m not in a rush. I want to explore what I can do and what I can make on my own time and terms. Picking a niche to write about on this blog right now would be akin to trapping my brain in a jail cell. I’ve done enough niching down over the years to know that what I need right now is creative freedom and the ability to express what feels good, not fall in line.

The Freedom to Choose

I also recognize that if I were to be making videos about this journey, I would feel the pressure to stick to one topic. When I write, I feel more free to let my mind wander and see what comes up. Video seems preformative to me. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s never been the thing I can uphold. I can write until the cows come home, though. I’m jealous of the people who can continue to show up on video and knock it out of the park, but I get tired of it easily. Developing a long-form writing platform at a time when others are exploiting AI and video seems backwards, but it feels like forward movement to me.

And the truth is that I’ve wanted to start a blog for a while now. I’ve always had a business blog to accompany whatever version of business I was running. I often found it hard to come up up with ideas to write those blogs because it felt more like performing and trying to convince people that I’m their guy for consulting work or learning content. When it comes to writing on this platform, I’ve got endless ideas and excitement to share with others. It’s a different kind of work for me right now and I love it.

Picture it. Plan for it. Do it.

When I imagine myself on the road, I don’t imagine me documenting my art, book writing or even travels with video content. How do I know? I’ve done lots of travel over the years and I’m actually terrible at doing things like taking photos or remembering to take video content.

And I know from experience that I don’t like sitting down to edit a video. I’d rather reflect and talk on paper, so to speak, like in a blog. And this journey is about figuring all of these pieces out. I’m not discounting any of it. Maybe I’ll come to love creating videos when I’m not trying to sell consulting services. Who knows? But for now, I’m sticking with building my own platform on this blog and seeing where the words take me.

If you’re feeling inspired to explore your own interests and doing things on your own terms, join my 5-Day Creative Challenge and see where it takes you. You’ll never know if you don’t try. And now is as good a time as any to try something new.