Why this post will change my life.

I’ve been clutching at straws for years now, and this is why ……….
Image for post

I have the attention span of a knat, I get really excited about new things, and then I get really down with those same things when I don’t get the desired recognition for them. I start new projects every day it seems, I am constantly learning some new new tool so I can create something only to put it all down when it doesn’t get noticed. I buy stuff I can’t afford and put it down to self-improvement, I have books I’ve never read, software I’ve never opened, and tons of Gumroad courses I’ve never taken. I’m daily climbing a wall that’s covered in grease, and it’s only because I’m moving so fast that I manage to stay climbing.

I’ve lived on the streets, been a magazine publisher, designer, photographer/teacher, care worker, writer, web designer, SEO, and now I’m flipping domains. My mother just rolls her eyes when I even start to talk about work. I’ve had more websites and email addresses than Wix and Wordpress combined, I’m a serial crap domain name buyer, I’ve zeroed out my Twitter account of both followers and tweets so many times, and there’s currently a few of me showing up on Facebook as I can’t work out how to cancel my accounts. You could say it’s all a bit of a mess.

My problem is that I’m always looking for the short cut, the quickest path to success.

Why is this? I feel like I’ve never really found my place of belonging, at least when it comes to career. I’m a creative, we can see this through my CV, I love people, I enjoy writing, and photography, web design, new opportunities, ….. hang on, see it’s happening again!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very good at everything I do, I just haven’t settled that’s all. But I’d like to change this, I would like to become an expert at something (still dabble in the other stuff to a lesser degree), but to be “known” for something specific. I’ve been heavily influenced in this thought by Lily Ray, the SEO expert and DJ who has spoken extensively about Googles E-A-T for websites.

E-A-T stands for Expertise — Authoritativeness — Trustworthiness. This is Google’s terminology, introduced in 2018, for a set of website quality standards to be applied by quality testers when evaluating websites. If your website meets these standards, then you gain more visibility on the search engines, which equates to more CTR, and ultimately more customers. I’d say this is a great model for a strong personal brand.

So let’s take stock of where I’m at right now. I live in a little town called Leonberg, nr Stuttgart, in Southern Germany. I’m married and have a three year old son. I am still designing websites and have a few SEO clients that pay me a monthly retainer for my services. I have an automated email newsletter that is published every Thursday via MailBrew called “Domainers Digest”.
It’s currently quite the thing to build in public, so I’m going to do just that. But not a product. A person, me. I’m going to build my brand in front of you. Documenting everything as I go.

The interesting bit isn’t going to necessarily be the area in which I choose to become an expert, but more so the process of becoming recognised and qualified as such. This is where most of my challenges will lie as I attempt to strip away some of the things that have been such a big part of who I am for so long, and to finally decide what is going to be my main driving force going forward.

Because I’ve always made quick decisions in the past, I’m purposely going to spend another couple of days thinking about what I’ve just written before making a final decision about what and who I’m going to be. I’ve kinda already got my front runner, but I’d like to hold off the big reveal until I’m fully committed to the idea.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you experiencing the same thoughts and desires as I am, do you also want to stop clutching at straws every month, create a reliable and big enough revenue stream to support yourself and your family, or just slow things down a little. Have you made the same journey? Do you have any tips or advice for me?

I know this journey isn’t going to always be pretty, and I’ll have both good and bad times, but I intend to be completely transparent about the whole thing, there will be lots more blog posts and I’ll be using Twitter as the main hub for everything I’m doing, so if you want to follow me here I’d love the company.