Hey. Welcome back. Or nice to meet you.
If you're familiar with my content, there are going to be some slight changes. If you're new around here — happy to have you.
Looking back at my archive, it's been about 3 months since publishing an article, newsletter, email, whatever you'd like to call it. Feels like it's been 3 years.
But, why?
Well, as I'm sure many other 21 year olds reading this can relate to, I've been having an existential crisis of sorts. For about 3 years — from 2018 to early 2021 — I ran a health and fitness coaching business. That was my North Star... until it wasn't.
As I got burnt out of the weekly "why didn't you hit your macros" conversations, I noticed that I actually enjoyed the marketing side of the business more than coaching people. So, I pivoted.
The pivot led me to start the Esports Economics podcast and YouTube channel, where I discussed marketing in gaming & esports. As a not-so-closet nerd and someone who enjoys marketing, it seemed like it was a great "niche" to pursue. Again, it was until it wasn't.
For a while, I had the goal of "getting into" esports in an employee capacity — specifically, in the social media and content strategy role. Maybe even freelancing. But, the more I thought about it, the less it made sense to niche down into esports.
The stories of extreme burnout, under-compensation, and more got my spidey senses tingling. Was this really the right move?
As someone who's gone through the ultra-productive, wake-up-at-5am, 16-hr-work-day-grind-your-face-off phase, my priorities now lie around doing something I'm passionate about that pays enough to give me free time to do other things I'm passionate about. I think that sentence made sense.
Side note - apparently having work be your only personality trait isn't the best for your dating life. Who knew?
And no, this piece isn't meant to bash esports at all. I love the industry. I'm big on it in the long term, and you'll still see me create content around it consistently. Expressing this is more about letting you know that it's okay to make pivots to create a life that you want.
By now you may be thinking - Okay Tommy, get to the point. What's in this newsletter for me?
And uhhhh... I'm still figuring that out. But I think I've got it somewhat down. So let's see if I can articulate it in a way that makes you want to stick around.
See, everyone in marketing tells you to "pick a niche." Shit, I'd tell you the same thing if you came to me for marketing advice. And I've been mentally putting myself through the blender for the past 1-2 months trying to dial one in for my content.
Do I stick with esports? Not if I want to retain my sanity.
Do I go with health and fitness marketing? I could, but do I really want to limit myself there?
Do I just go with "marketing" as a whole? Good luck standing out in an already crowded genre.
Do I just want to do social/content strategy? Refer to the answer to my first question.
I've also realized more and more that social media may not be the facet of marketing I want to focus on long term — at least not the only part. I've been spending my time lately studying paid media, email/SMS, and more. And I've been enjoying it. So expect to see a lot more discussion of that on here, too.
Eventually, I'd like to narrow down my focus on one facet of marketing — but, I'm not exactly sure which one yet.
There's one constant though. I want to build something. Whether it be a brand, an agency, a freelancing business, I don't know yet. But I do know that I have the talent and patience to do it.
So, what I want to do with the Tommy Talks Marketing newsletter are 2 things:
Share marketing principles and ideas in a simple and easy to understand way for business owners & creators to help you grow your audience, get more leads, and ultimately make more $$$ with less stress.
Document my own journey as I figure out WTF I want to do with my life in marketing, as well as what I'm learning about on a weekly basis. Not to highlight myself, but to show others going through a similar process that it's normal, and they're not alone.
If you're down with either of those two things, pretty plz give me your email right here. You'll get this in your inbox every Sunday at 9am PST. No spam, I promise:
If you're not, well, Alexa play "good 4 u."
Finally, I'd love to hear from you. Have you found yourself in a similar situation of not knowing what to do with yourself? How'd you handle it? Hit me back and let me know.
I always find it surprising, and comforting, how many of us are going through the same things.
With that, I'll talk to you next week.
-Tommy
PS - the one principle that I come back to when I find myself overthinking is that action > strategy. Strategy matters of course, but all the theory in the world is useless unless you actually test it. So, here we go.
PPS- Want some more marketing tips in the meantime? Check out the YouTube channel.