I’ve been a content creator for going on three years now. Back in 2018 when I started it came out of a necessity for me to have something on the side of my everyday life to be creative and to help me find myself again after going through a bit of an identity crisis. Thus I did two things. I launched my blog here on Medium and really started to get into writing and figuring out the platform and then I started my podcast “Coffee With Craft”

Since then I have been experimenting with content creating and discovering my voice here on the internet. That’s why I have decided that in 2021 I am going to add a new pillar for my content with Youtube. …

Coffee With Craft

For the past two years, I have hosted a podcast called Coffee With Craft, its all about having an intentional conversation like you would with a friend over coffee. During the first few months of the quarantine, I have been putting in the hard work to get the podcast ready for the relaunch. With the relaunch, I wanted to make sure that my podcast got as many eyes on it as possible and so I decided to go ahead and run a Facebook ad for my podcast for the first time.

I’ve always been a little skeptical of Facebook ads and using them to grow my platform. There is a large part of me that feels like its cheating in some way. That I am neglecting the hard work and grit it takes to build your personal brand and to grow your influence. However after several conversations with others and a couple of Gary Vee videos later I went ahead and ran a twenty-dollar Facebook ad. …

The “pandemic made creative”

For my 9–5 job, I am a youth pastor at a small church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I, like many people, have seen my job change dramatically over the past five months. Before the pandemic, I spent the majority of my time planning large scale events with other youth pastors and putting on weekly student services from a youth group experience on a Sunday night and an after school program on Wednesday afternoons. That all went away when the pandemic began. …

What I’ve loved about quarantine is that everyone who has ever wanted to try something like creating a podcast now has a chance to get it going! As someone who has been podcasting for almost two years, I have come to a place where I believe everyone who wants to tell a story should have a podcast.

However, for many people who want to start a podcast, they lack the understanding of how they should go about starting a podcast. They look at the project and feel like they are staring at this impossible mountain they could never climb. However, podcasting has never been easier for someone to get into, and it can be a real opportunity for you to discover your voice and even find your audience. …

“I don’t even know where to start…” — A friend

I was on FaceTime the other day when my friend said that to me. This friend is recently unemployed because of the world circumstances and has begun to look into content creation as something he can do in his free time. This friend loves to write but struggles to know what to write. For my friend, he found himself looking at a blank piece of paper with endless possibilities and was paralyzed by that.

For me, it used to be the same way. I started writing on Medium in 2016, was blogging on sites like Wordpress as early as 2011, but it wasn’t until 2019 when I would discover my voice as a writer and what I wanted to write. I remember a moment in 2017, where I sat in a coffee shop after not blogging for months with a blank document open on my computer, struggling to know what to write. I arrived at that coffee shop at eleven, left at six with nothing written. …

Things have changed since Jan. 1st

Awhile back, I wrote an article that was all about being loud and vocal about the goals you wished to accomplish in 2020. In this article, I talked about how I desired to grow my side income to $2000 this year and how I wanted to make this a reality.

At the time, I had planned on doing this through speaking engagements and my writing. Yet, here I am almost five months after Jan. 1st, and everything has changed. Speaking engagements that I had lined up for 2020 aren’t certain anymore. Things I had planned on doing have been thrown in the waste paper basket. …

Presidential guidelines

Today the president announced that he was going to be extending his Social Distancing guidelines from the original 15 days to now ending on April 30th. While most people will not be surprised to hear that this deadline has extended, it is a far cry from the president’s comments earlier in the week that he hopes to have the country opened by Easter. However, with these guidelines extended, this means that your average American might be out of work for longer than they initially expected.

In places like my home state of Ohio, many Americans find themselves out of work because their industry has shut down. Bars and restaurants have shut down except for carryout. Offices are closed and many workers find themselves laid off. I could tell you countless stories of friends who have had their hours cut, or have been placed on temporary leave or even laid off with the sobering statement from an employer that they don’t know if they will be able to hire them back. While these guidelines are necessary, it is vitally important for us all to remember that there are natural economic consequences that are taking place right now. …

My Podcasting Journey

Two years ago, I started a podcast called “Coffee With Craft”. At first, I started it because I had just moved to Cincinnati for a new job and needed something to fill my time with while I was developing new rhythms. After all, I had a Blue Yeti Microphone and one of the latest Macbook Pros, so why not?

I loved podcasts and always thought about how cool it would be to be on one, and decided it was worth the leap to start my own. I remember how bad and unannounced episode one was. I did no marketing. I just made an Instagram story and said, “Hey, I made this thing. …