Connecting a Global Community through Authentic Self Expression
I want to thank everyone who took the time to read my last post, “If I Were to Walk Away from Wish Dish”. The support we received from the contributors was unbelievable. About 20 minutes after the release, I received a phone call from Carden Wyckoff, an amazing contributor of ours, who wanted to share why what we do is so important. It was refreshing to hear.
Then a friend from NYU in the poetry and literature fields reached out to express how hard it is for people in his community to be heard, represented, and given a voice.
From direct messages to phone calls, people who have been part of my mission all stood firm and unified in their stance: “Don’t Give Up, Keep Going.”
So where are we going?
My Trip to NYC
Empire State Building to my left. Freedom Tower to my right. I was sitting down on a bench in Hoboken, NJ putting our 3 month and 1 year plans into concrete words. Typically, I do my writing behind closed doors, not in front of two of the most inspiring buildings in the world.
I felt different. The dream was running high, and I became fixated on the opportunity to achieve a vision that can connect the world through authentic self-expression.
For the past year and a half, the Wish Dish has been finding our voice and understanding who we are. We’ve been playing with art, making new art, and learning how to create ways for people to express themselves. We received at least 20% growth for a period of 12 straight months and built a site to 15k monthly visitors and 3,500+ subscribers.
We have achieved a lot, but frankly, there was never a plan in place. Just micro plans, but no macro vision. Simply, we were just doing,without taking the time to truly understand the picture of what we were truly building.
And as the leader of the Wish Dish, I failed in not implementing any processes or systems to achieve a tangible vision. But this is also a place where I can greatly improve, an opportunity that excites me.
Where Dreams Are Made
While in NYC, I walked into a bar to meet one of the early founders of Elite Daily, Serge Efap. For those that don’t know, in Elite Daily’s prime, they averaged 75 million monthly visitors. Serge saw the growth from a few thousand visitors a month to millions. And he helped lay the groundwork for the operational foundation.
Serge and I had one of the most incredible conversations as I gained insight into how they grew and what we needed to do differently to achieve similar levels of success. If I were to only remember one thing Serge said, it would be the importance of building a roadmap, a plan to get from A to B to C. To say Serge was helpful would be an understatement. I’ve never met someone with so much drive, hustle, and determination.
Where I’ve struggled is not knowing exactly where that road needs to go because of the tricky nature of the content industry. What I mean is so many people sacrifice short-term gain for long-term success. I’ve never wanted to do so for fear of ruining such a beautiful vision.
Speaking with Serge, someone in my space who was able to succeed on a massive level, almost brought me comfort in developing a plan. I set out to make a high level plan for the first time in my life.
The Next 3 Months of the Wish Dish
So what’s in the plan for the next 3 months, and how can you help us bring our vision to life? In the next few months, The Wish Dish will:
- Implement systems to grow our contributor team by 200+ new members in the areas of Sports, Health, Career, and News in order to gain 40,000 more monthly visitors. If you would like to learn more about becoming a consistent contributor or know someone that would, please reach out to [email protected] &[email protected].
- Implement systems to bring on community leaders to grow their own Wish Dish Tribes around their network and causes they care about. If you would like to learn more about becoming a community leader or know someone that would, please reach out to [email protected] & [email protected]. Our goal is to have 24 community leaders, we have 7 right now.
- Create Distribution Partnerships with brands, influencers, and other websites taking on similar missions. If you would like to learn more about becoming a partner with us or know someone that would, please reach out to [email protected] &[email protected]
- Build a better foundation for our product and establish our brand voice so that when you come to Wish Dish, you know our company mission and tagline. We will work to build a more consistent brand on social. If you would like to help us with our imagery or branding, please reach out to [email protected] &[email protected].
- Bring on 3 More Editors to our editing staff. If you would like to be an editor for Wish Dish, please email [email protected], [email protected], and[email protected]
- Further connect our contributors together. If you feel you would like to know someone on our platform, don’t hesitate to tell us. We will put you directly in touch until we can make this an automatic function on the platform.
Onward & Upward
While we don’t have millions of dollars in the bank to execute our plans, we have a strong why. We are giving a voice to the voiceless, helping others realize they are not alone and allowing people to connect over topics they truly care about.
For more, visit www.thewishdish.com