You Can't Be Anything You Want to Be

Dear strange people,

Welcome to my experiment. This is a newsletter where I dive deep into the decisions that I am making (and learnings) when it comes to my personal brand, community, and business. 

It’s been a while. I took a break for Thanksgiving and my birthday & girlfriends birthday was shortly after that. And it feels good if I’m being honest but it also feels good to be back. Quick point on the title... I'm all about dreaming. Keep dreaming. Dreams just don't work unless you do ??. Let's dive in! ????

Becoming Numb to Success

The past few weeks were hectic for me. From the casting of my team for the Amazon Prime TV show I’m a part of, the birthdays, to the day to day of my business, to my dog huffing and puffing every second I’m not paying attention to him. One of the highlights for me was talking to Baron and Angie. They drove down and swung by our office. I sat there listening as they were talking. I thought to myself, “damn… I don’t do this nearly enough anymore.” I used to take so many meetings. I used to collab with so many creators. And granted, I’m in a different stage of my business now but so much has changed.

I turned 26 last week. I spent most of the week in Chicago with my girlfriend and I had a lot of time to think about those changes. I remember sometime in early 2018, I was sitting in Rochambo Coffee House in Milwaukee. A guy walked up to me during a meeting. “Hey, you’re just Q!”

It was the first time anyone had ever recognized me from anything that I created. It was also the first time anyone referred to me as "just Q" instead of just using "Q" (but that's a topic for another time). I remember that moment vividly. I made a video about it (LinkedIn won't let me scroll back that far to link it ??). I felt so honored and so humbled. And it’s not like I don’t appreciate stuff like that now because I totally do. It’s just become a new normal that I don’t appreciate in the same way. It’s so easy to become numb to success.

• When we started Urban Misfit Ventures I made a video asking for help finding an office. We locked in an event space and an office within 48 hours (for free/trade). We had offers all over the world. I remember being invited to an influencer boat ride that night. And I sat on the back, drinking my beer, gazing into the distance because it felt so surreal.
• Izzy and I closed $150k in deals in a few days. We didn’t expect it. We were struggling. After the work day we basically ran down the streets of Milwaukee screaming like children on the last day of school. 
• I just talked to Izzy seconds ago about the first pair of shoes he ever had sent to him, the Puma RS-X Motorola collab. He freaked out that day. And now he gets shoes sent to him all the time. He still gets excited but its become a new normal. 

We live this story, which has been nothing short of amazing. But somewhere along the line they become just stories. We move onto the next thing before we truly allow ourselves to experience the depths of our emotions. And it took two strangers driving to my office to show me that I need to allow myself to feel more. 

Every Time I Post a Speaking Video this Happens ????

I gave the commencement speech for the i.c. Stars graduation ceremony recently. It was the first time I spoke since my little brother passed away. I said yes, because I felt like I was speaking to him. Young people with so much potential.

I’ll dive deeper into how I choose (or rather how my team chooses) what snippets to create in a later newsletter. Content is a science. If you test enough you can always get the desired outcome. I’ve talked to a lot of people (specifically on LinkedIn) that want to do videos because someone they follow does videos. Or they want to write a LinkedIn newsletter because someone else has one (even though they’ve probably never written any articles or may not be a writer at all). They want a podcast because someone they follow has a podcast. But there is no real strategy or reason behind any of it. 

Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Following because you don’t want to be left behind won’t get you very far. 

Quick Point

Something that I said in the speech above is this, "a lot of people... especially young people like us. We fall into the trap of thinking we can be anything we want to be. But what's real is that we can be anything that we put in the work to be."

I didn't plan this speech. Because I felt like this one needed to be candid. It needed to be for my brother. That was from a script that I wrote for a video we made a while back for Epidemic Sound. Check it out here.

TikTok & YouTube

I got my start on YouTube. I found myself on LinkedIn. The more I grow, the more I’ve realized that it’s less about the platform and all about you. I’m on every platform, but I am hitting these two hard.

I've been on TikTok since it was Musical.ly. Mostly just keeping tabs and observing. I'm mostly going to use it for quick motivational short films. I want to do thought provoking content. I would throw 99% of the content on there into the Influencer bucket vs. the Thought Leader bucket. Which is fine, it's totally the nature of the platform. Even when I was a kid, I struggled with surface level thoughts and conversations. I don't function well in that headspace. My content doesn't function well there. So I want to carve out my own space on that platform in a way that still allows me to be me.

You can follow me anywhere with @tagjustQ :)

Podcast Stuff Here

I posted an episode last week but have taken a short break from episodes. Izzy and I are in the midst of a sales blitz and it has had most of my focus. That being said, I’m getting messages every day from people that are listening to the podcast. I launched my personal website, which will also host my podcast. Feel free to check it out! I’ll dive back into growth tactics/strategy in next weeks newsletter! 

Happy holidays to all the weirdos reading this. If you have any questions about anything feel free to send me an email or ask in the comments. Next week I will be diving back into the nitty gritty tactical stuff.

For those that are new subscribers, welcome to the madness. I'm loving this journey that I’m taking with all of you. Smash the subscribe button to keep up with this experiment!

For the strange peeps that have made it through and to the end of this newsletter what's your main focus for 2020?

Stay strange,

#justQ ??????