Focus On What's Working

And Doing Less Of What's Not

Like most creatives, I’m constantly creating and/or curating. When I’m not doing one of those, I’m doodling and/or noodling. Eating and sleeping are nice too.

With Summer in full swing and the crew off on other projects, I’m left to run our shops, sites, socials, and YouTube channels solo.

Such is the life of a modern-day creative.
The hustle and struggle is real.
The labor and love is real too.

The problem comes when there’s more labor than love.
That’s when it’s time to take a long look at what’s working…and what’s not.

WHAT’S WORKING = FOCUS

• COLLIDE PRESS SHOP
  Sales are up and based on them, I’ve been creating more PRIDE designs and curating more CLASSIC ART and VINTAGE PHOTOS.

• YOUTUBE = MAIN CHANNEL
  After a forced “break,” I’m looking forward to returing to our loyal 4K+ subscribers tomorrow. The channel has been a creative awakening, so it’s been a weird week. Definitely not as creatively or financially rewarding..

• YOUTUBE = SECOND/TOO CHANNEL
  Since rebranding another channel (with 4 subscribers) Sunday morning, this now has nearly 500 subscribers (as of Friday morning) and should be eligible for the first tier of YouTube’s Partner Program by the end of the day. Wow.

• TUMBLR
  Tumblr is what I hoped Substack would be (for me). A fun, quick way to share posts (and images) that can be found by others. Who can choose to follow. Or not. More about Substack below, but Tumblr has quickly (and easily) become our go-to place to post (and research). Love it.

WHAT’S NOT WORKING = LESS FOCUS

• SUBSTACK
  I love Substack as a blog and newsletter platform. But I don’t love Substack as a social media platform. What I thought would be a fun way to share information with a growing subscriber base has…stagnated. Instead of doubling down on what’s not working, I think it’s safe to say there will be fewer newsletters going forward. Aren’t YOU lucky?

• THREADLESS
  I love the high-quality products and wonderful customer support. Yet, no matter what I’ve tried, getting traffic to this shop is difficult. It’s great they have so many options, but do wish there were a few more shop customizations possible. What Threadless can’t/won’t do, Fourthwall (our Main Shop’s platform) does. Currently, the plan is to add fewer new works here going forward.

• THREADS
  I definitely do not love Meta-Static. And now that I can see how few people are seeing my posts (though more than will likely read this newsletter), I see how relatively pointless it is to post much there. Same for Instagram. Most videos on our main YouTube channel have more views in the first 10 minutes than posts on Meta’s platforms have in 10 hours.

Speaking of time, it’s way past time this up and get busy (not writing).

Thanks for reading…and Happy Friday!
Clint

MORE FROM COLLIDE PRESS
Ko-Fi + Linktree + Shop + Storefront + YouTube