Pivoting Back to Audio
I lied. Okay, I didn’t lie; I just miscalculated badly. A couple of posts ago, I told you I was going to go biweekly. I had this whole plan: high-production video, fancy edits, all that. And then I posted an audio version last week just to get something out there. I felt like posting biweekly just wasn’t frequent enough, especially with all the things happening with Pesto Comics this year. I wanted the opportunity to share as much as I could, as often as possible.
So I thought, “Hey, I’ll do audio one week and video the next.” And then as I was recording the video, I thought, “Why am I doing this?” I looked at the numbers for the audio I posted last week, and I saw that it was doing just as well as the video—even on YouTube, which you would think is video-forward. You’d think text on a screen wouldn’t be nearly as engaging as me talking into the camera and bringing up visuals every 20 or 30 seconds just to keep you engaged for four minutes. Instead, just turning on the mic and being honest for what I thought was way too long ended up being the best way to go about it.
The Change in Strategy
So I made a decision: we’re going back to that. As much as I enjoyed experimenting with the video and trying to make it on YouTube to get more subscribers, I think there’s going to be a bit of a pivot in how I accomplish that. It doesn’t mean I’m giving up on it entirely, but just a change in strategy.
One of the biggest changes you’ll find is that I’m going to be focusing on the audio. It’ll be less about talking about things happening behind me or things coming up on screen that you can’t see. It’s going to be me talking directly with you—a little more uncut, clear, and a little less scripted. Just me telling you what’s on my mind, which is what I think you’re here for.
I do feel like I’m letting the film school kid in me down a little bit. I was looking forward to having a slick and polished YouTube channel, but with everything else going on with Pesto Comics—which is fulfilling a whole other dream and is a lot further down the road—I think it’s a little bit too much at once. The videos I was putting together weren’t exactly what I wanted; I could never get them to that really refined, slick quality. The amount of effort I needed to put in just to get it to “decent” ended up being quite a bit.
The AM Radio Host
It got me thinking: why am I doing it? Was it because the film school kid in me wanted it, or because I thought I could get more readers by being more visual? If we’re being honest, the future of the internet seems to be video, but if you’ll indulge me, I want to tell you about my past.
Before I was a film school kid, I wanted to be a game designer. This was back in high school. I was really into the new era of 3D gaming. I had this Mark Saltzman book about creating video games, and that was going to be my guidebook. I seemed to have a logical brain—my day job would tell you that too, as I work in IT managing databases—and I thought game design was the perfect parlay for a “half-creative” person.
Then I hit Grade 10 math and it just did not work for me. I thought, “If I’m having a hard time now, I can only imagine how much worse it’s going to get.” So I pivoted. I researched film schools, but one thing that really caught my eye was listening to the radio while driving around Toronto. To this day, I’m an old man—I’ve listened to AM radio for decades. I’m a big fan of conversation and podcasts. That was game-changing for me; I could listen to literally anything, not just local news.
I wanted to get into radio until I saw what it takes. Much like film, there was an expectation for a lot of free work. You might have to move an hour north of Winnipeg, working for free and paying your dues until someone gives you a shot at a 3:00 AM slot for 12 listeners. Given that the end of the rainbow was barely making any money unless you became a morning show host, it felt like less and less of an opportunity.
Always Comics
Living in Toronto, I thought film was the way to go because I saw everyone working in it. My wife, who went to fashion school, actually works in film today. But all this to say, my dreams have pivoted left and right, and comics were the through-line throughout. I’ve always wanted to write comics; I just never thought it was a viable thing. I thought I would do comics once I established myself elsewhere.
The truth is, I’ve established myself in IT, and it’s given me a career with stability so that I can try to get Pesto Comics up to a level where it’s running its own business. We have 98 weeks left to do that. I’m trying to build this business so it can sustain itself completely within 98 weeks from today. This audio fulfills that AM radio version of myself, but it also lets me keep you updated week by week on exactly how this is going.
Doubling Down on What Works
Experimentation is critical. You have to learn what’s working for you and what isn’t. You double down on what works and cut what doesn’t. Video, although it was working to a degree, wasn’t working entirely in the long form. So I’m cutting it there, but I’m still pushing Shorts. Those are doing really well—I’m already at 175,000 views on YouTube Shorts.
I’m going to take the energy I was spending on well-thought-out long-form videos and put it into Shorts. Then I’ll use this Thursday post to just talk to you guys and share as much as I can. I’m not getting rid of long-form video entirely; I’ll still do “con journals” and vlogs when there’s something that adds value for you to see, like when I go to San Diego—I just got my Pro pass for San Diego, which is very exciting.
Different Streams for Different Audiences
I’ll also be sharing two new mailing lists very soon. One is for retailers, focusing on FOC information and ordering codes. The other is a reader mailing list strictly for sales and marketing—new campaigns, in-store dates, and new series.
For the “deep dives”—postmortems and digging into numbers—I created a separate Substack called the Pesto Vault. I’m moving all my postmortems and paid posts over there. There will be a paid tier, mostly just to put up a wall so that when I share deep financial data, it’s not just available via a Google search. I’ll make it as cheap as Substack allows.
Experience is the Best Teacher…
I think the experiments have paid off because now I know where to put my energy. There’s a saying I really like: “Experience is the best teacher, but the tuition is high.” Even though I’m experimenting, it’s all going into my education. It’s not a loss. I tried things, they didn’t work, and it taught me where my energy is better served.
I really enjoy talking to you guys. This has been like a live journal for me, and I hope it’s been insightful to see what it’s like to start from nothing in 2023. We’re entering the direct market now, and I’m trying to build a proper business with production timelines where artists are paid well in advance.
I’ll be here next week and every week for as long as I can, via audio. You can find me on YouTube, Spotify, or whatever you use for podcasts.
One More Thing
If you haven’t checked out Snip on Kickstarter, you can find it until March 13th at bit.ly/snip1comic.
Thanks for being here. We’ll talk again soon.
