Jack Appleby’s Post

We're 2 years into TikTok Stories but... no one seems to know how to use them still. I wrote about a couple ideas: https://lnkd.in/epZBFGEG

When I'm just spinning, getting real intention about what I want has gotten me back on track. Did some thinking & set some goals for the rest of the year—here's a bit of a breakdown for my professional + personal life ⬇️ ✍️ Building Future Social to 100k subs After 2.5 years penning 1k words/week on social, content, & advertising, I think I've finally got the hang of this writing thing. Now I've gotta be better at the biz side— mechanics & flows. Gonna run my 1st paid acq, too. ⛹️ Building How To Hoop Forever into a charitable endeavor I'm a huge believer in adult sports leagues—they get you outside, seeing friends, keep you in shape, & fight off the bad thoughts. I wanna donate 100 entry fees so people can enjoy the game. 10 down so far. 💵 Hitting a $500k/year as a creator I'm tracking for ~$400kish, & that's after dropping $60kish in deals when I burned out harddd earlier in the year. Now I've hired senior help, have systems in place, & am a lottt better at understanding my personal capacity. Back on track. 🎓 Launching a course I used to cringe at the idea of making a course, but I've realized I was totallyyy wrong. I love teaching, and it turns out courses are the best way to chat with a group of people who truly wanna learn. This is a major focus for me the rest of the year. 🎥 Launching marketing video content It's time. I've practiced a ton with the hoops content (and the TikTok accounts I've never told you about). I've finally found some ideas I'm excited about. It'll start with short-form case studies. Probablyyy going YouTube, too. 🏀 Winning a rec league I've lost in the semi-finals 5 times in the last 6 months, made All-Star 3 times, hit 2 big game-winners, dragged a last place team to the championship, but still not taken home a championship. I WANNA WIN, DAMMIT. 🧗 Get more adventurous I kinda stopped being good at trying new things since pandemic. Your boy likes comfort & control since the world turned over. Now, not being brave's limiting my happiness & growth. Need to reinvest in people & adventure & seeing the outside world. 👥 More friend time + deeper friendships Had some unexpected turnover in the pal department this year while simultaneously focusing on the biz + basketball. I've gotta spend more time w/ my people + finding more like-minded humans, even if that means cutting back on biz goals. ❤️ Settle down I'm plenty ready to be in the relationship. I'm smart enough to see people through a season before I settle down now, but the goal's definitely to get closer to marriage + kids. Dad mode. 🏖️ Take a vacation Couldn't tell you my last trip that didn't include work emails or basketball. Which, hey, I love my sports, but they're not r&r. I'd say it's ridiculous I have to make vacationing into a goal, but also, I doubt I'm the only one? So yeah. Lots of goals, lots of hopes. Meeting with my ops manager today to make sure we've got the time & systems in place to properly prioritize all of this. Fingers crossed!

Dear Employers: nothing at work is important enough for you to ask people to work on July 5. Deadlines are manmade, we're not curing cancer, let people enjoy some time off. Thank you, Employees.

I HIT A GAME WINNING BUZZER BEATER YESTERDAY!!! I’ve pursued basketball so hard recently—extremely cool to see it turning into results and a little luck.

The best way to engage with a professional mentor is to pretend you don't have one. To think about your career like you'll never get the advice that'd be most helpful & you're gonna have to plan your professional path all by yourself. Why? Because then you'll have a plan to show a mentor for feedback. Asking someone more senior "what should I do?" without doing any thinking on your own isn't effective, for you or the mentor. You've gotta have theories & dreams & wants & ideas of how you're gonna get there. You've gotta be solution-oriented all on your own, then be thankful when someone great can validate or improve those plans. #mentorship #careercoaching

Working in social media is one of the most fun, creative, cool jobs in the world. Sure, it's not at all dandelions & butterflies—no job's perfect! We have stress & unrealistic expectations & red tape & tough career paths & a bunch of other things. But honestly? These are AWESOME jobs. We get to be creative. Our work is seen by millions. We get to learn multiple skills. Sometimes I open LinkedIn or ~Marketing Twitter~ and can't stand how often I see people complain about what are COOL JOBS. And again, I get it, we all need a chance to vent! But man, we should be so gracious we get paid to make things on the internet.

Some semi-professional news… an ABA basketball team just asked me to try out… like… the American Basketball Association, red white and blue basketball league.

The next big creator partnership play: REAL-TIME INFLUENCER MARKETING. I wrote about the most wholesome & fast brand deal out there: https://lnkd.in/e-ESnyHX

I’m proud of tomorrow’s newsletter. Give it a sub to get it free? https://lnkd.in/e_VzPpug

Got to Meltwater’s summit a bit late, some marketer is on stage. Didn’t catch his name, but handsome fella.