A Conversation with Coach Tony
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Introduction
I recently watched a live chat with host Ayodeji Awosika and guest Tony Stubblebine the CEO of Medium. I felt excited to watch these two excellent writers converse and where this may lead.
Coach Tony has a vision for the future of Medium, some of which he recently announced in his article “boosting the boost.” I was hoping that Ayo would dig deep and ask the direct questions that would give me the answers I was looking for, and he did.
This is not Coach Tony’s first Rodeo, so I understand some of his diplomatic answers. I will link the full video below for you to watch for yourself. However, these were my takeaways from this conversation.
You are ready to write.
Medium is the right platform to write on during 2023, we can all write, and this platform has a huge amount of readers looking for quality content.
Tony said that daily writing is a great way of learning, but it is not the path to your best.
He went on to say that one article he wrote took him two years. Although my first reaction was, “no way”, as he explained why it took him this long, it all fell into place for me.
Conducting the right amount of research into the topic you are writing about is vital unless you are very knowledgeable in your chosen field.
“Everyone has one great story.”
It would be true to say in my case that I have had a few killer stories that have made me decent money for my experience, and we all have at least one of those in us.
An opportunity awaits
As writers, we should strive to improve with each article. Having an article distributed is an amazing feeling, and we could earn a bonus from that “boost.”
The real opportunity could come after that in the form of an offer to write for another company, yes, a contract offer. This is not uncommon for top writers, so forget publishing daily and concentrate on writing to the best of your ability.
This defines you as a writer and not the amount of content you produce. Do not compromise on quality.
Opportunities such as content creation, podcasts, public speaking, ghostwriting and creating writing courses are a few that has been mentioned.
However, companies want the best writers to support their brands.
We are swamped
There are plenty of great articles written every day by writers. However, the problem these writers face is exposure, which I mentioned a few months ago on my YouTube video (07:20 onwards.)
You can still earn some good money, but gone are the days of the top writers earning twenty thousand dollars a month, but you can still earn a few thousand with quality content and placing them in the right publications.
Coach Tony has a solution I mentioned earlier in the form of a “boost,” he went on to speak about big and small publications and how these will develop over the coming months.
Publications
I am ecstatic that instead of Medium going away from publications, Tony is encouraging people to form strong nit communities that share a common interest in writing and reading on a given topic.
Publications will be able to boost writers’ posts they deem to have the right quality for their readers. This makes perfect sense, and I feel this will make or break a publication based on their attitude.
Although it was not said, I get the impression that if this feature is abused, it will be taken off the publication which would be a huge shame, so I intend to be very responsible with this given gift from Medium.
Raise your game
I hope with Tony’s pending announcements, a lot more writers will focus on giving their very best writing to the readers, research, edit and edit some more.
Whilst it may be hard to boost your article (that is my hope), when and if you get there, the rewards will be worth the wait and effort you have put into it.
AI writing
It is crap!
Those are my words and not Tony, inevitably AI is here to stay and can help in some ways, such as titles and frameworks. However, the writing is poor at best and not something I would advise you to invest in.
Zulie Rane recently produced a YouTube video on her experience with AI writing tools. I found she provided solid feedback and if anyone had thought about using these tools before you hit purchase, please watch what she has to say first.
When will the changes happen?
In short, trials are underway. However, Tony will not rush this out. It is important that testing is completed and then rolled out in the right way.
Tony suggested it would be a few months at least. Although I hope to be one of the lucky publications to be selected early in this process, I think it would be fair to say most of us will see changes come spring.
What are your thoughts on the changes?
Although I have only touched on a few things, there are plenty of changes on their way. Do you have any suggestions for realistic improvements? Let me know in the comments section below.
Here is the full conversation:
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