I’ve got it — VIP announcement

I finally found it. Maybe. I think.

The balance between giving you a great topical blog post and a personal update. I think I've got it and this is the first blog post to be written with this new paradigm shift.

You see, I've been adviced a couple times that I should, #1 drop the "notagrouch" name, and #2 focus 100% on knowledge and a single topic.

But I can't, this is who I am, I have a few other niche sites that follow that advice, but those are strictly strategic. I don't have my heart in them.

I also overheard at Social Media Marketing World (SMMW) something that caught my attention and I'm sure I could look it up really quick and find out who said it, but I want to finish this blog post and publish it. The quote was basically, stop trying to be a "brand" and be a more human.

Just be a person. Maybe this was just a big theme for some of the speakers and attendees and I just absorbed it, who knows. But I know it really resonates with me.

I understand my friends' advice about focusing on one single topic. Both of them have tremendously successful blogs and are known. But at the same time, I want to connect with you on a personal level, I want to give you more of my thought processes and ideas, a lot like this post.

But don't cringe just yet...

I'm not going to be posting mundane, journal-type of entries, like "what happened today". Instead, I'm simply going to add a mix of topics into a new category that I'm going to call "This is Oscar Gonzalez" -- You can see this post is categorized as such.

In this category, I will be sharing some raw blog posts about thoughts, commentary, trials, and experiments as I dabble in other stuff loosely related to digital marketing. Perhaps the topics will be related or may loosely parallel another solid category.

If I see that I'm blogging a lot about any one thing, then that topic may become one on its own as a permanent category on the blog. We'll see how this goes, this is also its own experiment and I may drop it at any time.

The reason for doing this is that I have a format set for blog posts where I want to give you a long, well researched or expert level blog post every time. I try to have graphics or photos and, or video and digestible nuggets, as well as a call to action and everything that you could possibly want on a blog post and those, take time and a lot of effort.

If you know me, you know that I don't shy away from work or effort, but I need to be able to write a little faster and go back a little to my blogging roots, when I would just sit down to write without worrying about the proper linkettiquete, and headlines and bullets or seo-best-practice-must-do-advice-you-will-die-if-you-don't, or being vulnerable, and all that stuff, yes, linkettiquete is a word,  thank you very much, you heard it here first.

Sometimes, like this blog post, I'm just going to write and not worry about that perfect blog post with all the media I mentioned, like photos, graphics, screenshots, and videos.

This also follows a little bit of a shift going on with my fan page on Facebook. I'm using it a lot more and I'm mixing a little more personal stuff into it as well, and posting a lot more. I realized I made a couple of posts that should have been blog posts instead, but at the same time, they attracted a nice response and some productive chats, so I'm doing a whole bunch of integrating more of "me" into "my brand" and mixing things up a bit.

In addition to the motivation I got from SMMW, this shift was also pushed a bit forward by me converting my Instagram account into a business account, ironically. The reason I say this is because when you change your Instagram account into a business account, you cannot --it seems-- share your posts to your personal Facebook profile. I'll circle back to this topic in another blog post, for now, let me finish this one.

I am Notagrouch, that's my brand, so check this out...

Two people, I didn't know recognized me at SMMW, that was humbling and rewarding and reassuring. Maybe my brand is actually working. One said they watch my videos, the other said they read my blog, they were both aware of various social profiles I have.

We talked shop for a bit but before we went our separate ways -- and dammit I got caught in the moment and didn't take a picture--  I was caught off guard with what they said.

They both said they love my updates on social media when I include my kids or my wife or the non-work stuff in addition to what I know, and tutorials and all that.

It made me wonder, how many people feel the same way but never tell me.

Maybe we need to be more human, I think it was Pat Flynn that said that during the final keynote, I'm pretty sure now. I'm usually very hesitant of making decisions based on the exception, for all I know these two people could be the exception, right? The rule may be that people only want to read about my expertise and how it can help them right now.

I don't really know, but I'm going to find out. In the meantime, here I am making a notable change on the blog based on that interaction and idea that was dropped into my head, thanks, Pat. But I guess I have a gut feeling that he may be into something.

I am human and I want to connect with you at that level. Do I have stuff to sell you? you bet. Are posts in this new category going to have affiliate links? Maybe, from time to time... does this one? Sure thing.

But this really means I'll be sharing with you a little more, sometimes it will be about a new hobby or something I tried, sometimes it will be about a reaction video, or just something slightly different than usual. I'm not going to spend too much time editing the post, will just do a quick spell-check and grammar check with Grammarly give it a title and schedule for publication.

Please let me know if you see any totally glaring, embarrassing mistakes or typos. Those I will correct, but for the most part, this will be like my captain's log. That's a good analogy.

You'll also notice that this post isn't in the normal front page rotation, I did it like this because it allows me to post without having to have even a featured image. Other than Snapchat, this might be as raw as it gets.

But this also means something deeper, the fact that you're reading this means you're awesome and smart and you're paying attention. And maybe, if I actually have them, you're one of my highly adoring fans or followers.

j/k #notreally, are you?

I'm guessing I have at least a couple because the only way you would be reading this is if you genuinely look around my blog on a regular basis, and found the link to the category and this blog post, or if you're in my VIP email updates and I told you about this blog post.

Either way, thanks so much for making it all the way to the very end, almost...

But with this, I want to pass off this to you. Maybe you have feedback for me, maybe you don't care. Either way, drop a quick comment below to let me know, or if you feel more comfortable, come tell me on my re-energized Facebook page here.