Wait, tell me why I didn’t even notice a slick full-circle moment. (I say slick because it was kinda one, but not really..)
A month ago, I’m sent into a rage upon opening Google chrome on my phone and seeing an article from Business Insider in the Discover suggestions that I could’ve written!
It was something about taking an annual 14-hour train trip with friends as a way to spend time together.
Heeeeey, that’s something I’d do, I blink in a wide-eyed, unpleasant surprise. Then, a full-blown toddler-pout whine in the sense of, “no, MINE” when I look at this writer’s article and think why isn’t that me?
I blab, working through why I would see another writer’s work on a publication and have the thought why not me?
We have to dig into these emotions when they arise, honey. When you’re thinking “f*ck that lady” about a lady you don’t know that has done you absolutely nothing and for that reason (no reason) you refuse to click on her “shit”, you have to wonder why.
I’m upset someone wrote about riding the train cross-country with friends because I’ve ridden the train cross-country and not written about it? Or, I’m upset that I’ve been riding the train for years in my leisure and have yet to get friends to join me for a cross-country train trip?
Though both are infuriating, there’s not as much that I can do about the latter.
I decide to comb through the emotions associated with seeing someone do something that I want to do and come to the conclusion that I have no right to be mad if I’ve never even tried. It’d be different if her and I had both pitched an article about cross-country train travel to Business Insider and hers was selected because the editor-in-chief is her mom’s sister — being mad wouldn’t solve anything, but at least I’d have something to point at and say, heeeeey, that’s not fair!
I wasn’t wronged. I wasn’t looked over. I never tried. For this reason, thee only person that I can be mad at is me, driving my anger to the next degree. [blank stare]
Seriously, I sorted out those feelings… underserved ambition turning to envy, hurdles of self-doubt inhibiting my creative stride.. writing about it, a go-to in seeing and seeking personal growth.
I got over it so fast that I never even pressed publish on the blog draft. I’d gotten out what I had to say and no pretty essay-ending came to me. I closed the website editing software and didn’t return.
A month later, I’m sitting aboard a train headed south down California’s coast when a conversation with a fellow passenger led me to log in again.
In this week-long of train travel, it was my first time opting to eat in the dining car and I couldn’t remember if I had pictures of this portion of the cross-country train travel experience — community dining (translation: being seated for meal service with strangers). After talking for a bit, I asked the family traveling down to Santa Barbara for a wedding if they wouldn’t mind being in a pic. We had our dining car server, David, snap one of us and I mentioned that I’m always taking pictures for the blog I’m barely ever on. When the wife, Ms. Sari, had intonation when repeating the name of my blog back to me, around with TK?, I knew I was in trouble!
Why do you insist of bringing up this blog, little Miss T. Krys, if you know you’re never on it?!
What will she even see if she looks you up?
TK, TK, TK…
When I got back to my coach class seat on the train, it got me to thinking…
What do I want to see when I Google me?
What will she see, well, what is it that you’d want a person to see?
Well, smart mouth, what she will see is a good place to start! What interpretation does Google’s search engine already have of me, my blog, AROUNDwithTK?
(It’s normal for me to go back-and-forth with myself, don’t be alarmed.)
Why does it matter what Google says about my brand?
Why is it important to have an online presence, in the first place?
I won’t go into the details because the guy sitting behind me didn’t seem over-joyed to let me use his charger, so I don’t want to have to ask him again and I’m already down to 67%.
(Why did I waste some of my battery power scrolling on Facebook? I rarely get on Facebook. It came to me this time though that I must know who may be coming to Cali for our alma mater’s football game against USC this fall. It couldn’t wait [sarcasm]. I digress.)
Present day, folks get paid from social media, at least that’s what they say. Ten years ago, when I was in college… ugh, that sounds so odd. [cringes] [starts though over]
A lot has happened in a short amount of time. Only some years ago, being a “content creator” was not a career. Shoot, it still might not be! It hasn’t been long enough to call it. Anyway, even before posting on social media was a viable way to earn a full-time income, it was still important for individuals to have some sort of proof of existence online.
I want to say it was CMCN 490, the course connected to our mandatory Internship as students within the Department of Communication, where the Dept. head told us that we may as well go ahead and buy a domain of our own name now, even if we don’t use it for years down the line when we’re more than a maggot in our respective line of work. It was something about it serving as a digital resume or portfolio and showing professionalism and preparedness beyond basic job application requirements.
Though Dr. Maher (if that’s his name) didn’t require us to make our own website, he highly encouraged it for our soon-to-be budding careers.
Though I didn’t outline all the details of why it’s important to own your name online, the point is that I know it’s important. And if it’s important for anybody seeking employment, it’s definitely important for a person hoping for a little more than a good reputation.
As of today, what is AROUNDwithTK?
When I returned to my assigned seat in the coach class cabin on the train, I went from slightly annoyed that I even brought my blog up, you ain’t even had all that to say, TK, to a slight grin… a bit of satisfaction?
Work that I put in months and years ago is paying off?! Wow…
Though I haven’t written consistently, or shared my writings consistently to AROUNDwithTK, my Google search results aren’t half bad.
(It’s annoying that Google automatically gives results for around with k, the system assuming there was a typing error, however, as soon as I click the option to show results for what I typed, AROUNDwithTK, my website pops right up!)
Who knows what around with k is and why Google insists that’s what I meant to type?! It has done that before when I’m searching for my site! I may have to takeover that search query! [sassy cheerleader pout]
If an Internet user types in around with k, I want Google to say, did you mean around with TK?
Google better recognize!
(I think there’s somewhere in advanced SEO settings to account for misspellings; I’ll have you find it)
Anyway…
When a web browser does successfully reach search engine results for around with TK, she should find an accurate AI overview, @AROUNDwithTK on Instagram and of course, clean links directly to AROUNDwithTK.com.
I hate AI, but it helps…
Please forgive me, ol’ intellectual T. Krystal, I know you don’t believe in AI as a writer and the world would be a less idiotic place without it, but…
Having the mind that I have, being a girl with a busy brain that couldn’t stay on one single niche topic post after post after post if someone paid her to, a lot gets talked about around with TK.
One day my writing may include me riding a cross-country train down the Pacific Coast, then the next I’ll be wailing on the woes of being a creative in an L.A. Public Library and how I wish I could afford to rent a workspace for writing, while having been writing intensively about the struggles of female friendship weeks prior.
None of it goes together. Here, around with TK, you can find what every expert blogger tells every aspiring blogger NOT to do! And I know better, I do, I’ve researched galore, I have, I know, I do, however… I can’t help myself.
My thoughts that make me ramble run the gamut to the point that I can’t keep up with my darn self!
What do you write is the first question people ask if you dare have the pussy power to tell someone that you’re a writer. Similar to when I meet new people and am asked “what do you do,” I don’t know.
There’s no clear answer for my career nor writing. Check back later. No, seriously, check on, make sure your girl is alive.
Being “all over the place” as one of them old folks in the South would say about someone’s hyperactive child or person that runs business sloppily, it’s hard for me to put what I do as a creative or what I write as an unpaid writer into a few cute little concise words.
As a brand, other brands need to be able to classify you.
This is where the creative-killer of artificial intelligence comes in handy.
My jaw may have physically dropped a centimeter or two when I read that AI overview of AROUNDwithTK this morning after coming back to my train car.
It’s now 5 o’clock in the evening and I’d closed that tab earlier, which leads me to query AROUNDwithTK again as I type this to be able to copy/paste and here’s what Google’s search engine game me this time:
AroundwithTK is a personal lifestyle and creative blog by creator and writer T. Krystal, focusing on bicycle culture, movement, and personal growth.
Core Themes
Personal reflections and growth
Los Angeles bike culture and active living
Creative storytelling and travel diaries
Though I find pleasure in plenty (cycling, ballet, pilates, long walks, big events, social gatherings, reading non-fiction, the list goes on), and I write about even more, yet do none with the utmost consistency, AI is able to string together the patterns and habits that have been present over the years of around with TK.
The more that I write and share content online, the more accurate the search engine results get, the more aligned with me it’ll be.
How do I feel about what Google currently has to say about my brand?
I like that creative storytelling and travel diaries part! Let me start publishing more of my writing to this site that align with those themes.
I don’t mind the first bullet point either, personal reflections and growth, but does that sell? I’ll keep writing those sorts of pieces, of course, that’s my therapy; I may consider keeping ‘em to myself.
That middle bullet point can go completely! I don’t want to write about riding my bike… a girl simply likes to ride her bike! Though it probably could sell, affiliate marketing by me describing some bicycle gear, for example, I’m not interested. I’m not interested in selling anything per se; I’m not about to be up here, “girl, run, don’t walk, go get [brand]’s latest [product] now!”
What I would like is to be able to incorporate products or services that aid in my process as a creative or contribute to the calm I constantly seek as a coocoo bird that may also be beneficial to fellow writers and one-man-band content creators.
What brands align with mine?
As a content creator or blogger that has hopes of generating an income to be able to continue doing what she‘s doing, after solidifying what I’m putting out there with my brand, I have to know what other product or service selling brands align with mine.
Knowing how your brand as a writer or content creator is perceived online is key to knowing what brands could see a customer base in your audience.
Tiger Woods may not have me at the top of his list to speak to the unrestricted range of motion in his Sunday Red’s performance polo, being that I’ve never stepped foot on an actual golf course a day in my life.
Okay, service is going in and out coming around these mountains south of Paso Robles.
Oh, looka there, a whole prison industrial complex.
Let me close this out and press publish while I have a few cell service bars.
Google me, baby!
In short, I’m doing the darn thing. Screechingly slow, but doing the darn thing.
I’m building a brand with core themes represented across time that align with true values of mine. AROUNDwithTK is the way that I naturally live my life, seeking growth, development and betterment of myself, mind and body, and my surrounding community or extended network of friends, family, writers, readers — my riders.
Mm.. looka there, an extended stop.. engineers have to check the engine or something a conductor said over the intercom (after I almost popped my patella out of place trying to Shelley Ann Fraser Pryce into the station to refill a water bottle since I was dying of thirst, refusing to drink that disgusting potable water planes and trains carry). This breeze and late-evening cool feels LOVELY. Man oh man, am I glad to be back under the Southern California sun. We’re in San Luis Obispo and I’m not about to waste my fresh air break looking down at this phone.
[petite Hispanic lady gets my attention] I wasn’t even thinking about taking a picture, but since the ones she asked me to take of her came out so cute, hey, why not!
Later, y’all! Once again, I’m T.K., a girl who can’t sit still and always has something to say. Maybe I’ll see you AROUND!