We recently connected with Adrian Gentilcore and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Adrian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

Since I work primarily in social media, this is probably the topic that is the best fit for me. I’ve been blogging for 15 years on two different sites, so I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go and a lot of changes in social media. I think a lot of people disregard social media or focus on the wrong things, which I think is a mistake because even with the changes that have happened, it’s still your best chance to drive traffic to your website or business.

Instagram seems to be where a lot of people focus their time and energy, but it’s not great in terms of sending traffic to your site. I think you do need a presence on there just so people can connect with you and understand what your business has to offer, but Facebook, and Pinterest are much better to get people to actually click on your website and potentially buy your products and services.

I do think this is an area best left to a professional because there are a lot of nuances in terms of engagement and growing your following that the average person wouldn’t know. I always compare it to chess – it takes about 15 minutes to learn the basics, but many years to learn the strategy involved. Each social media profile is as unique as a fingerprint, so that’s why I offer personalized coaching to fit the strategy to that unique profile and industry.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As I mentioned, I’ve been a blogger for more than a decade and I was always a very techy person. During my 40 years in the Corporate world, I had always loved to work with computers and I enjoy teaching people new skills. So it was a natural outgrowth that I would get pretty good at the various programs and technical skills required to run a successful blog that actually earns money, and I started teaching other people how to use the tools. But a lot of people didn’t want to learn – they just wanted someone to do it for them, so I was happy to fulfill that role also and my business just grew and grew over the years.

There’s a lot to know to set up your website correctly, make sure your site is secure, get your posts and pages set up in the best way to be seen by Google, and then to work with your social media platforms so that you have fresh content going out every day to bring in new clients. You can’t really earn money from your site otherwise, but it can be a big effort unless you learn some shortcuts and are able to set up some automated processes. That’s where I really shine because I LOVE automation, so I’m able to streamline a lot of these processes for my clients.

I’m also very efficient and very client-focused so I have many clients who stay with me for years because I make the process so trouble-free and easy for them.

The nice thing is that I have services at all price points – I have inexpensive guides and planners for the beginning folks, I have coaching and teaching sessions over Zoom for the folks who are scaling up, but need a little support and encouragement, and then I have full-service social media services for the people who are succeeding in their businesses and are just too busy to mess with the day-to-day work. So it definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

I know that a lot of business owners are intimidated by the technical side of running a website or a business, and so they just end up ignoring it, but I think that’s a huge mistake. It’s like saying you don’t know how to put gas in your car, so you’re just going to drive it until it stops working. That’s just not going to end well. Much smarter to have someone show you how to fill the tank or just take over the job altogether so you can focus on getting where you want to go.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

3 months after I retired from my 9-5 Corporate job of nearly 40 years, I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. A few months after that, the pandemic began. To say the least, it was a very rough year. I had 3 months of chemo, 5 weeks of radiation and 3 surgeries all during a global pandemic! But I had a lot of support from our friends and family and I managed to get through it in fairly good shape and am now considered cancer-free.

Naturally, I was terrified for my business. I’d been running it part-time for 6 years, and I’d had other side hustles prior to that, so I’d been working 12 to 16 hour days for probably 20 years, while raising our 3 sons, and being a very active volunteer. That’s why I named my first blog Adrian’s Crazy Life, because that’s exactly what I was experiencing all those years.

But now my business was now my full-time income and to top it off, we lost our insurance right when I was going through chemo. Talk about terrible timing! I was going through some major anxiety at that point, but I had to keep it together and focus on just getting through my treatments. But I tend to be an optimistic person, so I was sure that it would all work out somehow – and it did.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to continue working through my treatments, and when the pandemic hit, I was so worried that I would lose all my clients that I had worked so hard for. But amazingly, I had very minimal side effects and while I was sometimes working from a hospital bed, I was still able to manage a pretty normal schedule.

I was even able to partner with someone who ran a similar online business and she referred a lot of clients my way, so shockingly, I literally DOUBLED my business during that crazy 2020/cancer year. Sometimes even the most unlikely circumstances can work out for your highest good, even when you think things are really, really bad.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I have a post on my site about the importance of side hustles. I LOVED my Corporate job at Wells Fargo, until I didn’t. Our group had been together for more than a decade under a terrific boss and it was a job that fit my creative and tech-loving personality perfectly.

But all good things come to an end eventually, and when our terrific boss was promoted, they stuck us with the awful boss that everyone dreads having. People started to leave our group in droves and my workload literally tripled. Even a workaholic like me has a breaking point.

But the bright spot is that I had a little trap door that no one else in the group had. I’d been running my blogs and businesses on the side for many years and was already earning a tidy little side income. This allowed me to hammer away at our debts and pay for a few extra perks like nice vacations or things we wanted for the house.

So, when things finally got bad enough, I was able to “retire” (basically, I just QUIT, but let’s call it a retirement!) at the relatively early age of 58 and step right into a ready-made business that was already up and running. I think everyone should have a side hustle like that.

And when the cancer came along 3 months later, I felt like it was God’s perfect timing. I was able to take it a bit easier and stay home in bed when I needed to, which would have been pretty difficult in the high-pressure Corporate environment. That may have contributed to the cancer in the first place because I had no family history that should’ve caused it.

Contact Info:

• Website: Helpfornewbloggers.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/Helpfornewbloggers
• Facebook: Facebook.com/helpfornewbloggers
• Other: AdriansCrazyLife.com – My lifestyle site. Pinterest.com/adrianscrazylif, Instagram.com/adrianscrazylif, Facebook.com/adrianscrazylife