“Hey man, I think this post is pretty good. But the title of “9 Decisions That Led to a Life I Love” isn’t doing it for me. Got any suggestions?”
“Yeah, it’s a bit dry,” my friend replied 38 seconds later over Slack. “Try throwing ‘How to Wake Up Smiling’ in front of it as you reference that in the intro.
I woke up the next day hoping the stats from the article would indeed make me smile. But that didn’t happen. Whatever upward trajectory it initially hit was short-lived. By the time I went to bed that night, I’d officially written it off and moved onto the next idea.
But something interesting happened while I was sound asleep in my bed in Spain. Something gorgeous. While I was dreaming, a famous blogger 6,000 miles away in NYC was typing. And somehow, a sentence from my post ended up on her blog.
“I think I’ve written my first viral article!” I screamed to my wife the next morning from the old mattress I was laying on next to our kid’s crib. “Someone named Cup of Jo must’ve shared it! It’s already got 8,000 views and it’s only 8 AM!”
For the following 47 hours, I was a despondent husband and absent father as I stared at my phone watching the numbers go up and up and up.
10,000
20,000
30,000
By the time Monday morning rolled around, this beautiful stranger — who I’d quickly learn was one of the top bloggers in the world — had single-handedly driven 100,000 views to my article via her website, Facebook group, and newsletter — setting it onto a path to eventually top the quarter-million mark.
