Introducing Micah, Last Stand Media's New Coordinator (Patreon)

Hello!

Dustin came to my home in Virginia just a few days ago to rendezvous (no, not like that, you pervert), and during our wide-ranging discussion, we were settling on precisely what we felt we needed to bring Last Stand Media to the next level. Last Stand is bigger than it has ever been, doing more traffic and garnering more downloads than ever, coming off its most successful month on Patreon ever, with more people involved than ever. If I may be frank: It’s a much bigger company than I envisioned it would be. Not that I’m complaining.

But when growth happens, it'd be foolish for everything surrounding that growth to remain static. In fact, such a situation would ultimately be untenable, and it begs the question: What do we do next? While we marinate on future content ideas, potential collaborators, and more, we (here at the company) have to bend to reality. Dustin, Ben, and I can only keep this thing so well-oiled. Before we take another step forward, therefore, we need to get our house in order to make sure that what we're doing is sustainable, high-quality, and predictable. These are the very keys to the business itself.

In other words: Is there someone out there who we can trust with these keys to the kingdom and help us stay orderly, on-schedule, within the lines, and of the utmost quality?

When Dustin walked into my life in 2018, it changed Last Stand forever. Remember: I was working basically non-stop since I founded the company in March of 2017, producing, writing, researching, and editing all of my own videos, podcasts, and more. I really needed help. He provided it. It gave me room to breathe and think. KnockBack and Sacred Symbols were solidified because of that. Sacred Symbols+ was born because of that. Defining Duke and Defining Duke Ultimate were possible because of that. It was hard for me to let go of everything, but I had to. The results speak for themselves: Last Stand Media is some three times bigger now than it was when Dustin started editing our shows. And we’ve only grown since we brought Ben along, freeing Dustin up, in turn, to be the true production leader of this company. And so it goes.

I’m saying all of this only because I’m at another wall, and I’m scaling over it as we speak. Dustin and Ben (and now Lockmort) have the production side down. They are machines. They are deeply appreciated. They are the reasons shows are published on time each and every week, sound and look great, and more. Now, we need some help on the organizational side, which will only make their jobs easier. And I need help on the administrative side, which will make my job easier.

For this role, I’ve glad to say I've found my woman. Literally. She’s my woman.

I want to welcome Micah "MamaMicah" Watson to the Last Stand Media family as our Coordinator. This is a position with broad responsibilities that I’ve long envisioned, but didn’t quite know how to execute on. It’s also a position that requires absolute trust, since he or she -- like Dustin -- would have access to the very finest details of our operation. After talking to Dustin in person and figuring out our needs, however, it became clear not only what this role would entail, but that we already had the perfect person in our midst to fill it.

Micah is a hard-working, persistent, organized, and kind person, and her past professional experience (she worked in IT at a prolific university) provides her with a ready toolset for this gig. We need a proper production calendar. We need a centralized way to communicate about our shows, ideas, needs, and more, and someone needs to be involved in all of that communication. We need a way to catalog all of our content on the backend, make it usable, and readable, and searchable for all sorts of reasons. We need big things like a list of upcoming games to consult to smaller things, like making the appropriate connections between co-hosts for spoilercasts, review discussions, and one-offs. We need someone to tend to social media, to our inboxes, to the customer. We need a point-of-contact for the outside and a diplomat when we need to contact others. We need someone to say, “hey, X, Y, and Z should really do a podcast about this.” We need order. Eyes and ears. A stabilizing hand. Someone who knows what's up.

This is a journey we’re all on together, so I obviously wanted our Patrons to be the very first to know. It’s due to your kindness, generosity, and willingness to support independent content that we can do any of this at all. I am dedicated to fair and equitable treatment for all of my employees and freelancers, and I am certain that Micah -- like Dustin, Chris, Dagan, Ben, Matty, and Cog before her -- is a perfect fit for what we’re building here. And what we're building is real. I can feel it, and I know you can, too.

So, please welcome Micah to the team!

Thank you so much for supporting Last Stand Media, and have a great weekend.

May we grow mightier, yet. Yours, -Colin