This weekend we were supposed to be coming home from our honeymoon in beautiful Australia after getting married in Kansas City. But, due to COVID-19, we weren’t able to get married or leave the country, let alone leave our house.
In the weeks leading up to the beginning of April, when we were originally scheduled to get married, I was hesitant and didn’t believe that we would have to move the wedding. I didn’t think the virus was that big of a deal, until the governor issued a rule of no groups larger than 50 people. I talked to the venue, and at that point they said that they could still host the wedding as planned because they were outside of the city limits, so the rule didn’t apply to them. Then the next day, the governor lowered it to 10. I was very upset, and not to mention stressed out to the max, knowing that the day I’ve been planning for 9 months wasn’t going to happen.
We then decided to still get married on our date in my parents’ backyard with only the wedding party present. The problem was, 90% of the bridesmaids and groomsmen didn’t live in town and everyone had to travel in from out of state. Nothing was going to stop me from cherishing our special day, until we went to the Kansas courthouse to pick up the marriage license, and they were closed. I was so heart-broken and spent a couple of days sulking and not wanting to leave my bed. But Adam helped cheer me up and we made a new plan. Our same venue didn’t have any dates open for the rest of this year, so we either had to get married next year, which I really didn’t want to wait that long, or find a different venue. So, I went back to square one to find venues with open weekends this fall. Luckily, my second favorite venue had a bride change her date last minute, and a Sunday in October opened up, just in time for us to lock it in.
It’s been over a month since we were in Gainesville, getting ready to tech the cars in when they announced that the race would be rescheduled. I had just flown into town the night before, and left the next day, but not before eating at my absolute favorite restaurant in Gainesville, Mark’s Prime Steakhouse. (Have you had it before?) Our rig was driven to Houston where one of our crew guys live, and it’s stayed there ever since. He has tried to bring it home, but he was stopped before ever getting onto the interstate.
With all of this time off from racing, my parents and I are still going to work following our normal routine working in the office, but we have locked the gate and the doors to the building so customers can’t come inside. My dad has been trying to stay busy working in the race shop putting his old dragster back together, the one that we retired last year. There is a possibility of us running it again this year, or at least it will be ready to go as a backup car if we ever needed it. He has also been working on his project truck, a 1971 Ford Bronco, that he bought from a family friend last year.
My evenings and Sundays are pretty non-eventful now. Lately I’ve been hooked on Criminal Minds, Tiger King (who hasn’t?), and my newest favorite show is ShowTime’s Billions on Amazon Prime video. Typically I would be writing press releases, editing video recaps of races, and work on my social media content for both my pages and the Randy Meyer Racing ones, but instead, I’ve been working on a HUGE project that I’ve had my heart set on for the past two years. Now that I finally have the time, I’ve been working day and night every day creating content, organizing notes, studying and enrolling in other courses online, and recording video presentations. My goal is to help as many racers as I can when I launch my e-course on April 27th, and if I can help at least one person strategize their content for social media to save time and get the attention of potential sponsors, it will all be worth it.
In the meantime, I’d love to share with you my best hacks for content creation that I follow, and at the end you can grab my free guide to posting on social media with over 20 checklist items!
My Best Hacks for Creating Content:
Brain dump
A brain dump is dumping everything that’s been on your mind, onto a piece of paper or in your phone. I prefer the old school way of writing down on paper, then organizing and transferring it to my phone or computer. I love to brain dump when I feel like my capacity is full – it allows room for new creative ideas to pop up.
Get inspired
When I’m in a rut, I look for inspiration from the accounts of people that I look up to. They are both in the racing world, and in other industries like hunting and fitness. I save certain posts that I love to my Instagram or to Pinterest, then come back to them later on when I need some ideas. I look at their tactics and figure out a way that I can put my own spin on it. This is not copying, just getting inspiration.
Learn new things
Learning more about the topics that I am good at like social media marketing, and things that I need to work on like videography, both give me ideas of how I can create new content online.
Find new situations
Putting yourself in different situations can help creative energy flow, such as taking a shower or going for a walk outside. Getting out of the office and away from the screen allows me to rest and clear my head to let new ideas flow in.
Repurpose content
Not everybody is going to remember what you said a month ago, let alone a year ago, so create content with the purpose of repurposing. It’s perfectly okay to reuse what you’ve already said and update the message or use the same text with a different photo. I always keep track of how every post I make performs, so I keep note of what were the elements of my most successful posts and recreate them.
Do you need some help when it comes to posting on social media and promoting your race team and sponsors? I got you! Download my FREE social media guide for racers (interactive PDF) that I made just for you!! https://meganmeyer.racing/checklist/
Megan Meyer is the driver of the NGK Spark Plugs/Lucas Oil/WELD Racing A/Fuel Dragster in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This DRAG ILLUSTRATED Driver Blog is presented by WELD Racing. Follow WELD Racing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and visit them online at www.WELDWheels.com.
This story was originally published on April 17, 2020. 
