Substack
It's a thing, I guess.
About a year ago,
I was talking to Jack Lawler, who runs the Daily Friday newsletter and workretiredie Instagram account for Friday Beers. Fanatics had just laid me off after four months of lies and deceit that led me to dissolve my company, drop a few clients, and put all of my proverbial eggs in a basket made of shit. An old high school friend, KC Murphy, who is a marketing VP at Friday Beers put me in touch with Jack, whom KC believed was hiring writers for the Daily Friday. He wasn’t, but Jack was nice enough to take my call and talk to me for half an hour despite the two of us being on completely different pages.
We talked about basically nothing. I told him about the Fanatics thing, told him I was working on starting a new agency with a former Fanatics colleague, and was looking for clients. I straight up told him I’d write the Daily Friday for him. Understandably, he wasn’t into that — it’s his baby — but after a nice conversation about writing, life, sports, and a courteous, platitudinous insistence to “let me know if I can help with anything,” Jack left me with one major piece of advice.
Start a newsletter.
I literally rolled my eyes. (We were on the real phone — no cameras.) I just got laid off, I’m looking at a $5,000 investment to relaunch my company while my income has just been cut 90%, and this guy wants me to put my precious time into unpaid blabbing into the internet void. I do my unpaid blabbing into the internet void on my Twitter burner while I watch the Celtics, thank you very much.
I thought it was a ridiculous idea, but it was apparently a persistent one because it re-emerged a lot throughout this year.
Professionally, it’s been one of the strangest years of my life. In February, I started working with another laid-off Fanatics colleague, Manda Carlile, on launching a socially-minded, nonprofit-focused creative agency, fully prepared to bankroll it and pay her myself with what little remained of my freelance business. I believed in the idea and Manda’s talent that much. Unfortunately, I underestimated the power of nature and as Manda entered the third trimester of her pregnancy (yes, Fanatics waited for her to finish a MASSIVE project then laid her pregnant ass off), health and financial concerns led her to pull out of the partnership.
I understood, and a small part of me was grateful because despite closing a couple of new clients in the ramp-up months, I was beginning to feel concerned about how long I could actually cover operating expenses without a major new contract. I found a lawyer, filed articles of incorporation, and kept the name Manda and I dreamed up: Flocked Creative.
Coincidentally, two of those major new contracts materialized within a month after incorporation. Teramind and Forbes combined covered my former Fanatics salary and, suddenly, I was making more money than I ever have. I got busy, decided that writing really was where the money is, and turned down interviews (and one fucking offer like a moron) for content management jobs at Nike, BJ’s Wholesale, National Geographic, and a few other less notable companies. I’ve always been committed to working as little as possible to earn the most money as possible, and writing is my one real avenue to achieve that.
Somewhere along the line, I subscribed to a freelance copywriter’s newsletter because I kept seeing him on LinkedIn. I’d never seen such shameless branding from a copywriter that wasn’t directly tied to a “Make $10,000/Month As A Copywriter With My Course” scam. The guy was literally writing about writing and devoting seemingly hours of time every week to simply talk about copywriting strategies, the job market, and little tips on how to sell yourself. I was intrigued and wondered if Jack was really onto something. Maybe branding myself rather than my company was the way to go.
I rebuilt my portfolio, stopped paying for the Flocked domain, and with a great client base in place, started working on a Wix site for Nick Perry, freelance writer. After years of being sort of a “content marketing guy” wearing a bunch of different hats in various contract gigs, I was ready to accept “freelance writer” as my once and future title.
And then Google’s core updates started causing major shifts in site traffic and rankings, it got more complicated for businesses to understand how to sustainably build a blog, and companies started pivoting away from longform article content. Since September, I’ve lost Teramind, Forbes, This Old House, Orchard, and MakeUseOf. I’ve gained a couple, but as of this writing I’m projecting lower income for the first time in about six months of consecutive growth.
It’s sad that I tie my self-worth so inextricably to my monthly income but, well, I’m self-employed. I can literally put a value on myself. And when it starts dropping, I start spiraling. I don’t feel good.
Which brings me back to this newsletter. “Why now?” asks the Substack first article prompt beneath my cursor. Well, Substack, it’s because things aren’t going so hot.
To wit:
I’ve been appallingly uncreative in this past year of vengeance-fueled earning, and although I’m reading more, I’ve been ashamed at my complete inability to write anything I’m not being paid to write. I think I’m a more complete person when there isn’t a microscopic $ superscript over every word.
Again, I’ve been hemorrhaging clients. It’s not like bad yet or anything, but it’s a little scary the frequency with which my editors are getting laid off and the portents are a bit concerning.
I haven’t heard from a single recruiter in like three months. I’ve sent hundreds of job applications — both contract and full-time — and haven’t had so much as a nibble. This is my longest new business dry spell since I went independent in 2019 and I need an outlet other than fucking cover letters.
Jack’s probably right. It is time to do some personal branding. But fuck a professional one.
Lindsay and I have had fun blogging in the past, and this kind of feels like blogging. Except I’ll force it into your inbox.
I need this.
So, a year later, I’m taking Jack Lawler’s advice and starting a newsletter. Except it’s in the form of a Substack, which feels a bit more me.
Substack wants me to give you specifics about how often I’ll post and spam your inbox. It’s talking about paid subscriptions lol. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll get there. For now, this is a brain dump.
I probably wouldn’t tell you the stuff I tell my Substack. So, if you’re interested, you’ve already been subscribed.