Welcome to my newsletter

Welcome! I’ve toyed around with writing since high school, some 15 years ago, and stopped and started too many times to count. But *this time* is different. Let me tell you why.

Let’s step into a time machine. When I was in college, I made my first $100 in advertising revenue on my personal blog, over the course of just two months, which was a huge deal for me at the time. That gave me the itch to make money online.

Since then, I’ve gone through so many variations of creating online content, from starting a personal blog, to creating topic-focused blogs covering everything from personal finance to marketing, and on and on.

And there have been so many attempted side hustles, too. In one example, my friend Brad and I made decent money running our own marketing agency, and then we took a shot at a podcast, but both eventually fizzled out (I’m the problem, it’s me).

Nothing stuck. And when I say nothing stuck, I mean I gave up on the ideas.

My most recent endeavor involved a shift to YouTube, where I have about 600 subscribers (who started following me mainly due to two explainer videos I made for a DSLR camera I used to own). And I haven’t made a new video in almost two years.

The underlying problem for all the false starts? A lack of motivation and discipline. I either didn’t know what to write about, didn’t feel like I had anything interesting to say, or was too afraid to start networking my idea with friends and family.

See, I have a terrible fear of people I know “in real life” seeing my work online. It’s a toxic mix of me being an introvert, having an irrational fear of being judged, being a perfectionist, and imposter syndrome.

So here’s to “done” vs. “perfect.” Here’s to a new format, on a new platform, with a fresh slate. I wanted a place where I can write what I want, when I want, that is simple and just works. I’ve tried WordPress, Medium, and Ghost, but I just recently discovered Substack, and I think it’s a perfect home for writing.