Hello!
I'm starting a Substack and here's what you can expect
I’m having flashbacks to 2006. I was sitting at my desk at my new job in the state legislature, typing www.blogger.com into a state-issued Dell computer, trying to describe why I was starting a blog and what it would be about.
Blogs were it. Most of my friends had them, some had even amassed pretty big followings. I don’t think I was looking for a following. I just wanted a place to write and be a little bit funny.
At that same desk at that same job, two years later I joined Facebook. And pretty soon after that, Twitter. And pretty soon after that, Instagram. And Periscope. And Snapchat. And Vine. And somewhere along the way, Google Reader, RIP.
And now here I am on Substack. That blog I started in 2006 is still alive thanks to a lot of money I spent a few years back having it migrated over to Squarespace. You can go visit it! But I want something a little more personal. Something that goes straight to people’s inboxes. Turns out, people don’t click. Did you know that? No one clicks. On anything. Anywhere. It’s depressing.
My toxic trait is that I still enjoy Instagram. But Instagram does not want people leaving their app to go read that thing you wrote. And so people don’t click. We’re going to try this. This being Substack.
As a lot of you know, I’ve spent the last two+ years writing a monthly column for Joy the Baker. If you enjoyed my posts there, good news, I’m going to do a version of that here. Expect a monthly (? TBD) post on things I’ve read, watched and/or listened to.
I also write a ton for the Nashville Scene, and I don’t always have time to tell people about everything I write there. Expect links to things I’ve written and published.
I also sometimes teach social media workshops, interview authors, release new podcast episodes. If and when I do any of that, I’ll tell you here.
Thanks for reading what I write. It meant something to me 17 years ago when I was on Blogger and it means something to me today.
Let’s have fun!