Where I've Been, Where I'm Going

A few updates to share

Photo by Urip Dunker on Unsplash

Eighteen months ago today — December 19, 2022 — I signed up for Substack.

In those early days, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t yet have a topic for my newsletter, despite the Substack welcome email pressuring me to write my first post. (My original newsletter name was “Chris’s Substack” which goes to show how ready I was to get started.)

All I knew was that I wanted to write something.

Eventually, after tossing around several less-than-stellar ideas, I decided to write about what I’ve learned on my rare disease journey. I knew I wanted to help people and figured that was the way to go.

From there, I scoped out a plan. I’d write a main post every other Wednesday and a links roundup email every Saturday. I’d call the site Hello, Adversity (insomnia came in handy for once) with a blue and white color palate and a toolbox logo.

There was a lot of trial and error in the early months — it turns out writing twice a week was more than I could handle — but I gradually fell into a groove.

18 months later, I’ve written 102 posts! Not bad for someone who didn’t know how to change the layout of my homepage for three months.

Although I love writing, 18 months without a break is a long time, which is why I’ve decided to reward myself with a short pause.

It won’t be a long break — two, maybe three weeks at most — but the timing works out well. I have some family coming into town that I haven’t seen in a few years and I’m looking forward to spending time with them.

Reflecting on what’s to come

I also plan to use this time to do some research. (After my family leaves, of course.) Substack has unveiled several new features that I haven’t taken time to investigate in great detail. I see other newsletters using video and hosting subscriber chats, and I want to understand how to do these things effectively.

I also want to take some time to think through what products and services I can offer to make my paid newsletter tier enticing to more people. My first order of business is to send out a reader survey to understand how I can best serve readers. From there, I expect a few ideas to emerge.

To be clear, the Wednesday newsletter will remain free — that has always been my intent. I like being able to share my posts widely in order to help as many people as possible.

Once I’ve figured all this out, I will send out a proper fundraising appeal, where I’ll list out the benefits and you can decide if upgrading is right for you. But that’s still a few weeks away.

The joys of writing a newsletter

New features and benefits are important, but at the end of the day, that’s not my main motivation for writing this newsletter. Writing and teaching are the true rewards, the bread and butter. That’s what gets me excited every week.

Actually, that’s only partially true. The real joys are writing and teaching AND intereacting with all of you.

I’ll be honest — when I started Hello, Adversity 18 months ago, I overlooked the relationship-building aspect of writing a newsletter. I never got a lot of comments on my previous blog, and figured that trend would continue. Thankfully, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’ve made so many friends here, which has been an unexpected blessing.

(Resists urge to get all mushy.)

Anyways, I just wanted to give you a heads up on the next few weeks and thank you for supporting this newsletter. It’s a privilege to appear in your inbox every week.

Talk soon,

Chris