End of Year Update
Hey y’all!
Sorry I’ve been pretty delinquent lately. December is a month chock full of birthdays and holidays. We’ve had parties with friends, parties with family, date nights, and social events galore. It’s been so nice to live a good, normal life, unencumbered by work the last few weeks.
But, of course, it’s cold and flu season, and as we know, a couple of those viruses are particularly contagious. Last week I went out with a group of friends to karaoke for one of my birthday celebrations and came down with covid or a flu. That put me on my ass. My fever is gone and I don’t have a constant throbbing headache, but I’m still pretty stuffed up, and you don’t want to hear my voice. Nevertheless, I’m getting better. One of the guys I was with tested positive for covid and one tested negative. The rest didn’t get tested or haven’t told me their results, so, just like during normal cold and flu seasons, we’re not sure exactly which bug it was that we caught and that’s ok. Everyone I was with either didn’t get sick or is on the mend, so no worries in any case.
All my projects
As you know, I’ve got a number of irons in the fire. I’ve been working with Jason Stapleton in his business mentorship program trying to get some traction on a web development side hustle that I’d like to make my main gig. Additionally, I’m working on a business directory for entrepreneurs in our circles that I think will be of benefit to everyone who wants to patronize likeminded companies. And on top of that, my partner Andrew and I are talking about starting a project that combines his passion for gaming with my passion for food.
The show
I’m really excited about all of this, but something’s gotta give. I’m going to be reducing my podcast output to once a week. I’ll probably be switching podcast hosts, as well. I originally hosted my podcast on Substack because I thought I’d be writing a lot more than I do. I’ll work out a way for those of you who listen in a web browser to still get email updates like always, but this isn’t exactly the greatest platform in the world for a podcast. If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll still get all the early episodes. That’s probably all I’ll use this platform for going forward.
I’m still not feeling 100%, so I’m going to go ahead and drag my December chill period through New Years weekend. You can expect the next episode to drop on Monday, January 10, and then to continue on Mondays thereafter. Keep reading for bigger updates.
The Future: Systematization, Streaming, and More Benefits for Subscribers
Last year on New Years Eve, my partner’s mom and I sang the song Blackbird, and that’s when I knew it was time to rebrand my show. Now a year later, it’s time for the next phase.
Right now, I have a bunch of episodes recorded, produced, and ready to be published. I’ll trickle those out over the Mondays in January. (If you want those interviews now, become a paid subscriber. They’re all in the feed.)
Once those have dropped, I should be ready to start the next phase of Blackbird: livestreaming. I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have a Sunday morning talk show. I love doing interviews on Sunday mornings. It’s a time when I’m clear-headed, well-rested, and not distracted by work and other things. And, since so many of y’all have encouraged me to start doing more video, I’m going to take a hint and kill two birds with one stone.
My interview scheduling has always been pretty chaotic. I would just send a link to my calendar to guests and let them pick any slot I was open. I want to tighten that up a bit so I can maintain some semblance of sanity with all the stuff I’ve got going on. It’s a win-win. (I’ll probably still do a few pre-recorded interviews, especially if bigger names can’t join me on a Sunday morning. I just want to make that the exception rather than the rule.)
As for audience access, at least at the beginning, anyone who wants will be able to join the stream and chat with me and the guests. The recording of the episode will go private, only available to subscribers, until it’s released to the public the following week. That episode will also be the following Monday’s audio episode. Paid subscribers will obviously still get the audio early, and they’ll have access to the replay of the livestream.
So that’s that! I hope you’re half as excited as I am about the future of Blackbird and my other projects. I wish you a belated merry Christmas and a happy New Year!