Hey everybody,
Welcome to the very first issue of my personal email newsletter.
Starting this newsletter is something I’ve struggled with for some time. It’s felt a little unnatural and I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to make it my own. That is until I recently stumbled across this excellent article written by Zach Phillips that has me completely inspired.
He talks about the frustration that he’s found with the passive type of connection to old friends and family that he’s found through Facebook, while outlining the potential for a far more active and beneficial kind of connection through the email newsletter platform.
I would strongly encourage you to give it a read and see if it rings a bell for you like it did for me.
Why I’m Writing?
If you’re not super familiar with the email newsletter fad that’s currently sweeping the entire universe, I’ll give you a quick rundown.
There’s about a million newsletters out there, most of which have a witty title alluding to the day of the week that they get released (Monday Musings, Tuesday Trivia, Wednesday Wisdom’s, etc.), and they all act as a kind of personal outlet for whoever it is who is writing. This could be an author, a business leader, or just an every day average Joe. The point is that it gives them an opportunity to express their ideas within their market and then share some links to the books and articles that they read and have pondered over that particular week.
I decided a few months ago that this was something I could do as well. It seemed to have its benefits of growing an audience and creating opportunity, so why not give it a shot? I began to write, following the standard newsletter template (A short article esq. introduction, a couple of links with a brief summary, and maybe a quote or some pictures), but this quickly began to feel burdensome and boring. The problem was, I no longer read that kind of newsletter. They had become so saturated to me that they no longer peaked my interest enough to invest my time towards them. And that’s not taking a shot at anybodies newsletter, there’s definitely a market out there and some people write fantastic newsletters in that style. But if I’m not finding value in that platform, how am I supposed to create my cookie cutter copy and be confident in the value its creating for an audience?
I began to take note of all the things that I didn’t want my newsletter to be. I wanted this to spark some creative insight on what I actually did want it to become. I didn’t want it to be overwhelming, I didn’t want it to be solely information based (recaps of articles, books, etc.), and I didn’t want it to take very long to consume (ideally it’s a 5 minute read).
So I came to the conclusion that I would turn to storytelling.
Each week I want to find a way to keep the reader informed on the happenings of my life, while still providing some type of intellectual value. I want to develop my ability to communicate the moral of a story and not just give the boring details. I want to show off my life and what I’m learning all in one fluid stroke.
This is going to be a little rough at first. I'm an inexperienced writer and I’ve never done anything like this before. But I’m looking to grow and this is exactly how I plan on doing it. I’m not sure how it’s going to look, but I’m excited to start the journey.
A Quick Recap of My Summer.
This summer looked a lot different for all of us. It's hard to believe its been almost half a year since initially being effected by the pandemic. At that point , I didn't have a lot of high expectations for this summer…But I've been pleasantly surprised
I started my own personal website to house some of my writing and published it to the internet which felt like a pretty big win to me. I’ve always loved the idea of being a writer and I came to the conclusion that it was time I just started calling myself one. I wrote a couple essays and met some cool people on the internet as a result. It’s been a great time and I’m glad I did it.
Come mid July, my wife, brother, and sister in law all masked up and hopped on a plane to cross Colorado off of our travel bucket lists (gotta take advantage of those corona flight deals).We spent 5 days hopping around Colorado springs, Boulder, and Estes park to spend some time hiking in the great Rocky Mountain National Park. It was an absolutely exquisite time
After that we returned to Buffalo for a week so we could pack up all of our things and move to a new apartment. We're transitioning from an urban setting in downtown Buffalo to a much more suburban vibe about 20 minutes outside of the city. Its a very different flow but we're finding the benefits and advantages as we go.
Two days after the move we packed up our Prius and drove to the Adirondack High peaks for some more hiking. We were Originally supposed to attend a wedding in Ohio but New York travel restrictions shut that down. None the less Gavi and I had a blast exploring the mountains. We managed to fit 4 high peaks into our 2 days of hiking, did just short of 40 miles (according to our fitbits...who knows if we can trust those things am I right?), and met up with my sister to hike on the second day.
The time to disconnect and spend with family was incredible. It served as a harsh reminder of how important it is to know what exactly it is that you value and take it into account when planning how to spend your time. These vacations weren’t glamorous or relaxing, but they checked off every box that my wife and I value and we wouldn’t exchange these times for anything in the world.
In the future my typical weekly recap won’t be quite as jam packed as this (I don’t hike 40 miles weekly). I just wanted to catch you guys up on what I’ve been up to and share some of the pictures that have been burning a hole in my camera roll.
Until next week,
-Ben