#192 - I'm Not Going to Make You Any Promises...
An Update on the Adventure - This one is for my day ones.
I’m going to be honest.
I’ve been avoiding you. Avoiding this newsletter. Because working on it comes with a lot of questions I wasn’t ready to answer.
I had big plans and ambitions back in March when I wrote my last post. And, to be honest, the ambitions haven’t changed. But how I go about it has. Because. Well. I may have hit a wall with sharing marketing insights as it relates to storytelling. It took some soul searching and a serious conversation with my older sister about my struggle to dive into work after last year’s illness(es).
And she identified for me the missing piece of what was going on. I’m not feeling challenged by my work as a marketer anymore. I started my business because I wanted to bring the skills I’d learned in over a decade as a journalist turned marketer to business that otherwise couldn’t access the type of strategic skills I’d honed working for large agencies and corporations.
It was exciting work. It is exciting work. But, and, also. My entire career has been driven 100% by my desire to always be learning. To dive into new spaces and challenges and work I don’t understand, but want to. While my work with my clients has been deeply fulfilling, it hasn’t been challenging over the past little bit. I’m very good at what I do and I’m glad to share that with my clients and you as I go. But I need to get back to being challenged by work. Post burnout and post 2024, I’m ready to be a little scared again in my career.
But I don’t yet know what that will mean for Ramsay & Co. or this newsletter. Which is why I’ve been avoiding you.
Here’s what I can say for sure, for you. My belief that storytelling is one of the most human things we can do has not changed. My desire to take more time and write posts that have a sense of longevity and necessity remains. Wanting to share my adventure in storytelling is also here. But, I have to admit for the folks who signed up to read this newsletter for the marketing tips, I can’t imagine abandoning them entirely, but they won’t be the primary focus of this newsletter going forward.
I want to focus on my writing. Sharing the process as I struggle through writing my next kids book (for some reason this one is hard), and prepare to develop two new projects, and continue to grow Re-Work.
I expect the posts will be a bit more personal though still with the intent to share a perspective of value and get you thinking about storytelling in your own life and work.
I’d love for you to join me on this new adventure, but totally understand if it’s not your jam because it isn’t exactly what you signed up for. If you’re not interested in this new kind of adventure in storytelling and you want to unsubscribe, I promise I understand. Consider this your forewarning before I move toward a new path in my career and writing and take you along for whatever the adventure may bring.
I thought about sharing the poetry I’ve been working on but then decided no one deserves that, so don’t worry it won’t be a space for my melodrama as I work through words, that’s what my friends are for. You (I hope) are for sharing and exchanging ideas on this crazy adventure called life.
I’ll try to keep it useful but there is going to be a bit of exploration and I’d love your feedback along the way. For my paid subscribers, I’ve turned that feature off. I so appreciate your support but it’s not really what I’m trying to do right now. I’m going to open up the archives for folks so that those who came for the marketing can go back—most of the ideas still hold weight and may be helpful for you.
So thank you whether you decide to stay on this adventure or if this is your stop. I appreciate you. I’ll see you next month with something different but…I think good.
Stories I’ve Loved Lately
Amoya Blackwood is Brave. My picture book came out while I was away! And the response has been exactly what I hoped for: the kids love it and the adults relate to it—to the point of tears for some. If you or someone you know has ever struggled with the brave choice to be yourself and need a little boost. I highly recommend. Here’s what one reader who also invited me to her writing workshop to share it said about it, “I honestly couldn’t believe a picture book would move me to tears.”
Here’s a peak into the launch which left with a sense of gratitude and joy for my people that still remains.
Devotions: The Selected Poem of Mary Oliver. I’ve been really into poetry and Oliver’s quote, “"what will you do with your one wild and precious life?” has been ringing in my head the past few months so I dove in deeper to her work to see what I would find.
Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe chronicles the author’s transition, but also deeply speaks to the idea of self and how hard but affirming it is to uncover and step into who you were meant to be. It is a powerful topic beautifully written.
Trevor Noah’s conversation about ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers is a beautifully deep look into the experience of ADHD. I saw my friends and loved ones with ADHD in knew ways because of it. Highly recommend this episode and really any episode of this podcast if you want to think deeply about the human experience.
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I discovered you today in the Creative Mornings presentation, "Re-Imagining Work for Freelancers & Creatives" -- and what a wonderful surprise to find that the business you're sort-of stepping away from (the business of helping brands tell their stories) is exactly the business I'm *just launching,* here in Palm Bay, FL. Another interesting coincidence: You're in Toronto and I lived, for 16 years, in Hamilton and Oakville, Ontario.
Your message today struck home in so many ways, so THANK YOU for sharing so much of your work in Re-Work. I'm rather excited to now be a part of the community and to learn what I can with and from you.
I loved this post, by the way: Your authenticity and vulnerability is very relatable -- and reassuring, since I've made a lot of transitions lately and know that it sometimes feels like the changes must be disorienting to people on the outside.
So, I wanted to thank you for all that you're sharing. This is good, important work -- just as important and good as helping people tell their stories.