Every Time is Now, Every Day is Tuesday
Every Time is Now, Every Day is Tuesday
An early ending
Dear reader,
I come to you five days before the scheduled end of my experiment to take the whole month of October off from writing this newsletter.
It is because of money, because of time, because of resources, because of pace. It is because I felt that today was time to return to the page, to my research and practice of understanding the right now. To tell you about the things that are emerging in a timely fashion.
I will begin with what happened, what is upcoming, and what I learned. What I look forward to, what I’ll never do again, where I missed the mark, my business metrics from before and after the break, and everything I know about taking time away from parts of my job.
For international readers I would love to tell you that you can now place orders for my book of 366 prayers Look About You : A Book of Ordinary Prayers on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop. Readers in the USA can order directly from my website. Books arrive to you 11/19 if you order by 11/12 :)
P.S If you are my friend or family : Text me! I have a discount code for you :)
I feel incredibly humbled by this experiment I have now lovingly named No Broadcasting. What I learned is that when you are a self employed creative business owner when you do not broadcast it is very hard to generate new income. Broadcasting through a channel : social media, a newsletter, a flyer at the coffee shop - these are examples of spaces to broadcast in. I generally broadcast : classes, this newsletter, books, and other paid offerings.
When I took away my broadcast channels I took away my main ability to earn, specifically my ability to earn if my expected income was lower than usual or if my financial needs were higher than anticipated. I considered a few other strategies which I will go over but at the end of the day I can say I could not actually afford to take the time away that I did. Or rather, I did not plan my saving or spending in a way that allowed me to be relieved of the obsession of money or earning.
The title of today’s newsletter comes from All Fours by Miranda July, one of many books that in my time away I devoured within a few days, melting over every part of the story and the way she reads it. In the spirit of what I learned from reading the book and my own return to the newsletter format I will say I think more of Monday Monday will be behind the paywall and not always come out on Mondays. I will also no longer comp the newsletter.
To mark these pivots and return : the newsletter is currently 25% off for an annual subscription until Friday November 1
I enter this space again as a beginner who knows very little about the poetics and the form. What I do know is that my attention has returned to me in unprecedented ways, and yet the state of my business as an artist remains unclear and is requiring more strategic shifts than I had anticipated.
I do think that in what I lost (paid readers, members of Landscapes, opportunities for sharing) I also gained so much in the awayness. I made a commitment to share the honest numbers of this experiment, which also leads me to want to step away from the business of it all. No more business as usual, no more business at all.
To me the business metrics are the least interesting of the No Broadcasting experiment. What has been much more interesting to me is what I learned about myself, my phone, and the ecosystem of my life as an artist and writer.