#26: What I Learned from Writing Consistently for 3 Months
Reflections, ponderings, and what’s next
Today, I’m switching it up from my usual content and reflecting on the goal I set for myself in mid-February: write twice per week for three months.
I originally started writing because I wanted to create more. I find myself in consumption mode more than I’d like. Whether it’s scrolling social media feeds, listening to podcasts, reading news articles, or walking around New York City and subconsciously consuming all the physical advertisements that line the streets, I’m constantly consuming others’ content. It’s exhausting, and I often feel like I’m not adding value to society by purely being a consumer.
I find fulfillment in creating “things”. Both tangible and intangible. From simple things like cleaning my apartment or gardening to creating a business or writing a newsletter, I gain energy from getting things done. Creation can come in the form of building physical things (like the shoe rack I recently put together), as well as exploring thought-provoking ideas. Although consuming content can be a great way to learn new information, I’ve always found I learn best by doing or in other words, creating.
So, I started writing on Substack as an accountability mechanism to create more (I can’t be lazy and take a week off if others are counting on my posts). Take ideas swirling around in my brain and see if they resonate with others. If I didn’t like the writing process, I told myself that I’d stop after three months.
Well, I do like it. Here’s a few reflections.
My writing is only as interesting as my experiences. Writing Relentlessly Curious has forced me to become even more… curious. To be able to write twice per week, I need a lot of content to write about. So, I find myself constantly looking to learn, and it comes in the form of reading more books and articles, listening to more podcasts, deep diving various new AI tools, and discussing business trends with friends, family, and coworkers. I must note that creating more has, in a lot of ways, led to more consumption (see prior sentence), however, it’s mostly consumption that fuels creation. Writing interesting pieces requires me to become more interesting. And I’m all for it.
Writing is the form of content creation that works for me. Starting out, I wasn’t sure I could stay consistent at writing. I didn’t want to have to “will” myself to churn out piece after piece. But quickly, I began to really enjoy the writing process. Once I have my thoughts sorted out, my fingers dance on the keyboard and ideas come to life. Sometimes when I’m writing, I enter a flow state, like a runner’s high. Which is intriguing since writing isn’t physical activity.
I don’t see myself dancing around on TikTok anytime soon, so I’m glad writing has been a solid fit for content creation.
I want my brand to be the way I think, instead of domain expertise in a niche. When I started writing, I asked myself, “should I go deep into one topic or bounce around and see what sticks?”. As I wrote on various topics week after week, I realized that the freedom to jump around allowed me to not have to force a piece. I’m able to be more creative if I don’t have a specific topic mandate to write about. This means I can continue using the Relentlessly Curious tagline: “I write about the human interaction between business, media, and technology”. It’ll stay put and maintain my ability to write about so many interesting topics.
As I continue to refine my writer’s voice, I aim to stay consistent with how I analyze problems. I’ll continue using the same type of analytical framework and blend of anecdotal and quantitative storytelling. I also plan to stick with the five-minute reading length. People seem to like this length as it’s longer than a quick news hit, but not too long where it takes a concerted effort to finish. My goal is to leave you with a thought and let you decide how the ideas develop further. A five-minute read seems to be the sweet spot, based on the feedback I’ve gathered.
If I want to significantly scale Relentlessly Curious, I’ll need to reveal my identity. I genuinely enjoy being anonymous because it creates a sense of security that I can write about whatever I want and there won’t be any repercussions. But at the same time, the stuff I write about isn’t edgy or career-damaging. It’s very much the opposite and would likely bring about new business opportunities if I promoted the newsletter from my LinkedIn profile.
From my experience, Substack doesn’t offer strong organic discoverability (ie it’s tough for Substack subscribers to stumble upon your newsletter if they aren’t already a subscriber). Most of my views come from subscribers of Relentlessly Curious. So, if I don’t grow subscribers, I’m not growing views, and vice versa.
I do want to scale the newsletter and will promote it on my LinkedIn soon. Still sorting out messaging and timing, so please stay tuned.
In summary, not much is changing. I’ll still be posting twice per week on topics that span the broader business, media, and technology realms. However, I do want to grow the newsletter so I will eventually begin promoting it and reveal my identity.
Thank you so much for reading Relentlessly Curious. Your readership motivates me to keep going, to keep creating.
Here are a few posts that have been fan favorites if you’re looking to catch up on some old pieces.
How Tariffs will Gut Consumer Brands
I Bought Electrolytes from Quince
Stay relentlessly curious. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
P.S. Follow me on X and Bluesky. I post my pieces on these platforms too and occasionally blurt out random ideas here.