I added up the costs I paid to Substack writers and discovered the collection of newsletters I subscribe to cost me more collectively than the annual charge I pay for just the NYTimes.
As a Des Moines Register columnist, I cranked out 8.75 column inches daily for almost ten years. My career path has taken me in various directions, but I’ve always learning about and telling peoples’ stories.
In the 1980s, I was a radio news/talk show host on WHO-AM radio, a 50,000-watt clear-channel station. Ironic since my biggest fear was public speaking.
As mentioned above, I was a columnist for The Des Moines Register. Also, Iowa Parent Magazine and Chesapeake Bay Magazine. This is ironic because my second biggest fear was writing.
I left the best job in journalism, column writing, to join the presidential campaign of Iowa’s progressive U.S. Senator, now retired, Tom Harkin. His 1992 presidential campaign lasted nine weeks after I joined, leaving me thrust into yet another period of re-invention.
In my 40s, and 50s I created stuff out of thin air:
Writers’ retreats in Iowa, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and San Juan Islands.
Central Iowa’s first news and information website (1992!),
Internet education Conferences with the support of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. Mind you; businesses didn’t have websites or email addresses in 1992.
Art on Charts where I created paintings of sailors boats on nautical charts.
The longest gig I’ve had was as a CEO coach through Vistage International. After 20 years, first in Annapolis/Baltimore and then Chicago, I have now retired. I probably lasted that long because it was part-time. The group met once a month.
Here I am in month 11 of a global pandemic that has kept us virtually prisoners in our home and wondered what’s next. Packed in my brain is 70 years worth of life, including a bunch of experiences, a few successes, and a few failures. In 20 years as a Vistage Chair, I’ve listened to about 150 expert speakers on leadership, personal development, hiring, firing, blah blah blah and had intimate conversations with leaders who influence all the people who work for them—an incredible honor.
There’s a lot of stuff rattling inside my brain, and since I don’t play golf, mahjong, or bridge, I’m turning to you, dear Substack reader, to form new relationships, albeit e-ones.