Welcome! Here Goes...

a potluck of experiences

Welcome. I took a risk and started writing this column via Substack on January 28, 2021. To my surprise, our community is growing daily.

Back in the 1990s I cranked out 8.75 column inches daily for the front page of The Des Moines Register Features section. I’ve never let go of my love for telling stories this way.

This newsletter allows me to do so, and it is free, so please subscribe.

My life has been a potluck. Or a jagged course. I have a lot of ‘formers’ to my resume:

I’ve been a morning talk show host on WHO-AM radio, a 50,000-watt clear-channel station rated Number One in the state. 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. Also 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.

So, 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!).

• Business Internet Conferences: With the support of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. Mind you, businesses didn’t have a website or email addresses in 1992.

• Art on Charts when I moved to Annapolis and began creating 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 am now retired as of February of 2020 (just before the pandemic took over our lives). I lasted that long because it was part-time and gratifying. The group met once a month.

So here I am in month 11 of a global pandemic where we have been virtual prisoners in our home and wondering what’s next. Packed in my brain are 70 years worth of experiences, with a few successes and 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.

There’s a lot of stuff rattling inside my head, 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. This is healthier for me than watching another series of “Married at First Sight.”

I’ve contributed a few columns to my former employer this year related to Covid, Black Lives Matter, and the future of newspapers:

Gammack: An Iowan in Venice

Gammack: Did your candidate lose?

Gammack: Iowa After the Pandemic

Gammack: Racism in Iowa

I hope you join me in this endeavor. And please share this with those you think might have an interest.

Julie