Benefits Beyond Self-Discovery

I was sitting with my partner, Isobel, this afternoon in the screened-in porch of the fenced-in back yard. We each had our laptops open. Moments before, we'd been bouncing ideas off of one another while kicking around a soccer ball in the grass. Now, with locked-in expressions of focus on our faces, we click-clacked away on our respective creative projects.

This all began with the idea of writing a monthly newsletter. It was a long-dreamt-of side project to my 9-5 where I worked in marketing & sales technology. If I hadn't done that, I’m not sure I’d be here right now... writing full-time, from the back yard, while creating work I actually care about.

But the thing that's been bothering me the most is that the journey has felt... invisible. Or, hard to account for.

Since starting my newsletter at the beginning of 2024, I've noticed a substantial jump in my own skill. I’ve always liked writing, but for a long time, I was scared to start publishing anything for myself. I’d journaled here and there, but I wasn’t contributing to publications—or even posting casually anymore. My social feeds sat quiet. And I kept dumping my energy into client decks, marketing emails, and project briefs that hardly resembled what I actually liked to write.

I liked parts of my day job but, if I'm being honest, I had to force myself to put up with most of it. For me, it was about the paycheck. But more than that, it was about the skills. Both were key to pursuing my dream of running my own media company.

After my initial plan for monthly newsletters, I quickly switched to publishing bi-weekly. Eventually, I landed on my current cadence and format of weekly essays and podcast episodes. And after joining Substack in July of 2024, I started writing (and posting) daily on the platform by September. It'd taken quite a while to find my footing. For a long time, it was just about getting the reps in. It still is—but writing is part of my daily life now. Sort of.

Here's what I mean: I've been publishing Substack Notes (kind of like tweets) daily for almost a year.

Sure, they can be found on my user profile on Substack, but they can only really be viewed by scrolling. Whereas, the essays I publish through Substack (and that get delivered via email) can be collected and sorted on my publication's homepage. That's what gives it the same feel of a portfolio, or stack, of past editions.

In any event, I wanted to create a single place to easily collect and display all of my work. I figured it would make it easier for people to find, browse, and engage with my stuff. And, importantly, it would allow me to see a visible, growing stack of writing I'd published... a reminder of my progress and something that would motivate me to keep going.

And so, I built theunobstructed.com to be all of those things in one.

I'm really, really proud of how it's turned out, from the site layout, design, and user experience to the coding, copywriting, and content organization. What I'm even more excited about is that it's continuing to change in real-time. And this BUDS series will serve as a way to keep working on my skills while documenting the journey.

It's where I'm doing the daily reps to keep getting better at things like headlines and story structure. By taking on The MAP Year Project, I'm squeezing more reps into the journey. Part of that includes making time to kick around a soccer ball with Isobel.

Especially since my work is designed to be compatible with summer days like today on the porch.

Thanks for being here.

onward. 

-dmac