I’m baaaaaaack

Today’s my first day back from nap jail parental leave.

I’ve been anticipating this day. Which is weird. I usually dread coming back to work. This time’s different.

On my recent sabbatical, I needed to do nothing. I stopped everything. No work, no writing, no social media, no consulting. I’d say I was 80% recharged after six months.

I got back to work writing and consulting for four months before our second baby, Ophelia, arrived. (this is the song that inspired her name)

This time, taking leave felt different. It’s taken a full year since leaving CMX and Bevy, but I finally feel like I’m back at 100%. I’ve been ready to grind again.

Thing is, there’s been an adorable 8-pound, 7 ounces weight that required all my attention. Well, whatever attention our 30-pound wrecking ball of a toddler allowed me. You remember Donnie from The Wild Thornberry’s? He’s like that.

I wouldn’t trade the last two months I’ve spent with my family for anything. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a wee bit antsys in my pantsys.

That’s all to say, I’m excited to be back. 

If you’re wondering what I’m going to do next, my answer hasn’t changed a great deal since I wrote about it in September. Best I can offer is this:

I’m going to write.

I’m going to write and write and write until either writing becomes my full-time thing, or it leads me to my full-time thing. I’m searching for something to grab me. I’m waiting for that lightning to strike. Writing is how I’ll put myself in the position to be lucky enough to catch it.

Throughout my leave, with my one free hand and lots of dictation, I filled up my notes with reflections and ideas for articles. I must have a year's worth of content in there just waiting to be written.

I also took some time to work on becoming a better writer.

I’m devouring Ann Handley’s 100% funnier “Everybody Writes” (yes, you should buy it too). See that strong verb, “devouring”? You can thank Ann for that.

And I’m doing “copy work” where you take a great piece of writing, and copy it by hand to get a feel for the writer’s style and flow. If I start sounding like Seth Godin, you know why.

I’m going to maintain a daily writing habit moving forward. I might test making this a daily newsletter.

To make money, I’m consulting and speaking. I’m hopefully signing two more clients this week which should buy me enough time to focus on writing. I have space for one, maybe two more clients.

And I’m still building my Talent Collective, which made $1800 in the last month and is growing each month. It’s helped five people land senior-level community jobs so far. It’s been rewarding and is giving me a little financial buffer.

I’ll share more details about my finances and how I’m building my business in a future newsletter.

So that’s where I’m at. As of this moment, this newsletter is back on. 

A little more than 500 of you subscribed over the last two months while the newsletter was on pause. If you’re new here, welcome and thank you for coming along for the ride. 

I can’t tell you exactly what this newsletter will look like moving forward. Community building lessons mostly. But also personal reflections, insights into how I’m building my business, productivity advice… I’m going to write about anything that inspires me.

I want to tell you more about what I’ve been thinking about while on leave. I have more than a few tacos calientes. But I’m going to keep this one short and spicy. 

More to come. See you all, same place same time, next week.

---

⚡️Join David’s Talent Collective

If you’re hiring, join David’s Talent Collective to start getting bi-monthly drops of world-class, hand-curated community and customer people who are open to new opportunities.

If you’re looking for a new gig, join the collective to get personalized opportunities from hand-selected companies. You can join publicly or anonymously, and leave anytime.

🔥 Featured job opportunities

1. Multiverse: Senior Director, Community (UK)

2. Chief: Community Engagement Manager (Washington, DC, Boston, Atlanta)

3. Personio: Senior Manager, Customer Community and Engagement (UK)

View 47 more jobs…