Fifty Seven. / The Catching Your Breath Edition.
On Keeping Our Cups Full, Copping Carmy's Jacket, and Hacking Through the Substack Jungle.
Hey, everybody.
Five years ago, Le Cinq was born. 41 contributors and 16 personal editions later, it’s been a fun ride sharing my stories and those of incredible people. It’s also been interesting watching the evolution of Substack, from basically a competitor to Medium to, well, a behemoth in its own right. And that’s not a bad thing!
As I’ll go into more detail below, it’s been a fascinating journey that’s combined exploring new publications and posts from people from all over the globe (both relating to my work and covering interesting topics in general) and joining the communities of established writers and journalists who decided to take their talents to the Orange Team.
(PS: If you use Beehiiv for your newsletter, I’m also a fan!)
I give credit to Substack for building a UX that’s fueled my journey…resulting in my subscribing to over 270 (!!!!) newsletters!
Do I read each one start to finish? To be honest, no, but I do enjoy getting each and every one in my inbox…for now. :-)
What are you currently working on?
For the rest of this year, I’m trying to catch my breath. Working all summer doing a combo of professional cat herding to closing 17 deals in a year and a quarter for VHS Ventures (and with a few more to come!), I’m doing everything I can to find the pockets of peace and rest my mind, leaning on my outlets (a stack of reading materials, wandering the city, boxing, and taking up a new hobby…which may end up being following EPL and supporting…Brentford!)
(On a side note, the fact that the Bees’ NYC supporter group meets up at The Red Lion is already a good sign. Great pub.)
(On another side note, it’ll be hard for me to not use the Tommy Boy reference every 10 minutes.)
What are you currently excited about?
As I mentioned earlier, it’s been pretty fun hacking my way through the Substack jungle. I’ve been finding people to subscribe to primarily through internal recommendations; in other words, I’ll read a post from a Substacker I subscribe to and they’ll refer to and/or recommend another post/Substacker, so it becomes a bit of a wormhole effect. I personally like that method versus trawling the “For You” section, as it feels more genuine.
(Plus, it’s nice to watch communities support each other in various ways!)
It’s been also great finding solid posts and saving them to my work-related and reading-related Flipboard Magazines. (Please consider giving them a follow!)
The Chat section has also been a joy; the authentic posts and conversations across so many spaces (politics, fashion, the consumer world, and sometimes a little bit of everything) have been quite fun to peruse and sometimes interact with. It’s also been helpful on the work end, keeping an eye on brands and products people love that may have not been on my radar.
Finally, it’s interesting to watch Substack build out its relationships with power posters; from doing video content with them to larger experiential spaces. It’s a smart move by the Orange Team, as this team should help keep the growth of Substack in check and not become a true wasteland, like, well, Twitter. (I still refuse to call it its new name.)
…and then you get to
’s piece.What’s a story or article that you're currently thinking about?
If you don’t know Emily, she created
, “a daily newsletter about culture through the lens of business.” Her pieces are deep, unapologetic, and refreshing takes, and it’s not surprising since ES is a longtime journalist. (If you know me well, I have a special place in my heart for journalists, going back to my University Senate days at CU - many of those journos I worked with are now running things at the top publications around the world.)A month ago, she dropped this piece that shattered the Substack universe (and, if I may, left a crack in the Internet):
Emily argues that Substack has become pretty close to that aforementioned wasteland, because the title of “writer” has been devalued so heavily due to the glut of content within the Orange Team. I get her perspective; there’s definitely points where I feel some Substackers kinda phone it in with lists and link-filled pieces.
That being said, and I know Emily wasn’t writing this with malicious intent, many people moved their blogs to Substack due to the infrastructure (subscriptions, payments, partnerships, etc.) it has that supports all devices, resulting in a combination of long-form writing (Posts) a la Medium and short-term social media feeds (Notes, Chats) a la Twitter.
By the way, the great
’s take on Emily’s post is one of my favorites that I’ve seen, especially as he refers to some incredible writers who moved their blogs over to Substack:
While The Machine in the Garden, in a way, is The Post That Launched A Thousand Takes (TM), I’ve seen very, very few takes that addressed one shot that Emily took that I absolutely agree with: the shot at Substack’s team.
(Begin Mini-Rant)
When you look at the main features to post (Notes, Chats, and Longform Posts), they have target user bases within the overall top of the funnel. Notes and Chats are designed to be written more spur of the moment (quantity?), and Longform Posts require time to sit down, think through it, and type it out (quality?). By allowing mobile devices to write Longform Posts, it in a way breaks that expected UX and affects the “quality” end.
Now, does that mean that Notes/Chats can’t be high-quality? Of course not. But that should be the pathway for mobile devices. Computers and tablets, on the other hand, should be the only devices to get Longform Post writing abilities. And I think that would set the Orange Team in the right direction.
PS: Give Emily and John a follow and consider becoming a paid subscriber. You won’t regret it.
(End Mini-Rant)
What’s a product you’re currently obsessed with?
Sometimes, products that characters in movies and shows wear become legendary and send those brands to the stratosphere. McQueen and Persol. Don Draper and Randolph Engineering. Skyfall and Billy Reid. I could go on.
But the latest product that’s become a bit of a white whale - because it’s been restocked twice and had a 15,000 person waitlist for this third restock - is Carmen Berzatto’s NN07 Gael jacket.
It’s not cheap, but thanks to some cash back deals and discounts, I was able to cop it comfortably in Size Small…and you can somehow still get it in other sizes on MR PORTER!! If anyone actually wants to see how it fits, leave a comment below!
Wild Card: What’s an item you can’t shake your mind off of?
The article I shared last time from the Primer team about being more selfish (in a good way), to me, is so good and important that I’m re-sharing it here.
We all need to spend more time keeping our cups full, and I was reminded about this again from
’s latest piece on self-criticism.(Also, give Grace and
a follow!)
"Reputation is what people think of you. Character is what you are."
- Oxford, The King’s Man
~ C O L O P H O N ~
Interested in contributing an edition of Le Cinq? Email me here!
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Want to learn more about me? You can find that here.
fun to have you here in the substack community!
thanks for sharing my piece! x