Hello again and thank you for allowing me back into your inbox.
Perhaps you noticed a name change… Allow me to explain.
This week I posted a question on X (FKA Twitter) and Notes:
I think this is a good example of my tendency to be impulsive at times. The thought to change the name of my blog literally came to me out of nowhere, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it was probably a good idea. When I started this Substack, I didn’t have the catchy name all the experts say you need to have for your blog. I didn’t wanna try too hard to be too catchy and then regret it, so I just went with my own name.
Another thing the experts tell you to have is a niche or one thing you focus on. I think that’s dumb advice. Subconsciously though, I’ve probably been living by it anyway. I gotta stop that and the name change is an effort to break free from the mindset of niche thinking and just start writing what I think.
But what does it mean?
Sipping Coffee & Spilling Ink doesn’t have any kind of esoteric thinking behind it. It’s just something I find myself writing anytime I open a journal. I sip my coffee (black, in case you’re wondering) and I spill ink all over the page because analog is best.
It’s no surprise that the writing I do in my journal is the writing that makes me feel the most satisfied. Obviously, there’s not really a filter there. So there’s that. But it’s also because there’s no niche. There’s not even an ideal audience in mind. It’s just what I’m thinking. I wanted to change the name of the blog because that’s what I want it to be and I think that’s what it should be.
Unfortunately, I’m too young to remember the heyday of the blogosphere, but that’s what blogs were before short form video and social media and influencer culture.
*gag*
Granted, blogs were also pretty niche. But they were very unique to each individual blogger. I can’t control what the internet likes and doesn’t like, but I do feel at least some responsibility to do my part to be more authentic rather than trying to be something or someone I’m not just to get rEaCh or eNgAgEmEnT.
In the past, I’ve blogged with at least half a glance toward how I could repurpose the content for social media channels, YouTube, a podcast, and short form video. Do I really even do any of those things, outside of what’s considered “work” since I’m responsible for RBC social media? I dabble on X for a lot of reasons, but one is because X has always been primarily driven by the written word. Other than that, no.
The problem? Even though I’ve been thinking about doing other things with the little writing I’ve done, I haven’t actually done them. So wisdom says to just stop that and start focusing on the thing that’s more up your alley.
In my very first post explaining why I was starting a Substack, I wrote that I needed to go through the process of writing and publishing something in order to find out what I think. I hate to be a Nuance Bro about this, but I think about a lot of things and unfortunately, a lot of things are pretty complicated. Not everything is cut and dry. The only way to get to the meat of something is to do the hard work of really thinking about it.
Though I got away from it, that was my original goal with Substack and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to get back to that.