The Inescapable Allure of Influencing

money money money money, money

Before we get into the nitty gritty, welcome to all the new subscribers (I assume many found their way here through my interview with Sara Petersen or from Motherhood Untitled’s sharing of it). I must admit I get a little tightness in my chest with an influx of new people. Most of the time, I convince myself that no one actually reads this newsletter.

I try not to look at subscriber counts too often. Doing so tends to send my already overly analytical and self-critical mind into a world of self-doubt and stage fright. It’s a weird mindset that vacillates between believing everyone that reads my newsletter already knows me, and operating as if no one reads it at all.

Point being, I can get a little bit too in my head about all of it. And that’s one of the reasons why most of my work is behind a paywall. If you are new and trying to figure out why you subscribed to this newsletter in the first place, here’s a few non-paywalled reads to get started. (See below this list for the rest of this essay)…

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Let's be real for a sec

The Beauty Secret That Changed My Life

Have We Reached Peak Consumerism?

The Only Child Argument

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Through an act of pure kismet, two things showed up right before I sat down to write this newsletter. One was a package from a brand I hadn’t worked with in years. It was a mini-fridge for skincare products (don’t even get me started). The second was an email from a brand offering me almost as much money as I made this entire year on Substack…let’s take a look at the numbers.