Why Substack, why now?

Influencing, social media, consumption, and why I'm finally ready to change it up.

In 2013 I started a blog called Prosecco & Plaid. It was a hobby outside of my regular 9-5 in HR Consulting. Eventually that hobby turned into a full time career. 10 years, I still can’t believe it sometimes! Throughout that time I’ve worked with major brands like Anthropologie and Sephora, and traveled the world with my partner. It felt like a dream come true, and it was. We had financial freedom. We bought our first home, and we poured ourselves into renovating it.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but somewhere around 2018/2019 I hit a breaking point.

It all just felt like too much. I was overwhelmed by the level of consumerism and stuff that surrounded me. My closets were exploding. Packages were arriving at my house completely unsolicited. It all just felt so wasteful.

That’s when I created my first capsule wardrobe. From there I started paying more attention to fabrics, and brands, and how the clothes were made. I was talking about “sustainable swaps” and “my favorite sustainable brands.” And that felt good…temporarily.

Then I got pregnant, and it flipped my world upside down. After thinking I didn’t want children, suddenly, I did? My pregnancy was a nightmare. I was diagnosed with hyperemsis gravidarum, and spent most of my pregnancy on the bathroom floor or lying in bed crying. It was one of the darkest times of my life.

In 2020 I had a baby, and a month later the Covid pandemic shut down the entire world. Navigating motherhood as a person that was up until that point, extremely online, took a toll on me (a story for another day).

I spent the next 3 years flailing a bit.

I no longer felt in sync with the business I built. I was tired of feeding the beast. You can’t capsule wardrobe or buy your way into living a more intentional life.

How do you pivot so drastically when you’ve been doing the same thing for over 10 years? Much of my success has relied on sharing my life on social media. I wanted to do anything but be on social media.

In 2022 I decided I needed to break free from Instagram.

I wrote back then… ”I’ve lied to myself thinking I could set boundaries, make rules for myself, somehow beat the system. But I can’t. That’s not how the system works. This technology, these apps, they’re made to be addictive. To keep us there, to give us that hit of dopamine so we keep going back for more.”

And yet, here I am in 2023, still on Instagram, mostly managed by someone else, but still there. And I could sit here and beat myself up about it, but I’m not going to do that. I keep thinking about this quote from a recent interview with Jessica Elefante on our relationship with social media…

The whole interview is fantastic, but the point is, I’ve realized that the only way for me to break free from the social media circle of hell is to opt-out. And while I’ve tried different strategies to keep up my social media presence because it was integral to the financial survival of my business, I’ve simultaneously realized the cost of doing so.

My creativity, self-worth, happiness and well-being have suffered. I no longer believe social media is a place to celebrate creativity, create community or have meaningful conversation. It’s a sales and marketing tool. You can disagree with me, but you won’t change my mind about that.

And that’s what has led me here. I so desperately want to write again. To connect with like-minded women on the things that we care about. To share things that bring me joy. To love getting dressed again and help others do the same. But I want to do it on my own terms. No algorithm, no ads.

If you leave social media feeling depleted, exhausted, overwhelmed or just plain shitty, I get it.

I’m setting out to create a community that can exist without that. A place where we can have meaningful conversation and dialogue. Where we can laugh and cry and talk about what matters to us in a place where we make the rules.

So here’s what you can expect.

No ads, ever. My Substack is free until 2024 so you can get a sense of the content you’ll get from me. I want to be totally transparent, I do plan to create a subscription in 2024 (it will start at $5/month or $50/year).

My Substack is not an advertising tool for brands. I want this space to be free of any paid advertisements. Some posts may include affiliate links to help financially support my work. I will always disclose that information.

Personal essays and general chats will go out on Mondays, Click. Read. Love. will be published on Fridays, and the Style column will go live on Sundays. They’ll be delivered to your inbox or you can access them by logging into the site.

What about the blog?

It’s not going away. The content there will focus mostly on travel (I’m moving my Woodstock and Newport Guides over there) and some home/lifestyle content.

I also have brand partnerships to fulfill and those will live on the blog in the future (and some on social media through the end of the year).

There’s so much I’ve wanted to say and write, and I finally feel like I’m ready to do that.

Working in this industry for the last 10 years has opened my eyes to the power of influence. Becoming a mother shifted my mindset. It took a long time for me to have the courage to do something different. In the last few weeks the mental block I’ve been struggling with for over 3 years finally unlocked. All of a sudden my why, my what’s next became more clear.

Whenever someone asks me how to create a blog or an Instagram account, I tell them to stop waiting. You just have to start. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be something. I’m ready to take my own advice.

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