Introducing: Current Fad

A fortnightly newsletter featuring the thought flurries and temporary fixations of Alicia McKay, hosted on Substack.

Hello. I’m writing a new newsletter and it’s not all about work. Here’s why.

I’ve written a lot over the last few years. Every week, I publish Wednesday Wisdom - initially to just 28 people, now to over 10,000. I post most days on LinkedIn, where over 30,000 people follow along with my work antics. I also write regular articles about work, life and leadership on my website. Oh, and I wrote two books. One about strategy in the public sector, and one about strategic leadership.

I enjoy this writing, but over the last year or two, I’ve been getting an itch. An itch that doesn’t belong in the little corporate thought leadership bubble I’ve created. To begin with, I started scratching that itch by publishing articles on social issues, like Why Women Are So Bloody Exhausted Right Now, A Certain Type of Man: The Family Man and WTF, Netflix? Teenage Sex and Entertainment.

But it always felt a bit… disjointed, next to my main work gig. So I’ve held back. Which is silly really, because that’s not in alignment with my values or what I tell other people to do. I’m all about chasing dreams, taking risks and creating a big life you’re proud of. So, I’m going to scratch that writing itch.

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Here’s what I’m doing about my itch:

1. Flying to Portland, Oregon for an intensive novel writing workshop to work with a horrendous lump of 12,000 initial words that, quite frankly, are garbage, to find out whether I’m capable of writing good fiction, or if I should just stick to reading it.

2. Launching Current Fad on Substack, a society and culture newsletter that will be an outlet for my thought flurries and temporary fixations.

3. Stepping back from client work in the second half of 2023 to focus on public-facing programmes and products like books, digital downloads, online courses, and the Not An MBA and Consultants of Choice communities.

My current hope is to build up enough subscribers and content on Substack to have a viable paid newsletter offer, and create enough income through my public work channels to scratch my creative itch in a more meaningful way..

I’ll keep Wednesday Wisdom running exactly as it is - hosted on my website and emailed directly to subscribers through my usual channels. If you like getting Wednesday Wisdom, and you’re not interested in adding anything else to your inbox, that’s cool. Don’t keep your Current Fad subscription.

But if you’re interested in what I think about things that aren’t work-related, like how gyms are weird, or why our relationship to water is interesting, then you should hit/ stay subscribed - and forward to a friend!

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Why I believe in supporting writers

I really like the Substack model, and I’m hoping to make it work. Partly, this is because writing has consumed thousands of hours of my time over the last few years, for minimal direct remuneration.

For all the work that goes into writing, launching and promoting business books (appearances, podcasts, interviews, media releases, free content for other platforms, social media, et al) the earnings are meager. We’re supposed to settle for ‘publicity’ that will help us to sell something else, rather than be paid for our effort in any meaningful way. I actually think this sucks.

Because the truth is, I’ve been creating absolute screeds of mostly free content for years. Free articles, posts, newsletters, media releases, and books with a tiny author margin. I love writing, and I want to keep doing it, but I can’t keep pumping out so much stuff for free, not over the long term. That’s not in alignment with my beliefs.

I believe in the importance of creative contribution to society, culture and economy, and I walk the talk on it, by subscribing to all kinds of paid content from people I follow and admire on Substack, and elsewhere. But I’ve kept myself in a very narrow work box when it comes to monetising my own writing, because it’s hard to find models that pay writers directly and I’ve been scared of taking the leap.

I won’t be going paid until I have the confidence that I’m providing valuable content for lots of people. If that doesn’t happen, it won’t happen. That’s cool. Maybe I won’t even like doing more writing that much, once I have more time and space for it. But I won’t know unless I find out, so, here we are!

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Please follow this goose with me

In summary, I’ve decided to chase the writing goose and see if it’s for me (comic below. Obviously I could not be less like Lord No Kids. More like Lady Three Kids and a Mortgage. But you get the idea.). I want to throw myself into fiction and creative non-fiction, and see where I end up.

I’d love your support for this little goose of mine. Please subscribe to Current Fad, and share it with all of your friends! If you like the first few editions, consider pledging your support so that if/ when I launch a paid offer, you’re already there and waiting.

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Tell me your thoughts!

If you’ve read this far, and you’d like to say nice things to me about my goose, then I’d love you to leave a comment! One of the neat things about Substack is the ease of community. You can talk to me, and others, in the comment section, and with the launch of Notes, we can have a social vibe too.