I've Made a Huge Mistake (Cross Post from The Skojec File)

Sometimes, I bite off more than I can chew

It’s been just less than a month since I split my Substack into two. I’ve written more at this new one — Black Sheep — than I have at my original, The Skojec File. Mostly, that’s because here I write a lot about politics and current events, and those topics take less time than deeply personal reflections.

But I realized this week that I’ve made a huge mistake.

My ADHD brain loves to suggest more projects than I can get to, only for me to realize I don’t have the bandwidth to do them all. By writing more here, I’m writing less there. And I don’t want to neglect TSF in service of…BS. (Come on, the acronym sucks and we all know it!)

The whole idea was that I wanted to write about topics that the TSF audience had expressed disinterest in when I previously polled our readers. I was trying to make my audience happy while still pursuing the things I want to write about. And I liked the idea of bringing in other writers so I don’t have to do it all myself. (The truth is, a reader submitted an essay to me a week ago I haven’t even had time to look at, which is lame!)

My intentions were good, but I created competition between two things I’m responsible for, and by doing that, I hurt both.

What I should have done is simply made the directional shift I wanted to make at TSF instead of starting something new, because it’s an accurate representation of my evolution as a writer post-1P5. I never intended to stay stuck on the religious deconstruction and personal healing motifs. They’re important, but they’re too limiting.

When I founded TSF, I was in a really precarious mental place. I had just lost my lifelong faith, which seemed unfathomable to me, and I was navigating a major midlife crisis that had ripple effects in every area of my life. I spent most of 2022 so depressed that there were times I couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. Which is pretty wild for a guy who usually can’t figure out how to shut up.

But I’m not there anymore. Things still haven’t exactly smoothed out for me, and I’m facing some big, even overwhelming challenges. But I don’t want to talk about that all the time anymore. There’s other, more important stuff going on out there.

One of the things learning about improving mental health has taught me is that I need to be better about setting boundaries and saying no. Sometimes, I have to do that with others; sometimes, with myself.

So I’ve decided that I can only run one of the two, and The Skojec File, being the older and more established of the two Substacks, and the one with the larger audience, is the one that wins. I am consolidating efforts there before any more subscribers at Black Sheep sign up for paid subscriptions. I will be migrating the content I’ve put up here over to TSF, and eventually I’ll just shut this one down. I’ve paused all subscriptions here, so nobody should get charged for November if they’re on a monthly plan.

Those who have signed up for annual paid subscriptions at Black Sheep will get an equivalent value credit at TSF. Hit me up at steve at steveskojec dot com and let me know if you need that, and I’ll comp you a year there, no questions asked. If you absolutely need a refund, let me know that as well. It may take me a little to get it to you, because that money has already gone to gas and groceries, but I will get you paid back.

One of the reasons I am pulling the plug now is so that the balance sheet doesn’t go any further in the wrong direction. As I’ve mentioned before, I once made a decent living as a writer, but my audience has shrunk, and my income has as well. I’ve made some other efforts at generating new revenue streams, but so far nothing has worked out. We’re behind on everything at the moment, and I’m actively looking for jobs — which is tricky when you’re a long-time cancel-culture magnet who has been working for yourself for over a decade.

I need more paid subscribers at The Skojec File, first and foremost, so if you’re able to do that, it would be a big help. Many of the posts there will be paywalled, as this is the most effective way to get subscriptions up. The more subscribers I have, the more time I can justify spending on writing instead of doing other work. You can do that at my other ‘stack:

If anyone would like to help out with my family’s immediate needs as I continue trying to build my business and look for extra work, I would be extremely grateful. I’m not going to set up a GoFundMe or anything at this point, but I’m several thousand dollars short this month so anything helps. You can drop a donation at my PayPal if you’re willing or able to help. (I understand that a lot of us are going through the same thing, so no worries if you can’t.)

As for the content at TSF, I’m going to be creating “sections,” which you can subscribe or unsubscribe to as you choose. By default, subscribers will be signed up for all of them. But if, say, you only want to read about religion and culture, but not politics or UFO stuff (because I’m absolutely going to keep writing about my favorite fun topic!) then you can do that. It doesn’t change the cost, it just gives you control over what gets delivered to your inbox. Every topic will still show up on the site, and there will be tabs at the top for each of the section topic areas. It’s going to take some time to go through and re-categorize back content, so please be patient.

I am really hoping to have time to add a podcast soon as well, so stay tuned.

I’ll be cross-posting this at TSF as well, just to make everything clear to both audiences.

Thank you all so much for being here, and for creating a community I love interacting with. I love your comments on my posts. You’re an insightful group of people with some great ideas!