Hi. Remember me?
I'm baaaack (kinda)
Hi. It’s been a while.
A lot’s changed since the last time I reached out with an email, and I thought I’d start by getting you up to speed with what’s changed, and what comes next.
The last time I sent out an email newsletter, it was July 2022. Since then, we welcomed a baby girl into our family, I’ve made (yet another) career change (if you’re keeping track at home, we’re at 4 or 5 at this point), we moved to a new house, and a bunch of other stuff that I won’t bore you with.
Maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot to you, but it sure feels like a lot to me!
So, what does that mean for these little notes I send out? Well, I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll tell you a few things that have already changed.
Changes in source material
First, if you look back through the archives of this newsletter, most of my notes are based on some piece of non-fiction I read. However, in the last couple of years, almost all of my non-fiction reading has been work-related (more on that in a minute). So, unless I want to turn this into a newsletter about marketing and/or international business (I don’t), I needed to make some changes.
A “new” name
Second, you might notice that this newsletter used to be called “Refilling the Cup,” but now it’s just called, “Adam’s Newsletter.” The simple reason for that change is because by branding this newsletter, I felt like I was giving it too much weight. Like it was “A Thing(TM).” Really, my goal for these emails has always just been for them to be a fun little thing — lower case t. And so, by stripping out the “brand” of the newsletter, I feel like I can take myself a little bit less seriously, and use this for what it is: just an email from me to you where I’ll share the occasional thought, observation and or piece of news.
A new audience
Third, over the last couple of years, a funny thing happened: the audience for this newsletter changed. I’m not even really sure who the original audience for this email was (see, terrible branding), but now, there’s clearly a trend that’s emerging in the subscribers. Suddenly, most of my subscribers are University students, namely, my students.
Yeah, that’s right, that’s the career change I mentioned. I’m now a professor at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. I started out on a 1-year contract in 2022, and as it turns out, I love teaching. And apparently, I must be at least half-decent at it, because as of this year, the University offered to move me from a contractual position to a more permanent one.
If you know my history, you known that me changing careers is nothing new, but in this case, the change comes with that new audience of students I mentioned. And so, I feel compelled to keep this audience in mind as I’m sending out these emails.
So, maybe expect fewer notes about parenting advice, and more about learning and career paths.
New video content
Finally, related to all of the above, I’ve also made some changes to my website, and added a section for students. In that section, you’ll find a series of videos with tips for how to study, how to get ahead in your career, and how to get more done. In other words, all the things my students usually ask me about (ironically, they rarely ask me about the stuff I’m actually teaching…). The intended audience for those videos is students, but in truth, there’s probably something in there for anyone who’s interested in learning and self-development.
So, what does that mean for you?
I guess that kind of depends on you. If you were subscribed to this newsletter because you were curious what I was up to, or because you wanted to get a feeling for how your professor’s brain works, then stick around. If you were subscribed because you really wanted bite-sized insights from history, philosophy, psychology and more, then you might be a little disappointed going forward. So, if you decide to unsubscribe, I’ll understand. No hard feelings.
Beyond that? I have no idea. There’s no master plan. I’m never going to try to sell you anything. I don’t even promise I’ll send out emails all that often.
But, hey, if you do stick around, why not reply to this email and say hello? Let me know what you’ve been up to, and let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see.
Talk to you soon, hopefully.
Cheers,
ADS