You’re already part of the little space I wanted to build outside social media, and losing access to two accounts is why it matters so much.
But this isn’t only a story about losing Facebook and Instagram. It’s also about why I now put so much effort into this newsletter, and how I use AI to help me turn it into a full week’s worth of content.
A few years ago, I lost access to my Facebook account. My personal profile, business and advertising account were all connected, so when the hackers got in, they had access to everything. They ran ads for sunglasses, of all things; charges appeared, and people I’d grown up with could see activity coming from the profile that wasn’t me.
I spent 7 days trying to prove my identity and get back in... which I couldn’t. The account is still there, I’m still locked out, and I still get daily notifications about posts I can’t see.
Then it happened again with Instagram. That account held the visual history of a hand-lettering business I owned and dearly loved. It was full of shop windows, walls and A-boards I had designed and hand-lettered. It was like a black-and-white art gallery of my best work. It captured my most creative time and the essence of me at that point. Frustratingly, I could still see it, but again, I couldn’t get back into it.
Those experiences changed how I see social media. I’m not against it. It’s where our paths crossed, I’m sure. I’m still on LinkedIn, and I have new Insta and Facebook accounts. I value the people and the daily conversations. But I no longer want all of my work, relationships and energy to live in one place that I can lose access to overnight.
I never want to be held hostage to a platform... ever again!
That’s one reason this newsletter matters to me. It gives my thinking somewhere else to live. It gives me a place to speak more freely, explain how I see things and build a deeper relationship with you.
But there’s another reason I value it so much.
This newsletter has become the main piece of content I work on each week. I spend time working out what I really want to say, what I’ve noticed, what I believe and why it matters.
I develop the thinking first. That’s a non-negotiable for me because I’ve tried doing it the other way, where AI was given too much responsibility too early. The content looked polished, but it sounded generic, and I ended up rewriting most of it to put myself back in. That took even more time.
Now, AI supports me through the process without deciding what I mean.
It helps me capture what I’ve said, pull out the useful parts and point to anything that still feels incomplete. If more context is needed, I can add a quick voice note so the thinking is complete and the point is actually the point I want to make.
Once the newsletter is clear, AI presents me with ways I could reuse the same thinking in my emails and LinkedIn posts. I don’t have to sit there trying to work out what to do next. I can choose an option, refine it, add something or leave it for another time.
AI is involved, yes, but its role is to guide me through the process, following the instructions and guardrails I built to protect my voice and standards.
That leaves me with the most important job... making all the decisions!
So by the time the newsletter is finished, I’m not looking at the rest of the week thinking, “Right, what else am I going to talk about?” I’ve already done the thinking, and I have a set of options in front of me.
That’s where my initial effort really compounds.
But the benefit isn’t only that one newsletter can give me several pieces of content. It also gives people more than a collection of quick tips or disconnected posts.
A LinkedIn post might show one opinion, one part of a story or one useful distinction. Here, I have the room to explain how I reached the point, what I noticed and why I believe it matters.
Over time, those pieces build a clearer picture of how I think and how I work.
That matters because our content is often the first evidence someone sees of our expertise. Something can look professional and still fail to show the experience, care and reasoning behind the actual work.
I don’t want to create content simply so I can say I’ve been consistent. I want it to help the right people understand me, trust what I’m saying and recognise the way I approach a problem.
My email list is still small, and I’m still learning what I want this space to become. But I don’t see that as a reason to wait.
I’ve been told a small audience is a good place for me to find my voice, test what feels natural and improve each week. So when you signed up, you were actually one of my early subscribers. I was no longer writing into a void. I’m still learning what connects, what needs more explanation and what I want to say more clearly next time.
That’s the part I hadn’t fully understood when I started.
The newsletter gives my thinking a home. AI helps me take it further. LinkedIn helps more people find it. Each part has a different job, and together they make the work feel more useful and less scattered.
You’re already part of that space, and I’m genuinely grateful that you are.
So I’ll leave you with this thought to ponder...
Where does your best thinking currently live once your latest post has disappeared down the feed?
Thanks for being part of my journey,
