As I Was Saying...

A personal branding crisis, a tizzy, and a revelation.

Hi everyone,

Due to a technical matter, not all of my subscribers received Off-Niche yesterday.

Which was sad, because it was the first official Off-Niche post.

It did go up on Substack, however, so I won’t repeat the whole thing.

In brief, this is how Off-Niche was born.

I had a personal branding crisis brought on by four likes.

I decided I had to get niche.

With a niche, I’d succeed. Everyone said so.

I tried to find one that fit.

But I don’t golf, knit, macrame, or build ant farms.

Flummoxed, I asked for advice.

A kind (and wickedly talented) writer noted I was spiraling.

He said:

You are your niche. And pretty shamelessly so at that.

It was either a compliment or a very elegant takedown.

But a revelation!

I am the niche.

All my weird world views and stories? That is the niche.

Scary, isn’t it? So I’ll continue to:

• Write shamelessly outside the box.

• Make inappropriate observations.

• Write about the alphabet (I’m sorry, it’s staying!)

I heard from another Substacker that he might be going off-niche in Nashville. We are going to form a coalition. Possibly rule the world.

And about that niche thing:

I started on Substack six months ago from zero. Today I have 70 subscribers, some paying, and more than 200 followers.

I know I’m not breaking the sound barrier or anything, but I’m happy. After the four likes tizzy, I stopped reading about optimizing my content.

And speaking of things I can’t unsee:

• The New York Times’ takedown of Elon Musk’s alleged drug use. I thought that was a low blow. My personal opinion.

• And another new low from The New York Post: Pod Force One. I kid you not. First guest? President Trump.

• And meanwhile on X: a meme featuring President Trump’s head in a taco shell.

It may look like Donelon is attempting a reconciliation.

But a Trump taco head on X? We’ll see.

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Thank you so much for reading.