Welcome to Qualified at the Intersection, it’s my three-month anniversary! Yay! If I had any chutzpah, I’d add some balloons or post-production sparkle to this video.
It has officially been three whole months of producing a daily weekday newsletter. That’s wild. I’ve only missed one day, and that was because I was sick. Just one day off in three months. Bananas.
It’s been a lot of work, but also really interesting. It fits how my mind works. My brain is always churning. I mention this a lot, but it’s true. Being a former news anchor, information is constantly running in the background of my head. I’m undiagnosed, but I definitely fall somewhere on the ADHD spectrum. I take in a ton of auditory information and roll it around in my head all day. So while this is a lot of work, it’s also deeply satisfying.
People often ask how I manage to write a daily newsletter. So let’s go behind the curtain. (If I had the post-production chops, this is where I’d add a curtain graphic.)
Here’s how I do it: I think. A lot. All day. And sometimes, you’d be surprised how late in the day I actually write the newsletter. It might be 9 or 10 o'clock at night because I’m ingesting so much information throughout the day, and I have other responsibilities. Meanwhile, the ideas are just rolling around in my brain. Sometimes, I’ll go down a mental path with one idea and then completely switch.
So what I do is speak the newsletter into the audio app on my phone. A lot of people assume I write a script and then read it for the podcast or video. It’s actually the opposite. I talk it through first, usually a rambling, unstructured stream of consciousness: “Oh, I’m thinking about this…” or “Did you see that?” Sometimes I’m forming full sentences, other times I’m just talking. That’s how my mind works.
Then I transcribe it. This is where I do use AI, not to write my content, but to help format my spoken words into a readable transcript. I always tell the AI, “Don’t change my words. Don’t change my content.” And yet, it still tries, which is a real pain. But once I have that cleaned-up transcript, I start writing from it. Every word is mine. Every idea is mine. You can match what I say to what I write. It’s one-to-one. There are no wires, no tricks.
So yes, 90% of the time, I talk through my newsletter first, and then I write it up. My background in journalism helps too. You’ll notice that in some editions, especially when I’m sharing something new or underreported, I include a lot of links. That’s because I’ve done the research, and I want you to have the sources.
Right now, the newsletter isn’t my primary job (though I would love it to be). It’s tough out here. I’ve mentioned this before: platforms like Substack now include major celebrities who bring massive audiences with them, audiences willing to pay premium prices. For those of us who are “regular-ish,” even with credentials like being the author of Qualified, a former practicing attorney, and an adjunct professor, it’s harder to bring large crowds with us. That makes it challenging to secure those $5/month or $60/year subscriptions.
That said, I’ve seen remarkable growth in three months. I now have 1,300 subscribers, which blows my mind. And I’ve got a solid number of paid subscribers, which is not enough to get the orange check mark just yet, but we’re getting there. If you value accessible journalism, if you want facts that connect to your lived experience, consider becoming a paid subscriber. And tell others, too. There’s a lot of value here.
From the start, I didn’t want to charge people to comment or to read the second half of the newsletter. That always felt strange to me. But I do offer premium content, like my e-learning series. For now, “Why We Talk About Race” is available for free so folks can see the quality. Other trainings on unconscious bias, whether ERGs are still effective, and hiring practices will be behind a paywall, mostly because organizations are paying for them in other settings.
Still, the growth in three months? Amazing!
It’s not easy deciding what to write every day. The world is moving at warp speed. Right now, we’re watching the Department of Education under fire, Jeffrey Epstein becoming a MAGA wedge issue, public radio facing threats to its funding, DOJ cuts going before Congress, and the Supreme Court shrugging off responsibility over the executive branch. I feel like I’m living inside that Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire.
Even with all this, I try to pitch stories to other publications. I just submitted one to a place I’ve published with before, fingers crossed. I’ve also started working on my second book, about victimization in the U.S. I think it’s a winner. Hopefully, my agent and a publisher will agree.
Meanwhile, there’s still so much in Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work, that I haven’t even mined yet. I hear conversations all the time, about race at work, Black women’s career prospects, white people asking, “What can I do?” and other people of color wondering where they fit in. All of that is in Qualified. I worked hard to provide a historical, current, and forward-looking lens on race and the workplace. If you haven’t read Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work, I encourage you to. It’s also the reason this newsletter exists. It’s why it’s called Qualified at the Intersection, because we’re talking about the intersection of race and news, race and politics, race and culture.
Three months in, and I feel welcomed here on Substack. Unlike other platforms, I don’t hesitate to block trolls or bad-faith actors. This is a space for people who care about information, creativity, and conversation. Writing daily is not easy. Even when I talk first and edit afterward, it’s still a heavy lift. I’m glad to be part of this evolving community.
Thank you for being here for these first three months. I’m looking forward to even more growth. I’m open to your suggestions. What should I cover? What should I explore? Let me know.
I’ve got some exciting live conversations that I think you’ll enjoy. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a news summary for Friday.
So yes, I’ve built something meaningful here in just three months. I think it’s good, maybe even great, for a new Substack.
So if you believe in this work, tell your friends. Don’t keep it a secret!
Thanks for three months. Let’s make it a year.
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