# Hi, it's been a while (here's what I'm up to)

*Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading* [*one of my
essays on
Medium*](https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)*,*
[*my personal
website*](http://seanblanda.com/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)*,
or seeing something on*
[*Twitter*](http://twitter.com/seanblanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)*.
See past issues*
[*here*](https://buttondown.email/Blanda/archive?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a-brand-new-shuffle-editiontm-aka-8-questions-as)*.
There are always typos. Now, to the newsletter…*

![](../images/6d100bd0cee4.jpg)

A brand new mural has gone up on a previously abandoned building near my
house. In the background, you can see the brand-new grocery store being
built. Change is afoot.

*—*

# Hi, it's been a while

Welp - it's been more than a year since you've received one of these and
you'd be forgiven for forgetting who I am or why you signed up for this
thing. ([The door is here](%7B%7B%20unsubscribe_url%20%7D%7D) - or in
the footer - if you want to leave. No hard feelings.)

The theme of the [past few
updates](https://buttondown.email/Blanda/archive/focus-and-other-recent-concerns/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)
was a general stagnation and focus. Well, I can confidently tell you
lots of things are changing. Here's what I've been thinking about and
working on (**I'd love to hear what you're focused on. Hit reply! Even
if we haven't spoken in a while.)**

\_

# Babies!

I am now officially a dad of two! [Baby Marceline joins
not-a-baby-anymore
Quinn](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct-koM1uyNg/?img_index=1&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)
\<3. Both are happy, healthy, adorable, and the light of my life. They
are also now usually sleeping through the night, giving dad a chance to
revive his incredibly dormant internet writing career.

# Consulting

I've started [taking on a very limited number of consulting
clients](https://www.seanblanda.com/lets-work-together/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)
building audiences, scoping events, and providing fractional marketing
leadership. I've been prioritizing working with people I can at least
occasionally work with in person. I have capacity again beginning in
January, reply to this if you're interested!

# Sabbaticals

I've started putting together a new newsletter called The Sabbatical.
(More to come, [but you can sign up for it
here](https://sabbatical.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)
— think travel guides mixed with career advice mixed with life design).

# ZIRPS, baby

When I began my post-college career I, like many other millennials, had
to slog through the Great Financial Crisis to get on solid ground. Since
then, the charts have all gone up and to the right, especially in my
weird corner of media intersecting with tech and startups. It was an
unprecedented bull run.

Then, after decades of near-zero percent interest rates, money is now
expensive. Companies can no longer raise more money from venture
capitalists with ease. "Grow at all costs" has become "profitable at all
costs"

If you started your career in 2010, you wouldn't have experienced a down
market until you were 33. As a result, tech companies are staffed (and
often led) by people who have no idea how to navigate a market where
making money is important. Simply raising another round or exiting to
another company is no longer on the table. Tactics such as using VC
money to monopolize a market or, say, hiring an entire content team are
becoming "Zero Interest Rate Phenomena" or ZIRPs.

The effect on the startup and tech ecosystem has been profound. In past
newsletters, I wrote about how everything on the internet felt stuck and
stagnant. But lately, I feel like I'm standing in the middle of those
controlled burns. The dead brush is being removed. And just around the
bend, we can see what the next generation of the internet will bring.
And it's exciting.

# Everything is fracturing

With the end of ZIRPs comes an end to the way people build traffic and
audiences online. For the past decade, massive channels such as Google,
Twitter, and Facebook have allowed people to buy or build massive
audiences quickly. But now?

- Twitter is now "X" and is antagonistic to anyone leaving the platform.
  Links don't even expand and the algorithm suppresses institutional
  accounts like publishers. ([Catch me on
  Threads](https://www.threads.net/@seanblanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to))

- Google search results are decaying in quality as the search giant is
  falling behind in its cat-and-mouse game with spammers.
  Simultaneously, the 10 blue links of Google are fast being placed by
  AI.

- LinkedIn and Facebook are also exiting the news / links game by
  boosting posts that keep people on the platform and, in some cases,
  [banning entire news
  ecosystems](https://www.reuters.com/technology/metas-canada-news-ban-fails-dent-facebook-usage-2023-08-29/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to).

If you want to build an audience you have to interface directly with
existing publications, newsletters, individuals, and creators. Instead
of pouring \$10,000 into Facebook ads, you need to cultivate
relationships with actual people in weird often hidden pockets of the
internet. The days of quickly growing an audience are over, but that's a
good thing.

> We are going to look back at 2008-2022 as the golden age of
> quickly(ish) building an audience online.\
> \
> Building audiences in the near future will happen slowly and
> sustainably. And many won’t have the patience or bank accounts for it.
> [https://t.co/4DNMDbLcTA](https://t.co/4DNMDbLcTA?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)
>
> — Sean Blanda (@SeanBlanda) [September 20,
> 2023](https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1704491268305232098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)

Combine the above with a leap forward in the capability of martech
tools, AI (for business tasks, not for writing), and consumer
familiarity with solo creatives and all signs point to what [Brian
Morrissey calls "the twilight of the
brands"](https://www.therebooting.com/p/twilight-of-the-brands?r=2cvv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=Blanda).
Going small is the future.

# Crossbeam

As of September, I've worked at Crossbeam (where I'm VP of Content)
longer than I've worked anywhere in my entire life. I recapped year 3
[in this
post](https://www.seanblanda.com/6-mindset-shifts-for-scaling-a-content-team/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to),
which is already a tad outdated.

# Philadelphia updates

Things in Philadelphia are looking up. Our record-crime has eased up
(homicides are down 30% YoY). The food scene is [continuing to
explode](https://www.visitphilly.com/features/philadelphia-scores-three-huge-wins-at-the-2023-james-beard-awards/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to).
This week Philadelphia elected a new mayor months after our current one
said [he doesn't want the job
anymore](https://whyy.org/articles/mayor-kenney-philadelphia-july-fourth-shooting-comments-reaction-resign/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to).
And our trash problem has seen progress — in 2020 I raised money to find
clean-ups. Now we have (brace yourself) [street
sweeping](https://www.threads.net/@seanblanda/post/Cyi6soauUY9?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hi-its-been-a-while-heres-what-im-up-to)!

\-\
Whew, I think that's it for now. No official flag today, I think a new
schtick is in order.

I assure you, it won't be another 18 months until you hear from me -
because I missed you so dang much. Please reply and lmk what you're up
to. \<3