Hi Everyone!

For so many of you who are receiving your first edition of Ground Control let me just say:

WELCOME! And thank you for coming along on this journey.

For those of you who have been subscribers for a while, it’s good to be back :-)

Many of you know I launched this project at the beginning of 2024 with the goal of publishing every week.

And that I held firm through June and once in late July.

Life has gotten in the way and I was a little disappointed.

In the long run? I’m really not that letdown.

My time away has taught me how much I’ve grown to really appreciate the work accomplished and made me that much more excited to pick up where I left off.

The fact of the matter is, it’s not that I haven’t been writing. It’s just that I’ve been writing in a different place.

For many of you, you know my goal has been to use my writing as a way-finding mechanism to help determine what I want to do in the future.

To use Ground Control as a vehicle to express my ideas and foist them on you, fine reader, as a means of determining what resonates; and what does not.

So, I set my sights on growing my subscriber base and that doesn’t happen through an owned audience (this email list) but through a platform to attract an audience; I chose LinkedIn.

So I’ve spent my energy and time writing there.

And to be honest, it’s been pretty successful.

But also, in a way I’m not 100% sold on or fulfilled by.

You see, learning how to grow on any social media platform requires understanding what works there. and you fold in your writing style to match that.

Which is all well and good except when all of those amendments that you’re making take you further away from what you’re actually trying to say.

I think that I had a decent amount of success implementing my writing style into their format.

I don’t know that it’s actually brought me closer to what I’m trying to accomplish.

In the process of going through the motions of writing on LinkedIn, I definitely learned a lot; some of which I will share in later editions of Ground Control.

But what I most intimately understood is that despite the gains and the engagement, that growth mechanism is NOT the be all, end all for me.

For a few reasons.

1. I firmly believe that the average ground control reader is not like every other person. I think we found one another for a very specific reason. That some of the truths that I’m trying to uncover in me are also truths that you are trying to uncover in you.

And that is not only something special but something that is truly worthy of the effort it takes to reach you.

Honestly, it’s an honor.

2. What’s the point in growing an audience of readers somewhere else if you aren’t going to write something special that makes signing up worth it?

This point seems obvious now but when you’re in the throes of it, it can be difficult to discern which way is north. Of that I am neither ashamed nor making excuses.

It just is.

3. I have said all along that what makes writing ground control Such a requirement for me is that I’m a weird bird.

With weird ideas and I can’t count on the natural world to see me for who I am.

But even if I weren’t who I am it would be worth the effort to speak my peace.

Here’s why….

The world is vast and ideas can be a dime a dozen. But in reality it’s those ideas, your ideas and mine, that change the world.

Maybe those ideas have been thought before.

Maybe they’ll be thought again.

But no one is thinking those thoughts the way you are. And no one is thinking them that way right now.

That’s your proof.

That’s your unique value proposition.

And that’s why it’s so important to find out how you shine and let it loose.

Because you never know when the time is right for your light to germinate someone else’s seeds.

And their light yours.

Finding your way forward is anything but simple.

Despite what the gurus tell you or sell you.

It takes work. And the fact that you’re reading this tells me you’re curious to figure that out too.

So the long story short? The Ground Control sabbatical has come to an end.

The new rules?

1. Write for my people first

2. Do not judge myself when I have to miss a week

3. Always take stock in knowing that I know what is best for me.

4. Never shy away from telling it from my perspective.

Thanks and much love.

This is Ground Control

- Patrick

LinkedIn Highlights

Don’t let your past hijack your future.

Your next big leap.

You’re probably saying too much.