It's been a year.
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Happy Thursday!
This week marks the first anniversary of FullStack HR.
I dipped my toes into the substack waters in April 2021. The first post tried to explain what FullStack HR is and what it should be. I had a hypothesis about continuing to make YouTube videos back then. Sometimes I still have that aspiration, but I always fall short...
The second post was an attempt to do that, so it's actually the third post I consider the first "real" post - What's up with the HR system these days.
There weren't that many subscribers back then (22 to be precise), and most of them came through lectures I did earlier that week where I nudged people to subscribe.
(Speaking of speaking, if you want to listen to me, I'm doing a panel on HRCoreNordic today this week. It's free, and all you need to do is sign up here.)
Since then over 1500 people have chosen to subscribe to the newsletter (blows my mind every time) but my goals with the newsletter remain the same (minus the YouTube part):
Write a newsletter I’d like to read myself.
Getting better at publishing stuff on the internet.
They work hand in hand, and make no mistake - this is a learning journey.
A very public learning journey, but nonetheless a learning journey.
Not every article I've published has been great.
Not every article I've posted has resonated with everyone.
But in my book, that is as it should be.
Sometimes I write about stuff and get an email or an answer in my opt-out form about "This is too far away in the future," or "It's not relevant at all."
And I'm okay with that. I'm writing the newsletter I'd like to read, and not everyone is like me (THANK GOD.) The topics are everchanging as my interest wanders around from time to time, but looking back I can see a red-thread revolving around the future of work and web 3.0/metaverse.
Looking at what you have liked the most, these are the three most-read articles.
1. How to work in a hybrid world.
2. Agile HR - It’s complicated
3. Courageous HR people step into the board rooms, please.
Beyond the above goals, my goal has been to get an article out every week. Why? If you Google how to start a newsletter or start writing, one of the top pieces of advice given is to publish regularly. It has helped me overcome the fear of publishing, and it also forces me to sit down and write. And I like that!
I've failed on that from time to time but always for good reasons, but most of the time, I've managed to get an article out there, and every time I’ve learned something new along the way.
How do I write articles?
There are probably a million different ways of writing articles, but this is my process. Or at least how I usually do it.
I use Notion to capture ideas. Ideas for articles usually pop up when you least expect them, and having somewhere to capture them is nifty. I usually only do one or two sentences around the idea.
Since last year I've dedicated 30 minutes to the newsletter every morning, right before I get to work. After I've published the newsletter, I decided on next week's topic, either from the ideas captured above or if I find divine inspiration and start from a blank page. Then the following mornings are usually spent doing research on that topic. That could include building a podcast playlist with episodes about the topic or other articles or papers written about the subject.
After a while, I start writing the article.
This takes anywhere from one to five days, depending on the length. Once it's done, I run it through an editor from Fiverr, and 9 times out of 10 that’s Stacy (kudos to you Stacy!), and then I schedule for it to be released to the public.
Which still always gives me anxiety, which is why I do it. To practice and get better and more comfortable sharing these kinds of articles.
Even with anxiety, this is so much fun. It's fun learning about new topics and getting emails from you, and it's been tremendously fun to see the subscriber list grow and grow and grow.
What’s ahead?
I have a million ideas and no time. This is something I do on top of everything else. That kind of sets the limit. There are a million things I´d like to try out. You’ll probably get to see some of it here, but one thing I know for sure is that I’ll continue writing. I also know what I don’t to be and that is to be some kind of “expert”. All I know is that I know so little. But I’m happy to share what I know. Once again, this is a learning journey for me. Some ideas are half-baked. Some might be overly optimistic. Some might be totally wrong.
But I hope we both learn something along the way.
And I hope you'll stick around for another year.
