Hello and welcome!

Here's my first post and an introduction to what we're up to with this new community.

As some of you may know, my Discord server was recently hacked and all my community's content was deleted. After a lot of back and forth with Discord, I still don't know what happened, or how to fix it. That's disconcerting.

But! I consider it an opportunity for a fresh start. And truth be told, I didn't love Discord. It felt too... anonymous, technical, and gamer-y, if that makes sense?

I've been poking around Locals, and I think it's a more mature, intuitive, user-friendly experience overall. Plus, it's designed with adequate infrastructure to support my community as it grows over time.

For a while now, I've been contemplating how to align my personal needs with the needs of my community. It's clear that people need a way to reach me, and ask me questions, as well as engage with other people who are pondering similar dilemmas. But it's also clear that I need my life to feel manageable, which means I can't have an overwhelming inbox at all times, when no one is paying me to respond to all those messages. What to do?

I think Locals can help. With Locals, supporters of my work can contribute a small monthly donation. In exchange, I'll be happy to answer your questions in private, members-only livestreams!

When you join my community as a Standard Supporter — currently set to only $8/month! — you'll be able to ask questions that I will respond to in those private livestreams. Attend a livestream if you can, and ask a question right in the chat; but you can also just post your question in the community, and I'll respond when I can.

At the Premium Supporter level (currently set to a modest $24/month), you can message me directly. While there are dozens of other ways to reach me, I can't keep up with emails, DM's, comments, and so forth across all platforms; I'd never get anything else done! But as a Premium member, I will prioritize responding to your messages, as a way of saying thanks for supporting my work. Of course, I won't be able to provide lengthy and ongoing personal correspondence, or any kind of counseling, consulting, or coaching work through messaging. But if you need five minutes of my time here or there, as a Premium supporter, you got it.

Members at all levels will find like-minded community and be able to exchange ideas and support with one another. On Locals, you get to choose how anonymous you wish your profile to be, and whether you want your posts to go out only to other Supporters, or to be visible to the public. (I recommend a mix of both. Less personal posts help draw people in who are considering becoming Supporters, while private posts keep our community a sacred place.)

Because this community is brand-spanking-new, I can't tell you exactly what the frequency of the livestreams will be, but we will figure that out as we go. As one of my earliest members, you can help get the community started and shape the experiences we create together, providing me valuable feedback along the way.

I really want to encourage all my previous Discord members, plus many of the other people who reach out to me in various ways, to consider joining the community. So I'm offering you your first month free! Just use promo code GRANDFATHER - as in, I'm grandfathering you in as a member of the club. (Plus, my grandpa, Gabe, was pretty cool. I like to think I'd have his blessing.)

Thanks, I'm excited to see where this takes us!