I had heard of Lee Tilghman many years before I started writing or she started writing newslettersā and Iāll admit that gabbing with her on a Monday morning was never on my bingo card. Thatās the most fun part about life since I started building a business and subsequently a writing platform in public! Cool people walk into my life on a random day, and we get to bond over any of the shared experiences weāve exposed our respective communities or newsletters to.
Lee had published a piece about wedding planning (The brides are not alright!) that found me when I needed it the most. I commented, subscribed, and moved onā¦ until we started trading comments back and forth like a little game of ping pong and eventually moved the party to the DMs.
We have a lot in common: Lee was an influencer for a long time before she walked away entirely. When she did, she didnāt just walk away from the front facing cameraā she eschewed the entire wellness industrial complex. No more salads or yoga for Lee, no more shopping or consumerism.
Those extremes chafed, and ultimately lead to Lee landing somewhere in the middle: an influencer who tries to maintain a healthy relationship to influencing, writing and sharing honestly about her experience on both (extreme) sides of the aisle.
I relate to so much of this, though Iāve never had 1/100th of the eyes on me that Lee has. Starting my business, walking away from my business, and then accidentally building another mini business on the back of exposing the mistakes I made in my first businessā yes, this newsletter!ā created a similar loop of extremes, shame, change, and reinvention for me.
We talked about all of this yesterday in a Substack Live, and also so much moreā¦ wedding planning! The mechanics of āvulnerability p*rnā and the paywall in our writing! Consumption, sustainability and influence! Itās all there.
The full, intimate, convo above (just scroll up!) for paid subscribers.
