Hello, Substackians!
(Or should I say, "Hello, Untethered Adventurers!")
Welcome to my first-ever Substack post. (Crowd goes wild!)
Three months ago I hadn’t even heard of Substack. Then again, three months ago, I wouldn’t have called myself an author yet, either. Yes, I had published a memoir about living on a sailing catamaran with my family. Sure, one of my screenplays made it to the top 5 of the New York International Latino Film Festival. Okay, so I had won a special writing bonus along with a William Randolph Hearst award for my broadcasting work. But in my mind, those were all exceptions, flukes. When it came to telling people about my writing, I pretty much only shared it with my friends and family. My writing always felt like this fragile, precious thing – like Gollum coveting the One Ring – which I hid in leather-bound journals and boxed hard drives, safe from the cruel judgements of the world.
But then there was Substack, presenting this new, intriguing possibility and now something that has been lying dormant for a very long time is suddenly stirring inside me again.
I first learned about Substack a few months ago at a writer’s conference called, 20Books Vegas. I had just paused my podcasting workshops and editing business and was exploring the possibility of writing fulltime when I was gifted a ticket to the conference. It felt like the Universe was sending me a loud and clear message; “go forth and write.” For a new author, everything about 20Books Vegas 2023 felt like drinking from a firehose. Luckily, I was very, very thirsty.
Staged in the Horseshoe hotel’s convention center, attendees had to choose between half a dozen fascinating sessions running simultaneously, each exploring a different aspect of the craft or business of being an author. I wasn’t even sure I belonged there yet and had no idea where to start. Since I’m a social person, I decided to just focus on meeting new people and following my curiosity wherever it might lead.
That curiosity led me to a talk called, “Introduction to Direct Selling for Authors,” hosted by a mysterious-looking guy named
, wearing dark sunglasses and talking really fast about publishing direct. I didn’t even know what that meant, but he spoke so passionately about this direct approach, and about Substack in particular, that I made a mental note to look into it when I got back home.Of course, as a mom of 3 who had been gone for 6 days, life came at me full tilt the minute I stepped foot back in New Mexico. My son had his birthday and then his bar mitzvah in Puerto Rico. Plus there was Thanksgiving, then Hanukkah, New Year’s and my daughter’s birthday. Looking into Substack quickly became the furthest thing from my mind.
Still, even with the constant demands of a major life event in the middle of the holiday season, I did keep writing every day. I am really proud of that fact. Two weeks ago, I finished the first draft of my first novella (a thriller with a working title of “Pyro Pastor”). Unlike all my writing projects in the past, I was determined to treat this one like a business asset to be offered to the world, not just a precious, hidden passion. But I was unsure what my next best steps were.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
While seeking author-business advice through the No BS Business membership I belong to, I stumbled on an invite by a woman named,
, offering a deal on a course called, “The Insider's Guide to Getting Traction on Substack.”“Hmm… Substack,” I thought, “Wasn’t that the platform that Russell guy mentioned at 20Books Vegas?” Generally, when a word or idea that I had previously never heard of suddenly starts showing up multiple times in my life, I pay attention. More often than not, these are like little breadcrumbs, leading me to something worth exploring. So, I went back to look for the 20Books session replay and found another talk I had not attended, by the same, dark sunglass-wearing guy, called “How to Build a World Class Substack.” That talk, by
’s sealed the deal for me. With Substack, he explained, you connect directly with readers, retain all rights to both your content and your subscriber list, can create community without all the algorithmic manipulation you find on other platforms, and just do the thing you do best while finding the people who will support your journey. It reminds me of the early days of podcasting where a platform cuts out the middleman and allows you to connect directly with your audience, but for writers, instead of broadcasters.So now here I am, in the middle of
’s Substack course, learning as I go. As I commit to not only writing consistently, but also to stepping into the limelight by actually publishing the darn things, I am reminded of a moment that happened last summer when my family traveled to Israel for our dear friends’ daughter’s wedding. It was an elegant affair with the most stylish of people. There was an exceptional band playing on stage and beautiful people everywhere, dancing their joy, visiting with friends and being, well, beautiful. In the middle of it all, my son, decided that he wanted to get up on stage to share a message with the bride and groom.“No, you can’t do that!” we said. “This is their wedding, and they already have everything planned out the way they want it.” My husband, daughters and I all tried to dissuade him from going on stage. But when our friend – the father of the bride – cautioned us to, “be careful not to dull his shine,” we backed down. And good thing we did. That brave boy stood on that stage and delivered an impassioned speech to the bride and groom in front of all their guests. The crowd cheered, and we cried. Later, we received a thank you note from the happy couple saying everyone was still talking about the speech and that it was one of the most memorable parts of their wedding.
I remind myself of this lesson all the time when it comes to my kids. “Be careful not to dull their shine.” And I know I also need to apply that same lesson to myself. So, in an effort to allow my shine to shine, here are the who, what, why, where, when, and how of my new Substack:
1. Who?
My name is
, and I go by “Rosa Linda.” I am a broadcast journalist by trade and have worked as a reporter and anchor at TV stations around the country. My last job was main anchor at Monterey, California’s KION46, which I left in 2005 when my first daughter was born. Then, with 2 little ones in tow, I launched my independent career in 2007, thanks to the then brand new medium of podcasting. My video podcast, New Mexicast eventually became a weekly, half hour TV show in Albuquerque for two seasons before it was transformed into the audio podcast, New Mexi-Castaways when my family moved onto a sailing catamaran.After many grand adventures, we returned to the landlocked life in New Mexico in 2021. Daughter #1 is now at the US Naval Academy, daughter #2 is just a year from her high school graduation and our speech-giving son is already a teenager. With empty-nesthood on the horizon, I am just starting to explore what the next chapter of my life will look like once all my kids fly the nest.
2. What?
Speaking of exploring, what’s with the name of my Substack; Untethered Adventurers?
The truth is, I agonized about the name.
At first, I thought I might just use my business name, New Mexicast (or New Mexi-Castaways). This would’ve made sense, as I have been creating video and audio podcasts there for 17 years and already have a loyal following with that brand. But the fact is, my family is getting ready for another fulltime travel adventure, so New Mexico would only be part of the story.
Then I considered using the name of the community I have been creating, the Untethered Adventurers Club (UAC)? I was already in the middle of launching this new brand when I decided to take a pause from the podcasting workshops. The idea of the UAC is to offer fulltime traveling moms a gathering space where they can create consistent, quality content on-the-go while still being fully present for their family’s adventures. I love the potential of this UAC community.
Of course, I could’ve just used my own name, Rosa Linda Román. It is the name I used to publish my book, “Losing Sight of the Shore: How to Live on a Boat Without Killing Your Family.” Plus, there is some name recognition from all those years as a local TV news reporter. And, if I’m honest, there’s a certain ego-boost that would come from calling it Rosa Linda Román’s Substack. But that feels too self-centered for what I really want to create here.
In the end, I decided to go with Untethered Adventurers, because it represents both the people I hope to serve and a subject matter I know a lot about after living on catamarans for 5 years with 3 kids, one husband and a German Shepherd.
Untethered - un·teth·erd /ˌənˈteT͟Hərd/ verb
Not tethered; not tied down.
(figurative) Unrestrained.
Adventurer - ad·ven·tur·er /ədˈven(t)SHərər/ noun
a person who enjoys or seeks adventure.
Put them together and you get a person who is unrestrained and seeks adventure; just the kind of person I love to learn from and hope to connect with here.
Although I may have agonized about the name of my Substack, I am super clear about the mission, which brings me to the…
3. Why?
The why is because I have wanted to connect with you for a very long time. Yes, you. Throughout all of my various ventures and independent experiments, I have envisioned making joyful connections with fascinating people through my work, but in the past I was either not yet ready or didn’t know how to do that.
When I left the mainstream media to become a fulltime mom, part of me was complete; the nurturing part that wanted to fully focus on raising the precious little beings before me. But there was this other part that was left with a gaping hole inside. It was the part that brought me to broadcasting in the first place, but which never truly found fulfillment in my TV news career. That part is my Storyteller.
Through New Mexicast I let my inner storyteller come out and play. As a one-woman-band I did long form, feature stories about enchanting people and places in New Mexico and beyond. (For example, End of Trail a story about cowboy action shooting.) New Mexicast was the first video podcast in the whole state of New Mexico, and I was proud of what I had created. The problem was, in order to create the content each week, I often had to give up the very thing that mattered most – time with my beloveds. While this always bothered me, it wasn’t unmanageable until September 2009 when our family moved onto the sailing catamaran, s/v Hakuna Matata. No longer could I put my kids in their safe little playroom or drop them off at daycare so mommy could edit the latest video. We were now in an unpredictable, and potentially dangerous environment where I wasn’t comfortable leaving them alone while I worked. Content creation suddenly became a burden that took me away from our adventures, and I almost let it die completely.
Almost.
No matter where we went on our sailing adventures, my inner Storyteller nagged at me, compelling me to find new, creative ways to share our story, without taking away from actually living our story. New Mexicast video podcast became New Mexi-Castaways audio podcast and I worked hard to build systems and a support team that allowed me to publish the podcast from anywhere in the world, even while my family was busy losing sight of the shore.
Armed with all that I learned from my years of broadcasting, parenting, sailing, and podcasting I first figured out how to successfully create my own, quality content on-the-go and then I created the Untethered Adventurers Club to empower other traveling families to do the same.
4. Where?
Right here on the Untethered Adventurers Substack.
5. When?
The plan is to post at least once a week. That might be an article, an interview, a chapter of my memoir, a First Mate’s log from my liveaboard days, an excerpt from my new novella (a thriller) or some other writing project that I want to share. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have the freedom to create and explore with you.
5. How?
With your support! First by subscribing to my Substack here:
And then by sharing it with other Adventurers. You can do that here:
Phew! That was a lot longer than I expected, but I suppose that’s the beauty of this platform, there are no rules or restrictions on what we can create. To quote Willy Wonka (from the 1971 version, of course!):
“We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams.”
Thanks for supporting this dreamer by reading my very first Untethered Adventurers Substack post! I hope you will join me on this Substack journey. I can’t wait to see where we go from here. Should be a wild, wonderful ride!
Kungaloosh, Adventurers! (IYKYK!)
-RLR
Hello, Rosa Linda! Delighted to receive your first transmission, and learn more about you. Remember (as Serena would say): You belong in any room you choose to step into. You 110% belong here!