Steam Rooms, Starting & Sticky

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This week marks two years of Trust Fun (this newsletter) and one year of Steam Room Etiquette (my improv comedy group I co-founded). Two side hustles. Two creative outlets. Both STILL alive, against all odds.

Time to pat myself on the back… You know how rare that is? I looked it up. The average newsletter lifespan is about 5–7 issues before the writer quietly ghosts / gives up. And the average improv performer? Most people drop out within a couple months of their first class - a tiny percentage actually make it to being in a show... We’ve sold out 4 of them.

Life happens. Motivation fades. Rent’s due. So the fact that both of these things are still going strong—two years and one year later—is something I’m damn proud of.

And not because it’s been easy. It hasn’t. Writing this newsletter every week, finding something to say that doesn’t sound like every other AI written jabroni piece out there—it can be work. But it’s useful work I guess?

You know, the kind that stretches a different muscle. The same way doing improv once a week with a bunch of ridiculously talented goofs keeps my brain loose and sharp.

Trust Fun started as a way to get my thoughts out after I got laid off from my job. Steam Room Etiquette started as a way to start acting again. Both became WAY more meaningful than that. Both built communities I actually care about. Led to new friends. New opportunities. Both have made me a little braver & better.

And honestly, I think the biggest lesson from both is this: just start the thing.

You can’t plan your way into momentum. You can’t optimize a project that doesn’t exist.
When I launched this newsletter, I had no idea how to run Beehiiv, what to write about, or whether anyone besides my mom would open it. When Vince and I started Steam Room Etiquette, I had no idea how to sell tickets, wrangle performers’ schedules, or rent a theater.

You figure it out after you start.

And yeah, it’s awkward. You send DMs asking strangers to subscribe. You post flyers. You send texts to friends who’ve already been to three shows. You sell tickets one by one. At some point, you become that person who’s always asking people to “check something out.” My friends must be absolutely sick of me at this point.

But here’s the tradeoff: if you keep showing up, if you keep doing the reps, eventually people do check it out. Eventually you look up and realize you’ve built something that actually exists. Something people connect with. Something you didn’t quit.

There’s this idea that if something’s not making money, it’s not worth doing. But I think that’s bullshit. The real flex is sticking with something long enough for it to matter—to you, to your people, to the version of yourself who started it.

So yeah, two years of Trust Fun. One year of Steam Room Etiquette. Two projects that still get me fired up for totally different reasons.

And if you’re in NYC on Thursday, Nov 6 at 8 PM EST, come to our next Steam Room Etiquette show. Seriously. It’d mean the world to me. We’ve been at this a year now—it’s actually pretty decent. Tickets available here.