We're in this together

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The weird thing about reading books is that there's often a context that you're unaware of, which is who the person is that created these ideas and put them down in print.

As an example, I know many people who loved the Harry Potter books that have since grown to hate them as a result of the politics of the author.

This is a long way of saying that I'm about to reference a book that helped me and I don't really want to hear your thoughts on its author...

The Art of Asking, written by singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer, has helped me. I read it about a decade ago and there's not a month that goes by where I don't think about it or reference it in some way.

As someone who struggles with confidence and self-esteem, and someone who grew up with video games and the internet, I am prone to isolation and pride. As such, I always found it very challenging to ask anyone for help. It felt like weakness. Sometimes, it still does.

It didn't matter if it was a family member, a close friend, even my own spouse...I never wanted to put somebody out by asking them for anything. I was the guy taking a taxi to-and-from the airport because I didn't want to ask for a ride. Sometimes, I still am.

The Art of Asking, if I can sum it up in a sentence or two, looks at the ask from the other perspective. The honor and love and profound connectivity that is felt when someone asks something of you, trusts you with something, is the perspective that I try to see things from now.

If one of my friends asks me for a ride to the airport, I am delighted. I love that I can support them, I feel trusted by them and honored to get to spend the sometimes odd moments directly before or after a flight with them.

If my wife or child asks me to do something, I'm thrilled to have such a clear and obvious way to improve their day. Can I make you breakfast? Absolutely! Grab something from the store for you? Of course! I know that my actions will be appreciated.

My therapist would point out here that my lack of confidence and self-esteem led me to a place where I value my acts of service for other people over myself and my presence, but that's neither here nor there. Focusing on how happy I am when someone asks me for support is what has helped me to, occasionally, feel better about asking for support.

And that brings me to today, and this post.

Darren and I started Section 1904 because we believe in a better local media company. With the freedom to serve our audience, to literally give the community control over our success, I think we're already putting out content that can not be matched locally in terms of authenticity and breadth of topics. And I'm really proud of that!

Section 1904 has an LLC and that LLC is owned by Darren and I. However, Section 1904 is owned by the people of San Diego (and beyond). If you are a subscriber, you own a little piece. If you left, taking your support with you, it would make it harder for us to keep going.

I don't mean to scare you in saying that. Section 1904 is doing fine. As a matter of fact, in some ways, it's been more successful to this point than I ever imagined. But it's going to take time. As we have stressed more than a few times, we're building this ship while out at sea. Or building the plane while flying it. Choose your favorite insane metaphor for what we're doing here.

Many of you have subscribed, and a large percentage of you have paid for an entire year up front. Thank you. Some of you have even paid for the upper tiers where we promise exclusive bonus episodes (that I don't think we've done any of yet) and merch (which we haven't made yet, albeit with good reason). Thank you for your patience, we won't let you down. We have actual plans to serve these tiers, and I promise we're laying the groundwork to roll them out soon.

That being said, we still have twice as many people listening to the free preview episodes of our podcast on a daily basis than we have people listening to the full shows. As one of the people putting in the effort for the entire show each day, I'd rather that ratio be flipped.

So, in what might become a semi-regular ask from me, I am asking you to subscribe to Section 1904 if you have not already. There is always a 5-day free trial, so you can see if it is worth your money and time before being charged.

If you have already subscribed, considering raising up to a higher tier. Every little bit helps us pay our expenses, improve the quality and quantity of the content we put out, and extends how much runway we have to make this thing profitable enough to keep spending this amount of time and effort on it.

If you've already subscribed at the highest tier you can, spread the word! Tell your friends and family about Section 1904 and what you like about it. We don't have a marketing department, but our show is the show for the community....we're hoping the community can support us in getting the word out.

And, after you've done all of that, consider throwing some cash in the tip jar. Every little bit gives our dream of a community-supported local sports media company more runway to reach greater success.

We're trying to get all the way to the end of that runway, or maybe I should call it the beginning, when this becomes less of an idea that we think could work and more of a full-time job that we can continue to work on and improve over time, but we've still got a ways to go.

So, as much as I hate to ask, this is me hoping that you want to support us (or continue supporting us) build a new type of local media company. One that you, and the whole community, can be proud of and participate in. One that every subscriber feels represents the way that they want sports and other local issues covered, honestly and authentically. One that feels worthy of your investment.

Thanks for reading.