What I'm up to now.

Settling in

So it's been a little over 18 months now that we've been in our new house in Austin, Texas. (That still feels weird to say. Our new house... In Austin... Texas.) But it's becoming more and more like what Rachel and I were envisioning when we had grand plans to start building our first home together.

We wanted a place for us that felt so comfortable that we'd only ever begrudgingly want to leave. (Check.)

We wanted a place for others that felt like home. A good, safe, healthy version of home. (Check.)

The both of us have done a lot of moving over the last decade, and so being in Austin — in a house — feels somewhat rooting. For the first time (maybe ever), it feels like we've got someplace we can confidently call home and know we'll be here for a bit.

Now I know a lot will happen over the next few years. Austin will become embedded in our DNA. And, in some ways, we'll embed ourselves into Austin, too. Into what goes on in our burgeoning new neighborhood, our church, and our interactions with people.

This, hopefully, will shape the changes you'll see in me as a writer and creator. Just like any of my previous pit stops shaped me for those seasons, too.

In Austin, we're just getting started.

Navigating the churn

I'm head of digital at a financial and Web3 marketing agency. There's a lot of digital marketing stuff — all your basic website, social media, advertising shtuff — that goes on in the role. But if I had to be honest, it's more of an innovation-focused role. My job, really, is to test out new technologies, build (and break) things, and come up with game-changing solutions for our clients.

In fact, that image of Barack Obama powering up to Super Saiyan to save the planet? AI-generated from a prompt I gave it. (Machines aren't taking over... yet.)

And that's only scratching the surface. As we sit at this inflection point where pro-Web2 and pro-Web3 factions collide, we get to see innovations pop up around us that prior generations could only dream of.

‍Non-fungible digital assets? Buying real estate on the metaverse? Reshaping our centralized financial systems?

My work keeps me on the bleeding edge of these conversations because my clients are the ones having these conversations in the first place.

Being a good leader in this new digital age still borrows tenets of good leadership from prior technological upheavals. But with so much changing so fast, empathic leadership and growth mindsets have probably never mattered more. I've never been more excited about the unknown.

Expanding the universe

I left social media for a little hiatus. 15 months. That's almost blasphemous when you consider that I work in an industry that keeps me glued to digital channels.

But doing so helped me disconnect from the chaos of always-on channels. I got better at chess (seriously, find me on Chess.com or lichess.org at @charlessamuel). I read more. And I observed what was changing from the sidelines.

When I left social media, static content and text was still king. Now, it's short form and — GASP — vertical video. If anything, I'm more fired up than ever before to dive back into content creation. My website might be essays and short, ephemeral ideas for now. But stay tuned for all the new things I'll be launching soon enough, running the gamut from audio to video.

This doesn't mean I won't stop writing. It just means my writing will take on new shapes and sizes that go beyond essays. Scripts. Segments for an audio series.

The list goes on and on.

I'll be around. But just in ways that look a little different than you're used to.

And I'm excited for it.

My favorite things (right now)

My favorite books right now are Futureproof (because I'm a tech nerd), Homie (because good poetry is dope) and A Life in Parts (because Bryan Cranston is an American treasure).

TV? The Expanse is a revelation, y'all. There's a lot of great TV to watch, but I'd start there if you're itching for an uber-compelling storyline and a massive, massive government conspiracy thriller.