I was talking with someone yesterday who’d received email from an address that was something like laura vanderkam blogger at gmail (or iterations thereof) — someone pretending to be me, and who was trying to get people to pay to be on my podcast. If anyone is charging for a podcast appearance — it’s a scam! No one pays me, I don’t pay anyone for it either. So any of those are a red flag. It’s sadly easy to make an email address with someone else’s name. I’ve received a few of these myself from people claiming to be other authors. All very frustrating for sure.
We had kindergarten graduation yesterday. It was very cute to see the class sing, see the class slideshow, and then everyone got awards. My son was named the “King of Questions” for “always asking royally excellent questions during lessons.” He is an inquisitive little dude, and I find I’m always fielding questions at home too, so this tracks. He has his first piano recital this weekend, and he’ll be playing a version of “Ode to Joy.” Fingers crossed this goes well.
I have a request: If you read Big Time, and enjoyed it, would you please write a short review for an online retailer like Amazon, or Goodreads, or for your own newsletter/social media? It really does help. Let me know if you do so I can thank you!
Over at Before Breakfast this week I interviewed the fascinating A.J. Jacobs about puzzles and his schedule. In the short episodes, I talked about why you might “Give it 3-6 months.” Little experiments provide a great way to see if you want to take on something long term. I also suggest we “Follow up on free information.” When someone discloses something, that generally means they’re fine with you knowing about it, and asking about it later can create connection.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I note that “If you don’t pay in money, you’ll pay in something else.” It can be as easy to overspend with time and energy as it is to overspend money…and for many people reading a newsletter like this, time is the most limited resource. I also talk about how and why to “Gift wrap your work” (an essay that is much for me as anyone else).
Behind the paywall I’ve got an essay called “Don’t buy just one posterboard” with 15 of my favorite parenting hacks. Please check that out!
And perhaps consider the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community as well. This week we’ve been talking our least favorite chores, and doing an end-of-school-year brag thread. Membership is $9/month. It’s fairly easy to join for a month to check it out and then quit if you like, so perhaps that could be a little experiment!
