Hello, NerdLovers!
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Welcome to the first Doctor's Notes newsletter. I'm still working on just how this is going to work – whether this is going to be semi-regular essays and writings a la a Substack, just news blasts to keep people up to date on the latest from Dr. NerdLove, a straight RSS feed or what. So, there are likely going to be a few different types of emails on a semi-irregular basis as I hammer away at this and see what lies underneath. But hey, at the very least, this is going to be an interesting behind-the-scenes look at being a content creator in the post-Twitter/Facebook/YouTube era.

Hope you enjoy the ride!

Today's notes:
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Patreon - what a concept!
A new class??
Priority messages
Links

So. I've got a Patreon. It's a great way to help support the column and the blog, but it's also been an ongoing experiment for me in terms of "what sort of things would provide actual value to my patrons?" I've had a number of patron reward tiers over time that ultimately didn't work out. Sometimes it was a matter of running headlong into conflict with ADHD (shipping physical rewards, f'rex), seemingly continuous scheduling conflicts or just plain lack of interest from the patrons.
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The default, of course, is early access to the column, along with a tier that grants access to the DNL Discord server. But I'm not entirely satisfied with leaving it there.
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Now I bring this up, because one of the ongoing challenges of being a creator with ADHD are the sheer number of "hey, this might be a great project to take up!" that crop up at random intervals. Of course, being a one man show means that I'm the one who has to figure out how to make all this work and how, exactly, I can dilate time to have enough hours in the day to actually produce any of these projects.

Which actually ties right back into my Patreon. One thing that a number of readers have asked is whether I'm going to return to doing any of the Learn From This series of articles, where I break down lessons from pop culture, or if I would give my thoughts about a particular show or movie that touches on dating, romance and modern masculinity. A recent request happened to coincide with my ongoing patron reward musings and in a pure "you got chocolate in my peanut butter/ you got peanut butter in my chocolate" moment, inspiration struck.
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So, I will be taking a page from my friends at Junkfood Cinema and adding a new reward tier to the DNL Patreon: the Podcast Producer tier. People who subscribe at this tier for a certain length of time (TBD) will get to suggest a movie or TV show that I will then watch and discuss in terms of dating or relationships. It may be breaking down the interaction between a couple characters, lessons that we can take away from it or some good old-fashioned "what the hell was wrong with everyone who made this?" ranting. I will likely be starting this tier at the start of December with an eye towards rolling out the first episode in January or so. I may even set it up with its own podcast feed and release them to the general public in batches if there's enough interest.

If you're interested and want to participate, join the Dr. NerdLove Patreon and be the first to know when the new tier goes live!

Speaking of experiments and newsletters: one of the ideas that has been kicking around in my head for a bit has been an introductory course composed of short lessons, designed to help create a baseline for people who want to get a head start improving their lives. Each episode will be short and sweet – around 5 - 8 minutes each – with easily actionable ideas and some homework to help encourage people to start putting the lessons to work immediately.
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The big question thus far is: where and how should people access it? I'm looking at a number of options, from self-hosting or using a course-delivery service like Thinkrific. There're pros and cons to all of them, and this will affect how I manage some other courses I have coming up, such as the Dating Accelerator Project.

Now, my question for you is: are there areas in your life that you'd like some guidance on in the upcoming year? What are some foundational issues that you struggle with as you try to implement positive changes and build a new, awesome life for yourself? Let me know if there are topics you might want to see covered as part of this series...

One of the common questions I get regarding Ask Dr. NerdLove is when and how letters get answered, especially when they concern time-sensitive issues. The short answer is that it depends on a number of factors, including having to take reader interest into consideration. One of the side effects of answering a question in the column is that it prompts people to send similar questions... and runs the risk of getting overly repetitive, especially if the answer is the same. But I also feel bad about the questions I don't get to immediately, especially with the volume of questions I get.

Well, never let it be said that I'm not willing to take some weird swings to try to find an effective compromise.
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As many of you know, I offer a number of private coaching options for clients who want personal attention on their issues. One of these is the Priority Message, for those who want their own, personal edition of Ask Dr. NerdLove – for $50, you get a guaranteed, private reply to your email that does not get published.

I'm now adding a second priority message option – for $35, you get your letter answered in the column that week as a bonus to the usual M-W-F schedule. This will be available via the Private Coaching page and will go live next week.

That's going to be it from me for this installment. As always, here's where you can find me online:
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Paging Dr. NerdLove​
​Facebook
​Instagram​
​Twitter (mostly news and column updates)
​Bluesky​
​Threads​
​YouTube​

Have a great Friday!

best,
Doc