A small, sweaty-palmed ask
An open-handed invitation to subscribe and support me!
Hi friends,
TL;DR: I’m still a federal employee — but I’m exploring whether writing, facilitation, and sharing mindfulness could be a full-time home. If my work has meant something to you, I’d love your support (yeah, including money 😶🌫️) to keep going (see below plenty of ways to help).
A bit more:
Sending this with sweaty palms. Asking for help isn’t easy, especially for a hyper-independent person like me (anyone else?). But I’ve also learned (thanks to Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking — TED talk here and Authentic Relating Training) that naming what we need, without expectation, can be a gift to those around me. So this is me, asking for something…and pretending I’m doing you a favor 😄.
First, some thanks. Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to build something a little different. Bringing humanity into government, slowness into a fast-moving world, and compassion into how we work and live aren’t exactly swimming with the current.
During the recent cruelty and uncertainty facing federal employees and those in mission-driven work, I’ve tried to name what so many of us are feeling in pieces like How Are You? It's a Deceptively Hard Question, Trust the Pendulum Swing, and my (somewhat spicy) comparison to the Apple TV+ show Severance. 🍉
I’ve also tried to bring in some lightness. Writing about leadership with a Ted Lasso mustache or what Wicked taught me about kindness.
I also had the pinch-me joy of having Priya Parker report an article I wrote on goodbyes at work.⬇️🤯
None of this would have been possible without your love (and I dont use that word lightly). Emails, texts, sharing my work, thoughtful feedback, and just taking the time to read have made this feel not-at-all like a solo struggle. Same with the amazing folks who’ve shown up again and again for Mindful Sundays and other DC gatherings I host and the Mindful Fed virtual community I’ve been so lucky to help support over the years.
But here’s where the ask comes in, I want to lean in more. At the moment I’m still a federal employee—but with so much uncertainty, I’m wondering: Could writing and facilitation become a more central part of my life? To that end, I’m currently in another facilitation training to grow my skills, I’m working on a book (!!) based on my article Sometimes You Should Be Late that weaves together many threads from my writing, and have been doing more and more facilitation.
Honest truth: I don’t need the money right now. But moving toward making a living from this work allows me to invest more time, money, and heart into it and hopefully reach more people along the way.
So here’s how you can help:
Become a monthly paid subscriber: there’s no paywall, everyone gets to be a part of my subscriber chat. This is just a way to be generous and egg me on.
Send a one-time gift via Venmo (x3572) to help cover my current facilitation training (I’m heading to Stockholm at the end of the month for one—don’t cry for me) and help me take time off to facilitate and write.
Share my Substack or articles from my Human Bureaucracy column in Psychology Today with friends, family, and colleagues who might be into slowing down, reconnecting with others, and working differently. Or sloths. 🦥
Give me feedback & Ideas— let me know what stirs something in you, what stays with you. Questions, themes, or curiosities you’d love to see explored. Some folks have already seeded articles–I’m looking at you, Ash!
Invite me into your spaces — I offer one-on-one sessions for individuals (AKA coaching) and workshops for teams/organizations. Details here!
And truly — if all you do is read and stay connected (I know this was a loooong post), that’s already abundant. I’m so grateful you’re here! OK, palm sweat over!
Be well and reach out!
Alex | alex.snider@gmail.com
PS: to simplify things, I changed my substack name from Human Bureaucracy to Slow Mindfulness to mirror my website and business name! Hope that isn’t confusing!