Hey everyone. Welcome to 2024. I hope last year was excellent and that this coming year is even better.

So over the holiday I was chatting with a crew of friends over a beer and the topic of strengths and weaknesses came up.

And we're going around the table. I love hearing people share. Sometimes it's surprising,

right? What someone might perceive as a weakness or a strength.

And what was my turn, I reflected on it for a moment,

and one of my defining strengths would be what I'd call rational optimism.

My default setting is to believe that good ideas,

if executed with love, with hard work,

smarts, and a lack of ego, they'll typically work.

I don't know where that optimism came from,

but I'm super grateful for it.

What I've never been great at

is asking for help. It's just never come naturally to me.

Asking feels scary in a way

that being run out on a rock climb does not.

That's probably a little weird. I admit that.

Right now for the sake of the diaries, I need to ask you for your help.

I cannot make this show without you. What's becoming clear across the board in the

creative community is that creators can't rely just on ad or sponsorship dollars to make

it all work. Some people rely on merchandise.

Others use platforms like Patreon.

We created The Diaries Plus as a way to give you something back

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