"I just saw everything as content.”

Jessica Ann Kirby on her transition to Substack and her "No Buy Year"

This one was extra special. We talked to Jess Ann Kirby, a New England-based writer and content creator who’s been succeeding in - and evolving with - the changing landscape of content creation for nearly a decade.

Jess is in the midst of a transition that many content creators are considering: Moving away from affiliate marketing and shifting to a subscription model here on Substack.

Our conversation covered:

→ Why she's moving to Substack.

→ Her “Buy Nothing Year.”

→ The tension she feels between wanting to be present and private - and wanting to write, share, and create community.

I have so much respect for Jess and the integrity with which she approaches her work. She’s a grounded, authentic, and thoughtful presence. And I love her newsletter A Common Thread .

Listen to the full ep here or wherever you get your podcasts.?A few highlights from our conversation are below.

Jess - thank you so much.

On her move away from the traditional “influencer” business model ”I still have display ads on my site and I'll keep those there. Those are through Mediavine, which is an ad network for bloggers. It’s not a huge amount of revenue, but it’s not nothing - let's put it that way. I've turned down all Instagram partnerships so far this year.

There are a few brands who are interested in my “No Buy Year.” So there may be a few partnerships where we won’t focus on new stuff but on styling pieces from the brand that I already have that they continue to carry. But we'll see. Ultimately I'm hoping to focus mainly on Substack subscriptions.”

On why Jess wanted to do a “No Buy Year”

”Four years ago, I started to feel uncomfortable with the level of consumerism that was just part of the quote-unquote “influencer” industry as a whole. I just couldn't reconcile the job that I was doing with my desire to reduce my own consumption, be a more mindful consumer, and reduce waste.

I reasoned with myself a million different ways about “everybody has a choice” and “I'm just giving them options.” But at the end of the day: if you're an influencer you're selling people stuff all the time. Even if they don't always buy stuff. That's what the whole industry is.

So I decided to do a year of buying nothing new. I needed to challenge myself to examine my relationship with consumption and consumerism.”

And what it’s teaching her so far

”It’s made me realize how much I used new stuff as a crutch to get this little hit of dopamine. It never lasted that long, but I was constantly chasing it.

I have to retrain my brain. Because I'd been on social media for so long, and I’d get that dopamine hit from the likes the comments, and the followers. And then I moved away from being on social, but I was still chasing the dopamine hit. Without realizing it, I shifted that into getting new stuff and new beauty products. And it just becomes such a vicious cycle. And in my industry brands send you so much stuff. So even if you're not spending your own money, you're still getting new stuff all the time. It becomes so overwhelming and so wasteful. ?

So for me, it's just been so interesting to examine my own consumption habits and patterns. And my “No Buy” is mostly around big purchases like home decor, furniture, and clothing.

In my newsletter, I wrote about how we went to Home Depot to get some things we needed for a project we're working on in the house, and I hadn't bought anything in a while. So I was looking around Home Depot and thinking: what can I buy? I was like, oh my God, I'm in Home Depot and I'm trying to find something to buy because I just want to shop so bad.”

On noticing and questioning the idea that “everything is content”

“Every time it snows, I have this urge to go get my phone and take a video. I'm like, why do I feel the need to share every time it snows? Not everything is content. But for so long, I just saw everything as content.”

Two bonus links:

After we chatted, Jess texted me the link to this Ten Percent Happier interview with Glennon Doyle . It hits on some of the same themes we covered in the interview.

If you’re interested in the “No Buy year” concept, you might also like Anne Patchett’s essay My Year Of No Shopping .