The second-ever Ask Uncle Marty™ newsletter just dropped. Please check it out here and be sure to subscribe for free so you don't miss a future issue.
In this newsletter, I shared a piece titled "Write Me" and I'd like to share it here as well...
Write MeAsk Uncle Marty™ started out as an advice
column and, at its heart, it still is.
Many years ago (15-ish), small business
owners, primarily in my industry, started asking my opinion on things. They
wanted to know how to do certain stuff, how to handle situations, how to build
a team, hire, and fire, how to reach their target market, etc. So, I began
submitting articles to what was then MPC Today, the industry’s leading
publication that went to both independent and franchise shipping stores across
the country.
After doing this a while, I learned that I
love to write. It was strange, as I was always a math, science, music, and
theater kid in school; English and reading comprehension weren’t my strong
points. But, as an adult, something switched. I found out that I didn’t suck at
telling a story or putting thoughts to keyboard; I discovered that there was
incredible therapeutic benefit for me to be able to measuredly share my
feelings, experience, and lessons-learned with others. So, after articles I had
submitted to the magazine had been well received, I decided to give a
tongue-in-cheek advice column a try…and Ask Uncle Marty™ was born. I went Ann
Landers-style, changing names to protect the innocent and giving a mixture of
encouragement and hard truths to those who chose to send in letters to the
industry’s Uncle-in-Chief for anonymous publication.
Eventually, MPC Today changed its
name to MBC Today, reflecting a change in our industry from “mail and
parcel centers” to “mail and business centers” and the industry’s leading trade
association, AMPC (Association of Mail & Parcel Centers), transitioned into
a non-profit and changed its name to AMBC (Association of Mail & Business Centers) to
reflect that same market and language switch. Now, the industry encompasses
print, storage, and so much more—an ever-evolving and expanding collection of
services that makes working in it both exciting and challenging.
When the non-profit transition happened for
the industry association, I was, by then, running my own store and was asked to
join the founding non-profit board of directors. I was glad to do so and
eventually took over as Board Chair. When my service terms finished, I stayed
on as an advisor to the board and ex officio Director of Communication. Then,
this January, I finally stepped down from those volunteer positions completely
in order to join the AYM High Consultants team and not pose a conflict of interest as a now-vendor for the
non-profit association.
When the previous editor and producer of what
had now become MBC Today retired, I put in a bid to AMBC to take the
magazine over. They were happy to accept my offer and I’ve served as its editor
and producer for many years now, keeping that contract at the request of the
current board after stepping down from board service. The now-legacy and still
kinda popular Ask Uncle Marty™ column published in it still takes letters from
time to time, sometimes just shares unprompted thoughts, and often gets pulled
from issues—by me—in order to keep things fresh and ensure other voices are
shared equally and the magazine isn’t just me rambling on and on…and on.
My site, askunclemarty.com, contains a
lot of my writing in blog format, going back many years. Some of it is
personal, some of it is spiritual, lots of it is opinion, a fair amount of it
is ridiculous, and a good bit of it is business-related. It’s a hodgepodge and
my own therapy to write and share. And I still love a good letter to answer
publicly and anonymously from time to time. So, if you have any interest,
please use the contact form on my blog to submit questions. If they’re
appropriate (or juicy) enough, I’ll be glad to publish an answer. Please check
out my disclaimer for more information.
In the meantime, if you have any interest,
here are some essays, letters, co-written advisements, and columns I’ve done in
the past year or so (plus two from 2022 that I love). To save newsletter
length, please check out my blog’s handy archive directory for the 60-ish other
older pieces on there that aren’t being shared here.
Thank you for reading.
“This
Last Week” - July 5, 2024
“July
/ August 2024 Edition of MBC Today” - July 3, 2024
“Rethinking
Systems” - June 10, 2024
“Difficult
People” - June 10, 2024
“Going
High When They Go Low” - May 29, 2024
“Foxwood
Cottage” - May 9, 2024
“Who’s
on Your Bus?” - April 25, 2024
“Wednesday
Evenings With Gary” - April 13, 2024
“Firing a
Client” - April 12, 2024
“One
of Those Days” - April 11, 2024
“Dumpster
Delight” - April 2, 2024
“See
It Through: The Best Stuff Happens After Intermission” - March 30, 2024
“Why Wait?”
- March 30, 2024
“Just
Give It a Minute” - March 30, 2024
“Getting
on the ALDI Train” - March 13, 2024
“March
/ April 2024 Edition of MBC Today” - March 1, 2024
“Lady Wisdom”
- February 28, 2024
“Proverbial
Wisdom” - February 25, 2024
“Pearls
of Wisdom” - February 21, 2024
“Sparrows”
- February 17, 2024
“The
First Ask Uncle Marty™ Newsletter” - February 12, 2024
“From
Wawa to Larry” - February 8, 2024
“Consistently
Clear Communication” - February 8, 2024
“Respectful
Responsiveness: How to Be Professional in Email and Text” - January 17,
2024
“3, 2, 1 …
Launch!” - January 10, 2024
“Good-Neighborliness”
- January 7, 2024
“January
2024 Letter From the Editor” - December 28, 2023
“The
Next Chapter” - November 8, 2023
“The
November / December 2023 Issue of MBC Today” - November 7, 2023
“Days
With Knight” - November 3, 2023
“AMBC4ME” -
November 3, 2023
“Go
Forth and Cookiefy” - November 1, 2023
“Tried
and True Hiring Advice” - October 24, 2023
“The
Power of Relationship-Based Business” - October 21, 2023
“Ask
Uncle Marty™ Archives: The Security Question & Tell Them Uncle Marty's Sent
You” - October 20, 2023
“I
Was Wrong About Wendy” - October 11, 2023
“Hiatus?
What Hiatus?” - October 11, 2023
“What
Will Matter” - December 30, 2022
“Deep
Blue Gratitude” - November 16, 2022