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COMMENTARY

A quick re-introduction

Well, I’m 38, a Pisces, enjoy a good beach day… oops, you didn’t mean it like that.

I’m Nick, an editor, columnist and consultant based in Los Angeles. My day job is in corporate media, and I’m currently also the finance columnist for Out magazine, where I share practical advice for queer people about money and culture.

My first book, Money Proud, drops this December with HarperCollins, and you can pre-order it here (ebook, Bookshop) or here (hardcover, Amazon). More on that below, including the cover reveal!

Prior to all this, I was self-employed full-time for seven years as a marketing consultant. I still have my company, Less Noise More Volume LLC, and we still sell writing and editing courses through Camp Wordsmith®, a guided learning portal.

For a long time, this email list was a marketing newsletter promoting my business and insights as a service provider. I’ll still sprinkle that in from time to time, but my work is moving more toward editorial leadership and LGBTQ+ advocacy, so you’ll see more of an author persona-ish focus from now on.

THE BOOK COVER REVEAL!

My first book is now available for pre-order! All pre-orders count toward week 1 book sales when it officially drops in late December, and I want to show HarperCollins the power of investing in queer nonfiction authors. BUY THIS BOOK!

Money Proud is the step-by-step roadmap to financial independence you’ll actually feel like reading. It’s sharp and queer-coded, and explains the foundations of personal finance in a way that lets you save for the future while also feeling fulfilled and inspired in the present.

Pre-orders are huge, so if you want to help, buy this book! So far, it’s available here:

• Amazon

• Bookshop (Pick this one if you can, it’s independently owned and the owner isn’t a diabolical billionaire)

Want to buy a batch of books, or collaborate in some way? Reply directly to this email.

OUT MAGAZINE COLUMN

Gaycations, tariffs, recessions, oh my

And it all comes with a heaping dollop of gay.

For year three of my finance column with Out Magazine, we’ve expanded to also include a weekly digital story.

This column focuses on explanatory, plain-English explanations of what’s happening in the world of money and business, with some queer columnist sass mixed in. Print stories are beefier and more reported, whereas online stories are shorter and snappier.

Here’s what I’ve written so far this spring:

• 2/14: This Valentine's Day, you've earned a big gay love splurge

• 2/21: How to save for a spring gaycation

• 2/28: Time to flex our LGBTQ+ financial might

• 3/7: LGBTQ+ folks are drowning in credit card debt — here's how to escape

• 3/14: How to gird your gay loins for Trump's tariffs

• 3/21: Why Social Security is an LGBTQ+ right

• 3/27: What's a recession? A guide for LGBTQ+ survival

I produce a social media video for every story to squeeze more juice out of each article. Some “behind the curtain” details on how I do that are below.

ON BUILDING THE THING

How I’m approaching social videos with a writer POV

@nickwolny1

Recessions can be a b****, or worse, a demon twink. New for @Out Magazine #lgbtq #lgbt🌈 #lgbt #🏳️‍🌈

Now that there’s a book in the mix, I’m focusing more on audience growth. No more “four clients is a full client book for me” mentality; scale is the name of the game. I also have a day job, so like a lot of us, I’m time-constrained; here’s what I’m doing to get out there without it turning into a timesuck.

Currently, I’m doing one well-edited vertical video about my Out mag column each week. The weekly rhythm is:

• M:

  • Pitch story ideas to Out editor every Monday morning.

  • Story assigned by end-of-day.

• Tu/W:

  • Write and submit article draft.

  • Write video script concurrently, using the article copy.

• Thu:

  • Shoot scripted portion of video, get a head start on video edits if time.

• Fri:

  • Story goes up on Out’s website.

  • Screenshot the story and finish the video edit.

• Sat:

  • Video goes up on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts (I ideally do this Friday, if time).

  • This newsletter goes out. 🤓

I like turning my articles into videos because it helps get the information to people who weren’t going to go and click the article anyway. My video workflow is:

1. Rework the article draft into a 500-ish word script.

2. Record the script on my phone using CapCut with the Teleprompter feature (I use my front-facing phone camera and a Hollyland Lark lav mic)

3. Edit the a-roll video in Final Cut Pro. (I adjust brightness and cut all the breaths — going for a breathless, newsy feel here.)

4. Add screenshots and/or b-roll. My editing rule of thumb is I try to do some sort of visual cut every 5 seconds or so.

5. Export and add captions in the CapCut desktop app.

6. Post video on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Angle for a collab on Instagram when appropriate.

I sort of lucked out in that Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts both only recently allowed vertical videos to be up to 3 minutes (up from 90 and 60 seconds respectively). 90 seconds always felt a little constrained, so now that that the bandwidth is higher I’ve warmed up more to doing video.

Follow along on Instagram or TikTok to see this video editing workflow in action each week.

nickwolny

2,217 followers

View more on Instagram

NICK’S PICKS

What happened this week

Disclosure: I work at Ziff Davis, which owns CNET, Mashable, Lifehacker, ZDNET, and PCMag.

Economy, entrepreneurship, money

The US announced a 34% “reciprocal” tariff hike on China; some banks say this brings average US tariffs on China to 65%+, when counting pre-existing duties. (Bloomberg) (7-day friend link)

Trump’s new tariff math looks a lot like ChatGPT’s. (Dominic Preston / The Verge)

Markets plunged, with S&P 500 down 6% and Dow down 2,200 after China retaliates against Trump tariffs. (Associated Press)

• Stellantis has already laid off 900 people from five auto production plants in response to Wednesday’s announcement. (Fast Company, via Reuters)

President Trump's tariffs are set to disrupt the Bitcoin mining sector, as many of the largest miners are based in the US and the supply chain is rooted in Asia. (Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg) (7-day friend link)

Substack rolls out a TikTok-like video feed in its app, initially featuring short-form videos under 10 minutes. (Aisha Malik / TechCrunch)

Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie said the company is partnering with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression to support “writers residing lawfully” in the US targeted by the government for their writing. (Hamish McKenzie / X)

Visa Offers Apple Roughly $100 Million to Take Over Credit Card From Mastercard. (AnnaMaria Andriotis / The Wall Street Journal)

Social Security’s website crashed four times in ten days in March as DOGE-linked disruption at the agency continues. (Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo)

'Eat now, pay later'? The DoorDash-Klarna deal fuels concerns around using loans for takeout. (NBC News)

AI and future tech

OpenAI’s new image generator is now available to all users. OpenAI also closed a $40B funding round, the largest in history for a single organization. (Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch)

OpenAI says 130M+ ChatGPT users have generated 700M+ images since the feature's March 25 launch, and India is now the fastest-growing ChatGPT market. (Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch)

WIRED surveyed 730 coders and developers on how they use AI. 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists, 38.4% are AI pessimists, freelancers use AI more, and 50%+ of employers pay for it. (WIRED / WIRED staff)

World History Encyclopedia, the second most visited history site, says its traffic fell 25% in Nov. 2024 after AI search tools began presenting its information. (Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology)

A Pew Survey found that most Americans are pessimistic about AI. 56% of AI experts said they expect a positive impact after 20 years, compared to 17% overall. (Jon Reed / CNET)

Meet the AI Fraud Fighters: A Deepfake Granny, Digital Bots and a YouTube Star. (Evan Zimmer / CNET)

LGBTQ

Greece will ban having children via surrogacy for single men and male same-sex couples. (Associated Press)

Florida Republican lawmakers advanced a bill that would legalize anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination. The bill would forbid public employers “from punishing any employee for expressing ‘a belief in traditional or Biblical views of sexuality and marriage, or … gender ideology.’” (Daniel Villarreal / LGBTQ Nation)

A transgender high school English teacher in Texas resigned this week after far-right influencer Libs of TikTok coordinated a sustained online harassment campaign. The bullying included violent rhetoric, hate mail, and death threats. (Christopher Wiggins / The Advocate)

The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, a sibling organization of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, will hold a Candidate and Campaign Training program for all aspiring LGBTQ+ candidates September 4-7 in Los Angeles. Immediately following, September 7-9, will be a specialized session for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people who want to run for office. (Trudy Ring / The Advocate)

Does the leather community have a Nazi problem? Thought-provoking piece from my fellow Out magazine contributor Alex Cheves. (Alexander Cheves / Out Magazine)

Social media and pop culture

If the Switch 2 Stumbles, Nintendo Has No Plan B. Some fun 8-bit graphics in this feature. (Gearoid Reddy and Taylor Tyson / Bloomberg)

Cryptocurrency is more popular with workers in construction than finance, says a new Harris Poll. (Fast Company)

Police Across the U.S. Welcomed Cop Show “The First 48.” Then Relationships Soured. (Jessica Lussenhop / ProPublica)

Would it be so bad if Severance was like Lost? In my opinion, no, because that means we’d get three more seasons. (Polygon)

How to completely disappear from the Internet. (Eric Griffith / PCMag)

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💰 Feelin' fired up!

👍 Business as usual, good job **golf clap**

👎 Eh, it wasn't my style today