The True Story of What Happened to The Bloom

SOME APOLOGIES ARE IN ORDER

So now you know the back story of it all. I’ve gone from saying virtually nothing to probably vastly over-sharing lol. Now that you know the context for my decisions, this would be an appropriate moment to own and express my apologies to you for some mistakes along the way.

FIRST AND FOREMOST…

With the benefit of hindsight, I see that taking down the original website—and the webseries with it—was a mistake. The initial reason for this was on the advisement of the other producers as we were honing in on the first deal. They felt we would be more successful by presenting The Bloom as an all-new idea, rather than something with a pre-existing history.

The website that was created in its place was made quickly and intended only as an interim website for the deal. I never expected this “interim” period to span so long.

Looking it over again before going live with the new website, I can see that it does not do justice to our story and the tone of it is wrong, made for the eyes of the funders rather than our core community.

At that point, I was feeling very critical of the flaws of the original webseries and my mind was focused on the future. I didn’t appreciate enough that there were many people quite happy with the webseries as it was and new people continuing to discover it without the preconceptions that I had. That was a big mistake on my part and I’m sorry.

COMBINED WITH…

This error was coupled with the fact that I suck at social media. More specifically, I apologize for neglecting The Bloom’s social media pages and not keeping you up-to-date with the twists and turns of the journey. Personally, I remain conflicted and ambivalent about how social media has usurped the ways we interact. I literally post only a few times a year (although I try to make them count)—it’s often just way too much and I have to shut it out sometimes as a coping mechanism to get the bigger things accomplished.

Of course, I realize that in our current moment, it’s how things get done—and that I need to do better at bringing people along on the journey. Truth be told, I’m really not a small talker; I prefer to go into the lab and emerge only when I have something profound and meaningful to share. So yeah, pretty much the last person you want to leave the social media pages to… Can’t wait until we’re back in a place where someone who loves crushing this stuff can do it instead.

LEARNING FROM MY MISTAKES & DOING BETTER

I can see how these two things combined would alienate people who were with us on the journey previously. I’m sorry for that. I’m always realizing things from my mistakes and learning how to do better. Part of why I’ve shared so much here is to provide context to choices that might not make sense otherwise. It’s how the journey unfolded, doing what made the most sense at each step and adapting as best as possible to the unforeseen circumstances on the way.

The other motivation for sharing my personal story is so you know that, despite the long period of silence, I’ve kept the torch burning for The Bloom this entire time. That, in fact, it’s grown deeper and stronger in the meantime.

Sometimes life puts up obstacles to show you that you can’t accomplish what you wanted the way you planned it. You have to adapt, gather new skills and resources, to reach your goals. That’s what this phase of the journey has been for me. And after everything that’s happened in the interim, I’m so glad to be back in the game again and hope you’ll join me to see this through to the finish line.

READ: SO WHAT NOW & WHAT'S NEXT?