Welcome To The Journey
An exploration of tech, ADHD, photography, and growing a business.
Hello there, in case we’ve never met, let me introduce myself. My name is Matt Pieper (pronounced “peeper”) and I reside in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve had the privilege of many amazing career and life experiences, including joining the US Army and deploying to combat zones, building software, leading engineers, and volunteering in disaster response in places like the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian.
This vast background is highly likely due to my late-diagnosed ADHD, not knowing why I was drawn to novelty and chasing dopamine, but always enjoying the journey.
As a person, I enjoy traveling, being outside, photography, volunteering, and quality time with my wife, Adrian, and rescue pup Oscar.
So, Why A Substack?
For the last 5 or 6 years, I’ve posted on LinkedIn, where I’ve been told that my brand is “authentic” and “transparent”. But LinkedIn limits the way that we can express and post, and often, you’re at the life and death of the algorithm. Further, we lose the context over time of who is actually engaging with the content. I want to build and foster a community of readers who enjoy what I have to say and want to further a dialogue. Substack helps with that.
I started posting on LinkedIn as a way to express myself and explore topics with others. With my neurodivergent, hyperactive, often contrarian (thanks, ODD!) brain, I have constant thoughts rumbling through, aiming to grasp at each one. That same contrarian view prompts me to explore and question things in a different way than some. To question the why and if we should do something.
I also started posting as a way to learn how to tell stories better. We can have the greatest thoughts and experiences, but if we can’t captivate our audience, we have effectively died on the vine.
My posting started as a way to inform my coworkers through backchannels. I would find myself explaining the same thing over and over. I knew it was “best practices,” but it would fall on deaf ears. I engaged with the community in order to get a sanity check, but also social proof. The more that people interacted with my content, the more comments I received from my coworkers about it.
Substack allows for a variety of content and longer-form posts that the creator owns. It also allows me to find out who is reading and engaging, not just vanity hype metrics that social media drives.
It also made me realize that there are quite a few lurkers out there who read your content and appreciate it, but don’t have a way to express it.
What I Write About
Refer back to ADHD.
Look, I tend to break the rules about these kinds of things. All the influencers and books and such will tell you to have a focus, to write a content calendar, etc.
But that’s boring! I want to bring you along on the same journey that I have. It’s why I loved school. I took classes in the Ottoman Empire, History of Jazz, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Corporate Finance, and more. Just because I love having a robust background to approach a problem.
But here are a few things I’m looking to explore:
Business Systems and RevOps - how we partner together, the different approaches we have, and why it’s a partnership, not an either/or. How RevOps and Engineering/Systems work together accelerates growth and makes us all better.
Business Systems Approach - How We Can Build Better Processes and Integrate Software. How can we invest rather than spend? What teams should look like. How to assess team quality. When you should hire one.
Procurement and Consultants - how to build a better procurement process and tell the story when you pitch. How to assess consultants and know when to bring them in.
Salesforce - okay, okay, I know that’s what a lot of you are here for! Let’s explore quote to cash, maybe shitpost about CPQ a bit, but have an honest discussion of how we can make Salesforce better. Build the community the way we want, and also how to upskill.
AI - not the hype, not the fluff, not a lot of technical details. However, the real-world risks, how I utilize AI in my business and life, what I advise clients to do, and how you can stay relevant.
Business Journey - I’m building a business, and I want to share it with you and everyone else. The path to entrepreneurship seems to be rising as employees become disenfranchised with their employers, layoffs abound, and AI is threatening Skynet any day now. Let’s approach how I’m growing and how different it is from being in a startup or learning in school.
Photography - This is my passion, and I want to share it with you. It informs how I go about my life, and I think it’s impactful.
That’s a lot of topics, right?! But don’t worry, I don’t want to spam you. You’ll be able to pick and choose which of these areas you want to read about, and I’ll make sure to categorize them appropriately.
My Promises To You, The Reader
Everyone is using AI these days and we have started to see the same patterns of speech, our brains are excellent at pattern matching, and we know something is off. This is why I don’t write with AI, outside of editorial advice and general structure, and I promise you that this will continue. You receive the same stream of consciousness thoughts with minimal editing, which is my hallmark.
I do most of the research myself or pull from the deep thoughts of my brain, and then augment with AI where necessary. I enjoy diving into deep topics and reading about them. I don’t want to lose that joy by deferring to an oft-wrong robot.
I will engage with you to the limits that I can. You spend your time reading my thoughts. I'd like to hear your thoughts in return. Tell me what you disagree with, tell me what you love, and debate with me. I love conversations, let’s converse.
You’ll get honest, open takes. Sugar coating and hype don’t do anyone any good. If I end up posting sponsored content - a man has to eat! - It will always be my honest opinion, and I will never post about something I don’t agree with. That’s unfair to you, the person spending time building the community.
I’ll bring humanity to everything I write about. How what I write affects you, not the elite, robots, or world domination (unless we’re talking about a game of Risk!)
Will This Change My LinkedIn Posts?
Not really! Consider this space an extension of our regular engagement on social media. This will be a more in-depth exploration and follow a regular cadence. This will be where we can have a prolonged engagement, as opposed to one-off LinkedIn engagements.
Want to make sure someone hears about this change?
What’s Next?
It’s a great question; the simple answer is: life.
This is a period in my life where I’m exploring what is important to me and where I want to invest my precious moments.
I’m getting the hang of this new medium, so I ask for patience. But I think together we’ll build something great here.
My ask to you? Never stop giving me feedback; iterating is how we improve, and growth is a human concept.
To learn more: