2022 Year in Review & Looking Forward
Musings about starting a health & wellness blog
On May 3, 2021, Doomberg published its first article on Substack, “Reflections from the Lake,” that foresaw inflation being a real problem much before most of the world’s population had noticed or politicians were taking action to tamp it down. Since that article, this thought-provoking energy and finance blog has captivated its online audience with savvy posts, publishing an impressive 161 articles with countless subscribers. In just over a year and a half, they have 226K Twitter followers. They have also been interviewed on numerous podcasts. From predicting the crypto mania collapsing like the Dutch Tulip bubble in 1637, Doomberg has informed readers all over the world through their highly sought out digital content.
After experiencing health challenges from eczema to digestion issues caused by inflammatory foods, I created this blog, Catalyst Foods, to help people live their healthiest life. Focusing the writing on a carnivore/animal-based diet with a focus on bison and organ meats, I planned to become a content creator just like Doomberg.
Reflecting on 2022, I find it helpful to take stock of the blog as a whole:
How did I match up?
Catalyst Foods published a total of 17 articles (including this one), with one published by one of my friends, two published by my wife, and the remainder by myself.
On twitter, hoping to replicate Doomberg’s smashing success, I have 444 enduring followers (to those kind followers - thank you for putting up with my meat tweets).
I got a bit of catching up to do to get to Doomberg’s level, but it was a ton of fun to start this blog. Several articles stood out during the first year of this journey, and there were many lessons along the way. Looking into 2023, some new ideas are also discussed.
For all that have read an article or subscribed, thank you for your support.
Top Performing Articles
Why Liver? – Despite this being the third article for the blog, it still ranks as the most popular. Liver is prized in communities across the globe, and for good reason. Often, the health community will mention superfoods such as kale and spinach, but they do not come close to the nutrients found in liver. Liver is the food that first inspired me to start this blog, and if you have not read this post before, I highly recommend it.
Organ Meats: A Guide to Eating Nose-To-Tail Superfoods – This article was inspired by medical researcher and dentist Dr. Weston A. Price who traveled extensively in the 1930s to all inhabited continents and found that many cultures were thriving with organ meats as a common part of their diets. Organ meats are nutrient powerhouses. They are regularly consumed by almost all countries except for the United States (where we have some of the worst rates of adverse birth outcomes, heart disease, and diabetes, among others). If you are looking to dip your toes into a new culinary world or need more nutrients in your diet, this article is for you.
My Favorite Article
Why Bison? As my favorite animal and the national mammal of the United States, I am biased, but bison is a flavorful and healthy option for high quality protein in one’s diet. This article also discusses the health benefits of bison which is all grass-fed and high in iron. For those interested in learning more about the history of bison, this article also has that. I am still amazed that North America used to have between 30 to 60 million bison up until the 19th century, across the U.S. and the bordering edges of Mexico and Canada. Though roaming herds of bison are much less common today, unless you are visiting Yellowstone, buying bison meat online and in person is very accessible from small private ranchers. Some examples are Northstar Bison (Wisconsin) and Rock River Ranches (Colorado). If you have not tried bison before, could 2023 be the year?
Two Quick Lessons from Starting a Blog
Create your own luck. Just like Medium and Substack blogger Michael Lin wrote on his recent post 3 Ways to Create Luck in Your Career, you increase your odds of getting lucky when putting yourself out there. After struggling with subscribership after launching in January 2022, in April I recommended Doomberg to subscribers of my blog; Doomberg reciprocated the favor. By Doomberg’s Substack promoting my blog on their homepage, Catalyst Foods was discovered by their vast readership. Substack had released a new recommendation feature that jolted my subscriber numbers. From luckily recommending Doomberg’s blog, my subscribership increased.
Facts tell but benefits sell. You can tell lots of interesting facts, but what people really want to hear is about benefits, how what you have to say will help their lives. I first heard this lesson from networking guru Brennan Scanlon, in his book Avoiding the Networking Disconnect: The Three R’s to Reconnect. One of my least popular articles, Are Bison an Endangered Species?, was filled with facts, and its reception reflected that. It was one of my most favorite articles to write, to dispel the myth that they are an endangered species. I loved diving into the research. But it was not an effective article. Whereas, one of my best received all-time articles was My Daily Food Sample that delved into my daily diet and its health benefits. Benefits always win out over facts.
Goals for 2023
The first year of launching this blog was exciting, and I’m looking forward to providing new content for 2023.
Publish 2x a month. Due to the time that goes into each article and managing a 9-5 job, this is going to be hard. But I want to do it so more thoughts on a healthy diet are provided. One thought is to do one shorter monthly blog post on a tactic to succeed on a carnivore/animal-based diet.
Interview a bison rancher. After all the articles on bison meat, I’d like to ask a bison rancher to talk about what it is like to raise bison. From visiting a few bison ranches in Virginia and Kentucky, I’ve heard that they are different and sometimes even easier than raising cattle for beef.
Expanding blogposts to more than just bison and organ meats. It is fun to get into the niches of bison and organ meats. The content is endless. But readers may also get tired of always hearing about these two topics. A few new articles also dive into other areas such as tips for traveling in Argentina, a country with one of the world’s premier beef markets, and butcher shops making a resurgence. I also welcome your thoughts.
Book review. Now that carnivore and animal-based diets have started to become more popular over the last several years, a plethora of new books on these topics have been produced. Some of these books include The Carnivore Code by Dr. Paul Saladino and The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. I’d like to do a summary of the best books to help readers get the information in their hands in a short, digestible article.
If you have any ideas for new articles, ideas for the blog, or questions you would like answered, please share in the comments section below.
Sincere thanks to everyone for reading and continuing to support this blog. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2023!
👉If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it with friends!
2022 highlight articles to check out: