I'm writing my memoir on Substack—here's the introduction

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Last September I proudly announced to Substack that I was going to write my book here.

People cheered. People encouraged. So I dove headfirst into writing it in November.

..And my initial intro was a little ridiculous.

I used to be famous in the Philippines because of a 500,000 follower Facebook Page I had. Strangers used to come up to me at the mall and ask for a selfie. It was weird.

I originally wanted to tell THAT story. How I grew that page. The adventures I had traveling the Philippines and living abroad for 6 years.

I wanted to publish my book on Substack in 2025. You know, just go chapter by chapter. But when I sat down to write my “book,” I started telling the shameful story of how I cheated on my girlfriend while interning at Disney World in 2014. I talked about being depressed at my small Christian College in Pennsylvania. I wrote about what it was like escaping from the middle of nowhere and partying working at Disney World for 8 months.

100-word segues turned into 3,000-word monoliths.

‘I can’t finish this in 20 chapters.’ I thought.

‘But people want a 50,000 word book, Tom!’ said the devil on my shoulder. ‘You got to leave all that weird stuff out!’

Ugh. I don’t want to, though. I want to tell you everything. Not so much to tell YOU the story, but to document it for myself. I’m having wild fun writing my memoir. I’m also having mini panic attacks wondering how my audience will react hearing about me being unfaithful to my girlfriend. I’m writing about girls and alcohol and what it’s like to work at the empire that is Disney World. I typically write about what’s important in life—not partying at a bar in Downtown Disney at 21 years old. But how come with all my apparent “wisdom” do I think of these crazy nights with old friends as some of the best times of my life? Even now, I dearly wish to go back and relive them.

I feel like a butterfly crawling out of its cocoon, only to realize my cocoon is sitting next to a boiling lake of lava.

Should I GULP—publish this?

Creatively this feels like a metamorphosis. It’s bold. It’s terrifying. It’s way different from anything I’ve attempted before.

But despite all that, it doesn’t really matter whether you like it or not. This is my story, and I want to tell it. I don’t care if I tell it to 4 people or 4,000. I’m going to tell it.

So what’s it about?

Gosh. Everything. The last 10 years of my life.

• 2014: Interning at Disney World for 8 months.

• 2015: Graduating and becoming a freelance writer.

• 2016: Doing a 23-state, 4-month road trip across the USA

• 2017: Growing a following of 10,000+ on Medium

• 2018: Starting a Youtube channel and moving to the Philippines

• 2019: Growing my vlog to 600,000+ followers

• 2020: Realizing I got famous for stupid reasons, and coming back to the USA

• 2021: Moving to Mexico and meeting my future wife

• 2022: My $100,000/year business gets destroyed within months

• 2023: I get married in Mexico, and barely scrape by financially

• 2024: I find Substack and rekindle my love of writing

I’ve had some crazy experiences. I met Manny Pacquiao in his home in the Philippines, I’ve swam with whale sharks and sea turtles, I’ve heard wolves howling under the milky way at 3 AM while camping in Montana. I drove 1,600 miles from Denver to Baltimore in 27 hours, I made videos that got millions of views in mere days, I found the love of my life in Mexico despite not speaking her language. I’ve interviewed writers of Disney movies, wrote at the Huffington Post, and spoken with founders of social media platforms. I built a $100,000/year business, then tore it down on purpose. And yes, I made a lot of mistakes along the way—mistakes I hope you will steer clear of.

I’ve done some crazy shit—and I’m ready to believe that my story is interesting enough to publish online.

So here’s the deal. I want to publish a chapter every week for paid subscribers. I could easily write 150,000 words about the last 10 years of my life, so who knows when I’ll be done.

Right now I’m making this $3 per month to follow my story, and $30 per year. Straight up. For the next 24 hours only. Here’s the discount link.

Part of me is bracing for 0 people to sign up, but again, I know is this is a good story, and my soul needs to tell it.

Upgrade now if you want to hear the story, or just support a writer with a dream to get paid for his most personal writing.

My first chapter drops tomorrow.

I tried to make the annual pricing somewhat comparable to what a book would cost. I should have my story done by the end of 2025.

If you're a fan of mine, it would mean the absolute world if you supported me here on this. I've always wanted to publish a memoir, and I'm finally pushing all my chips in the middle and betting on my story.

I promise you won't be dissapointed. Anyway, to everyone who's ever supported me, thank you. There's some of you who have been here since the early Medium days. It's been eight years since I started writing online full time, and I got so many wild stories to tell.

Cheers!

Tom Kuegler