Part one of this post: In the Beginning is here.
I mentioned how Robert Stacy McCain made a huge difference in my life. That came from this post titled “Send DaTechGuy to CPAC” :
Before I left Massachusetts a week ago, I told him that if he’d create a PayPal account, I’d make sure the tip-jar hitters sent him to CPAC. He said, “I need $800 a week, plus expenses.” And today, I noticed he’d created the “Do It Myself Fund.”
To the shock of everyone including me the money came in and I attended what would be the 1st of many CPACS during the 2010’s
At CPAC 2010 I created a Youtube account for the videos I shot. It began with this interview of Steve Eggleston of No Runny Eggs.
This would eventually become DaTechGuy’s Field Guide to Bloggers. Some like Nice Deb who have gone on to bigger things, Some like the Lonely Conservative who would put me up when covering events in NY. And some who have become huge names like Dana Loesch, Kurt Schlichter and Professor William Jacobson.
All this became ten years of videos and interviews from covering events that were a big deal on youtube until a year ago but that’s a story for part 3.
The Trip to CPAC was the catalyst but the thing that pushed me over the line was April 14th in Boston MA when the Tea Party Express came to town for a rally. I decided to go and cover it getting video like this of Sarah Palin taking the stage
and plenty of great photos But the real shock was that I found myself I was invited onto the bus heading for the DC rally and decided to accept with only the clothes on my back, a laptop in need of a charge, no place to stay in DC just the credit cards in my wallet. It was a leap of faith and what a leap it was.
It was during the course of this bus trip that I bought my first flip phone (Standing behind Victoria Jackson in line at the Radio Shack) which was used to call DaWife and tell her where I was and what I was doing. She was not pleased.
This Trip however was the trip that made me as a blogger. I interviewed Byron York who was the 1st member of the MSM I ever encountered who had heard of me.
I interviewed Tucker Carlson, I interviewed Andrew Breitbart for the 1st time and most importantly interviewed Clara Csiong who having fled the communists in China & Cubs saw what was coming today more clearly than anyone else
When Glenn Reynolds instalanched my tipjar shake to cover the expenses of this unscheduled trip I decided to see if I could make a living blogging.
It would all become a whirl. It led to a radio gig, DaTechGuy on DaRadio on WCRN Worcester and then syndicated on stations in the Money Matters Radio network. I would write for the examiner and pick up other writing gigs making a few bucks here and there.
But the real deal came as I earned my catchphrase: “Have fedora will travel” by the grace of my readers. I who had not even been on a commercial flight since my honeymoon would thanks to the generosity of my readers travel across the country. I would fly to Arizona, Colorado and Georgia to cover campaigns. I would drive with Stacy McCain through 7 states covering the big red wave of 2010. CPAC 2010 became CPAC 2011 and more. The tip jar hits and the interviews with people like Steve Bannon before the Trump years when he was a CPAC outcast , Pam Geller and Robert Spencer who were warning the world of the things we are now seeing kept coming. And during Weinergate I would have one of my blog posts appear as a column in the New York Post and lead to an appearance on the local Fox Station in Boston.
I would cover the 2012 and 2016 election campaigns being credentialed press at the Mitt Romney Victory Party. The blog would expand to it’s own domain and I would hire my magnificent seven writers, who even now still produce content on the blog (although of the original team only John Ruberry still remains) and it seemed for a while that I might be able to make it in this business.
But as I was to discover notoriety is not the same as income.
To be concluded on Sunday…
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