Monday memory: American Certified
It was a great idea, but perhaps a decade ahead of its time. And I was pleased to help them out.
A few weeks back this came up in my Facebook memories, so I thought it would make for a good Monday memory, too.
A decade or so ago, I was an unemployed architect, and pretty much had been since the dark days of the Great Recession. At the time I was working a part-time retail job along with whatever writing jobs I could scrounge up, and I came across an opportunity to do some writing for a startup outfit that had a great idea: become a clearinghouse for buying American-made products.
The Craigslist was simple: “Amazing Writers to Blog about ‘Made in America.’” I sent in an application, and they told me:
Many talented individuals have applied to write for us. We hope to recruit numerous bloggers to contribute on a weekly basis. The writers will (respectively) cover topics ranging from consumer-lite (“6 things you need to know know about…”) to the more weighty (“Where the jobs are”, specifically, including case studies – and what skills you need to qualify). We’re even looking for someone who can produce a weekly digest, with links (including 1 sentence summaries) to all of the pertinent and important news/analysis/developments of the prior 7 days.
This was back in January, 2014, and after dealing with the owner and thinking they lost interest, at the end of March the gentleman who would become my editor got back with me and after a brief back and forth, I received a message with these words:
I would like to formally offer you a blogging spot with American Certified. I would like you to focus on gov. regulations and trade like you originally proposed.
By the first of May I was rolling. This came from my editor Sean regarding the initial article:
Honestly, I was very happy, I am not even going to bother sending back my edits, basically all I saw was two missing commas, no other changes. I like the way you used links and quotes. Basically, I am eager to see the next thing you come up with.
I had a great relationship with Sean, and even though the pay wasn’t the best it was better than working for free and I figured it was getting me in on the ground floor of a good idea. It also got me familiar with a lot a manufacturing resources I could use as leads for news items elsewhere, such as monoblogue. Alas, Sean left at the end of the summer and the new people in charge wanted listicles instead of writing like I was used to, so we parted ways.
The writing I did for them was definitely shorter-form than I do here, but I think it got the point across. I found their old Facebook page (which, aside from an unrelated update, basically stopped in mid-2015) and one of its links was to an article I wrote that I dredged up off the Wayback Machine, just to give you a flavor. (My old monoblogue updates on this site’s archives go to dead links now since the AC website is parked.)
I think it turned out the company was simply about a decade or so ahead of its time because it was out of business a year later. It wouldn’t shock me in the least, though, that if Marvin (the owner) is still around he may try it again in this new era of Trumpian tariffs and reshoring. They talked about doing it two years ago but I think now the time is right.
I’ve said this before, but if you look at this photo album of American Certified’s opening you’ll see a cross-section of America politicians would kill for. (You’ll also see an old photo of me taking a photo with my cell phone when I was still somewhat blonde and had hair.) And if you ever wondered why I focused on manufacturing so much for awhile, this would explain part of it.
But being from the Rust Belt and remembering what the old-timers told me about working in the factory making stuff, I recognized its importance. It would be one thing if we had friendly relationships with the countries that supply our products, but the world dictates otherwise. Thus, I’m all for President Trump’s efforts to restart our manufacturing core - and maybe he can resurrect a good business idea while he’s at it.
And I’d be happy to write for American Certified again, with one caveat: I still don’t do listicles.
In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.