Why On The Uptick?
America is a wonderful place, but if left to social media and the politics of Washington, no one would ever know.
I had a great conversation with one of my best friends the other day. We were lamenting the same old same old about how complex navigating the world of small business and entrepreneurship is. We had just finished paying our self-employed taxes and filing this year’s state compliance documents, and we had had it. But this was another in a long list of days where we got together and expressed our frustrations. Somewhere in the conversation, we started talking about what could be done about it. At the same time, I had finished another article about how disappointed I am in the whole political system. I left the computer that morning and realized that I have been writing about our broken politics for nearly three years now, and the reality has set in that no amount of my writing or word-smithing is going to change Washington. That town is a leviathan unto itself, and standing on the sidelines yelling about it isn’t going to persuade Lindsey Graham or Chuck Schumer to change anything. It feels like wasted energy and a fool’s errand.
So, as we sat there thinking about what we could do, we both said that we should tell the stories of the people in America who are on the uptick. Those who, despite the odds, are working every day to make hats, or jeans, or write music, or advocate for cleaning up rivers. We should be showcasing the people who, in spite of the government’s relentless and insatiable drive to manage everything, are succeeding.
So that is what this publication is all about. We want to make sure that people who are trying their hands at things are getting their stories told. There is plenty of doom in the world, and that inevitable degradation is going to happen whether or not I am yelling like an old man angry at the clouds or not. So, on the Uptick is going to be about the great stories of this land, which still has deep in its DNA, the desire to be a place for the bold and brave.
I want to tell the stories of friends of mine like Joe Buckner, who rose from the dark places of prison and a predetermined destiny with a life of ruin, to build his own Boxing Gym where he claims, “Fighting solves everything.”
I want to talk about my friend Chris Freeman, whom I met last year, who is making absolutely beautiful fly fishing bags in his shop in Fort Collins, Colorado.
If we tell the story of one American at a time, doing their thing to make this country a better place, I think we can find a lot more optimism about our neighbors and have much more grace to set down our differences about who they voted for. I hope we bring you original content about great people who are changing the country one day at the sewing machine, or the clay wheel, or at their River Alliance board meeting.
My friend wrote this as we left our meeting with the objective of putting some focus on Uptick.
On The Uptick — Brand Story
Tagline: America Still Works.
America has always been a place where ordinary people do extraordinary things. Where an idea sketched on a napkin becomes a livelihood… a dream becomes a business… and determination becomes legacy. But somewhere along the way, that story got drowned out. The headlines got louder than the heroes. The challenges overshadowed the builders.
On The Uptick exists to change that.
We’re here to tell the American entrepreneur story—the real one. The story of men and women who roll up their sleeves, take risks, bet on themselves, and create something out of nothing. The story that proves America still works not because it’s easy, but because people still choose to rise, to build, to innovate, and to try again when things fall apart.
We spotlight the founders in small towns and big cities. The first-generation dreamers. The side-hustle warriors. The garage start-ups. The family businesses. The makers, the builders, the creatives, the scrappy optimists, and the relentless problem-solvers.
These are the people moving America upward—one idea, one product, one risk, one leap at a time.
These are the stories that remind us that progress isn’t abstract—it’s personal.
On The Uptick is more than content.
It’s a movement to restore belief in the American dream by showing it in motion.
It’s a platform dedicated to documenting the grit, the grind, the failures, the breakthroughs, and the quiet wins that define entrepreneurship today.
It’s a reminder that opportunity isn’t dead—it just needs a microphone.
Whether through documentaries, interviews, written profiles, podcasts, or short-form storytelling, we exist to inspire the next wave of builders by celebrating the current one.
Because despite the noise…
Despite the headlines…
Despite the doubt…
America still works.
And the proof is in the people who refuse to quit.
I hope you will join us in this. Tell us about people in your town who are making it all work. Tell us about your neighbor who is doing an amazing thing in his garage. Tell us about the amazing woman you know who bakes the most incredible sourdough or beautiful cakes. Tell us about the teacher or the coach who is changing the trajectory for our kids. That is where the real America is. The citadel of crap in Washington can be what it is, as long as the rest of us spend our time working to make the places we live better.
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Aaron and Scott
Love this!!!