Leaving Substack & what changes for you
Happy Wild New Year to all of you!
Wishing you all the best, plenty time in nature and scaled impact.
We are leaving Substack in the next weeks.
Now, why such an explosive start to the year?
Short answer: The platform doesn’t serve you & me in the best way.
Long answer below. I always like sharing this publicly so you can reflect firsthand on what is right for your nature venture.
1) What changes for you
2 things.
#1 Mails will come directly from my email address: oliver.dauert@wildya.earth Allowing you to get in touch with me directly.
So if the newsletter helped you in any way in the last months, already add this email to your contact list to ensure you receive my emails.
#2 Bi-weekly relevant content.
Working with a different tool will finally allow me to send you only relevant newsletters. I realized that some of you are just starting out and some are scaling. Meaning I was unwillingly wasting your time. I will keep writing a weekly newsletter, but 2x starter and 2x scaler per month. In my first email to you, I will ask you if you are starting or scaling. Please hit the button to get tailored content.
Will send you another message as soon as I move you all to the new tool.
2) Why the change?
Lack of personalization
I can’t personalize anything in here. Can’t even address you by your first name. And that really drives me mad. I want to create a real community feeling as I believe we have to choose collaboration over competition, but how can I do this if I can’t even address you by your name and neither tailor content to your needs?
Another social media
Substack started predominantly as a newsletter platform, but it is moving more and more into social media. To be honest with you, I don’t want to entertain another Social Media platform. I simply lack the resources right now. Especially as my plan for Q1 is to finally start producing short-form video content as it’s currently the number #1 medium to get attention from people.
Unsubcribed nudges
This led to my biggest ick. All the unsubscribed nudges that you receive from Substack when you only opted in for my content. The forced recommendations, constant nudges for their app, emails to support me financially even though I never send such requests out... the list goes on. You put your trust in me when you shared your email with me. I don’t take it for granted and feel this trust is stained by Substack constantly pushing itself.
Streamline communications UX
We have Social Media, our community, lead magnets & co. and each one looked different. Confusing the hack out of many people. I have to take my own medicine and lead by example that all communication should be easily recognized, so you constantly know who is writing you here.
Insights
The data at Substack is also quite limited, and because I can’t personalize the data, is leaving me clueless on what you actually really want to read.
Onboarding
With Substack, it’s simply not possible to create an onboarding email sequence for new subscribers. Yet the first impression matters greatly in my opinion and I want to ensure every new person who joins my newsletter immediately gets some good value.
Free Tools Integration
In the past months, we have spent a lot of our time creating free tools for this ecopreneur community. Wild Idea Finder, Nature Positive Business Model Canvas, Wild Idea testing Blue Print, Nature Impact Scaling Workshop etc. Switching to Kit will allow us to combine those with the newsletter much easier.
A move is never easy. So we thought long and hard about this. But in the end, I always optimize for the largest nature impact and that can only happen if you get the maximum value out of this newsletter. I am confident that this move will help.
See you next week!
Oli
📖 What I read: Bake Sales to Save Nature: Why Wall Street Conservation Survives
🦸♂️ Biodiversity Builder: Frauke Fischer
🐘 Next on Ecopreneur Community (6th January): From Brutality to Beauty: How Mulberry Mongoose Turns Poachers’ Traps into Powerful Products with Kate Wilson
📹 What I watched: Habit Podcast Episode
💪 3 ways how we can help:
Enter our next Ecoprenuer Beginner Bootcamp. Get from wild idea to 1st paying supporter in just 6 weeks. Next one starting 4th February (New Year New Me)
Join our Ecopreneur Community. Learn from experienced ecopreneurs, get funding opportunities, blueprints & co.
Work with me & Michelle 1:1 to get your nature venture to the next level