Whoa. The Substack backlash is growing every day.

has an excellent take about the good and the bad of Substack that’s worth reading.

The main thing it reminded me of is that newsletters have rarely ever been self-monetizing.

They have historically been things we built to monetize other things; books, courses, etc.

Knowing this, we would go into launch mode when something was coming out, but otherwise, our lives weren’t filled with constant thoughts of how to make sure our paid subscriber count kept going up.

We could even say “I just had a launch, and now I’m going to disappear for a couple of weeks” without worrying the universe would implode while we were gone.

In some ways, it’s great to get that sustainable, recurring income, In others, it means you are in constant launch mode, worrying that “line goes up”.

When line does go up, it’s great. But then when line goes down or stays flat, we consider it a moral failing.

This is a bullshit correlation brought on by capitalism that wants to equate moral good with money.

It also means all of the “goodness” of a publication is about how much money it makes.

Previously, launches could be bad, books could be bad, products could be bad, but that could be separated from the overall quality of the rest of our business.

Now, it feels like everything is wrapped up in the strength of one stream of income.

So, I just want to tell you right here, stop. Quit it.

Your moral worth is not dictated by the success of your newsletter, and it’s certainly not dictated by the paid success of your newsletter.

Additionally, while it’s great to have focus, it’s better to have intention beyond money.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I have quite a large number of subscribers by many metrics, and I’ve made a considerable amount of money…

…but the money is in service of creating new things and the audience is in service of doing cool things.

I own a conference now, and a publication that I care about, and I get to bring new voices into my publication that other people can enjoy. I wrote a comic with one of my favorite humans and one of the top writers on the planet, and I’m starting a podcast with another one and one a company with a third and work closely with a fourth and everyone I meet now inspires me more than the last…

…the things that the audience brought me was access, and that access allowed me to make cool things with cool people, and center other people in the narrative of my story that I felt deserving. Then, it allowed me to turn it right back to them and give more impact to the people in my audience.

It brought me a deeper connection with people who inspire me and allowed me to inspire more people.

I have always said that money is the byproduct of running a good business, not the reason for it.

We each have a finite number of collaborations we can do in a year, and I want mine to be as impactful as possible. I only have a finite number of launches every year, and I want those to be as impactful as possible.

If I do that, more people will be more deeply impacted by the work that moves them.

Therefore, audience growth is in service of making those as impactful as possible.

Over 16,000 people open at least one email from me a week. That more than attend most conventions in this country.

That is why I care about audience growth, not so I get a higher number…but because I can impact more humans with the message I want to tell.

I’ve had a lot of free and paid attrition recently, which I can at least partially attribute to the backlash against Substack’s “always on” creation policy, but like…

…I am the first person to say audience growth for its own sake is a terrible reason to do business.

Money for money’s sake is a terrible way to exist.

My intention every day is to meet cool people, co-mingle the smartest people I know, and allow good things to happen.

I am big on “planned serendipity” and that is only possible by having an audience.

The bigger my audience, the more power that network has, and the more power I have to help my friends and people I respect do cool projects and live their best life.

The money is a byproduct of those things, but what I really want is the freedom that having a larger audience provides, and the opportunities that come with that.

People who I have always admired and was inspired by are now part of my network. They are now excited to work with me on projects, and it’s incredible.

That is the power of having an audience. I am in service to that feeling.

This kind of work is supposed to set you free, not yoke you down.