Social change strategy in 2023

What should I do next with this newsletter?

The author in search of direction

Dear readers - Happy New Year!

I decided to start off this year seeking your opinions on where I should head next with this newsletter.

Here’s a little bit of background: I started writing this Substack out of frustration in early 2022. I had years of experience helping people think critically about social change and a solid methodology that emerged from that experience. Yet I had never found a consistent platform for sharing that knowledge. I decided I would create that platform through building this newsletter as well as doubling down on the book I’ve been writing for several years.

Looking back a year later, things went… okay. 2022 turned out to be a difficult year that brought the unexpected need to take care of my ailing father and effect changes to my consulting model, all while performing the usual juggling act of working from home and raising a toddler. A lot of days I felt like I was treading water.

I know this: I am proud of the writing I did throughout the year, and I was frequently heartened by your responses to it via e-mail and social media. At the same time, I know I am still in the midst of the journey and feel uncertain about how close I am to the destination.

So I thought I would seek your advice.

Right now, this newsletter has a relatively small number of readers with a very high level of engagement — a great place to start! I am currently considering what changes I might need to make to grow the readership into the thousands, whether that’s more frequent posts, different kinds of posts, or just more promotion and networking.

Additionally, I am curious about using Substack as a paid content platform. There are plenty of guides out there about how to transition from free to paid, but only you are experts in this particular stream of content on social change and how to make it worth paying for. So if you have ideas about what you’d like to see from paid subscriptions, I’d love to hear them.

Finally, there’s one more thing on my mind. Like most writers, I have anxiety about whether everything I do is just an elaborate form of procrastination. I tell myself that this space is essential to building an audience for a book on social change strategy, but I also know that preparation is meaningless if the book never gets done. So if your true opinion is, “This is all nice Andrew, but I’d rather see you finish the book,” I’d love to hear it.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What do you think should come next for the Social Change Substack? What do you like? What should I change? I’d love to hear you opinions in the comments section or over e-mail. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm over the past year — it has been essential to keep going.

Sincerely,

Andrew