Change your newsletter... Change your life?
A meta newsletter about newsletters: On returning to Substack and launching a second newsletter, and how it’s all part of something bigger.
2024 has brought significant changes for me, both personally and professionally.
Reflecting on the year, I realised that whilst that list of changes is long, two big ones are newsletter related:
Change 1
I launched a new newsletter, Monday Mornings. It’s focused on the future of work and the growing shift toward mass entrepreneurialism in the workforce. If you’re curious about what’s happening beyond the 9-5, I’d love for you to join the conversation.
Change 2
I moved The Ask newsletter back to Substack after two years on another platform. I missed the community and ecosystem that Substack offers—one that feels more aligned with my vision and purpose.
These newsletter changes are more than just a refresh; they represent a recalibration of how I approach my work, my brand, and my broader goals.
I’m relieved to be starting 2025 with these changes behind me after tinkering, thinking and reviewing them in my mind for months. Now they are live in the world I feel these changes form a foundation of a larger vision I’ve carried for years.
And, because every change, no matter how small, has a ripple effect.
A little backstory and my slight obsession with change…
I’ve had my fair share of change in life. This includes plenty of childhood house moves, three new schools, my parents’ separation, the birth of baby (half) siblings aged 20, university to the working world, three significant career pivots and more relationship ‘pivots’ than I’d care to admit.
But for the last five years, things have remained fairly stable. I have been coaching full time, living in my flat in Hackney, and working from the same co-working space since 2020. Friendships, relationships, and business have evolved, but nothing major has changed.
The changes have occurred in the lives of my clients, though. There are plenty of changes across the now 200 individuals I’ve coached to make major career and business changes.
Earlier this year, a friend asked me an unexpected question: “Is it hard always seeing your clients achieve incredible things? Do you ever feel jealous?”
It sat with me for a while.
The answer was not ‘envy’; something deeper was at play.
You see, I used to wonder how teachers felt watching their students go off to achieve incredible things, while they stayed behind to guide the next cohort of learners. I (perhaps naively) assumed their lives remained pretty similar for years on end.
And now, as a fully fledged adult myself, I’m in a similar position of sorts.
I spend my days watching my clients win awards, scale teams, or launch incredible new projects. I’m always thrilled for them and so proud (much like my teachers were of us, no doubt!). I realised there was something about what my friend said that stuck with me.
My feeling wasn’t envy; it was stagnation.
That’s because I actually enjoy change. It keeps life interesting.
So I thought long and hard about the changes I could make. Many have since happened, some bigger than others. I even considered leaving London (!), but I’m so glad I’m still here.
Instead, I considered my career and what changes I could create there, because after all, work makes up such a big part of life.
My chosen (newsletter) changes
While I was thinking about how I could evolve The Ask, I looked at the data.
It was evident from the sheer volume of people coming to me every single week with plans to leave their 9-5 and become self-employed that the working landscape had evolved a lot since I started coaching. One of my YouTube videos about how to become self-employed has over 8,000 views (compared to my usual 100!). This was something I wanted to explore in a deeper, more meaningful way outside of simply 1-1 coaching sessions.
Between the months of March-August, the plan was to build a community for these newly self-employed. It would make a lot of sense, and I’d paid for the platforms, joined a community about communities, got support and even given it a name — Monday Mornings!).
Except, I was not finding the excitement I had anticipated when it came to building it, and it kept getting pushed back.
You should only build that which is in alignment to your strengths, interests and curiosities, much as I encourage my clients. Success in business building requires your full emotional labor.
Instead, I introspected. Two things kept making themselves clear to me:
My love of researching, reading and writing (my three-year History degree was spent living in libraries!) led me to do some of this for The Ask newsletter, but I had a craving to do more.
I was witness to the good, the bad and the ugly of self-employment in the clients I was coaching. The ugly being the increased instability, stress and inherent income challenges. With the rise of mass layoffs, it was clear not everyone was working for themselves voluntarily. As more and more folks worked for themselves, I was asking myself ‘are we prepared for this shift on mass’?
So it was clear: Monday Mornings needs to be a media business driven by research, insights and expert opinion. So, at least to begin, a newsletter.
I’m excited to dive into the data and share what I’m learning from the research and my guests. This coming Monday is an interview with the top researcher from Upwork, for example. Sign up here to receive it!
So that’s Monday Mornings.
As for Substack?
Bringing The Ask back to Substack is no accident. It isn’t just a platform; it’s an ecosystem of the creator economy—a space where people turn ideas into income and build businesses outside the traditional 9-5.
Being on Substack keeps me connected to a wider entrepreneurial discourse. This discourse informs my coaching practice, and now, also - Monday Mornings.
So, there you have it. Two newsletter changes reveal a much deeper, more personal desire for evolution.
It’s early days, so I’m unclear how significant these changes will be in reality.
But I am sure of how much I am energised by my client’s evolutions, too, as they continue to build, evolve, pivot or rebuild exciting businesses and personal projects. I’m excited to write about the stories of entrepreneurs here, too.
If you own a business, you have an opportunity to do good in the world (and lord knows we need more good news in the world).
It feels like something is in the air at the moment — more and more entrepreneurs I speak to are exploring what’s next and how to evolve their business and have the impact they seek to make.
Before you go, how are you planning to evolve your business in 2025?
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