Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk
This is a stark reminder for me to rein things in a bit. A bit like having too many goods on offer in a bakery that you aren’t able to fulfil. Note to self, slow down. 😀
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk
l love this! l found this very inspiring. "Self-love" is indeed what l would call the choice to do something you love, a wonderful goal in my opinion. Thank you for this!
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
This is beautiful,Rachel, and so resonated with me! I feel the same way, and loved your recipe!
I really want to know the people who are reading my words, and try to reach out or welcome people as they open the doors to my newsletter.
I come from small communities, and currently am living in one. I want to be thoughtful, and kind but I also want to be true to myself.
I am writing because I love to write, and sharing my stories is how I interact with the world in order to open the door to hearing people’s stories.
I’ve especially loved connected with other writers, creatives and lovely humans I’ve found here.
I love that I’m meeting people from all over the place.
Your bakery sounds like it was a magical place. My eldest kiddo wants to be a baker and it’s what he loves, and I think I’ll share this piece with him, so he can do it with intention and the understanding that it’s ok to stay small.
Thanks to the SmallStack crew for bringing such lovely writers here and lifting their stories up.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk
Thanks for sharing your story. I really admire your kindness, generosity and style of leadership - focusing on individuals as well as creating community.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
Rachel, quel delice!!! It was SO great to read about your bakery and your determination to stick to your own vision of success. I share all of the values you wrote about (I particularly loved reading about your generosity and offering free meals and cookies). There's so much more to life than making money, and as you said, growing bigger has costs that interfere with what's important. I'm excited to check out your Substack. Thanks so much for this wonderful essay!
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
This is really interesting to see the attempt to stay small spelled out like that. What happens, I wonder, if that very sincerity and authenticity leads you to gain many more subscribers than you expected? The comparison to a bakery really breaks down with Substack, because in a bakery you face a physical limit on how much bread you can bake and sell, but with Substack, it requires no more effort to reach many more readers (and I’m not talking about making additional efforts to attempt to grow, I’m just talking about writing the same way and finding that more people dig it). Can one keep the “stay small” attitude even if you grow to 1000, 5000, or more? (This is my open question for all of SmallStack, I think.)
I’m really not sure if I could. I think that, at the root of it, it is the intention that really makes the difference. How one relates to one’s readers, how one doesn’t take them or our success for granted. How one freely gives and not just takes. How one acknowledges each and every person. It requires an intentionality of purpose, work, if you will, but the benefits are incomparable.
Tom, this is actually a really great question, and it's something I have struggled with. I think there are a few approaches you could take, and I bet this community might have even more ideas that haven't occurred to me.
1. You do actually have the ability to make your substack "private," which means you limit the ability to be found in a search, and anyone looking to subscribe has to request permission. While this might feel extreme to most of us, I think there is a valid reason for using that feature if it fits your needs, and one of those needs could be strictly enforcing the size or scope of your audience. So maybe you reach 500 subscribers and think to yourself, "hey, this is enough, I can't face more than 500," so you switch to private to keep your audience static.
2. Rachel's comment here is very valid and important. "Small" doesn't always mean "small number of subscribers," it can also mean how we approach our community and engage in those interactions with them. We tend to think about this in relation to a small crowd because that's how so many of us start, but what we're really doing in those early days is building a community and developing how we will interact with them, and that intention can be carried forward if we hold onto that intention.
3. When you do inevitably grow beyond that target number you thought of as small (speaking from experience here), it can feel very foreign (or destabilizing, or rewarding, or inauthentic, or a lot of things). But over time we tend to adjust to these changes, and your audience adjusts with you. It's also been very clear to me that even with that kind of growth, your core community of folx who comment and engage will always be a very small subset of that overall community.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I just posted up top, and am now seeing this, so thanks, Rachel, for the invite to jump in here with my m.o. for dealing with all the FOMO advice we get as Substackers. I have figured out over the year plus that I've been posting, that my passion for art+habitat restoration is not going to attract a huge readership, and I intend to keep my posts free until they go into the archive after 2 months. I focus my admin attention on making my writing and outreach personal, and on telling stories rather than selling advice or casting a wide net for subscribers.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk
Rachel, Robin, Dudley … thanks for the conversation! What I found in Rachel’s essay (and in SmallStack altogether) is that I’m not quite comfortable with the word small, and the intent to stay small (at least if we use small as a count and not a metaphor for a mindset on how you deal with people). Let me explore that a little bit: first, in Rachel’s essay, I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with your points … if I replaced the word small with “authentic” or “genuine” or “sincere.” And that gets to my trouble with the word small: it focuses attention on the counting of subscribers instead of on the way one relates to subscribers. Now, maybe I’m troubled with small because when SmallStack started I could see that 1,000 subscribers was coming up, and I’ve since surpassed that. But I don’t care about my subscriber count! I don’t care if it’s big nor do I care if it’s small. The only thing I want to focus on is writing honestly and interacting honestly and kindly with those who choose to engage. I’ve been skeptical about Substack (the company’s) fascination with numbers all along, and in finding ways not to get co-opted by it. For me, it is all about “intention,” as you say Rachel. (Anyway, I wrote about this a while back, if any of you are interested. I still stand behind this one: https://tompendergast.substack.com/p/why-im-not-going-paid)
I’m using ‘small’ as a mindset that says I’m not bigger and better than you, a form of gratitude and humility towards my readers that deepens my connection with them.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I have had a post similar to this percolating in my brain for a few weeks now, while I've written nothing on my Substack. I had lost track of why I write. Thank you for reminding me that I'm doing okay, and that I should get those words out there.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him)
I took an unintentional Substack break for a few months last year when I had things swirling in my brain but was also feeling exhausted and uninspired. I came back with a more flexible mindset around the types of things I post and how often. Much like Rachel says in the post here, I try to think about how I can be useful and also write about things that are meaningful to me (the selfishness she speaks off).
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I love this gentle, honest explanation of how you made the small stuff work and how we can all focus on what really matters. I love your beautiful breakdown of it via a recipe. I’ll try my best to follow it!
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I love this Rachel. And lived three year in Belgium. I treat my Substack column, Sheathed Sword, the same way. I write for who wants to read it, across the subjects and thoughts and creative notions that interest me and, hopefully amuse, inspire, or stimulate my small readership. At 83, I am not creating empires here, nor eaten by deadlines and ambition. Just passing on such wisdom and foolishness as I possess.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I love how you add the tablespoon juice of Selfishness & the grinds of hard parts. Kind of like adding a pinch of salt to a cookie recipe to balance the sweetness! Thank you for sharing your recipe Rachel!
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk
Asking myself what I wanted to write has been transformative for me. I show up more regularly and with more energy, and more people in my small community seem to engage with it.
Sep 18Liked by Robin Cangie (she/her), Robin Taylor (he/him), Rachel Shenk, Erin Michaela Sweeney
I feel as though I've just enjoyed the most beautiful meal after reading this. And now, like you, I can visit your magical, community-minded bakery in my mind anytime I need a pick-me-up. Thank you for your writing!
Ooh, another Belgian, hi!
Hello!👋🏻
This is a stark reminder for me to rein things in a bit. A bit like having too many goods on offer in a bakery that you aren’t able to fulfil. Note to self, slow down. 😀
Yes! We creatives are never without ideas. Reminding ourselves that we don’t have to do it all and learning to focus on the small things helps.
Quality over quantity.
Yes, yes, yes!
l love this! l found this very inspiring. "Self-love" is indeed what l would call the choice to do something you love, a wonderful goal in my opinion. Thank you for this!
Thank you! If we do it out of love, others know.
I loved this and so understand your reasons for keeping small. And sane! Well done 👏
Thank you! Yes, small is sane, as well!
This is beautiful,Rachel, and so resonated with me! I feel the same way, and loved your recipe!
I really want to know the people who are reading my words, and try to reach out or welcome people as they open the doors to my newsletter.
I come from small communities, and currently am living in one. I want to be thoughtful, and kind but I also want to be true to myself.
I am writing because I love to write, and sharing my stories is how I interact with the world in order to open the door to hearing people’s stories.
I’ve especially loved connected with other writers, creatives and lovely humans I’ve found here.
I love that I’m meeting people from all over the place.
Your bakery sounds like it was a magical place. My eldest kiddo wants to be a baker and it’s what he loves, and I think I’ll share this piece with him, so he can do it with intention and the understanding that it’s ok to stay small.
Thanks to the SmallStack crew for bringing such lovely writers here and lifting their stories up.
Doing our work with intention changes us and our readers, and our communities. It is a beautiful thing!
And I also want to thank the Smallstack crew!
A gentle question for you, Rachel. Would it be okay if I subscribed to your Substack? As the parent of a future baker, and a community minded writer?
Yes! You are welcome here.
Thank you! I’m looking forward to reading more of your writing and perspective.
Thanks for sharing your story. I really admire your kindness, generosity and style of leadership - focusing on individuals as well as creating community.
It’s easy to be distracted to focus on our goals rather than the good of all. It’s something I try to keep in mind. It’s a balancing exercise!
Rachel, quel delice!!! It was SO great to read about your bakery and your determination to stick to your own vision of success. I share all of the values you wrote about (I particularly loved reading about your generosity and offering free meals and cookies). There's so much more to life than making money, and as you said, growing bigger has costs that interfere with what's important. I'm excited to check out your Substack. Thanks so much for this wonderful essay!
Thank you for reading! Yes, there’s so much more to life than money. I’ve found that by focusing on the small things, big things happen.
This is really interesting to see the attempt to stay small spelled out like that. What happens, I wonder, if that very sincerity and authenticity leads you to gain many more subscribers than you expected? The comparison to a bakery really breaks down with Substack, because in a bakery you face a physical limit on how much bread you can bake and sell, but with Substack, it requires no more effort to reach many more readers (and I’m not talking about making additional efforts to attempt to grow, I’m just talking about writing the same way and finding that more people dig it). Can one keep the “stay small” attitude even if you grow to 1000, 5000, or more? (This is my open question for all of SmallStack, I think.)
I’m really not sure if I could. I think that, at the root of it, it is the intention that really makes the difference. How one relates to one’s readers, how one doesn’t take them or our success for granted. How one freely gives and not just takes. How one acknowledges each and every person. It requires an intentionality of purpose, work, if you will, but the benefits are incomparable.
Does that make sense?
Tom, this is actually a really great question, and it's something I have struggled with. I think there are a few approaches you could take, and I bet this community might have even more ideas that haven't occurred to me.
1. You do actually have the ability to make your substack "private," which means you limit the ability to be found in a search, and anyone looking to subscribe has to request permission. While this might feel extreme to most of us, I think there is a valid reason for using that feature if it fits your needs, and one of those needs could be strictly enforcing the size or scope of your audience. So maybe you reach 500 subscribers and think to yourself, "hey, this is enough, I can't face more than 500," so you switch to private to keep your audience static.
2. Rachel's comment here is very valid and important. "Small" doesn't always mean "small number of subscribers," it can also mean how we approach our community and engage in those interactions with them. We tend to think about this in relation to a small crowd because that's how so many of us start, but what we're really doing in those early days is building a community and developing how we will interact with them, and that intention can be carried forward if we hold onto that intention.
3. When you do inevitably grow beyond that target number you thought of as small (speaking from experience here), it can feel very foreign (or destabilizing, or rewarding, or inauthentic, or a lot of things). But over time we tend to adjust to these changes, and your audience adjusts with you. It's also been very clear to me that even with that kind of growth, your core community of folx who comment and engage will always be a very small subset of that overall community.
Yes to this! Do others want to jump in on this thread? I do think how we set our intentions can really help us as we grow or don’t grow.
I just posted up top, and am now seeing this, so thanks, Rachel, for the invite to jump in here with my m.o. for dealing with all the FOMO advice we get as Substackers. I have figured out over the year plus that I've been posting, that my passion for art+habitat restoration is not going to attract a huge readership, and I intend to keep my posts free until they go into the archive after 2 months. I focus my admin attention on making my writing and outreach personal, and on telling stories rather than selling advice or casting a wide net for subscribers.
Rachel, Robin, Dudley … thanks for the conversation! What I found in Rachel’s essay (and in SmallStack altogether) is that I’m not quite comfortable with the word small, and the intent to stay small (at least if we use small as a count and not a metaphor for a mindset on how you deal with people). Let me explore that a little bit: first, in Rachel’s essay, I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with your points … if I replaced the word small with “authentic” or “genuine” or “sincere.” And that gets to my trouble with the word small: it focuses attention on the counting of subscribers instead of on the way one relates to subscribers. Now, maybe I’m troubled with small because when SmallStack started I could see that 1,000 subscribers was coming up, and I’ve since surpassed that. But I don’t care about my subscriber count! I don’t care if it’s big nor do I care if it’s small. The only thing I want to focus on is writing honestly and interacting honestly and kindly with those who choose to engage. I’ve been skeptical about Substack (the company’s) fascination with numbers all along, and in finding ways not to get co-opted by it. For me, it is all about “intention,” as you say Rachel. (Anyway, I wrote about this a while back, if any of you are interested. I still stand behind this one: https://tompendergast.substack.com/p/why-im-not-going-paid)
I’m using ‘small’ as a mindset that says I’m not bigger and better than you, a form of gratitude and humility towards my readers that deepens my connection with them.
I have had a post similar to this percolating in my brain for a few weeks now, while I've written nothing on my Substack. I had lost track of why I write. Thank you for reminding me that I'm doing okay, and that I should get those words out there.
Glad to hear this! And, yes, get those words out there!💕
I took an unintentional Substack break for a few months last year when I had things swirling in my brain but was also feeling exhausted and uninspired. I came back with a more flexible mindset around the types of things I post and how often. Much like Rachel says in the post here, I try to think about how I can be useful and also write about things that are meaningful to me (the selfishness she speaks off).
I love this gentle, honest explanation of how you made the small stuff work and how we can all focus on what really matters. I love your beautiful breakdown of it via a recipe. I’ll try my best to follow it!
It’s hard work but joyful work!
I greatly enjoyed this post. You're a woman after my own heart!
Thank you for reading! 💕
You’re welcome!
I love this Rachel. And lived three year in Belgium. I treat my Substack column, Sheathed Sword, the same way. I write for who wants to read it, across the subjects and thoughts and creative notions that interest me and, hopefully amuse, inspire, or stimulate my small readership. At 83, I am not creating empires here, nor eaten by deadlines and ambition. Just passing on such wisdom and foolishness as I possess.
I like this! And, yes to a nod to Belgium!
I love how you add the tablespoon juice of Selfishness & the grinds of hard parts. Kind of like adding a pinch of salt to a cookie recipe to balance the sweetness! Thank you for sharing your recipe Rachel!
Thanks for reading! And, yes, it’s all about balance.
Good for you. I also write for things like what is the right thing to do, rather than making money or getting clicks.
Or even writing for one’s self.
Asking myself what I wanted to write has been transformative for me. I show up more regularly and with more energy, and more people in my small community seem to engage with it.
When it’s what we want or need to write, it often comes from the heart. And others can feel it.
Thanks for sharing this! It’s great to hear about a successful small business that pushed back against the “always more” ethos.
Thanks for reading! There are some of us out there!😊
I feel as though I've just enjoyed the most beautiful meal after reading this. And now, like you, I can visit your magical, community-minded bakery in my mind anytime I need a pick-me-up. Thank you for your writing!
It’s all about inviting others to the table! Thank you for reading.