But the best kind of learning is to learn from other people's mistakes, so you can safely make new mistakes instead of repeating what was discovered above.
I feel like being on the middle of 2 & 3 :).
About narrowing down, clarity comes with time, just allow yourself to think about it more, asking yourself questions that eliminate some options. Hope it helps!
Sebastian, “You’re hanging out in the room that feels comfortable and calling it marketing” really landed. It hit home. 💯
I stumbled onto Substack three months ago because a friend recommended it and started largely by thinking aloud. I needed that phase to clarify my own perspective.
But by week two, I could already feel the pressure to keep finding new topics while still wobbling around who my audience might be. My brain saw a hundred possible directions and wanted to explore all of them.
After six years in business, I recognised the shape of another potential time trap — and hit the brakes.
I anchored my content in my existing transformation system instead. It gives my writing a direction without stopping me from exploring, connecting with people and having fun here.
So I agree: writing that helps *you* understand what you think can be valuable. But it isn’t the same as writing that helps the right person recognise *their* problem.
The contrast between 141 Notes and one clear sentence is brutal — and brilliant. More content couldn’t solve a direction problem. Clarity did.
I wouldn’t call those eight months wasted, though. You mapped the long route so others can recognise it — and perhaps turn a little sooner. Thank you for sharing the numbers and the messy part so honestly.
Thanks for so thoughtful comment! Let me address it in parts:
I wouldn’t call those eight months wasted, though.
This is absolutely not waste for sure! I got the lesson. What I did is updating my welcome emails for new subscribers next (shame, they were all defaults). You’re the first one that got the updated version btw :D.
I am going to improve clarity one step at a time, and leverage my biggest asset - 15 years of technical expertise in the world, where suddenly everyone got access to building things, and there is no chance to keep up to do it well.
My brain saw a hundred possible directions and wanted to explore all of them.
It is so close to what I experieneced! I saw that many people out there are publishing for “indie hackers”, or “investors”, or “health” - I wanted very specific thing: “Solve the blockers towards the $1M without sacrificing life’s foundamentals I decided to prioritize first”.
AND this of course require different pillars. Investing, Health & energy management; relationships & business; Career growth in order to fund the first part.
It quickly becomes overhelming and leads to burnout. That’s when I’ve decided to narrow things down. Keep the overall high-level mission: Public road to $1M (treat this as milestone), but at any given time focus on solving single problem and blocker.
I’ve build 2 products and hit first wall. Distribution - so this is the exact problem what I’ve addressed next.
Once I’ve go past this, I’ll cover other blockers - if differnet audience will get attracted, I’ll apply sections to the newsletter.
Starting narrow with potential to expand is better than starting wide and get burned out - at least for people who have no endless time on substack growth during a day.
I anchored my content in my existing transformation system instead.
The “transformation system” inevitably brings all the “12 weeks weight-loss transformations” to me. Could you elaborate what precisely do you have in mind when you tell: transformation system? Is it about making businesses sustainable?
I can see why online marketing has trained us to hear “transformation” and think of 12-week before-and-after programmes. I use the term in its organisational and business sense.
I spent more than 20 years leading corporate business and digital transformations before starting my own company six years ago. MY NU WAYS! predates my Substack; it isn’t a newsletter content system.
It’s a decision-led, human-centred transformation system for experienced experts who want to change how they work, earn or run their business — particularly by translating their existing expertise into digital income.
I deliver it through a sequence of online "Decision Point" programmes. Rather than pushing people into generic how-to activity or straight towards a course or membership, each helps them make one decision and take one useful next step: whether changing direction makes sense, whether their expertise can create value digitally, which models fit them and their life, and what is actually worth developing.
Then they orient again.
The purpose is to stop people wasting time, money and energy in the wrong direction — or turning their attempt to create more freedom into another route to burnout.
Sustainability is built in from the beginning. The broader goal is a future-ready, less time-dependent digital business and income system that fits the person behind it.
My Substack content now follows that same decision path. It gives my writing structure without turning it into another full-time job.
I hope that gives you a clearer picture of what I mean by a transformation system.
Great! Thanks for clarification! This is so needed, also for me and my audience. I find that a lot of engineers are great at solving problems, and they can sell themselves as employees, but when it comes to wrap their expertise into a working bundle, they're getting stuck in mamy ways.
Hey, some people NEVER learn!
I think I finally narrowed down my audience, but I am still not 100% sure how to phrase it.
Yes, most people never learn!
Then are people who learn from own mistakes.
But the best kind of learning is to learn from other people's mistakes, so you can safely make new mistakes instead of repeating what was discovered above.
I feel like being on the middle of 2 & 3 :).
About narrowing down, clarity comes with time, just allow yourself to think about it more, asking yourself questions that eliminate some options. Hope it helps!
How would you define your audience right now?
Sebastian, “You’re hanging out in the room that feels comfortable and calling it marketing” really landed. It hit home. 💯
I stumbled onto Substack three months ago because a friend recommended it and started largely by thinking aloud. I needed that phase to clarify my own perspective.
But by week two, I could already feel the pressure to keep finding new topics while still wobbling around who my audience might be. My brain saw a hundred possible directions and wanted to explore all of them.
After six years in business, I recognised the shape of another potential time trap — and hit the brakes.
I anchored my content in my existing transformation system instead. It gives my writing a direction without stopping me from exploring, connecting with people and having fun here.
So I agree: writing that helps *you* understand what you think can be valuable. But it isn’t the same as writing that helps the right person recognise *their* problem.
The contrast between 141 Notes and one clear sentence is brutal — and brilliant. More content couldn’t solve a direction problem. Clarity did.
I wouldn’t call those eight months wasted, though. You mapped the long route so others can recognise it — and perhaps turn a little sooner. Thank you for sharing the numbers and the messy part so honestly.
Thanks for so thoughtful comment! Let me address it in parts:
I wouldn’t call those eight months wasted, though.
This is absolutely not waste for sure! I got the lesson. What I did is updating my welcome emails for new subscribers next (shame, they were all defaults). You’re the first one that got the updated version btw :D.
I am going to improve clarity one step at a time, and leverage my biggest asset - 15 years of technical expertise in the world, where suddenly everyone got access to building things, and there is no chance to keep up to do it well.
My brain saw a hundred possible directions and wanted to explore all of them.
It is so close to what I experieneced! I saw that many people out there are publishing for “indie hackers”, or “investors”, or “health” - I wanted very specific thing: “Solve the blockers towards the $1M without sacrificing life’s foundamentals I decided to prioritize first”.
AND this of course require different pillars. Investing, Health & energy management; relationships & business; Career growth in order to fund the first part.
It quickly becomes overhelming and leads to burnout. That’s when I’ve decided to narrow things down. Keep the overall high-level mission: Public road to $1M (treat this as milestone), but at any given time focus on solving single problem and blocker.
I’ve build 2 products and hit first wall. Distribution - so this is the exact problem what I’ve addressed next.
Once I’ve go past this, I’ll cover other blockers - if differnet audience will get attracted, I’ll apply sections to the newsletter.
Starting narrow with potential to expand is better than starting wide and get burned out - at least for people who have no endless time on substack growth during a day.
I anchored my content in my existing transformation system instead.
The “transformation system” inevitably brings all the “12 weeks weight-loss transformations” to me. Could you elaborate what precisely do you have in mind when you tell: transformation system? Is it about making businesses sustainable?
I can see why online marketing has trained us to hear “transformation” and think of 12-week before-and-after programmes. I use the term in its organisational and business sense.
I spent more than 20 years leading corporate business and digital transformations before starting my own company six years ago. MY NU WAYS! predates my Substack; it isn’t a newsletter content system.
It’s a decision-led, human-centred transformation system for experienced experts who want to change how they work, earn or run their business — particularly by translating their existing expertise into digital income.
I deliver it through a sequence of online "Decision Point" programmes. Rather than pushing people into generic how-to activity or straight towards a course or membership, each helps them make one decision and take one useful next step: whether changing direction makes sense, whether their expertise can create value digitally, which models fit them and their life, and what is actually worth developing.
Then they orient again.
The purpose is to stop people wasting time, money and energy in the wrong direction — or turning their attempt to create more freedom into another route to burnout.
Sustainability is built in from the beginning. The broader goal is a future-ready, less time-dependent digital business and income system that fits the person behind it.
My Substack content now follows that same decision path. It gives my writing structure without turning it into another full-time job.
I hope that gives you a clearer picture of what I mean by a transformation system.
Great! Thanks for clarification! This is so needed, also for me and my audience. I find that a lot of engineers are great at solving problems, and they can sell themselves as employees, but when it comes to wrap their expertise into a working bundle, they're getting stuck in mamy ways.