✨ the SPARK 209 ~ Don't Underestimate This
And An Old Tool That's Making A Comeback
There’s a phrase from a spiritual teacher I listen to that sounds a little silly at first, but when you get it… you get it.
“Getting ready to get ready.”
On one hand, it sounds like an excuse to procrastinate.
On the other hand, the wisdom behind trusting the process and not forcing things comes through loud and clear.
I’m a big believer in taking action and have always been a “doer.”
But forcing yourself when everything in you screams, “Not yet,” will only backfire.
Every time I’ve forced myself to do something that didn’t feel right, I always think, “I knew it. I should have trusted myself.”
That’s the key, isn’t it?
That said, you have to learn to differentiate between discomfort because something is new or you’re still learning and discomfort because you’re not ready.
Of course, we will feel uncomfortable when something is new - even when it’s “new-ish.”
An example is my pivoting to Substack.
I’ve been writing online for almost 17 years. This is a writing platform, no big deal, right?
Yes and no.
As I’ve shared before, Substack is also a community; even if you don't have your own community yet, it feels like a community.
It feels like a “third place” - what so many people crave.
Anytime you feel like you’re the new kid on the block, you will feel awkward—and that’s okay. Lean into being uncomfortable.
This brings me full circle to “getting ready to get ready.”
I’ve half-jokingly said that over this past year, I’ve slowly been burning my business to the ground (#drama). It was more like I was ever-so-slowly letting the air out of a balloon.
I kept going, trying things (that didn’t feel right), and trusted.
I’d get little glimpses of ideas or directions, but none felt right.
For whatever reason, it took a hellacious move back to Costa Rica and then back to California in the span of five weeks to shake things up so much that I wanted to go deep and look at what wasn’t working, what I truly wanted, and then go all in!
After that, ahem… ”adventure,” I took swift and immediate action.
I started the “Women, Wisdom, & Wealth” newsletter.
I looked at the software, email subscriptions, and platforms I was done with.
One by one, I started canceling or deleting.
Here’s what I didn’t do:
Download everything or try to save things I had zero interest in marketing, being involved with, or trying to sell again
Use the “sunk cost fallacy” (i.e., “I’ve already created it, I should try to sell this” or “But this is already set up, and it took so long”) as an excuse to keep hanging on
Here’s what I did do:
I canceled software subscriptions for things I hated logging into or didn’t feel right. Yep, my gut was my gauge - I asked these questions:
Cue Marie Kondo: Does this spark joy?
Do I have to go into documentation or a YouTube video whenever I want to do something simple?
Do I already own something that does what this does?
Does this support where I want to be in six months?
Talk about feeling lighter.
It was like the business version of cleaning your garage and taking a bunch of things to the dumps (or the “skip,” as they say in the UK).
Don’t hang on to:
the product
the funnel
the copy
the community
the podcast
the platform
If it doesn’t support who you are today.
The past 12 months have been me “getting ready to get ready.”
Another saying I love that might feel somewhat trite is, “It takes what it takes.”
The hardest part of all of this is TRUSTING.
It took me over a year of questioning, talking with friends, and analyzing things to get here.
I could have taken the ‘swift and immediate’ action much sooner - but then I would have been stuck in a state of “Now what?”
Instead, I’m in a state of, “Hell, yes! Here we go!”
All while maintaining the ease I require in this chapter of my life.
And…
I sold $500 of my Visual Guide to Substack in less than two weeks without any fanfare, big launch, or planned marketing campaign (that’s coming). I found a problem and created a solution. I picked the path of least resistance (Gumroad & Substack), made the book in Canva, and was done.
I am about to launch a new homepage for KimDoyal.com, which will direct people to subscribe (on Substack) and tell them where else to find me (you can take a sneak peek here - it’s just a screenshot). I’m still editing the copy and the sections- and will probably remove the “Work with me” for now, but holy moly, does this make me feel lighter!).
And, if I haven’t shared it here 👇
Remember, it’s OK if you’re “getting ready to get ready.”
Trust the process; that’s where the magic happens.
SPARK Spotlight 🔥
The “Old Tool Making a Comeback” is Evernote!
As a solo creator, Evernote's simplicity is all I’ve ever really needed, but the old UI felt cumbersome and dated. I don’t need a project management tool, and as awesome as Notion is, my brain doesn’t work in databases. 😂
Evernote was bought by Bending Spoons, an Italian technology company, in January of 2023.
I’m thrilled with the update and jumped back in.
A Little Brainpower 🧠
Remember my marketing trifecta last week? (Substack, YouTube, Email). Here’s a little inspiration. “7,000 Subscribers in 7 Months: How this Food Blogger Grows Her Email List with Kit.”
Now is a great time to lean into Stoicism. From Ryan Holiday: “This Is The Most Important Thing For These Crazy Times.”
Another great article from Chenell Basilio: “6 Ways to Turn More Viewers Into Subscribers: Optimize Traffic Like the Pros.”
Tool Time 🛠
AI: I LOVE this! New from Google (still experimental), “Grasp new topics and deepen your understanding with a 💬 conversational learning companion that adapts to your unique curiosity and learning goals.” Try LearnAbout free here.
YouTube: I’m excited to try this out. Spotter Studio helps YouTube Creators create more winning videos through an integrated suite of ideation tools. Try for free for 60 days here.
Substack: Thanks to
for sharing this. Export your Substack Stats with this Chrome extension from here.Podcast: Another option for creating all the marketing content from your original podcast episode. Try PodBooster free here.
This cracked me up… Bob Ross as Elf on the Shelf 😂
If you’re not in the US and don’t know of Bob Ross, he graced us with the joy of painting on TV for years.
Thank you to those who answered the poll last week (my next visual guide). It looks like it will be Gumroad, Kit, and then Notion (Kit & Notion will be more significant undertakings than Gumroad).
FYI: If you run a poll on Substack, the only place to view the results is the poll itself in the published post. I would have thought it would have been in the dashboard somewhere (you can set the poll results not to appear publically, so I may try that next time), but just a heads up.
Once my integration with ConvertKit Kit is done, I’ll do something else for polls. I like that you can drop it into the post but can’t do much else with the data (i.e., in this case, tag people interested in the different guides).
I should have left the poll open longer than 3 days or added a fourth option, but it's all good. One last tip is to put the poll higher up in the email.
Until next week
Have a wonderful day,
Kim
Thank you for the shout-out!
I always look forward to your newsletter, Kim! This week, my take-away was from the "7,000 subscribers..." article to target pop ups and what people want. So good!