✨ the SPARK 235 - A Love Letter to What's Next

The last "official" issue (I'm not going anywhere)

When I started writing my weekly newsletter four and a half years ago, I had no idea where it would take me; I just knew I wanted (and needed) to do it.

Email marketing wasn’t new to me in 2020, but a dedicated weekly publication with segments was. This was still the early stages of the “newsletter comeback” (anyone else remember e-zines? 🤣).

At the time (fall of 2020), I was still running the Content Creators Planner with my friend, Jodi Hersh, and we had a weekly newsletter called “Creativity Published” (not a bad name if I do say so myself).

We consistently received great feedback on that, so I took the initiative and launched a newsletter under my KimDoyal brand.

For those of you who weren’t around back then, here’s the logo for the original newsletter:

Yes, the old-school marketer’s mantra to “Do more! Be everywhere!” has annoyed me ever since I started in 2008, lol (not that I haven’t had my moments of drinking the Kool-Aid).

As much as I loved the name (it’s pretty clear how I feel about 'hustle,' 😉), it was hard to figure out what else to do with it.

I sent one email to my list asking them:

• Does this resonate with you? If so, why? If not, why not?
  (If you’ve never done something like this, it’s invaluable, provided you have a good relationship with your list)

The majority of people said they liked it and understood where I was coming from, but the overall response was, “It has a negative connotation, and you’re not a negative person.”

🤯

At the time, the last thing I thought I’d be doing was changing the name.

But it was pretty obvious after the responses I received that it was time - and I got incredibly excited about it.

And that’s when the SPARK was born.

Fast forward to today, and it’s time for the next evolution.

What brought me here

Last fall, I launched my other publication, “Women, Wisdom, & Wealth,” to gain a deeper understanding of the psychology of women and money. I’m fascinated by how society, family, and our cultures shape our beliefs and behaviors around money. Add to that my new obsession with learning about neuroscience to rewire the brain to change behaviors, and I was off and running.

However, as much as I like to think I can manage ALL the things (and my obsession with AI… more on that next week; I’m vibe coding a couple of things and am loving it)… I can’t.

Ya’ girl needs some downtime, too.

Something told me there was an intersection between what I do with digital marketing and getting to the root of money issues from a behavioral standpoint.

With a lot of ideation, planning, and plenty of white space, I’ve found a way to pull everything under one umbrella.

Introducing…

So… what does this mean for you?

Not a whole lot… yet. haha…

I’m keeping the newsletter in the same format (I'll come up with a new name for the SPARK Spotlight) - articles, tools, something funny, etc. There might be some adjustments, but for the most part, it will look pretty much the same, minus a different logo at the top (for now).

In addition to discussing the behavioral side of money (which let’s face it, is something we all deal with), I’m going to dig a little deeper into the psychological side of marketing.

This also allows me to write on this platform in a way that enables me to share more from my life and journey, as well as how those aspects relate to my business. As solopreneurs, there’s not a huge separation.

Am I right?

I’ll be moving Women, Wisdom, & Wealth into my KimDoyal Substack (site), but I'll keep it under a separate section, where people who subscribe there can stay on that list only.

Did you know that you can somewhat segment your Substack subscribers by allowing them to subscribe to an individual section?

So if you’re not interested in Women, Wisdom, & Wealth, you won’t get it unless you actively subscribe to that section.

I’m almost done with my Money Coaching Certification, so I’ll be integrating that here as well (I don’t remember how much of that I’ve shared here… I know I’ve talked about it on the other publication). However, I have a larger, long-term plan for all of this that I’ll share publicly as it unfolds.

Within a week, I should have this merge done.

Once that’s done, I’ll start sharing the behind-the-scenes of what I’m working on.

You’ll notice that I’m still using my colors and the same fonts, for simplicity, and I still like them. Why reinvent the wheel?

I appreciate everyone on this list - those who are new and those who have been with me through multiple iterations.

I’m incredibly grateful you’ve been on this journey with me.

Here’s to new adventures!

SPARK Spotlight 🔥

Life has been a little extra busy lately, so I’ve gotten a smidge behind on my YouTube videos, but here’s my latest.

This is part of reframing how you think about things, thus rewiring the brain.

Any likes, comments, and subscribes would be greatly appreciated.

A Little Brain Power 🧠

This makes me feel better about my decision to use Kit & Substack. “Prediction: Every serious email player is going to be using multiple ESPs in the next 12 months.”

Speaking of marketing & psychology…”How this self-proclaimed marketing geek uses Kit to grow her popular newsletter and launch products that sell out in minutes.”

More explanation about Google’s AI and SEO: “Google's AI Mode is another step to disappearing traffic, but the sky is still not falling.”

Tool Time 🛠️

• Notion: Use Notion to publish an SEO-friendly blog, collect emails, and send high-deliverability newsletters. Try Feather free here.

• Claude AI: Extract and save Claude conversations as PDF, Markdown, Text, CSV, JSON, and Image for FREE. Use the Claude exporter here.

• YouTube Thumbnails: OpusClip has created a free thumbnail generator. I tried it and like my Canva thumbnails better, but it’s worth trying. Use it for free here.

• Generative SEO: Be the first to track, benchmark, and optimize your brand's visibility across AI search engines. Try WriteSonic’s Generative Engine Optimization free here (7-day trial).

Kinda, haha

It looks like summer is officially here, temperature-wise. 🏖️

I actually got in the pool last weekend to do a little cleaning - it wasn’t warm enough for my favorite pastime (floating and reading), but I’m pretty sure that’s happening this weekend.

I hope wherever you are, it’s warming up and you’re starting to enjoy the longer days and all the ease that summer can bring.

With coffee & kindness,
Kim