Recording from the August Mastermind Meeting

Audience Specific Content Blocks, the many considerations when turning on paid, how we are thinking about our work right now, the pitfalls of app subscriptions, how to schedule notes.

This was such a good meeting! We talked about the classes coming up in The Food Writers Business Lab as well as how to navigate this publication and find what you’re looking for. Then we dove into Substack’s new Audience Specific Blocks. Rebecca shared how she’s using them in her own publication as well as how she’s using them here, on Mastermind for Food Writers. We talked about the different ways this feature can be used to improve the reader experience.

We also talked about the many perspectives and decisions around turning on paid subscriptions, the value of our work, and how each of us is thinking about whether to offer a paid tier. We also talked about growth in general and the value of doing this work for the sake of it, because it makes us better. If structuring a paid option for your subscribers is something you find challenging, join the club. :-) You’ll find some good stuff in here.

I pulled out some of the direct quotes from today’s meeting that I found especially meaningful. You’ll find those below the recording.

In the last few minutes, Elizabeth Pizzinato brought up a very important issue: If someone upgrades to paid using the app on their Apple device, they have to pay more than the price you set for the paid subscription. This is because Apple tacks on an additional fee. I remember reading about this but I didn’t realize that the fee was quite so high: 15-30%.

I looked into it, and you do have the option of taking the hit on this fee yourself so that your subscribers won’t have to pay more. I found this article, which is very helpful. One additional thing I learned is that if you pause paid subscriptions for any reason, anyone who upgraded through Apple will still be charged.

And in the last two minutes of this meeting we talked about how to schedule notes to be published later. Several people asked if we could talk more about notes, so that will be the topic we start with in September’s meeting.

For those of you who like to plan ahead, our next meeting will be on September 23 at 11:00am EST. Register here.

“…it took me 20 years to get here, and everything good that’s happened to me in the food world has been because I have leaned into my distinctiveness, and who I am, and not tried to impress anyone, and not tried to show off, and not try to imitate somebody, but just to follow my intuition, my knowledge, and to try to grow…. I think that this is still an excellent place for us to try on versions of ourselves that celebrate the stuff that we have to offer.” - Peter Barrett

“So, I’m trying to, like everybody else, think, well, what is this point of differentiation? It’s the way that I see the universe and bring you this information and this content, and the way I make you feel, and the way I make you laugh. I have to bring you more exclusive thoughts, more ways that I see the universe, and that you’re coming along with me, and we’re becoming friends. That’s really, as I’m distilling it down, and thinking about this, and moving more into this space, all I have that’s uniquely mine to sell.” - Stephanie Hansen

“It’s not about the recipe, right? … it’s about what we uniquely bring. It’s kind of what you said earlier, Stephanie, we’re discounting the value, right? We’re saying, yes, it’s scary, … but we are all unique, and I don’t think we lean into that enough. We’re really hard on ourselves, I think is the conclusion I’m coming to.” - Elizabeth Pizzinato

---