Tell Their Stories: Knowing when to stop
On hitting pause, winding down a community, or reconfiguring your sense of growth and scale. Plus, a subscriber announcement
Dear friends,
Tell Their Stories has always been about providing a toolkit for community-first storytelling. We’ve covered a lot together in the last two years—from designing your stories, getting to know your key members, building sustainable teams, and finding the connecting glue of community. But what happens when you decide you want to wind down your community, or change it in a big way? What if your priorities change, or budgets, or your circumstances unexpectedly? Today’s post will look at how creating communities which are strong, deep, and engaged doesn’t always mean they have to endure forever, and review some ways your community might develop, evolve, or even be sunsetted in a way which creates a feelgood echo for everyone.
To hear me talk broadly about community storytelling, editorial, Substack and more, I was recently interviewed for the Bunch podcast by community expert Clare Sutcliffe. It’s a 33-minute episode and packs a lot of recent thinking in there. So if you’re interested in my latest thinking about these topics, take a listen here:
Lastly, some housekeeping: I’m now on maternity leave and while I’m hitting pause on posting new TTS material for a few months, I’ve kept payments open mainly for access to the Tell Their Stories archive, which I hold at a high value. You can read more on why Substack encourages writers and creators to take paid time off, and how many of us consider paid maternity leave part of the deal.
Some of you with recurring payments might decide to hit pause or cancel, which is also totally fine. I want our merry group of paid subscribers to TTS to feel good about the value on their spend, and their support in my work. I know I’ll be back in 2025 with heaps of ideas and new chapters for you friends, but for now, my brain has been engulfed in the somewhat psychedelic transient phase of life—which feels a little bit like being underwater and in a time warp, in a good way, and can also lead to some fun creative endeavours. I’m writing this post with a bonnie newborn in my arms and my brain is all focused on them for a while. Also, in the words of Ali Wong: “Maternity leave isn’t to bond with the baby; maternity leave is for women to hide and heal their demolished-ass bodies.” So there’s that, too.
Let’s get into it!
Communities wind down for numerous reasons. As I wrote about here, there might be external influences such as budget changes and failed business models—as with Guardian Local. Or the founder moves to a new location during the community’s nascence (if the community is location based), as I did with Bournville Village. Thankfully, Substack solved the business model issue. And with Bournville Village I was able to handover to another local resident and journalism professor who used the site as a platform for his students to train on too, which was perfect.
Sometimes, a change of circumstance or situation can cause the community to loose steam just as it was getting started. Often—as you see with more forced communities drummed up to support entrepreneurial endeavours and startups—the founder runs out of resolve, burns out, and the community suffers. This last example usually results in frustrated communities which fizzle out due to lack of support. These are the kinds of communities I’m trying to help you avoid. Instead, we want deep, strong, and engaged communities, which do take time and effort. But that doesn’t mean they also have to survive in one single form indefinitely.
I wanted to write to you today about strong, deep and engaged communities which might actually be short-lived. Once again, drawing on my personal experience and work.