I Quit.

In the words of Lizzo, I Quit. It's time to say goodbye.

I believe one of my greatest strengths is that I am very good at quitting. As a child, we are often told quitting is a bad thing and that we should persevere no matter what, but the truth is the most successful people know when to cut their losses, choose their priorities and abandon the rest. Throughout my career, I have quit my blog when Instagram captions were making me happier, I quit Snapchat when Instagram stories were invented, I quit X when Threads came along and I quit the online course I was creating to focus on writing my book. With that example, I was only 2000 words away from finishing that online course and yet writing 100,000 words of my first book felt more effortless because I was aligned on my purpose and my book felt right and my online course never did. So it has come time to listen to my instinct and call it quits on Substack. If you are a paid subscriber, all charges will automatically stop because I am putting it on pause.

I want to explain a few reasons why I have decided to make this decision.

A really big draw that Substack brought me was that it was meant to be a space for people who didn’t want to spend their time doomscrolling on social media but I won’t lie, in that time, Substack has become another social media app. Between Chat, DMs, Tags and Notes, we now have all the features of other social media apps so I don’t think it’s honest for Substack to keep marketing themselves as different to all the other social media apps when they are becoming the same.

I also believe I have always been best at the platforms I use the most and I won’t lie, I’m not a paid subscriber to anyone. Not because there aren’t incredible writers on this platform but instead because I already consume too much content and this became another space where I was being overwhelmed by content. I barely have time to read the books I want to read or the research I need to be doing for my new book so I found myself mindlessly scrolling through articles on here, much like I did on social media.

In terms of paid subscribers, I have been hesitant from the start because it was my first platform where I was charging followers directly. I have made it no secret that I have always preferred to make my income through working with brands and would rather that all my information be accessible to everyone and not have a price point that limits you. I was willing to try it and to be honest, with last year being a year, I changed management twice and left the year without management, it was helpful to have a little extra income while the brand work was slower but the paid subscriber part has still never felt authentic to me. This paired with the fact there is a cost of living crisis didn’t make me feel better about it.

And finally, I always knew the day I had a book deal again would make writing my Substack hard so I am both prepared and ready to make this decision. My priority is my book and in the last three weeks, I have found every time I have sat down to write my Substack, I feel like I’m taking time and energy away from Bad Friend.

I want to end it on a positive note because Substack has given me a lot in the last year. It has given me a space to feel free in my writing again and I truly believe the only reason my friendship breakup book is pouring out of me is because Substack got my creativity juices flowing again. Substack has also connected me with so many amazing people and I love and adore how supportive the writing community is - at least far better than the influencing community! Substack has also been my space to come to while I was having a turbulent relationship with social media and trying to discover what I wanted from everything. I’ve loved it for the time I’ve had it and now it’s time to say goodbye.

I’ll of course still be on TikTok, Threads and Instagram at @MichelleLElman if you would like to follow me there and thank you so much for supporting me on this journey. For every follower, comment or reader of Growth Spurts, thank you so so much! Lots of love, M xx