Important changes at Cultivated Management

New email system / a refocus / getting over the malaise

Hi,

I hope you are doing well.

I thought I’d share a few updates and some important news about my new email strategy and my new host.

I value your trust in me, so I wanted to be transparent about my new system and let you know how much I appreciate your support.

Note : You’re receiving this email because at some point you subscribed to The Manager on Cultivatedmanagement.com. An unsubscribe button is at the end of this email.

New System

I have moved from Mailchimp to Substack. It was not a decision that I took lightly as I’ve been a Mailchimp fan-boy for several years and they’ve served me well. The main reason for the move was ease of creating these newsletters. Plus their account charging policy meant it was untenable from a cost perspective. (This is a labour of love after all :) ).

The Mailchimp writing experience is tricky, tedious and not designed for writers. Simply adding an image is a labourous event. Using templates is confusing. And configuring sign-up forms requires a degree.

It meant that writing newsletters was a long process - longer than it needed to be. Substack’s editor is designed for writing. It’s amazing.

I was also looking for a way to simplify my many online newsletters and businesses (Cultivated Management, Parent Brain and Stationery Freaks) and substack allows me to bring these newsletters under one roof with a simple system and robust security. Don’t worry - you won’t receive those other newsletters unless you’ve subscribed to them!

You may have also noticed that I have reverted back to calling the newsletter “The Manager”. I broadened the scope earlier this year to be about life in general and it confused me and made writing it hard - hence no newsletters for a while. Lesson learned.

Also, I may at some point monetise one of my newsletters but don’t worry - there will always be free content through The Manager newsletter and Cultivated Management.

Your Data

Your data is secure as usual - I am extremely grateful for you sharing your email address with me and will protect it the best way I can. I have two-factor authentication turned on and I did plenty of research on substack security before moving my system.

Of course, it’s still simple to unsubscribe - simply use the link that is in each email I send. It’s at the very bottom next to my address details.

New Schedule

I will be posting weekly again but the newsletter will come out on a Wednesday, not a Monday. I found myself consuming hours of my weekend writing the newsletter for a Monday release.

It should be simpler to create now (the main reason for moving from Mailchimp) but also my kids are getting older (and closer to not wanting to spend ANY time with their dad) and I wish to spend as much time with them as I can over the weekends. So, weekends are now entirely for family and my work is all Mon-Fri.

Focus

I am intent, more than ever, to re-focus back on the work that drew so many of you to this newsletter in the first place. Management, HR and Leadership - it’s what I do. And although I will bring creativity, writing, media, critical thinking and learning to The Manager, it will be in aid of the main goal - helping people learn more about good management.

The more I do consulting work, the more I realise that the state of management in business is pretty bad. It’s so bad that HR are obsessed with trying to control everything, which is also a bad idea. If I want to help companies succeed and help people flourish in their careers - I need to do this through the lens of management, HR and leadership. It’s what I do. And that’s what The Manager will be about.

Thank you

I want to thank the hundreds of you who subscribe to this newsletter. When you open the newsletter and read it (and respond) it makes it all worth it. I have a 48% open-rate, which, for newsletters, is really good!

This newsletter is a labour of love and I thank you for sharing in this labour and making it all worth while. Thank you.

I promise more good content and that I will stick to my schedule as best I can.

Getting over the malaise

I don’t know about you but with everything going on in the world over the last few years (Covid, Climate, Ukraine, Brexit and now the tanking UK economy), it’s all felt a little overwhelming. We added to this by moving house and doing a renovation - perfect timing :)

This malaise is lifting for me, as I refocus on this newsletter and serving you all with good content. It feels really good writing this - not only because the Substack writing experience is SO good but because I love writing - and I’ve missed this.

Say Hi

I read and respond to every single email you send me. So feel free to respond and say Hi. Let me know what’s going on in your world, ask me any question you like, share your new album releases (you know who you are :) ), share your own work with me and let me know what you’d like me to write about.

I have over 400 backlog items of content ready to go into this newsletter, on YouTube or into a book. So, there is plenty on my mind but let me know what you’d like to read.

And yes, I am still writing my “Take a Day Off” book. It’s getting closer, one page at a time.

The new schedule will start next week. In the meantime my archive is now here on Substack.

And of course, if you no longer want to hear from me, hit that unsubscribe button.

Until next time.

Rob..