I killed a 6-week project in 24 hours

I owe you a quick explanation.

Last week you got an email from me about migrating my newsletter from Beehiiv to Substack. That's where we sent last Sunday's newsletter from.

Today you're getting one from Beehiiv again.

You may be thinking, "What the hell is this guy doing?"

Fair question. Here's what happened:

We spent six weeks migrating from Beehiiv to Substack. We tested everything we could think of, moved 7,000 subscribers, got the domains sorted, built out the library.

Day one goes live, and it was apparent that I'd made a mistake.

Not a "let's wait and see" mistake. A "this needs to change now" mistake.

And I'm writing this because the decision framework I used to course-correct very quickly is something that's been incredibly valuable in my business, and I think it might help you too.

The move made sense on paper. We wanted a tool that offered better engagement (feedback, comments, conversations), a consolidated content library, and access to Substack's organic growth engine.

We learned in testing there'd be tradeoffs:

But those seemed manageable for what we'd gain.

Then day one hit, and I discovered something we hadn't anticipated.

Substack's growth strategy right now is becoming its own social media platform. When I scrolled through my feed there, half the content was creators teaching other creators how to grow on Substack. My friend checked his feed—same thing.

The growth engine I wanted to leverage? It's populated largely by creators writing for online creators, not MSP owners or B2B sales and business leaders.

Worse, nearly every piece of advice on "how to grow on Substack" points to their Notes feature—basically Twitter inside Substack.

The TLDR: to fully leverage Substack's growth engine, you need to be on another content treadmill, constantly posting and engaging.

The entire reason you build an email list is to get OFF the social media treadmill and algorithm game to own your audience.

So I looked at the situation: unclear whether this would actually grow my business with the right people, no ability to truly segment or analyze who's joining, and a real risk of diluting my list with the wrong audience while being told to create more content on yet another platform.

Twenty-four hours in, I made the call to switch back.

This is where I think my mistake gets useful for you.

I move fast. That's historically been a strength for me—until it becomes a weakness. If you're constantly pivoting, you destroy your progress.

Real returns come after momentum builds. Keep starting over, and you stay perpetually in the beginner lane where returns are lowest.

But stubborn perseverance kills businesses too. Sunk cost fallacy is real.

So how do you know when to course-correct versus when to stick it out?

Here's the framework I used:

First: Pause. Don't make the decision while you're reacting. Step back and take a moment to think through it objectively.

Second: What are the 1-3 core problems you are trying to solve? Not the surface problems or improvements that may occur—the actual business problem. For me, it was better engagement with readers and faster organic growth that leads to more qualified prospects.

Third: Why are those really problems? Would solving them materially impact your business? Be brutally honest. It's easy to sell yourself on the merits of an idea, but now is the time to double check we're focused on the right thing to begin with.

Fourth: Will this actually solve the underlying problems? Not the surface issues—the real ones. There's no sense in engineering and re-engineering a solution only to learn it doesn't deliver the results we want. In my case, better engagement with the wrong audience doesn't just NOT grow any of our businesses. It potentially leads us down the wrong path with bad data.

Fifth: What will make you regret this decision in six months? Play it forward both ways. Six months from now, what are the consequences on both sides. Which are most impactful? For me, a diluted email list and no analytics to clean it up is a disaster. My (and your) list are insanely valuable business assets.

When I worked through these questions, the answer was clear: it not only didn't make sense to "wait and see." But 3-6 months of plowing forward posed more risk than staying put.

Perpetual pivoting destroys progress. So does stubborn perseverance.

The key is making the distinction between moving strategically and moving emotionally.

Most people have a bias one way or the other—I tend to move too quickly, so I try to force myself to pause and work through a framework before I act.

This framework has helped me stick with things that were working but felt slow, and bail on things that looked like progress but were actually distractions.

Mistakes are part of the game. What matters is course-correcting in a way that's logical, not frantic. And being honest enough with yourself to know your own biases.

So we're back on Beehiiv. And we're solving the engagement problem differently.

We've set up an archive of all newsletters you can interact with, comment on, and ask questions through by clicking here.

Feel free to start with this one by clicking here to ask any questions you have about the experience, or just give me shit for a very public whiff.

Thanks for your patience!

Adios,

Ray