800 People Opened This Email But Only One Upgraded to Become a Paid Subscriber

The thing about the Starfish story is that we all have to be the little girl

There’s a good chance that you already saw this email a few days ago. That’s because I sent it out to all 1200+ people who subscribe to my Substack newsletter for free. Over 800 of you opened it. However, only one person, so far, was compelled by it to upgrade from a free subscription to a paid one. So, even though it just went out as an email, I thought that I would share it again as a post. Because the Starfish story really never gets old.

Images free on Unsplash using search term “starfish”

First, thanks to everyone who does pay for a subscription at any price point. It makes more of a difference than you can possibly know, which is what made me think of the starfish story in the first place. Your interest in the work that I’m doing keeps me motivated, inspired, and energized to keep doing it.

This message is really to the people who subscribe for free and open the emails but haven’t yet been moved to contribute. I can’t explain how much of a difference it would make in my life, my creative work, my mental health journey, the community I’m building, if you chose to support the work with a small investment. It can be as small as $10 per year and that would keep the work going.

Truly, $10 from each one of you who subscribes for free would change my entire work experience and foster so much growth in the work that I can keep doing.

See the starfish story below …

How to Make A Difference

Simply pick a subscription plan using one of these links and purchase your annual subscription to my work today.

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The Starfish Story

I have always loved the starfish story. It’s kept me contributing to causes and individuals that I care about when sometimes it feels like nothing I do is enough. Here’s that story if you’re not familiar with it or just want the inspiration of reading it again:

“A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference for that one.”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.”

source of this version

You can make a difference for this one …

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