This is a great piece and reflects your really thoughtful approach to writing and contributing to your followers. I completely relate as an entrepreneur and my experience tells me you are on the right path.
As you say, your work is a craft - is not industry. I have been running my small training/consulting business for almost 25 years. I was also encouraged to scale, and went through a process to grow to 8 staff, a large office and all that goes with it. Turns out that while I loved the idea of a team and was flattered by encouragements to expand my business, it was a disaster. Clients were unhappy, I was stressed and had lost touch with the craft that I love.
You may be familiar with the classic entrepreneurship book The E-Myth which tells the story of a talented baker who opened a bakery only to find that she was no longer baking, she was now the CEO of an operation which lost its magic. Paul, you are definitely the magic.
In my case, I have found that having a right hand person to handle administration hugely helpful and liberating.
Your loyal readers are best served by you feeling well positioned to deliver your craft in a way that is true to yourself and what lights you up. We are not looking for cookie-cutter, scalable, AI-generated pablum.
Thank you for what you do... it matters now more than ever.
I like where you landed. I read your work because I like how you look at the world and tell me about it. I don't need more. I'm glad you've had so much growth, so you can find ways to support you being you.
I think you produce a great product and an impressive quantity and quality for one guy. I really appreciate you sharing your strategic thought on your product. I love getting a peek behind the curtain. Looking forward to more PW content.
I'm very happy with the product. Keep on keepin' on, as we used to say. The next few years will be very interesting times, with no shortage of stuff to delve into I'm sure.
I was hoping you would come to this realization. I did worry that your balanced and nuanced perspective would be lost if other journalists were added to form your team. I appreciate that you are able to deliver a quality product for us on your own. Keep up the good work!
Good decision to stick with your strength, writing, and not get caught up managing others. Looking forward to your thoughts on the election and Trump's attacks.
"...at Maclean’s we kept a running tally of every party’s campaign promises, straight summary with no interpretation, that was unbelievably popular. That hunger for basic information should give everyone in my line of work pause."
There is still - to this day - a gaping hole where this "basic information" should be - and that is just on a daily basis, during election campaigns it becomes a vast chasm.
People are spoon fed biased pablum from every side, and then asked to choose which pablum tastes best. It is truly sad how ill informed the average Canadian voter is.
There are a few intrepid readers across the land who seek out multiple sources, read things uncomfortable for "their side", and actually attempt to cobble together an informed 'view' - but they (we?) are vanishingly few.
How can Canada become better informed? I'm fairly certain the answer is NOT more government subsidies, and looks a lot more like what you're doing Paul.
Thanks for sharing. It’s hard to scale a content enterprise based on unique personal authorship. Scott Galloway (Prof G) has done a good job of creating a media enterprise while retaining the founder’s personality. Scaling from sole practitioner to a small team can be a quantum leap. Expanding our creative production agency from two founders to a core group of five key creatives enabled us to grow revenues several hundred %. We felt the ideal senior staff size was like crew on a smaller racing sailboat. And never more total production team then a lean platoon. Having a great production manager is essential.
This is a great piece and reflects your really thoughtful approach to writing and contributing to your followers. I completely relate as an entrepreneur and my experience tells me you are on the right path.
As you say, your work is a craft - is not industry. I have been running my small training/consulting business for almost 25 years. I was also encouraged to scale, and went through a process to grow to 8 staff, a large office and all that goes with it. Turns out that while I loved the idea of a team and was flattered by encouragements to expand my business, it was a disaster. Clients were unhappy, I was stressed and had lost touch with the craft that I love.
You may be familiar with the classic entrepreneurship book The E-Myth which tells the story of a talented baker who opened a bakery only to find that she was no longer baking, she was now the CEO of an operation which lost its magic. Paul, you are definitely the magic.
In my case, I have found that having a right hand person to handle administration hugely helpful and liberating.
Your loyal readers are best served by you feeling well positioned to deliver your craft in a way that is true to yourself and what lights you up. We are not looking for cookie-cutter, scalable, AI-generated pablum.
Thank you for what you do... it matters now more than ever.
Stop
Rookie mistake, misspelling Roy MacGregor's name. I've fixed it, belatedly.
I have now adopted “craft not industry” as the motto for my little rural law firm. Thank you.
I like where you landed. I read your work because I like how you look at the world and tell me about it. I don't need more. I'm glad you've had so much growth, so you can find ways to support you being you.
I think you produce a great product and an impressive quantity and quality for one guy. I really appreciate you sharing your strategic thought on your product. I love getting a peek behind the curtain. Looking forward to more PW content.
I'm very happy with the product. Keep on keepin' on, as we used to say. The next few years will be very interesting times, with no shortage of stuff to delve into I'm sure.
I was hoping you would come to this realization. I did worry that your balanced and nuanced perspective would be lost if other journalists were added to form your team. I appreciate that you are able to deliver a quality product for us on your own. Keep up the good work!
Good decision to stick with your strength, writing, and not get caught up managing others. Looking forward to your thoughts on the election and Trump's attacks.
Hi, Paul-
1. Don’t burn out
2. I find I get more real info from an article rather than a panel sharing opinions.
So- #3.- if you are making enough, keep up the good work.
4. Thank you, and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the Politico tip!
Only fair, they let their readers know when I launched.
"...at Maclean’s we kept a running tally of every party’s campaign promises, straight summary with no interpretation, that was unbelievably popular. That hunger for basic information should give everyone in my line of work pause."
There is still - to this day - a gaping hole where this "basic information" should be - and that is just on a daily basis, during election campaigns it becomes a vast chasm.
People are spoon fed biased pablum from every side, and then asked to choose which pablum tastes best. It is truly sad how ill informed the average Canadian voter is.
There are a few intrepid readers across the land who seek out multiple sources, read things uncomfortable for "their side", and actually attempt to cobble together an informed 'view' - but they (we?) are vanishingly few.
How can Canada become better informed? I'm fairly certain the answer is NOT more government subsidies, and looks a lot more like what you're doing Paul.
...but the big trick is to get it to scale.
Love the update. I do find the “how the sausage gets made” posts on journalism very interesting. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for sharing. It’s hard to scale a content enterprise based on unique personal authorship. Scott Galloway (Prof G) has done a good job of creating a media enterprise while retaining the founder’s personality. Scaling from sole practitioner to a small team can be a quantum leap. Expanding our creative production agency from two founders to a core group of five key creatives enabled us to grow revenues several hundred %. We felt the ideal senior staff size was like crew on a smaller racing sailboat. And never more total production team then a lean platoon. Having a great production manager is essential.
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem."
- Douglas Adams.
Paul Wells: national treasure.
you are the brand