It’s Not Me, It’s You
If it takes a village to raise a child, then I’d say it takes a metropolis to build a business. And when it comes to building The Bullet it’s been a journey to hell and back. But I would do it again in a heartbeat (though it would possibly induce a heart attack).
Like the start of any entrepreneurial venture, the early days were fraught with late nights, dwindling bank accounts, and unreliable resources. But we woke up every morning (frightfully early) with passion and purpose. We wanted to do news differently. And we did.
They also say if you build it, they will come. And you did. Without our readers, we are nothing. I mean, why the heck would we go through all the stress if not to deliver a friggin’ fantastic newsletter that you have come to love and expect?!
This past year has been extra challenging. (Thanks to COVID. And Trump.) As independent women we try to manage it all on our own, but when we were practically on life support, we swallowed our pride and reached out to you for help. And there you were. In addition to sharing the most incredible words of encouragement, you spoke with your wallets by contributing to our subscription campaign, buying our merchandise, and sharing your love of The Bullet with your networks.
For that you have our eternal gratitude. You kept us up when we were down, and gave us a reason (and the resources) to plow through and keep the dream alive.
So we felt that in addition to our thanks, you deserve to know where your hard-earned money went. With your support, we were able to:
Keep our team. Our team stayed intact (and paid) through the crisis.
Continue regular production of our newsletter. We’ve published 206 newsletters since March 12 (otherwise known as the day the world stood still).
Create some of our best work. We’re proud of what we do every day, but there are a few moments over the past six months that stand out. When we knew you’d be in need of a different type of daily newsletter, our team pulled off a full redesign in one night. We knew good news was an important piece of our pie, but we didn’t realize how important until the world was hit with a global pandemic. We pivoted, creating a feel-good edition on March 16, and then continued to produce them weekly until July. Speaking of the pandemic, we were able to create explainers on some incredibly important topics, like a guide to government aid, managing your mental health through COVID-19, what it means to “physically distance,” and how you can care for your health at home. And After George Floyd was tragically murdered by police in Minneapolis, we once again changed our plans, running a full explainer on a Friday (which are typically reserved for Sundays) about race relations in America and Canada.
Help more Canadians. Close to 2,000 new readers have joined our community as a result of you sharing the love (and not the virus).
Develop new relationships with new clients. Many of them are Bullet readers who reached out to say “I love what you do, can you do that for me?” (The answer is yes, we can.)
And as always, we make the news easier to digest. (And boy, is it tough to swallow these days.)
How does one put into words the awesome appreciation we feel for this incredible community? By keeping on doing what we’re doing! And so we will. And we hope you will, too.
The more you do, the more we can do. There are a number of ways you can support us:
Tell your friends, family, frenemies and everyone else you know about The Bullet! The more subscribers we have the more value we can bring to our partners and clients.
Wear us out. By investing in Bullet swag you’ll look good and feel good, too.
Put your money where your news is. The media industry is tumultuous in the best of times, but with our Pay-What-You-Can subscription program, you’ll support our team and ensure that the newsletter keeps coming — even when there’s a lag in advertising dollars.
Open The Bullet every single day! When our open rates are strong, our client love is even stronger.
We’re now four years (and one pandemic) stronger and we look forward to serving up the news (and a bit of sarcastic humour) for years to come.
Thanks for giving us a shot.