The harder I tried, the worse it got.

So I refuse to use popups, countdown timers, fake scarcity theatre designed to panic people into buying.

Instead, just honest work, offered quietly.

And it works. Better than any hack I ever learnt.

I call it Open Heart Marketing. OHM for short.

Like the sound. Om.

A bit hippy? Maybe. But it fits perfectly.

Because OHM isn’t a strategy you deploy. It’s not some clever trick you pull.

It’s a posture. A way of being.

It’s how you meet people without pressure. How you share work rooted in trust, not control.

Let me tell you where I started.

I learnt marketing the old way. The dark arts way.

Funnels. Tripwires. Emotional triggers designed to make people reach for their wallets.

I spent years swimming in that world. Coached by internet pioneers: John Reese, Jonathan Mizel, Yanik Silver, Frank Kern.

Backroom seminars. Private masterminds. Endless talk about conversion rates and psychological pain points.

And here’s what I saw: how easily the language of care gets weaponised.

How fast “value” becomes a mask for manipulation.

I heard the contempt. The way marketers spoke about their customers behind closed doors.

That was it for me.

I couldn’t do it anymore.

The shift wasn’t immediate.

It took years to unlearn what I’d absorbed. To stop treating people like numbers on a dashboard.

To find a rhythm that actually felt like me.

Now? I approach marketing like an art practice.

I don’t write “content.” God, I hate that word.

I make something I care about and offer it freely.

A story. A reflection. A photo. A fragment of insight. Whatever feels alive in the moment.

Not what I think will perform.

What feels honest.

I want my audience to feel like they’re walking through a gallery, not being herded through a shopping centre.

I want them to be moved. Touched. Not hustled.

You know what I’ve found?

People notice.

They share the work. They write back. They say things like, “This doesn’t feel like marketing.”

They’re right. It isn’t.

In marketing terms, they’d call this positioning.

But I’m not positioning anything.

I’m just showing up, doing what I love, and letting that speak for itself.

My inner life shapes what I share. The work draws people in naturally. Not through urgency or fear, but through resonance.

I’m not desperate for sales. I don’t chase outcomes.

And because of that? I’ve built a sustainable business that still feels human.

Others are doing the same thing.

Seth Godin has written a blog post every single day for over 8,000 days.

Not to sell. To offer.

He still sells millions of books.

Craig Mod walks Japan’s pilgrimage routes. Then writes long, handcrafted essays for his members.

No funnels. No bait. Just care.

Austin Kleon shares what he’s thinking and making each week. His newsletters feel like letters from a friend, not marketing campaigns.

None of them rely on tricks.

None of them push.

They just show up. Over and over again.

That’s the heart of OHM.

Open. Human. Unforced.

Marketing doesn’t have to be extractive. It doesn’t have to be noisy.

You can build a life around the things you love by simply being honest about them and sharing from that place.

Are you feeling into what I’m saying?

People are tired of being sold to. They’re craving something real. Something human.

Give them that, and they’ll stay.

You won’t need a popup to convince them.

So here’s my question for you:

What would your marketing look like if you stopped trying to convince people and started simply showing them who you are?

That’s OHM. That’s the work.

And it might just change everything.

Independence? Freedom? Forget it.

I learned this the hard way. Let me tell you about my seven-month nightmare and why I jumped ship just in time.

Late 2023, I’m in the interior of India. Smartphones everywhere. Everyone’s running their business from WhatsApp and Facebook. 285 million self-employed people pimping off megacorp platforms.

So I thought, why not? Let’s see how hard it is to run a publishing project from my phone.

I came back to Europe in early 2024 and decided to give Substack a go.

I exported my disengaged subscribers from Kit, imported them into Substack, and started posting. And honestly? I loved it. Tapping away on my phone in IA Writer, using markdown, clicking ‘post’ to publish.

What’s not to like?

90% of my site traffic is mobile anyway. Design aesthetics don’t matter as much as clarity. As a publisher, I want my readers to read my words easily, without distraction.

In the beginning, Substack was perfect for this.

Within seven months, I’d grown from 9,000 to over 15,000 free subscribers. Not bad for a lazy arse publisher who made his first post on 13th May 2024.

I had over 250 paid subscribers. Bestseller status. Preferential treatment. The whole shebang.

And then I’d had enough.

My last post? 22nd December 2024. Seven months and nine days after my first.

Here’s what Substack won’t advertise on their landing pages.

When I looked at where my paid subscribers actually came from, 90% were from my own efforts. Barely any came from their vaunted network effect.

You know what Substack’s network found me? Lots of free subscribers. Tyre kickers. Time wasters. Not all subscribers are equal. Remember that.

But things had started getting out of control.

I couldn’t organise content the way I wanted. Not even with sections. Not even with custom-built Maps of Content pages. Nothing worked.

Plus, Substack has become more and more like a social network. Distraction everywhere. Busyness everywhere. Noise everywhere.

It was not a place of calm.

And calm? That’s essential in my niche. Essential to my subscribers.

The feedback started rolling in. Paid subscribers found it confusing. Too noisy. Too distracting. They were getting pushed other people’s content when all they wanted was mine.

I’d been bigging up Substack before this. Writing about how great it was. Recommending it to others.

Time for some humble pie.

Because I now see it as exactly what it is: a digital cage. Something to avoid at all costs.

So how did I move 250+ paid subscribers off Substack and onto WordPress?

Let me be blunt. It was a f*&$@!g nightmare.

Over seven months, I’d offered my subscription at different prices. Anyone below a certain threshold got a pro-rated refund. Monthly subs got cancelled. And then I slowly, manually went through the remaining 200 paid subscribers and cancelled their recurring billing one by one.

You know what my subscribers said when I told them what was happening?

“Thank God for that.”

Pretty much unanimous. They were fed up being pushed other people’s content. They didn’t like the coercion of recurring billing (neither do I). They didn’t like how confusing and busy Substack had become.

Was It Worth It?
Yes. Absolutely.

I ran this Substack test for two reasons:

First, to see how easy it would be to emulate what’s happening in India, running a publishing business from my phone.

Second, to clarify how I wanted to structure my newsletter. Many ideas worked. Many didn’t.

As a minimum viable product test? Brilliant. I’m now crystal clear on how I want to teach the citizens in my world.

Should I have left three months in? Probably. Would’ve been less hassle migrating people out. Fewer posts to migrate over. But still, it’s been a great learning experience.

And fortunately, my delightful citizens are very patient and forgiving.

Not all subscribers are equal.

Read that again. Not all subscribers are equal.

Free subscribers from a network effect are not the same as engaged subscribers who found you and chose to pay you directly.

If you want to run a newsletter without handing over 10% and your independence, here’s what works:

The Low-Cost, Minimal Tech Stack

• Kit for sending email newsletters (can also accept payments if you want a premium newsletter)
• Kit also has landing pages for getting subscribers
• Google Drive to host PDFs, videos, audio, and any teaching material you need to link from your newsletter

The Techie’s Low-Tech Stack

• WordPress
• GeneratePress WP theme
• Google Classroom (free online learning platform)
• Kit (for email)
• Shopify (for selling products and online courses)
• WPX (brilliant WordPress hosting)

The Bottom Line

Substack is playing to their private investors, not you. That 10% commission? That’s just the start. The real cost is your independence.

You’re building your business on rented land. And one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, the landlord changes the rules.

Don’t let that be you.

Get out whilst you still can.

Every live event I have run since 2010 has been fully booked.

The online courses I promote have sold thousands of copies.

The live webinars I host sell out in a few days.

Maybe you’re wondering how I did it?

I’ll tell you.

It’s simple.

I used my email newsletter.

An asset I own and control.

But email marketing isn’t as simple as having a sign-up form on your site, then hitting up your subscribers with course dates, workshop offers, or book pitches.

NO!

That’s not how to run an email newsletter.

“Robin’s 1-2-1 mentoring and coaching helped me successfully launch my online storytelling course, generating more than £13,000 from a tiny email list of 1180 subscribers! Amazing. I am so grateful… he knows his stuff.” – Chris Holland / storytellingforoutdoorlearning.com

Recently there was a discussion in a Facebook group, talking about building mailing lists, publishing newsletters etc.

One fellow who I know. Let’s call him Scoot, said this:

“I have a funny situation where thousands have subscribed to my newsletter, but business is so good I no longer have the time/need to send it.”

And then a fellow foraging friend of mine chimed in:

“People quite often tell me they’ve signed up for my newsletter and that it’s not working, when in fact it’s simply because I haven’t sent one for months.”

And another herbalist friend said:

“Yeah, I don’t send one often. Not because of success though – more that I never have the time.”

And I shivered when I read their comments.

I shivered because these lovely folk where doing the two things I strongly urge you not to do…

… rest on your laurels

… use “not enough time” as an excuse

They simply didn’t “get” why publishing an email newsletter is one of the most important things to do if you want your workshops, and online courses and membership site fully booked.

It’s not an afterthought.

It needs to be one of the key focus points of your business strategy.

A strategy is an overarching vision, intended to fulfill your predetermined goals and objectives.

And most business owners focus on tactics, NOT strategies.

If you don’t have have a strategy, and simply chase tactics, you’re at the beck and call of others game-plan.

Unless you have a strategy, you are not “master of your own ship”.

But what Scoot and the others didn’t get, along with the hundreds of business owners I meet and talk to… is another very real possibility.

You have no idea when the tide of fame and fortune will turn.

And as one very knowledgeable, very experienced marketing colleague told me some time ago.

“When things are going well that is the time to really pump things up. Most people do a lot when they are in need. Then, sit back and relax when things are going well. But when things are going well is when you want to get it up into a whole new level. You want to get to a higher level so that even if it slows a bit you are still doing well.”

Let me ask you this…

What happens to your business when suddenly the free platform you have been using to generate website visitors and clients stops working?

Have you thought about that?

I’ll talk more about why making your business dependent on free platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok, Medium etc. is extremely DANGEROUS.

These are simply platforms that can help grow your business.

They are not where real business growth happens.

That’s something else entirely.

That something is called… RELATIONSHIPS.

And all valuable relationships need to be NURTURED.

If all you do with your email newsletter is send out book preorder notifications, discount offers, insert your next sales pitch, you are quite literally killing your long-term potential.

Period!

And although competition is not something many in the author industry like to talk about.

It is a fact of life, that someone, somewhere could come into your market space and literally take it from you.

What will you do then?

If you don’t think it will happen, then I urge you to pause a moment and consider this.

Once Yahoo was the go-to search engine. Now it has disappeared from “front of mind”.

Remember Myspace? Everyone and their aunt were on it.

Then within a short period of time, it got replaced by Facebook.

See my point?

If you had been dependent on Yahoo or Myspace for getting clients.

Never building your business off these platforms.

What do you think would have happened to your business?

What do you think happened to all those businesses that did just that?

Let’s take Google.

Maybe you are currently top of the search engines for your chosen keywords. Then with one small algorithm change, you disappear forever.

And if not forever, your rankings plummet, and your business is halved or quartered.

And someone on the edges of your market suddenly dominates the rankings you once held.

Are you feeling into what I’m saying?

It’s uncomfortable, right?

And not to put the frighteners on you. This can happen at any time.

A while back, Facebook changed its algorithm… again!

All those businesses that relied on getting likes, comments, building their profile with a Facebook Page and driving traffic to their website…

… suddenly

… over the course of a few days …

… saw their “reach” (the ability to get their message in front of their followers newsfeed)

… fall off a cliff.

They have no way to reach their tribe, their followers, and clients.

They are, in a word… fucked.

All because they simply didn’t “have time” or were “too successful” to publish an email.

An asset they actually own and control.

Here’s something you need to get.

“Email is a protocol (SMTP). Which is basically part of the plumbing of the internet. All the other communication platforms are owned by corporations who have motivations that don’t always align with your own. This makes your email community your #1 asset that’ll stay with you no matter what.” – Marc Eglon, Hackerpreneur

Instead these authors fell for the lazy way to grow a business. They became dependent on the free platforms to reach their market.

That’s like eating at somebody else’s table. You don’t get to decide the menu.

And another thing…

… those free platforms, aren’t free.

There’s a massive price tag. Which you need to wise up to. Quickly.

I’ll tell you a fact.

A real, knock on wood fact…

… I’ve been there.

During my twenty five years running my digital publishing company, I’ve had the carpet ripped from under me… twice!

All because I simply didn’t get one of the immutable truths of doing business.

Never ever build a business that is dependent on a free platform.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s traffic from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or whatever the next generation platform will be.

That’s like squatting a rented property. At some point, the landlord will demand rent. And if you don’t pay, you’ll get thrown out on the street.

There’s nothing touchy-feely when it comes to doing business with the big boys and girls.

Not when you get into bed with corporations like Facebook or Google etc.

Getting your business shut down overnight is not a place you want to find yourself.

So where’s this leading?

Simple.

I have been asked by friends to teach them how to build a long-term sustainable knowledge business.

A lot of what I will be teaching you is going to be free.

But there are some things that have cost me more than money to master. And I am not giving that advice away for nothing.

So if you want to build a simple, profitable knowledge business, subscribe to my newsletter.

I’ll ask for your email address. And over the coming months, I’ll show you exactly how I sell thousands of books a year, fill my online courses, and have my in-person events fully booked.

No hype. No manipulative sales tactics. No BS.

Just what’s actually worked (and what hasn’t) built on respecting the people who buy from you.