Climate Soloists

When I started this newsletter back in 2022, the intention was to simplify the steps a business might take to shifting from wherever they are to aligning with a more climate-focused mindset (hence the name "The Climate Shift").

I was seeing a lot of jargon, a lot of of fear and doom, and a lot of blame on "the big corps - we need to change their way of thinking".

To a degree, I joined the picket-waving mob who believed (and I still believe) that big corps need to change their ways, that we need to find alternatives to fossil fuels, alternatives to plastic, and everything else you hear a lot of already.

But I didn't want to just talk about problems or changes that need to be made like sooooo many people were already doing - I wanted to offer ideas, solutions, or potential pathways that a person (or their business) could take to actually contribute to making those changes.

Something I wasn't filtering for was who I was trying to offer these solutions to - it was basically everyone. From manufacturing to climate-tech, from soloists to agencies, product businesses, service businesses - if an idea crossed my path, I shared it. I mean geez, it was bound to be useful to someone, right? Maybe, but it was a scattered approach.

I also wanted to shift the tone from "We're f*cked unless we do THIS NOW" to "There's actually so much you can do which is high impact AND beneficial to your business AND... scandal alert... sometimes fun."

The folks I follow on LinkedIn, as well as some newsletters I subscribe to bring huge, important issues to my attention. Stuff I want to know about - but a common call-to-action I see is "email your local member" or "petition your government" or "copy this huge initiative that this big group of people took, and do the same thing yourself" (I even sprinkled in a few of those calls to action myself).

Those things need to happen for sure - either at volume, or against huge odds.

But being honest, I rarely do them... I'm not a petition type, so those actions are just too big or too awkward for someone like me.

What I find is that I'm waiting for a call-to-action that tells me what to do right now (or soonish) that will have the most immediate impact.

So - lots of noise in this little newsletter that had a semi-focus on a topic, but not really on a particular type of person.

Using myself as a filter

As I started to realise this, if an idea crossed my path like before, I was now starting to filter it out based on whether I thought someone like me could realistically take some action towards it.

Meanwhile...

...in the background, my professional focus had also been shifting - I'd gone from building a solo creative business and serving clients as a service provider, to mentoring solo creative business owners to run smarter, happier businesses of their own.

I had little idea where I'd end up with the newsletter, but through what feels like a fairly organic process, the two paths have met.

Shifting careers means lots of stuff in my business is changing constantly.

One of those changes will include a much stronger focus in the newsletter on self-employed folks who, like me, want to use their own humble business as a vehicle for climate impact.

There are a couple million registered solo businesses in Australia (plus more than 20 million in Europe, and close to 30 million in the US).

That's a bunch of humble impact.