an update!

launching subscription tiers, subscriber benefits, and more

I launched my Substack around 10 months ago not really knowing what to expect. I started “Dinners & Desserts” around the same time I quit my full-time, corporate job and decided to go all-in on recipe development and my social media profiles.

Turns out I love posting to Substack. And you all also love when I post to Substack. We just passed 25,000 Substack subscribers, which is unreal. To have so many people reading what I have to say, looking at the photos I take, and trying out my recipes is incredible. And it has all been for free up until this point. I’ve always left on pay-subscribing in case you wanted to be altruistic (and THANK YOU to the 300 of you who have supported me this way).

So it feels like the time to take my Substack to the next level with a paid subscription tier. I never had a true paid tier with benefits before for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to make sure I thoroughly enjoyed posting to Substack myself and would want to grow a community here.

2. I wanted to see if I would have a strong enough audience.

3. Even with quitting my full-time job, I frankly still didn’t feel like I had the focus to launch a paid tier.

But now all those things are aligned! Woo! My desire to consistently post high-quality, beautiful, thoughtful, and frequent newsletters filled with recipes and cooking tips has only grown with every new newsletter I’ve sent out.

So here’s what you can expect by upgrading to a paid tier:

• Access to 100% of my Substacks with all of the recipes

• Unlocks personal DM’ing with me about my recipes, general cooking advice, recipe help, etc.

• First people to get notified if I do in-person events or pop-ups.

• The joy that comes with supporting an online creator, knowing that your contributions keep his page and account running

Why should you actually pay subscribe? Well, frankly, a lot of my recipes are going to be behind a paywall going forward. Around 25% will remain free (still figuring out the exact ratio).

But a little note about me, I’m extremely goal-oriented and driven. I want an orange substack checkmark by the end of the year (which means I have at least 1000 paid subscribers). What this means is that you can fully trust me to be pumping out newsletters, recipes, and advice weekly. I want to make your subscription as worthwhile as possible, and if you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll have direct access in telling me what new content you’d want to see, too.

If you don’t upgrade to a paid subscription, I totally understand. You’ll still have access to occasional free posts. There will be a paywall in most newsletters, but you’ll be able to read part of them and most of the photography.

All of your support, love, and engagement means the world to me. All of you are here because my food must have inspired you or sparked some joy in you at some point in the last year. For that to have happened 25,000 times… I can’t even put it into words (ironically).

Ryan

(and a sneak peek below at this week’s newsletter because I just couldn’t wait)