Your questions answered here...

Let's chat about the kickstarter, our new subscription service, the (🚀❤️💯🦸‍♀️🌅🧦🔵🪙⚽⚽⚽) issue, and more. 😅

Hopefully I’ve caught you before you head to bed tonight, though I am sure that some of you are asleep by now. I definitely intended to send this out earlier this afternoon, but I’ve had a very busy day of COEing that inhibited that. Working on being graceful with myself and take everything in stride.

I hope that your Sunday has been filled with peace and love.

Thank you to everyone that liked and responded to my substack last night. I was not expecting a response and am honored to be a member of such a supportive community. Your support makes me feel like I am right where I am supposed to be, and for someone who has been looking for such a fit for awhile now, I must say it feels pretty good. 🥰

Let’s get down to business… (dun dun dunnnnnnn 😂)

I, like Paul, believe in dealing with things head on. No matter how much I despise conflict, life has taught me that honest and transparency (even if difficult) produces much better results than otherwise. With that being said, I am going to answer each of these questions with as much candor as I can without creating a liability issue. (If you had to look up the definition of candor, don’t feel bad, I had to make sure I used it correctly myself. 😅)

P.S.- I will be combining similar questions into one and try to address the topic as a spectrum the best as I can. Please have some grace with me as I do this. If I have not answered your questions, let us know and we will schedule a livestream to discuss them. I also know every answer may not align with your desired response, but as much as I would love to do so, I am not sure that it would be legally and ethically possible to do so. Sorry in advance.

P.S.S.- I can already see that this is going to be a long substack. I will try to be as short and concise (but still detailed) as possible. More grace please? 🤲😄

Up first… Emoji Scandal (🚀❤️💯🦸‍♀️🌅🧦🔵🪙⚽⚽⚽❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️)

Yes, I will go as far as to call it a scandal lol. From your comments and emails, I get the notion that some emoji usage is fine but that Paul has gone off the deep end. ⛰ Well rested assured, the Chief of Everything is here to save the day! 🦸‍♀️ I heard your cries for help and I have spoken with Paul. He will dial back on his emoji use. He will still use them, but it won’t be nearly as many as before. He has even agreed to a “de-emojification check” by yours truly. From now on, you will see this below the team signature on his future substacks to show my resolve to this mission:

(de-emojified by B. ❤️)

Please, hold your applause. As they say, not all heroes wear capes. 😉

Next… Kickstarter Update

After lots of blood, sweat, and very real tears (😅 just kidding), we have submitted the kickstarter campaign for review. The hope is that we will be approved and able to launch the campaign on Tuesday. No matter the effort that we put into it, we have to be prepared for changes if that ends up being the case. Paul and I promise to keep you updated as things progress, if you promise to be a little patience with us on the date of launch. 🫶

To reiterate, just in case you’re new to us or if there is any confusion, the kickstarter campaign is a crowdfunding opportunity for us to ask you for assistance in launching our own services. This team is made of Paul’s former editorial team that were no longer employed upon the ending of his services. We are starting this endeavor completely from scratch and weren’t even sure if you would want to continue with us on this journey.

All of this to say, we have no ability or even capacity to serve you without your support. And with transparency and vulnerability being staple principles of ours, we are laying it all bear before you. We need your help.

Which leads me to my next topic… New Subscription Service and Our Post Banyan Journey

Questions and concerns like what happened with Paul’s separation from Bayan, why we are asking you to pay more money after you’ve already paid to access Paul and Ian’s content, and that we should provide you with free services for the inconvenience have all come up. Since these questions haven’t been directly addressed recently, Paul and I have decided that I would try to address it here. This is where that grace I asked for earlier may need to be applied.

Here I will be equally as truthful as I am calculated about how I respond to these questions (and the others that fall in line with the questions that I posed above.) The last thing that we need is litigation from Banyan or anyone else for that matter. So please bare with me while I provide you with answers.

Why is Paul no longer with Banyan? The truth is that Paul was not an executive nor stakeholder at Banyan. He was an employee with a contract just like my husband and the rest of the team. When you paid for Paul’s content, you were really paying Banyan, not him directly. Unfortunately, he had and continues to have no say in how they operate their business and what decisions that they choose to make to further their business interests. Does that mean you should just get over how you feel about the change? Absolutely not. We are thoroughly aware of how this has affected you and have been doing our best to make up for it.

It’s been over a month since the decision was made and we each have been volunteering our time and effort to you completely out of a since of care and intentionality around your experience. What drew me to Paul, and ultimately was the reason why I decided to take on spearheading this venture, was because of his passion and heart for each of you. No matter if you’ve made a significant amount of money from his advice over the years or if you are just joining us post Banyan. I, too, have the same heart, so I knew that I was in good company.

I will leave it at this… we are here, giving our all, trying to prove to you that we are sincere in our desires to give you back what you feel like you’ve lost. No that won’t changed what happened, but it is all we have. What I have seen, however, is several comments from former lifetime subscribers who have reached out to Banyan requesting a refund and successfully receive one. I may not be able to give you a refund for your prior contributions, but I can at least provide you with the information of who can address the issue:

Banyan Hill Customer Service

866-584-4096 (toll free)

443-353-4446

https://banyanhill.com/contact-us/

Monday – Friday (8 a.m. – 8 p.m. ET)

Saturday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET)

If there were more that any of us could do to change the situation, we would. And though there may be someone who feels like this isn’t enough, I’m so sorry but we really and truly have no ability (financial, legal, or otherwise) to do more. This not an attempt bash Banyan or to cast any negative light on them. I am simply laying it all out in front of you, as much as I legally can, so that you at least feel like you hopefully have been heard and seen. I’m sorry again. 😔

Lastly… Why are we asking you to pay more money after you’ve already paid to access Paul and Ian’s content? And why aren’t we providing you with free services for the inconvenience? Did I mention that I hate tough conversations. 😅 Ok, to spill all the beans again. At this present time, no one is being paid to provide you with the little bit of content that you are currently getting. Each of us are having to sustain our own households while also trying to give you what we can muster under such circumstances.

Paul and Ian are the only members of our team still presently working for Banyan. This is a temporary arrangement that will come to an end on September 6th and they are merely supporting with the transitions from their former services to the new ones lead by other Banyan gurus and analysts. For this reason, we planning to launch our services September 7th. We don’t even a day to go by, if we can help it, without you getting the full value you are seeking and deserve.

With that being said, any former payments that you made to Banyan are not ours to account for. We are no longer beneficiaries of your financial support to Banyan and we are completely on our own here. We don’t even have the capacity to give you more than what you are getting now to be honest. Without money coming in, and enough of it to cover the cost of operations aka the team (because Paul has agreed to cover all other expenses out of his own pocket), substacks and a weekly youtube video is all that we can afford to do. And even that won’t be sustainable forever.

Every dollar that we get will go directly to the pockets and homes of our team. That’s it. No flashy marketing campaigns, salesy copy, or production. Just 7 incredibly passionate people who want to serve you just as badly as you want value you from us. So what do we do? The only thing we can do to actually make this thing work… ask for your help.

We completely understand if you choose not to financial support our new endeavor and feel no entitlement to it. But we figured it is worth a shot before going our separate ways and forging new paths for ourselves. I hope you don’t feel like I’m trying to guilt trip you or make you feel sorry for us. Certainly not. I’m sure that no matter the outcome, we will all do fine. But we don’t just want to go off and do fine. We want to stay right here and walk this journey with you.

So… that’s it. That’s everything. I’m sure I’m missing something, so please let me know if I did by responding via comment or email with what I missed. I hope I was able to at least provide you with enough insight to help you somehow cope with the rollercoaster ride we all happen to find ourselves on right now.

Well, that is it for me. Though I can transparently say I’m a little afraid of what your responses will be, I am willing to stand with Paul and the team in honesty and transparency, letting the chips fall where they may. We will hold each of your dear to our hearts either way.

With more love than words can express,

Kate, Ian, Pat, Dan, Dean, Paul & B. ❤️