Are you the perfect reader?

Nobody’s perfect… or are they?

When creating my Substack titled “A Whole Different Ball Game,” I envision my ideal reader to be myself.

Based on my current experience, I am looking to create a newsletter that talks about the life of a Division I student-athlete.

Everything I expected to happen throughout my college career, hasn’t. My academic, athletic, and social lives have not played out as I envisioned them to, and to address these battles, which I believe many others have faced, I plan on writing about it: “a lesson learned is a lesson shared.”

Similarly to Kristen Kieffer, as she writes in “How to Find Your Ideal Reader (and why you should get to know them ASAP),” I plan on writing my Substack newsletter not only to myself, but also for myself, as she believes “many writers do when they first begin.”

Because if I didn’t think I would be interested in reading it, then why would I even bother writing about it?

Kieffer defines an ideal reader based on four characteristics: their age, demographic, interests, and their why.

With these principles in mind, my ideal reader is:

• Age: High school and club student-athletes who are currently embarking upon the recruitment process, between the ages of 15–17. But, since people of this age don’t necessarily have a steady income, I also plan to tailor my writing to their parents and coaches, whose ages may range anywhere between 40–60 years old.
• Demographics: I plan to appeal to student-athletes, of any and all sports, who wish to play, are playing, or have since graduated from playing at the collegiate level.
• Interests: Those who share a common interest for their love for sports. They don’t have to be soccer players: they can be student-athletes of any sport who wish to study anything in college. They can be coaches who have an interest in wanting to help their athletes reach the next level. They can even be parents who have an interest in knowing what to expect for their children when making the transition to college.
• Why: My ideal reader would read my Substack because it would provide a space for current and future student-athletes, their caretakers, parents, and coaches to read about and share their own personal experiences within the world of all things recruitment and college sports.

I plan to write my Substack to current and aspiring student-athletes, their caretakers, parents, and coaches, to show them how college sports is truly a whole different of a ball game. They would pay to read my newsletter because I have first-hand experience as a current Division I student-athlete, and I would know about it better than anyone else. I will find them through social media platforms, through friends of a friend, and (hopefully) positive word-of-mouth.

Like Kieffer, I firmly believe that “the best way to tell a good story is to write with [a] purpose.”

If I can help and prepare my readers for what to expect when they are expecting when it comes to collegiate athletics, I will have fulfilled what I believe to be my purpose as a writer.

So… Are you my perfect reader?