I’ve know, from the first day I set up as a small business, that I should write a newsletter.
BUT I DIDN’T.
Every single book, course, blog … etc … I read about building a modern small business told me to collect emails, then publish a newsletter every month, or every week.
BUT I DIDN’T.
Partly because it felt rude, and pushy.
Partly coz I froze when I tried to do it.
—
Here’s a little advice I learned from Eli Goldratt:
When faced with a big or ambitious task, don’t start by asking “what should I do?”, start by asking “why can’t I do it, now?”
In other words: identify the obstacles.
It is astonished good advice.
So, what was stopping me writing a weekly or monthly newsletter?
Here’re two key obstacles:
ONE: I hate using my email software (mailerlite - though they all suck)
And then I found substack.com.
This platform is sooooooo easy to use.
There’s virtually no friction.
TWO: I froze with overwhelm whenever I considered writing a weekly/monthly newsletter.
It never occurred to me to do a daily email (this isn’t a newsletter - it’s a friendly email to you and I hope you find it useful), even though I have happily blogged daily over the years.
But then, I stumbled across https://jonathanstark.com, somehow got on his email list, and eventually realised that his emails arrived daily and they were freshly-written.
And then I realized I liked his emails, but never read the other “newsletter” emails.
So … here we are.
I hope you find this useful. It’s a story … with some advice hidden inside it.
Clarke
p.s. Just took this photo … can you see Georgie’s beautiful doggy nose in the background?
