Get Over Yourself
Hello there. Tim here.
I feel so excited about life right now. If you're struggling, keep going. Hard work pays off. If I can do it, you can do it. Believe me.
Sponsored
This week's issue is sponsored by "The Curiosity Chronicle", written by the super talented Sahil Bloom. I read it every week, I hope you'll consider subscribing.
1. Your Insecurities are Costing You Everything
At the end of the year, I wrote about how not going to take myself so seriously. It's embarrassing to admit out loud, but there have been many instances where I created a piece of content and never published it because I was afraid "it wasn't good enough." Whatever that means ...
Hitting publish: Last year, I worked very hard to battle that demon and to insist on publishing my work, regardless of how I felt about it. This helped me a lot in growing my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, because I focused on publishing high volume rather than publishing my best work.
What I learned is that none of us really know what counts as our best work, the market deicides.
I was fascinated to discover that I could not predict which of my ideas would go viral and which would flop. I had no way of knowing and the best I could do was publish as much as possible and let the law of averages determine what would work or not. Here are December's results.
Moving on to new platforms: By the end of the year, I felt pretty comfortable publishing on Twitter and LinkedIn, as I consider myself a writer and these platforms tailor to the written word. Still ... I was too scared to record and publish videos.
Then I discovered Peter Zeihan.
Peter is a geo political analysts and he makes short daily videos about the state of geo politics from his iPhone. Sometimes he records them while out on hikes wearing ridiculous hats. See?
He has a quarter million subscribers and is building an amazing brand and promotional machine for his company.
No fancy equipment, no studio, no mic stands ... simply his expertise and an iPhone.
I saw this and I realized that there is absolutely no excuse for me to not record videos. "Wanting to be professional" is not a good reason.
Getting started: I've recorded a video every day in 2023. I've hit publish no matter what. In just about every video, I would finish recording and instantly feel like the content wasn't good enough to publish, but I hit publish anyway.
As a result I've already gained 100 new subscribers and a few thousand views.
Everyone is an imposter at first. Every person you meet that is successful at something, started off as a complete beginner. Why are you no different? Why should you or I get to skip out on the work required to feel confident and become competent in a particular skillset?
SO GET OVER YOURSELF. Your fears and doubts are not unique and your insecurities are robbing you of the chance to make more money, express your creativity, generate multiple income streams, and do the work you love. Imagine missing out on the chance to have everything, all because you were afraid to share your ideas with the world.
It's simple, but not easy. I hope you become the type of person who hits publish, regardless of how you feel.
2. It's Time for a Creator Spotlight!
On this episode of The Copyblogger Podcast, Ethan and I sit down to discuss our plans for PlzDM.me, as well as a couple really cool creators in the newsletter space.
We talk about ...
- how to charge for SaaS membership
- Chanel Basilio and her unique content strategy
- why you should reverse engineer your way to success
It was a great episode. 10 / 10.
Click here to listen to the episode.
3. ConvertKit Recommends Sahil Bloom's Curiosity Chronicle
ConvertKit is the email software behind thousands of newsletters, including Millennial Homeowner. As you might expect, the ConvertKit team reads tons of great content and wanted to share a newsletter recommendation with you.
Sahil Bloom's Curiosity Chronicle is a twice-weekly newsletter that provides actionable ideas to help you build a high-performing, healthy, wealthy life.
Subscribe to Sahil Bloom's Curiosity Chronicle
4. My Plan to Start Running Paid Ads
I’ve always reluctant to advertise. There are a few reasons for this.
I don’t fully trust Facebook or other digital ad networks. (Does anyone?) They have pulled the rug out from under me so many times that I feel foolish giving them money.
Also, I don’t know what I’m doing, and therefore don’t want to burn cash.
What’s funny is that my team has processed millions of dollars of ad budget for our clients and have had great success. But when it comes to my own money, I’ve always been too chicken.
Here’s why it’s different for me now.
For Copyblogger and for TimStodz, it’s obvious to me that the best way for me to serve my audience is by writing high level newsletters. I never imagined I would be in the newsletter business, but I’m surprisingly good at it and best of all, I LOVE doing it.
Copyblogger makes about $8000 a week if I sell out of sponsorships for both issues. TimStodz makes about $400 a week since it’s only 1 issue a week and the email list is just over 8000 people.
If I am able to earn email subscribers for $5 a pop or less, then I can continue building up the revenue and growing the list into a monster.
For Copyblogger, I want to get 1,000,000 subscribers. For TimStodz, my short term goal is 100,000 subscribers.
It’s a good plan … I think?
5. Final Thought - "Simple Things Don't Break."
Years ago, when I first discovered Copyblogger, I also discovered StudioPress.
StudioPress was (is) a WordPress theme store that Copyblogger owned. It was famous for it's minimal design and straightforward codebase called Genesis.
Their moto was "simple things don't break."
I've kept those words in mind ever since and I see the importance of simplicity everywhere in business.
The irony is that in many cases, simplicity is more difficult than complexity. It takes discipline, focus, and intentionality to keep it simple. Whereas complexity is easy, because there's no barrier to entry to add another feature or to have another idea.
I've been thinking a lot about where I can remove complexities in my life and my business. It's a difficult process, because many of the fun and creative ideas are the ones that I become emotionally attached to, so I don't want to let them go.
I combat this by reminding myself of my ultimate outcome. I ask "does this action get me closer to, or further away from achieving my ultimate outcome?"
If it doesn't get me closer to achieving my ultimate outcome, then I don't do it.
For me, this is about focus, simplicity, and repetition.
It will be challenging for me to ignore the shiny objects and squirrels, but I have a clear understanding of what my goals are and I am determined to accomplish them. In order to do that, I need full focus on the process and the outcome. Everything else is a distraction. Simple things don't break.
I wonder, how many distractions are you implementing on yourself? How much easier would your life be if you trained yourself to ignore 70% of your ideas, your thoughts, and your daydreaming?
Do you think that would make you more successful or less successful?
I have a feeling you would accomplish more than you ever imagined.
So give it a try. Give yourself the opportunity to go all in for one year.
You might fail, but it's highly unlikely you will go backwards.
Love you guys. Talk to you next week.
Tim