Much of what we create is the result of many unseen forces happening just beneath the surface. As a result of some recent automations, I now have more time to create. Two automations specifically are going to save me hours of manual data entry while making my AI 10x smarter. In short: My Notion workspace now "talks" to my marketing platforms in real-time. 1. Email Marketing Sync: - My email metrics now flow automatically into the Notion database where I write my drafts. - The Result: Notion AI can now analyze my content and its effectiveness instantly. No more manual data entry or copy-pasting to see what’s working. 2. Threads & UTM Tracking: - I’m now syncing UTM data directly to the specific Threads post that generated a new subscriber. - The Result: I can see exactly which posts drive a sign-ups. Notion AI can now analyze which content converts instead of just vanity metrics. Why this matters: It might sound technical, but it means I spend less time on spreadsheets and more time using AI-driven insights to create better content. So I’m curious — what are you automating in your business right now? - If you’re already automating, what’s your favorite automation? - If you haven't started yet, what's the one manual task you'd love to get off your plate? 👇 Let me know in the comments!

I've been working with John on monetizing my list, and after several weeks of asking lots of questions to my readers, we realized the following: 1) Creating a lead magnet was something that would solve problems for many of my readers 2) I myself don't have a proper lead magnet with which to steadily grow my list with high quality subscribers So - John conceived of the idea of running a live cohort for a minimal price, in which I would build a lead magnet for myself while showing the cohort members my process, and giving them feedback as they create theirs. Jan 29 - initial tease to my list and LinkedIn to gauge interest Feb 4 - official "launch" with an email describing the live cohort Feb 13 - registration closed ​ Total marketing: 12 emails to my small list & 10 LinkedIn posts Zero ad spend. ​ 15 days from concept creation to launch closing. 4 cohort members paying me $99 each. Our first call is on Monday, and I've already built a template that is on its way to becoming my first sellable info-product. And of course, I started creating my own lead magnet, which will probably be a summary of this lead magnet building process. So - if you, too, are a barefoot shoemaker, perhaps you can also let your audience pay for the privilege of coming along for the ride as you make your own shoes.

After months of only sending 1-2 emails a week, this week I sent out four! Let's see if I can keep this up next week.

Piggy backing on Maliha's Update, I thought I'd share an update on the Threads win's I discussed the last time around. First, Maliha caught wind of some of my success, gave it try, and decided it's not for her, at least not now. I don't blame her... There's a lot of crap out there, and social media is not for everyone. But over the past few years I've learned a thing or two, and one of the things I experimented with recently is something I'm calling "Buyer Persona Battleship". It's where, with the assistance of Chat GPT, you quickly map out 11 mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive buyer personas who are best fit for whatever it is you have to offer, and identify what the main motivation they have for achieving whatever benefit your offer or service provides. Then, again with Chat GPT, you quickly map the map out the primary pain points, desires, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings across all 5 stages of customer awareness. Then, again with Chat GPT, you quickly turn all those insights into 100s of very simple audience callouts inviting people to check out your profile on Threads. And for whatever reason... the Threads algorithm deems this very simple, rudimentary posts as "highly personalized" and therefore fit to show to tens of thousands, or sometimes hundreds of thousands of people. Where most posts get 500-1000 views. These get thousands. No matter your follower count. It's kind of insane, but it makes total since when you understand how the social algorithms work. Which is basically: show people content hyper personalized to them. The result is a simple piece of content that looks something like this: "If you spent your 20s or 30s digging yourself into debt but deep down you desperately want to become financially free, I hope you find my page." This is a real post from one of my clients who teaches Financial Independence and investing, and it got 189,000 views while generating 1,600 news followers for his account. And while we can't be 100% precise on measuring email subscribers according to individual posts, the estimate is around 100 new email subscribers from this post alone.

To piggyback off Kevin, who piggybacked on Maliha... here's a micro-win I got this week (direct message I sent to John): I got a gift from the Magi -- I wrote up a post on Substack mentioning a publisher about an insight I picked up from one of his posts. He dug the post and we're currently having a discussion about a potential partnership. I'm not technically hoping for anything to happen, and I did it without expecting anything in return. But if it happens, I could potentially end up with a couple hundred subs. His publication has about 10k or so. I'm currently at three subscribers. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know.