5 lessons I've learned from 50 issues of this newsletter ✋
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One year ago, I spontaneously decided to started a newsletter about writing, goals, and snacks. 90 people, including my own mother (hi, Mom!) signed up, which was all the encouragement I needed. Fifty issues later, here's what I've learned.
Lesson #1: Just Start
I’d never written a newsletter before, though I’d blogged for nearly two decades, tweeted incessantly, and sent plenty of long-winded emails. How hard could a newsletter be? As it turns out, kind of hard! Learning how to navigate Mailchimp, setting up a subscription page, begging family, friends, colleagues, and complete strangers to sign up - it’s a lot at first, and it can be overwhelming. I wondered who would actually read this weird, yet-to-be-defined thing, and celebrated each time an intrepid soul subscribed. I realized that it’s okay to learn as you go - you can't get better until you begin.
Lesson #2: Hit Send
When it comes to writing, my genre of choice is the novel. The problem with novels is that they take a really long time - my current project has been in progress for five years. The last time I actually published a piece of fiction was June of 2018, which makes me feel… not great. It doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist and often find myself caught in an endless cycle of revision. This newsletter cured me of such self-defeating instincts. Each week I had to hit send by Sunday at 10 a.m., no matter what. Some issues could have used a little more work, a bit more finessing. I sent them anyway. This past year, as I worked on projects that may never see the light of day, this newsletter became a refuge, a place to share my writing and everything else. Sometimes connection is more important than perfection.
Lesson #3: Be Open
As this newsletter evolved and focused more on creativity and the writing process, I tried to balance the universal with the personal. Anyone can tell you to write every day or how to craft a good sentence; only I can tell you what it’s like to balance a full-time job in marketing with a passion project, how my sprained ankle made me view writing in a different way, or why summer is the perfect time for an existential crisis. I’ve done my best to share the highs and the lows, and thanks in part to the responses I've received, I have no plans to stop. In other words, we're gonna get even more personal in year two. I hope you're prepared.
Lesson #4: Grow Slow
When I started this newsletter, I had 90 subscribers before I even sent my first issue. (If you’re an original, please consider yourself my hero.) Today, this email is going out to 514 people, a truly mind-boggling number. That growth happened over the course of a year, due to a few factors. I published consistently, befriended a few other newsletter writers who shared my work with their audiences, promoted my newsletter on social media, and encouraged current subscribers to share with their friends. HOWEVER. Audience size, while a great metric, doesn't really matter. The number I pay the most attention to is my open rate. I'd much rather have a small list that actually reads and engages with my newsletter than a huge list that mostly hits delete. And y’all are engaged! My open rate hovers around 65%, which is pretty incredible, and that’s 100% because of you.
Lesson #5: Always Reply
When someone replies to an issue and sends me a response, I honestly feel like I’ve won the lottery, and I always reply. Over these last twelve months I’ve made new friends, sent links and recipes, answered questions, discussed goals, and shared progress on projects. I love the intimacy of these conversations, the community we’re building. I don’t know how this newsletter will evolve over the course of the next year, but I’m so glad you trust me enough to come along. 💛
🍜 Snack of the Week 🍜
After two whole weeks apart while we settled into our new routines, I drove three hours this weekend to see my husband, who is currently living in a very tiny town outside of Charlotte while he goes to PA school. Luckily, this very tiny town has two equally tiny Thai restaurants, so we celebrated our reunion over an absurdly large dish of pad thai. As Nathan pointed out, this a meal and not a snack, but since we'll be eating leftovers for a few days, I'll allow it.
Relatable Reads
"An Anniversary Canoe Trip Down 'Divorce River'," Outside Magazine. "I don’t condone getting drunk on a river, but if it happens, Nebraska is an ideal place to be." Speaking of anniversaries, I loved this essay by my pal Carson Vaughan, documenting the trip he and his wife, Mel, took to celebrate two years of marriage. It's funny, charming, a little bit scary, AND made me cry at the end. Great work, Carson! 🚣♀️
"Cheer is Built on a Pyramid of Broken Bodies," The Atlantic. "[T]he series tells one of the oldest, darkest stories in American sports—of athletes with no pay and little support breaking their bodies again and again, all for the greater glory of an authority figure they dare not question." I loved Cheer, but this is a good counterpoint. 💔
"The Darkness Where the Future Should Be," New York Times. "Our problem is not just that new technologies regularly fail to thrill. It’s that, from artificial intelligence to genetic engineering to mass surveillance, they are frequently sources of horror." 😭
"How to Have a True Hobby, Not a Side Hustle," Vox. A bonus article, because these links were getting dark and this is supposed to be a celebratory issue. 🧶
A Tiny Challenge
This week's challenge is purely selfish. To celebrate one year of So Relatable, reply and tell me one reason you read this newsletter. I'd like to add a few more quotes to my subscribe page, and also my ego demands it.
See you next Sunday! 💌
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