A New Experiment I’m Trying

Newsletter


Hey friends,

A few days ago, I did a sick podcast episode with Nathan Barry, the founder and CEO ofย ConvertKit. If you havenโ€™t heard of it, ConvertKit is an email platform for creators and businesses. Theyโ€™ve been running for 10 years, and do $40m+ in annual revenue which is bonkers. In fact, they even open-source most of their metrics onย this page, which I absolutely love. Theyโ€™re also the platform that I use for this very newsletter.

But what was somewhat surprising about the 2h30m long conversation I had with Nathan on the podcast, is that we spent basically zero time talking about his business. Instead, we talked a LOT about the creator economy, flywheels, how the next generation of creators are building $100m+ businesses, and a bunch more things. Canโ€™t wait for you guys to listen to the episode.

But there was one major takeaway that Iโ€™m trying out as an experiment in my life – writing 1,000 words per day.

From 2012-2015 (ish), Nathan wrote 1,000 words a day for 600 days. In that time, he published 3 e-Books, tonnes of blog posts, and even more content to grow his social platforms. In fact, he basically said that โ€œwriting 1000 words a day was the catalyst for everything good in my careerโ€. Here’s aย really good blog postย where he talks about this in more detail.

I was so inspired to hear about this. And it made me realise that in the line of work Iโ€™m in, writing 1,000 words a day would be absolutely game-changing.

Everything I do is downstream of writing – the YouTube videos, the podcast episodes, these newsletters, my upcoming book (and future books), content for my socials (eg: Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram etc) – all of it is downstream of writing.

The more I write, the more stuff I can share.

But other than when I was working on my book,ย Feel-Good Productivityย (now available forย preorderย ๐Ÿ˜œ), Iโ€™ve never really had a writing-themed goal. Iโ€™d always just read stuff, and then hit record and try to speak from the heart. Iโ€™m still planning to do this for some of my videos, but now that Iโ€™ve been in this โ€œcareerโ€ for 6 years, Iโ€™d like to experiment with being more thoughtful and structured with what I put out there.

This newsletter is probably going to always continue to be a public journal of sorts, where I can share from the heart without overthinking it. But especially for future book projects, and increasingly for YouTube videos and even social media posts, I want to lean into spending more time in theย writingย phase.

Because writing isnโ€™t just the mechanism for output. Itโ€™s also the mechanism for thinking.

The more I write, the more ideas I have. The more I write, the more developed those ideas get. The more I write, the better stuff I can put into books, videos, podcasts, and everything else I do.

So the goal is this – writing 1,000 words a day, for at least the next 30 days, to see what happens. So far, itโ€™s been 7 days, and Iโ€™ve managed it! Itโ€™s been quite rewarding.

If youโ€™d like to join me on this challenge, let me know and weโ€™ll see what we can do ๐Ÿ™‚

Have a great week!

Ali xx

๐Ÿ’• My Favourite Things this Week

  1. Video –ย This video from Alex Hormoziย was great. He breaks down the 8 different things that a business needs to become a valuable and saleable asset. I donโ€™t intend to sell mine, but there was plenty here to learn that made me think: โ€œohhhh this is what a grown-up business doesโ€. In particular, Alexโ€™s point about automated dashboards, and about cutting other people into deals, was a firmware update for my mind.
  2. Another Videoย –ย This video about the FTX fruadย from my friend James Jani is an absolute masterpiece – storytelling, editing, sound design, research, itโ€™s got it all. The video took him 8 months to make, and itโ€™s gotten 1.6m views in the first 7 days. I love Jamesโ€™ videos because they demonstrate a totally radically different approach to YouTube than mine – treating videos as Netflix documentaries that take months to make rather than โ€œlet me hit record and share something Iโ€™ve just learnedโ€. You wonโ€™t regret checking the video out.
  3. Yet Another Videoย – Speaking of masterpieces,ย this video from Johnny Harrisย was also absolutely incredible. Johnny and his team manage to create bangers on a ridiculously frequent upload schedule. My team and I watch every one of his videos to (a) be amazed, (b) be educated, and (c) be inspired to up the quality of our own stuff.

๐ŸŽฌ My New Videos

๐ŸŽฌย 8 Powerful Laws of Success That Changed My Lifeย – Steven Bartlett’s new book The Diary of a CEO just came out so I gave it a read and absolutely loved it. In this video I go through my favourite 8 laws of success from the book.

โœ๏ธ Quote of the Week

โ€œThere is another reason that note-taking flies mostly under the radar: We donโ€™t experience any immediate negative feedback if we do it badly.”

Fromย How to Take Smart Notesย by Sรถnke Ahrens. Resurfaced usingย Readwise.

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