Packy McCormick’s Not Boring ad-supported newsletter growth has been meteoric. Packy reflected on the first year in a refreshingly transparent way. I encourage you to read it in entirety.
A Not Boring Adventure, One Year In (Link)
I re-factored it a bit for future reference.
I realized that I could write about the things that I liked writing about — strategy, finance, economics, and tech — even though they were crowded, as long as I wrote about it with my own, unique voice.
[I encourage people by reminding them that everything is a remix but there are so many people who “hear” differently and your voice might be the one that resonates. There are no adults. Ask for forgiveness not permission. However you want to put it…get unstuck and move. Motion creates motion]
We decided the best path was to come up with a list of 100 growth ideas. We got to eleven, and did maybe three of them. I’m not a growth hack person.
I spend a lot of time on Twitter and talking to people to figure out the most interesting companies and things going on that people don’t quite understand, and then I try to understand and translate.
Good for: Topics with a clear focus, especially work-related ones that can be expensed
Good for: More general content with wider appeal
[A fast growing letter with a large possible audience seems to be better suited to ads.]
I surveyed Not Boring readers to learn more about their backgrounds, professions, and preferences, and with examples of previous sponsorships in hand, put together a rough sponsorship deck. Instead of doing outbound sales, because I hate selling, once I had the deck, I decided to tweet it out into the universe
The Not Boring Flywheel
Writing —> Not Boring Investing Syndicate —> Attracts growing companies —> Loop
The only things I’m not optimistic about are cynics and “well, actually…” people. It’s easy to dunk. It’s easy to look smart saying why things aren’t going to work. But those people are not our people. [emphasis on this negative screen is mine]. Not Boring is for the optimists, and for the people trying to make crazy things happen. I’m definitely going to be biased. I’m going to have the backs of the companies in which we invest, and the companies that support Not Boring.
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