I've decided to stop writing daily. And I thought I'd just unpack a little bit about my thought process on why I wrote daily in the first place and why right now I'm. It's not that I'm going to stop writing daily because I think I'm going to still publish and write frequently. It's really that I don't want the pressure to feel like I have to write daily or even once a day. Uh, and I'll get into all this stuff, even though I think it's been extraordinarily helpful for me so far.
So number one, the reason I got into daily writing was one because I wanted to make an effort into getting into more mentoring and community building around the marketing advisor. Uh, space and helping other marketing consultants. And now freelancers build and run a profitable. Business and ultimately create more leverage around their expertise, not their hands.
And. When I was doing that, I, I knew that the only way I was going to figure out what my big ideas were and to bring them to the world was to write about them often. So it really helped to clarify. My thinking and it forces you to daily writing and committing publicly to creating content daily really forces you to. Clarify your thinking and put it. Put it in clear terms, so that. Uh, so that you can articulate your idea as I'm struggling to do right now.
So it was a really beneficial exercise to go through, at least for me. And it allowed me to kind of get, figure out what my big ideas were. And now I'm going to kind of comb back through them and go deeper. On some of those ideas, maybe create more content. Uh, out of it and maybe more assets as a result, and maybe even play with the formatting, play with some SEO, play with some longer form, switch it up, mix it up. But ultimately not feeling like I need to ship something every single day.
Via email, which was, which was what I was doing. So that doesn't mean that I'm going to slow down tremendously, but, but it was a big, um, but. We'll get into the reasons why I'm going to stop doing this. It was really helpful to, to do that in the beginning of, to clarify my thinking and forced me to put it in the paper. And if you can write it out, it, it shows the clarity of your thoughts and. So just thinking about things is not always the best way to.
To, um, to know if your ideas are any good, you have to put them out into the world. So it clarifies your thinking and forces you to put it on paper. Um, and then it forces you to share with the world and get feedback. So getting that feedback has been really helpful as well. And I've got a lot of engagement on my email list and people responding to a lot of emails and, and I can kind of see what resonates and what doesn't.
And so it kind of gives me hints as to where I need to focus my content, my energy, and maybe ideas that are either less useful or. More valuable for another day. So that was one of the main reasons that another one is that, you know, it really does, as I was starting at, this is sort of a new project in a new target market. You kind of creates that escape. Velocity allows you to.
It allows you to, it allows you to gain enough momentum, to build a little bit of an audience, to build the seeds of a community. And those have been really great benefits and byproducts, but it allows you to kind of get off the ground. And use that as sort of the rocket fuel, you know, when a rocket is going into space, it uses an extraordinary amount of energy to get off the ground and then to get momentum. And then ultimately to. To get into the atmosphere.
So that's why doing daily writing or very frequent writing. Uh, was really valuable for me. It helped build a mini audience and a community that's still growing. And it also helped me clarify my thinking and all the other benefits. Um, I also noticed that, uh, the people that I subscribed to who have done or who do daily writing.
Uh, I've I've purchased from, I purchased something from all of them, and that was just kind of an interesting, Uh, tell is that, is that, uh, You know, at some point in the journey I've purchased something, whether a small ticket. Book or something as large as a consulting or coaching engagement. And so I know that it works on me as a consumer. I like reading daily content on very specific niche topics. And I think that's really critical as well, too.
Uh, to be able to write dailies, you have to think small. And so forced me to get small in terms of my topics in my niche and my ideas so that I could then broaden again. Uh, and then do you know. Yeah, so I can kind of go wider, but first figuring out what is the core ideas and who is it for? So, Because I knew that insight and because I believe in that frequency, recency and potency as the main factors. For, uh, doing daily writing and it allowed me to kind of. To, uh, to.
Put myself out there in a way that has created a financial ROI and it's still continuing to, and that's great. And so I'm going to continue to kind of evolve my strategy more in alignment with my current energy and interests. Um, the other last thing I'll say is that it is a differentiator. There's not many people out there who publish seven days a week, particularly to their blog or email. And I think it's a bit of a different format than social media.
Uh, or, you know, LinkedIn, Twitter or other kind of platforms. I think those are, those are great platforms. I would encourage anyone. To publish as often as they, as they can or want to on. These social media platforms, but very few people are willing to publish it on their own. Website and have that sort of sense of permanence. And I think that's the best place to put it.
If you're going to invest energy daily into content, ideally wants to live on your website and then maybe repurpose it for distribution purposes on say LinkedIn, Twitter, other places. So. It, uh, it does kind of create a differentiator because in the world where there's a million kind of gurus or people who are claiming they can help you. Uh, Very few of them are showing up every single day, which is a form of credibility in itself. You're more likely to be.
Less risky when you're writing daily, because you're showing up, you're showing that you're consistent. And I think that's a really valuable quality when people are considering hiring you for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. So, those are kind of the main reasons that I got into it and it's been extraordinarily beneficial and helpful, and I continue to. I'm grateful that I've done this and I'll continue to publish as often as I, as I can. The risk in.
Allowing myself off the hook of daily. So this is one day after I've said I'm not going to do daily and I'm recording this podcast. So I may just continue creating content to the extent that I can. I just don't want to have to feel like I need to do it. At midnight after a long day. Cause I couldn't get to it earlier or after, you know, 11:00 PM at night. Uh, so we'll get into some of the reasons I'm I'm I'm not doing it, but. Um, Yeah, it is. It is the benefit of writing or committing to daily.
Is that a force you to dig deep? Find your best idea that day articulated whether on audio or a podcast like this. And so I think it's a really valuable exercise to go through, especially if you are feeling inertia and most of us are not competing against the most similar competitor on our market. Most of us are actually competing against inertia. The inertia in. In the minds and bodies of your target market. So doing nothing is far more prevalent than hiring your competitor to do the job.
So, uh, You know, I think it's really just important to kind of get inertia. To flip that concept around back to you. Uh, is if you're feeling inertia with your own marketing, the best thing to do is the best medicine is just a published daily or some other fixed schedule. And so I'm, I'm playing with this idea of. Doing a little bit more kind of variable publishing and, you know, if you kind of tied, I think, you know, in a way it's more interesting because it's kind of like a variable reward.
When you go to the slot machines and you pull the. The slots, slot machines. Uh, not that many of you are avid slaughters. I imagine you're not, but even if you are. Um, because you only win. Sometimes there's a variable reward element. So it actually kinda makes you look forward to that. A little bit more and it kind of creates more. Compelling and more. You know, you can, my theory is that potentially it'll be more exciting to see my name pop in your inbox.
'cause it'll feel like, well, I wonder what he has to say today, because it's important enough that he's writing or communicating today. Um, because he doesn't have to do it every day and therefore there must be something good to say. So it kind of increases the stakes a little bit on me to make sure that the content is good and worth reading. Uh, nonetheless, having a schedule is really a great forcing function to make you publish.
When I was writing weekly, it was really hard for me to publish. And when I wrote daily, I just got it done. Even today. This is one day after I said, I'm not going to do daily. Here I am publishing again. It's going to be really hard the first day, whether that's tomorrow or whenever for me not to publish something. Cause that's the effect of consistency and momentum. So we'll see how it goes. I just want to let myself off the hook for a bit, and I'll kind of talk about why, why that is now.
So why am I, what are the reasons? Number one? You know, I'm at capacity, I'm at the top. More or less of my capacity. And, um, and what that means is that there's, there's, you know, there is room in my day, but, um, you know, probably about 40% of my day is not on calls. Or, or more, um, but when you factor everything in, it gets really hard to do kind of deep work and the work that I do, you know, sometimes there's communication between calls.
And so it ends up being that I'm more or less at the capacity I want to be, uh, so that I'm not working nine hours a day, but I have some breathing room. Uh, but it's still, it's still adds up. And the other thing is that. Um, my, my I've, I've got a new baby due in a month, so I want to kind of put myself in a place where I have ample breathing room. You know, and things are going great in the business right now. And I'm grateful.
So I'm not going to take the foot off the gas, but I am going to give. Let myself off the hook for it, for those one or two times where I'm just too tired to function. And therefore, I don't want to subject said this to someone who responded to my email yesterday. Uh, I don't want to subject my audience to, uh, my baby brain daily, especially in those days where. You know, frankly, I can imagine it's going to be a little bit much for a while. So. Um, And also I'm not getting great sleep.
Now my, my kiddo wakes up sometimes in the middle of night and sort of interrupts my sleeping. And so a lot of times I'm getting limited sleep in this, you know, a whole bunch of stuff, but. So you just had to be realistic about bandwidth and trade-offs and I want to make sure that the quality of work that I put out is good. But I'm not gonna overthink that either. I'm still going to aim for 80 or 85%. Perfect. And then ship it because that's going to get the result.
And it's not about perfection. Perfectionism is what prevents you from. From publishing in the first place. So I'm not going to fall into that trap. I'm not going to promise that. All my content going forward is going to be. Perfect. And the most articulate, well thought content in the world that I think gets in the way. Of results, which is what your hard for. So, uh, in knowing that, you know, I already have a full plate of work and again, the worst thing you can do is get so busy.
You don't do your own marketing, so I'm not advocating for doing well. No marketing, and I'm going to keep, keep publishing obviously. And keep doing other things. Um, but I want to just be realistic about that. Plus current sleeping plus new baby on the way in a couple of weeks, I really want to kind of keep buffer and bandwidth. When my first kiddo arrived, COVID hit shortly after and we were just completely sleep deprived. I also took on every client I could.
And so you had this combination of the lowest amount of sleep I've ever had. Uh, because he's never been a great sleeper, my first born and, uh, and also the most work I ever had. And it was, it was a bit of a mess I've continually made my work more efficient and also not overbooked myself even to this day. I'm at the highest revenue. Probably by, by about 20%, uh, over the all-time high, maybe, maybe 30.
And, um, So that's all good, but I don't, I don't want to kind of, I don't want to burn out and I don't want to be, you know, In the similar situation that it was when. One of my first was born and then COVID hit and we were, you know, it was just an exhausting period. So I just want to buy. Room. Right. And I think this there's a season in everyone's life to earn money and, and then there's a season two. Just be realistic. And I think. You can earn tons of money without working tons of hours.
And that's the goal is to reduce the level of intensity with the work we do, nonetheless, that requires some trade off. So I'm giving myself breathing room. I'm letting myself off the hook for a season. But I'm still gonna publish relentless as much as I can. Uh, and play with it, play with the format a little bit. So number one is yes, I'm booked, but that's no excuse because I would even, no matter how busy I am always mark and myself, and that's gotta be the rule.
If you find yourself too busy to market yourself. Uh, the business is running you and it's only a matter of time before it runs out. And then you're now replacing a pipeline with no with no leads in it. And that's not great. You always want to keep people warmed up and keep people exposed to your ideas. And, and then, you know, when the time is right and you can, you can sell when you need to.
So that's that baby on board, uh, fully booked sleeping as a factor and energy overall, I find myself writing, you know, at 1130 at night. After a, you know, it's gone to sleep and I've done all the chores and cleaning of the day and walk the dog and. Uh, it can be, you know, if I didn't get it done in a day, then that's yet another thing that gets in between me and sleep. So. Uh, got to factor that in. Um, the other thing is that there's a sort of a general feeling like I have to.
So when you publish daily, that's a good thing when you need that momentum. But I've gained the momentum now. And so now it sort of feels like I have to do it, but I don't. And lots of times I feel great about it and I want to do it and I feel great after I published it. Just like exercise. Uh, which I try to do every day, as much as I can. Uh, some days I don't. But it does feel good when you get it done, but it also comes at a cost. So, um, I don't like this feeling like I have to do it.
I want to kind of give myself a freedom to. To create again and sort of, you know, and to continue to play with the format, to play with the content that I produce and share. And curate and, and whatever else. So I want to be able to add a little more flexibility and also potentially invest in things like search engine optimization, maybe a longer form content. Um, that sort of thing. So playing with the structure so I can.
Frankly, see how, see what results I get Z kind of how things are impacted. Um, so there's that. And what else there is also, I think one of the things that I. That I noticed is that the people, I like their content that I like reading. Their content is a little more sporadic or it's once a week. And so you run this risk of on the one hand, the daily publishers you tune out after awhile. Uh, but you drop in and out of their content depending on where you are in your business.
So that's always a good thing. And the benefits are that it keeps showing up in your inbox. So you have to hire them or work with them, even if you don't read their content, which is crazy. It's almost like an ad for their name. Uh, as long as you're adding value, you get to stay in people's inboxes, which in and of itself can produce tons of business results. But the people I read the most and people I'm most excited to read. Right.
A little bit less often, it's kind of variable or it's maybe once a week and they just write a good. Original piece of content that a. That, that I look forward to reading. And so I wanted to kind of just be aware of my own buying habits and my own. Uh, reading habits so that I can kind of produce content that, um, would resonate with me and therefore hopefully resonates with many others. One of the ways I'm doing that is through audio content versus writing.
Like if I were to write all this down, This would be a really long process, but I'm now 14, 15 minutes into this end. Uh, Um, it's been good. So. It allows me to get ideas out. So playing with the content formats, and I want to interview more people and there's a lot of stuff I want to do in my business. And you can't, you can't do it all. I want to interview people for this podcast.
I've just interviewed someone yesterday and I'm going to be publishing that in the next couple of days in this, on this podcast feed. So. Um, lots I can do, but you just have to be pragmatic about how much time you have, how much energy you have and if you're sleeping great. Like when I was sleeping eight, nine hours a night, Oh man. I was feeling on fire. I would kick it exercise, especially, you know, before kids that can exercise in the morning.
We're a great day, you know, and I could work a night and like, like, you know, you can just work more hours and have more energy. Not so much anymore. So you just have to be pragmatic no matter what there's always limits. And even the big companies that I work with and consult for they're all bottlenecked by resources, no matter how big they are, no matter how big their team is, no matter how much money they have, they're all bottlenecked in some way. So. That's just true of all of us.
I'm learning to accept this idea of trade-offs and I think is really valuable. You just have to be realistic. And if you're like me, which I, in some ways. I imagine many of you are, you're optimistic about what you can accomplish within your, the time that you have. Um, you feel like you can take on the next client. Do you feel like you can. Publish that content.
Do you feel like you can do all these things and that there really is no limit to your capacity, but in reality, you do have a limit and. Not only do you risk burning out, but you also risk. Doing poor quality work or poor quality outcome outcomes. Across all the things you do. And that's the risk, right? So, uh, unless you have a huge team, but even then. Everyone's got, you know, your effectiveness becomes diminished. The more you take on.
So I want to keep refining and deleting and cutting back on my requirements so that I can produce the best quality stuff. And keep my head in my energy. Uh, and my time. Constraints to my working hours and, uh, and keep myself feeling and producing the best possible work. So that's the overarching kind of goal with this. And, uh, yeah, so I think those are the main kind of reasons. I think it feels good to not be obliged to write daily. The downside, unfortunately, is that.
You know, that rare era of publishing every day of that claim to fame, I publish every day on your blog or your email list or your podcast or all of it. Uh, is, you know, is, is a factor that I'll lose, but that's okay. And, um, you know, because I'm evolving and I think that's important. So nothing wrong with daily writing. I think it's a great place to start. I've done this for 550 days or so in a row.
And, uh, I would encourage people to do this when they're getting either started a new project, want to clarify their ideas or just dramatically drum up activity, creating content, creating noise. Brings people's attention. And hopefully that noise sounds like music and not like a, I don't know. Nails on the chalkboard. And a big fan of creating a lot of content being, uh, As productive as you can in that area, because it's the number one thing that's going to help you.
Clarify your thinking and attract more people. The right kinds of people to your, to your business. Pre warmed up and pre ready to buy. And that's kind of the main goal of the content. So, um, so that's about it. I just wanted to kind of share those, those reasons with you and, um, Um, I look forward to exploring other content formats and going deeper. More interviews and, um, yeah, playing with playing with the business model that this is all one big evolution.
I think you have to, you have to watch what's working. What's not, um, the emails that I send have about a 50% open rate, which is great. And, uh, you know, but, um, growth is slow. There's only a couple of hundred people on my list, so, um, could definitely do with a lot more. So maybe, you know, I'm going to play with lead lead opt-in incentives and. And different frequencies and different formats.
So, um, that's the beauty, you know, when you're running a business like this, because my consulting. My other consulting work covers all my bills and more. Uh, the mentorship stuff that I, that I get a lot of energy from and enjoy doing. As a long time horizon that it needs for success. So I'm not in a rush. So therefore I get to do things in a sustainable way and, uh, keep a long-term perspective. And that feels great.
When you're not looking to short-term results and you get to keep a multi-year horizon. You do things a bit differently. And so, yes, I would love to keep running daily forever, but I know, I know how, how hard it will be when my kid is born. And, uh, and, uh, so I think mental, the mental component of, of what we do and having mental bandwidth. So you can do great work. Is a really vital part. It's not about to me, at least in this phase of my life. It's not about maximizing my revenue.
It's about maximizing my presence. Am. And my personal life at home. As well as with the clients to do that, I do work with so. Just want to share that with you. And, uh, I look forward to. Continuing to share the journey and sharing the lessons that I learned along the way in hopes that it helps you. Um, definitely publish as much as you can, if that is aligned with their strategy.
You can go back and look up the potency, recency and frequency as being the three, the three things we look at potency, you'll find it on my blog or in the community. Uh, cause that's a really great lever. And so hopefully there'll be a little less frequency and maybe a little more potency. Uh, we'll see. And, uh, but that's part of the strategy and the evolution. Let me know your thoughts. I'm really curious to hear what your, you.
If you have any followup questions, or if you're thinking about going daily and hopefully this doesn't dissuade you. I think daily is a great, great format. It adds a lot of credibility clarifies your thinking and gets your nuts, your name and your message out there. So I think that's really valuable. Um, And, uh, yeah.
And if not, you know, what are you going to do instead, that's going to be dramatic or significant enough to get people to notice and to get them opting in and to get them engaged. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And as an outsider, I'd love to hear what you think is right. What I should be doing. If not, if not doing, if not doing this, uh, Not making this decision for these reasons. That's all for now. I look forward to chatting with you again, if you'd like.
If you like these ideas and do you know anyone who's a marketing advisor or even a freelancer getting started? Um, Sending my way, send them to this podcast, send them to kevin.me/mine. Sheriff. They'd like to join the community or, uh, or just send them to Kevin, not me. If you want to get on the email list and see if the content resonates before jumping into anything. Uh, they'll get my podcast, my articles and access to the community.
And I think that's a. That's my main mission is to keep spreading the word and to keep connecting with people. So I hope this helps and I look forward to seeing some of you. We have a meetup tomorrow, May 10th. Uh, as we do once a month with the mind share community. So. Uh, if you listen to this. Today on the day I publish it. Make sure you're there. Uh, you can RSVP. From within the community. And, uh, there's a link in there as well.
So I look forward to chatting with you tomorrow and we'll talk again soon. Bye. For now.