Tag: lessons learned

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But Why Would I Want To?

I took that photo from my window seat at JFK International Airport in New York City. The sun is setting as I headed out to Paris for work.

I was talking recently with a friend about red-eye flights. When I was younger, a red-eye didn’t really bother me. I’d fly back from the West Coast at midnight, land at 6 a.m., and go to work at 9. Not a big deal!

But I’m in my mid-30s now. My body doesn’t handle red-eye flights anymore. I like being in a bed; I need sleep.

So my travel rules have changed. I’d much rather fly back early in the day and lose a day than suffer through a red-eye. Could I save a few bucks on a red-eye? Yes, but with what I know about my body, why would I want to?

And the same applies to most things that I do. Could I take on that one extra project, work until midnight most nights, and make a little extra money? Sure, but why would I want to? (The business makes enough money, and part of going independent was about getting the flexibility to work the hours I wanted.)

Could I say “yes” to that meeting across town, even though it’ll take a normally busy day and make it extra busy? I suppose, by why would I want to? (I can always hop on a call or Zoom instead.)

Could I agree to write that blog post for someone else’s site? Yeah, but what would I want to? (I have my own website! And that piece of writing is more valuable to me if I publish it on my own site.)

Could I? The answer is often yes. But there’s the second question you need to ask yourself: Why would you want to? If there’s not a resounding answer to that question, it might be the moment to say “no.”

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I took that photo a few years ago while on an evening flight from New York to Paris. (With those flights, you have to fly overnight, sadly.)

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It’s Not About the Name. It’s About What You Do With It.

Heres's Munch, wearing their signature brown bag over their head

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the most trusted name in dining in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was someone named… Munch.

Munch was the food critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Munch’s true identify was unknown — they appeared in the paper as a photo of someone with a paper bag over their head. They wrote in third person. (Here’s one line from a review of a local brunch spot: “Munch knew the French toast should’ve been Munch’s choice.”)

Lots of cities had anonymous food critics — not many had a byline like “Munch.” But talk to anyone from Pittsburgh and they’ll tell you what an influential critic Munch was. Their reviews were widely read and respected in western Pennsylvania. Munch stood for excellence in dining — if Munch said the food was good, you could trust it.

And it’s a reminder for me: You don’t need the most sophisticated branding. A name is just a name. What matters is what you do with it.

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That’s the photo of Munch that appeared in reviews in print.

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You’re Allowed to Delegate.

Here's a photo of a laundry basket. Ours is white, not blue, but you get the idea.

Sally and I are on vacation this week, but I’m thinking back to the days before we left.

I had a busy week last week: A big presentation, a dozen calls, work on a few new articles for the site, and a lot of emails to deal with. I’m often busy, but this was more than usual.

And in the 48 hours before we left, with Sally working back-to-back days, I was trying to do everything: All of the work, plus all of the packing, laundry, and cleaning. I don’t get visibly stressed too often, but I was last week. (Just re-writing this, I’m feeling the stress levels rise again!)

So Sally reminded me: It’s OK to delegate. No, she can’t take on my work, but she’ll always have the time to help with errands or tasks around the house. Yes, she’s also busy, but no, that doesn’t mean I have to do everything.

It was a reminder I needed to hear. I don’t have to be Superman — I can share the load with her. There’s no award for doing it all; there are just consequences.

The next time the work piles up, see if you can find a way to share the responsibility and take a little off your plate. You don’t need to do 120 percent of the work. In the long run, you can’t.

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That photo of a laundry basket comes via Annie Spratt and Unsplash.

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What Are You In Such a Rush For?

That’s a photo of a jam-packed First Avenue here in New York City

When I talk with a prospective new client, they almost always tell me: We want to grow as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

And that’s natural — but my follow-up question is usually: Why?

If you’ve got the team in place, and the strategy in place, I understand the need to grow, and grow quickly — you’re trying to reach a level of scale where your business can flourish.

But so many of the teams I talk to aren’t there yet. They don’t have the team yet. They don’t have the strategy yet.

And in those cases, growth shouldn’t be the top priority. Their priority should be growing their audience to the point where they can prove out their editorial concept and business model. Only once they’ve done that should they shift into growth mode.

Yes, growth always sounds great. But maybe it’s worth asking yourself: What are we in such a rush for?

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That’s a photo of a jam-packed First Avenue here in New York City. It was taken by Lerone Pieters for Unsplash.

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You Know More Than You Might Admit.

That's a photo of a WordPress screen with various plugins. It's not from my site.

I’ve been helping one of my writers out recently, and they asked a question: Dan, any chance you know how to fix this little WordPress issue that’s been bothering us?

I’ve got this very site on WordPress, and Inbox Collective runs on WordPress, so I know a bit. I told them I couldn’t promise anything, but I’d be happy to give the issue a look.

And then, over the course of the next hour, we managed to fix that issue — plus a handful of other WordPress issues that had been bugging them for a while.

Does it mean I’m suddenly giving up email and going into WordPress design now? Oh, absolutely not. I still barely know anything about this platform.

But I know enough to share and to help — at least sometimes. And on the right day, that might be enough.

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That photo of a WordPress site (not mine) comes via Stephen Phillips and Unsplash.

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Make It Work For You.

That's a photo of a Brother typewriter, in teal and black.

I’ve been working with a few newsletter writers who are in a period of transition. For nearly two years, they’d been writing multiple newsletters per week. Now, they’re all trying to figure out what to do next. Should they write more, or less? Should they change the way they monetize?

And my advice, over and over, has been simple: Whatever you do choose to do next, make it work for you.

There isn’t a single way forward here. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Which means that the right answer, for now, is the one that works for each of these writers. It’s up to them to figure out what they want to build and how they want to build it. There’s no need to build around someone else’s constraints or rules — they’re free to do what’s best for them.

Maybe that means, as I told one writer, telling their readers that they’d be taking a month off in December so they can get ahead for 2023 and pre-write the first few months of newsletters. “I’m allowed to do that?” they asked me.

You are, I told them, because this is all about making it work for you.

Maybe it means changing up the way they monetize. One writer’s been trying to push forward with a paid subscription, but it isn’t working as well as they hoped. But they do have a fairly large, engaged audience. Advertising might be a better way forward for them.

“Can I just cancel the paid offering and switch businesses models?” they asked me.

You can, I said, because if you’re going to make this work, it first needs to work for you.

What’s the best route forward? Figure out what’s best for you , and work from there.

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That’s a photo of a Brother typewriter, in teal and black. It comes via photographer Laura Rivera and Unsplash.

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Don’t Overtinker.

That's my golf swing. I think I'm too hunched over, or maybe my right elbow is too high, or maybe I need to pick a new sport.

As I’ve played more golf over the past year, I’ve realized something: It’s easy to make too many changes.

Every time I check YouTube or Instagram, the algorithm serves me with another video promising a quick fix to my swing. Sure, you’re playing decently, Dan, but what if you adjusted your stance? What if you stood up taller? What if you had more bend in the knee at impact? What if you moved the ball back in your stance? What if you bowed your wrist at the top of the swing? What if you tried a lower follow-through? No, wait, what if you tried a higher follow-through!

And it’s easy for all these thoughts to get in my head and screw everything up. On a normal day, I’m a decent golfer. Not great, not terrible — but the more swing thoughts I have, the worse I play.

When I go to the driving range, sometimes I’ll try to implement a small tweak to my swing, but usually, I’m impatient. If it doesn’t work right away, I’ll drop it, or move on to the next tweak.

But if you keep changing stuff before you have time to see results, how will you know if it’s working?

No matter what it is you’re doing — improving a golf swing, running an A/B test, trying out a new strategy — you have to be willing to be patient. Find things you want to try, and commit to them for a certain length of time. Often, it’s not the tactics that are wrong — it’s just that you didn’t wait long enough to see the results.

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That’s me, hitting golf balls at Chelsea Piers in New York. Not a bad view for a driving range!

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What’s Your One Unique Thing?

I flew through Chicago a few weeks ago. I flew Delta, like I usually do, even though Chicago O’Hare is a hub for American and United. There aren’t that many flights on Delta out of O’Hare every day, and Delta’s flights have always operated out of some of the oldest gates at the airport.

But when I was there, the Delta staff mentioned something to me: They’d be moving to a brand-new terminal later in the month. That meant new gates, a new check-in area, and a new Delta SkyClub for their frequent fliers.

The SkyClub, in particular, was built with an interesting feature: For flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, passengers can board the plane directly from the SkyClub. They don’t need to exit the lounge and go to the gate.

Delta can’t compete with American or United when it comes to the number of flights or the connections they offer at O’Hare. But nobody else at that airport offers the ability for a business traveler to work from the lounge, then walk directly onto the plane. By building something like this, they’re hoping that frequent fliers from Chicago to New York might like the SkyClub enough to permanently change who they fly with.

This got me thinking about the things that make any person or any business stand out. For me, for the past few years, it’s been where I publish — people don’t easily forget the guy with a Google Doc. Many have asked me if I’d ever move Not a Newsletter over to a blog or another format, and the answer’s always been “no.” When you do something that stands out, you lean into it.

You still have to do more than just have a unique thing — if my Google Doc wasn’t very useful, it wouldn’t matter where I publish it. But having a unique thing might help you get noticed amongst the crowd.

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That photo is of the new Chicago SkyClub, and it comes via Delta’s own site.

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Even The Experts Make Mistakes.

That’s what my authentication settings look like now. The big three — SPF, DKIM, and DMARC — are at the bottom. There are only two options: PASS or FAIL. (You can probably figure out which is one you want.)

A few weeks ago, I did something stupid.

There are three big things that any email sender needs to set up to properly authenticate their emails: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These are the three things that an email client like Gmail looks for to make sure that the person or company sending that email really is who they say they are.

And one of my readers pointed out that there was a small issue with part of my authentication settings. Not great — especially for someone who professionally helps out his clients with email authentication!

It was late in the evening, and I’d already had a full day of calls and work. The smart move was to wait until the morning, then make the necessary changes.

Instead, I thought: I do this all the time! I’ve got expertise here — let’s just do it now! So I quickly made some changes, and of course, I made a small mistake.

But when it comes to email authentication, there are no small mistakes — only big ones. And so I woke up the next morning to find out that not only had I made a mistake with my email settings, but now all of my emails were going to spam. I’d taken a bad situation and made things far worse!

A few hours later, the mistake was fixed, but not after quite a bit of panic and a lot of me slamming my head against my desk, asking myself why I’d been too impatient to wait until the morning when I would have been rested and fully ready to take on this task.

I wasn’t happy with myself. But at least I learned a few things — most importantly, the right steps I should follow next time with a client to make sure we get things right.

Everyone makes mistakes — even the experts. You learn from them, you figure out processes to make sure they don’t happen again, and then you move on.

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That’s what my authentication settings look like now. The big three — SPF, DKIM, and DMARC — are at the bottom. There are only two options: PASS or FAIL. (You can probably figure out which is one you want.)

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Are You Ready For the Work?

Bob Uecker’s a former baseball player, and longtime radio broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers. (You might also remember him as the announcer from the movie “Major League.”) Last week, on the final day of the season, with the Brewers eliminated from postseason contention, Uecker spent the final broadcast of the season telling baseball stories.

Here’s my favorite of his, as explained by Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports:

Bob Uecker today talking about how he started with the Brewers scouting the Northern League. He didn’t know to have a stopwatch. “I’d cup my hands like I had a stopwatch, then ask the guy next to me, ‘What did you have him at?’ They’d say ‘3.4 seconds.’ I’d say ‘Yeah, me too.'”

It reminded me of something Adrienne Miller described in her book, “In the Land of Men,” about her first day at GQ:

“As [GQ editor David] Granger and I spoke, it became apparent that I did have one thing going for me: I was able to talk about past issues of GQ. Later, he said that I got the job because I was the one person he’d interviewed who’d actually even bothered to open the magazine.”

“ ‘Never underestimate how unprepared most people are,’ he would later observe, correctly.”

Don’t forget your stopwatch. Read the magazine in advance. And if you’re not sure what you need for the first day, ask. Otherwise, you might not be prepared to do the work.

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