The first 30 days of my newsletter

Photo from Flickr

(Originally published on my newsletter — here are previous ones)

One month ago, I started this personal newsletter. I am blown away by what has happened in those first 30 days:

• I started with only 15 friends, and now there are 125 subscribers. If I imagine all of us in one single room, it would be a pretty packed room. I couldn’t be more excited. Thank you guys!
• John Mihaljevic gave me a shout-out in his Manual of Ideas mailing list, spreading the word to the investing community. Welcome fellow Value Investors! (I was a speaker at this years VALUEx conference, talking about my deep value approach. More about this topic in a separate issue). By the way, John’s book is amazing if you want learn about value investing approaches (I’ve listened to the audio version and loved it)
• My newsletter where I discuss the insights from my meditation app project led to a wonderul blog post
• I reconnected with several friends, with some of whom I haven’t been in touch for years. It has lead to beautiful (and sometimes deep) email conversations, and a number of lunches/dinners I am looking forward to
• One friend reported that my entrepreneurship advice from several years ago has proven valuable and paid off (I helped him sell his company to a larger company. I couldn’t be happier for them, as they are awesome guys!)
• One former employee described how valuable his time at Trigami has been, and how much this time has influenced his life. It showed me that Alain and myself — by pure intuition and dumb luck — probably have done more right than wrong. To this day I am very proud of the team we had and the culture we built together (I am still half-joking that we had the right team, but with the wrong product). Back to the employee: This particular person is now living his dream, cruising around in his motorhome office (how cool is that!) and combining nature with work. More about this story, and about Trigami, in a later issue.
• The newsletter even got attention from journalists

What was the most effective method to gain more subscribers?

• For the first few weeks I only used social media and my blog to promote this newsletter. This led to about 30 subscribers.
• Then I’ve sent an email to about 200 friends and colleagues, and minutes later my inbox looked like this. See? This is the power of email. Immediate response!

• If you have a website, you should check out SumoMe and OptiMonk. These are wonderful tools to squeeze out more signups and leads from your current website traffic. I’ve used these tools successfully at ZenFriend and Exsila.

Today’s book recommendation

• Anything You Want by Derek Sivers:
  Currently my favourite entrepreneurship book. It’s only 96 pages (or 91 minutes in the audio version) and packed with insights and learnings. I also recommend to check out Derek’s website and podcasts (e.g. this one).

Love you all,
Remo

Find me on Twitter: @remouherek

My purpose in life is to unlock my full potential. This is why I am an entrepreneur. This is why I love books. This is why I love personal development. This is why I love productivity. This is why I am an idealist. Finally I get it. It’s so simple and clear. Join my journey! — Remo Uherek