Gotta get on a call, will be right back

Hello! Yes I was! Will be on mute / video off for the first half

But will be back on in full shortly!

Thanks everyone for being here we’ll kick off in a min!

There was both a Zoom and Google Meet link in the invite. People might be at the other link.

Oh good to know Marissa. I’ll look into that.

Please feel free to add your questions here in the chat. We’ll call on you to ask them.

Great mindframe.

https://fortheinterested.com/subscribe/

Question for Josh: How do you find the high-quality resources you share in your newsletter?

Great question Julia

Why have just 1 when you can have 3 newsletters at the same time? 😄

How do you know what your readers like most and how do you adapt what you share in your newsletter based on feedback?

Question: I launched my newsletter last week and it went amazing. Positive comments, grew subscribers by 20%, high open rate... now I'm feeling a little frozen over the second issue because I'm afraid it won't live up to the first. Any tips on getting over this?

QUESTION: I often read/hear the advice of "finding your niche", but I also have heard many writers with successful newsletters saying "don't box in your content", suggesting that your newsletter should be more open to lots of ideas. How do you find a balance between a niche without limiting what you can write about?

https://gumroad.com/l/newslettercuration

Hi Josh, QuestionWhats your view on the ‘role of the curator’ — having reading

Sorry sent too soon…

Wow, a product that walks through what to include in a newsletter. Amazing minimalist mindset.

Great question Marissa

@marissa can you share the link to your newsletter here please

The way I get over the quality issue is to do it so often that I bury the crap, as quickly as possible.

Do you feel as a curator there is a role to be played ie condensing or summarising themes for your readers? I recently read about curators having a ‘duty’ to make the internet easier and less noisy for their readers. Feels like an added pressure to simplify. Do you have any thoughts on this? FYI I write long form but am thinking about starting hybrid long form plus curation

Psychology of loss aversion

How do you deal with plateaus in newsletter growth? I’m going through one of those right now and thinking I should get out there and drum up more interest.

I use the same format each week to make it easier on me and to allow the readers to know what to expect.

Thinking in Bets: Maker Smarter Decisions - Annie Duke

+1 to Nate. The more you publish the less scary it is and the more unsubscribes feel ok because it just cleans the list more

Great book ^

@steven http://subscribe.marissagoldberg.com/

Josh amazing stuff so far. What is your advice for using social media for newer newsletters and how strongly do you feel about SEO for finding audience?

@Marissa, treat each issue individually, don’t compare it. The format may be the same, but you’ll be talking/sharing about different things each time. It’s not going to be better or worse than the previous issues, they’re different.

Hi Karin, glad to see you here…

Thanks, Leo :)

+1 Leo

Guilty

Narrow target audience, wide breadth of content is what I’m hearing

Sorry Ellen - you’re up next!

Hi Steven , happy to finally join everyone!

@Yina I agree. Although I don’t know if I can pinpoint my audience quite yet. It’s definitely NOT designers.

https://fortheinterested.com/the-first-thing-i-send-to-people-who-give-me-their-email-address/

Build in public principle

Great question Ellen. I think about this a lot.

Takeaway: make things formulaic

I think audiences prefer the predictability of a basic newsletter template as well. They can skip to the blocks of content that more appeal to them.

The list format creates a high-level flow for the writing process, this is awesome!

Thanks for joining us, Josh. Need to head out early, but appreciated your insights.

Bye everyone

Yay to systems!

https://joshspector.com/creator-system/

Have to drop but such an illuminating conversation. Thank you so much Nate and Steven for hosting and thank you Josh for wisdom!

Thanks Florian!

Thank you Florian - see you next time!

I've got to go now, but lots of delicious food for thought. Thanks Josh and to Nate and Steven for setting this up!

Envious of that

Literally have a task on my to do list to email you and Nate about a potential guest speaker :) reached out to Nate earlier!

Thank you so much Josh!

Apologies for that last message, and thank you again Josh for such an informative session

Thanks Josh! This was great

Thank you so much!

Love that facebook group had no idea that was yours!