A while back, a dude wrote me to say:
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Hello John,
I am interested in joining your Daily Email Habit, but I have a question.
Do you teach us how to set up the newsletter?
The reason why I am interested in DEH is because I want to build the habit of writing daily emails. So I don’t need anything complicated.
I just want to know how to set everything up and get started.
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Back when I initially conceived Daily Email Habit, I thought of providing some kind of quick-start guide to the tech necessary to send emails.
I decided against it. I realized didn’t want people who couldn’t figure this on their own to sign up for Daily Email Habit.
Not because I have anything against them personally, or think badly of them.
I just realized that anyone who is already blocked at this first slight hurdle is unlikely to deal well with the hundred and one other hurdles, obstacles, and problems that come up in the process of running, writing, and profiting from an email newsletter. And so I’d rather not take their money.
(To his credit, the dude who wrote me the above did figure out the tech on his own, and did sign up for Daily Email Habit after that.)
There’s a bigger point here:
12+ years ago, I read Joe Sugarman saying that he looks at problems as opportunities. It blew my mind at the time. Since I’m slow on the uptake, it’s still something I haven’t internalized fully.
But how else could it be?
A problem forms a moat that keeps everyone from doing it, whatever “it” may be.
If you figure out a solution, you’re insulated from the competition of billions of other people who might jump in otherwise.
On the other hand, if you choose to sell your solution, you’re almost guaranteed a market, because none of us is as unique as we like to believe.
A problem is by definition an obstacle, and if you remove it, it makes for a freer flow of energy, desire, and value, which money is one avatar of.
Working to solve a problem is energizing, and moves you to action. It also builds a mindset of self-reliance and resourcefulness.
Before you solve your problem, it makes for an opportunity to connect with others by asking for advice, sharing frustrations and setbacks that result in connection and credibility.
After you do succeed in solving your problem, it gives you instant authority and wizard-like status with those who come after you, and an attractive charismatic character to those around you. After all, you appear to be lucky, success comes easy to you, and everything works in your favor.
And maybe biggest of all, solving problems gives you a change of perspective. It forces you to think, get out of your groove, change up a familiar way of working.
And when you do hit upon a solution, it’s likely to be one that generalizes, and that you can reuse for future obstacles or problems, creating a kind of virtuous upward spiral.
All that’s to say, problems really are opportunities. (Thanks, Joe.)
As for the problem of setting up the technology to send daily emails, I’ll only say I use Convert Kit. It’s very newbie friendly (perhaps too much so). That’s all the tech advice I have to give.
And if you solve your tech problems, and then are faced with the problem of what to send your list, that’s what Daily Email Habit is about.
I purposely made it in a middle ground between complete and paralyzing freedom at one extreme… and a templated, paint-by-numbers approach at the other.
There’s already AI — or freelance copywriters — if you want your emails written for you.
Daily Email Habit is there to focus your mind each day in the right direction, and get you in the habit of solving little problems — puzzles as I call them — which build up your brain, your skill, your authority, and your assets. If you’d like to get started today: