A while back, I came across an insightful analogy by a guy named Jeremy Enns. I don’t know Enns from Adam’s off ox, but the man seems to run a successful marketing agency.
Anyways, Enns had this to say (I’ve cherrypicked the most insightful bits):
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Podcasting Is Like Investing
I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside and talk with dozens of podcasters about how their shows have grown and when the effort finally started to feel like it was worth it.
The most common response is that it took at least two years before the investment really started to pay dividends.
I like to say that you can podcast for a year and it will feel like a massive waste of time. Podcast for three years and it can completely change your life.
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This ties into a little quiz I devised last year, while writing my never-released Copy Zone project, about the business side of copywriting.
The quiz is a way to decide if any dream project is worth embarking on.
The quiz is simply this. Ask yourself:
“Would I be ok working on this for the next five years?”
If your answer is, “No way!” or “Really, I want to do this for a year or max two and get out,” then quit now.
And when you do quit, send me a thank-you note for saving you months or maybe years of your life, dabbling on the sidelines, and possibly wasting thousands of dollars on books and courses and seminars. Because the fact is, this project, dreamy though it sounds, is just not for you.
And if by chance your dream project involves an email newsletter, take my little quiz above.
If you find yourself thinking, “I’m willing to write this newsletter for the next year so I can then move on to something else,” then you know what to do. Don’t even get started.
But if your answer is a grudging but honest yes — yes, you’d be willing to work on this for the next five years — then I can tell you that:
1. After one year of writing the newsletter you’re reading right now, I had nothing to show for it — at least nothing in the way of money or recognition or red panties being thrown my way
2. After two years, this newsletter started to pay dividends
3. After three years, and and now moving on to four and more, it has completely changed my life
If you are willing to stick with it for the long term, then it makes sense to start. Even today.
Now for my pitch:
If you want to discover the one type of email I would write every day if I had to — the one I would choose above stories, or personal reveals, or how-to, or pop culture illustrations, or shock and controversy — then you can find that in a little course I’ve called Most Valuable Email.
For more info: