Well, there are obvious ways: you can use one of the 5 million online course platforms... but I didn't really love that idea.

This was right around the time Morning Brew and The Hustle were really taking off

I think they'd go on to grow by like 4 million collective subscribers in the next 18 months. It seemed like the average person's relationship with email was changing.

So why not make a minor tweak to the newsletter concept?

Instead of putting the pressure on myself to constantly create new content, why not package up the few things I knew really well into an email product that would start and then eventually stop?

Sounded doable

I wanted to get a second opinion, so I asked the designer/developer who had been instrumental in creating the Velikan brand. He introduced me to Zapier, and from there I knew, even if it would be a bit hacky, that we could probably string this together.

My Sales Pitch

It was clear that I wouldn't be able to do this alone. Rather, if I did it alone, there would be gaps in the experience. I knew nothing about design, brand strategy, marketing tools... so I gathered a few friends together (the people who I contracted out for Velikan — who also happened to be friends) and a college roommate, and basically said, "hey I have this idea that I think will be successful and I'd love to have you guys be a part of it."

With equity agreements in place, we moved forward to turn my "curriculum" into a 25 email sequence that could be purchased from a Shopify store. That was in October of 2019. I thought we'd be live by January to market to all the New Year's Resolution people.

I was mistaken.

The story continues in the next fast forward :) Back to your inbox!