🤔 Why I send a selfie at the bottom of every email

Welcome to this week’s Creator’s Corner. I take your burning questions and use them as an opportunity to ~~plug my products~~ help you ace your online journey.

What we’ve got cooking today:

The brutal truth about content and how to overcome perfectionism
My trick for making great decisions (and avoiding sucky ones)
Why I send a photo at the bottom of every email

Let’s dive in.

A Quick Note...

I've built my entire creator business by listening to people much smarter to me.

One person is Jay Clouse.

He's built an incredible business (he almost hit a $100k/month last month as a creator), and more importantly, he shares clear, actionable advice so you can do the same in his newsletter Creator Science.

In just 10 minutes per week, you get advice most people charge for.

Join over 20,000 creators learning from firsthand experiments, expert interviews, and actionable advice every week.

Read it for free

QUESTION 1

Mystery person (I forgot to save the name - go easy on me) asked:

I'm trying to improve my writing, but I feel like "perfecting" something is a curse that will lead to unproductiveness - it's a hard balance to find since you obviously don't wanna half-ass it either.

Do you have any tips on this?

It’s an easy trap to fall into, but the pursuit of perfection will stop you from making progress. So I’ll give you two tips that help me immensely.

First, the truth:

When you post online, you feel like everyone's watching, but they’re not. Few people see your work and fewer people give a shit. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just human nature. We're the hero of our story and everyone else is a character.

The downside is this also makes us our own worse critics - so give yourself a break.

Second, set tight deadlines.

You need enough time to create but not enough time to overthink. Even now I’m writing a new welcome sequence. And because there’s no end, I’m having a terrible time. In fact, thank you for reminding me.

I’ll finish it by the end of the week.

This leads nicely to a bonus point:

Make public commitments.

Especially for the shit that scares you. Action is always the answer.

Kieran Drew

@ItsKieranDrew

One of the best decisions I made was to release a product before I was ready.
I announced the launch date on Twitter pre-build to keep accountable. And because I'd taken a risk, I had results to share - instead of just generic audience building tips.
Put yourself out there.

January 30th 2023

Retweets

232

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You may notice I mention my upcoming product in most emails too (which, by the way, is out in April - click here to join 330+ people on the waiting list 😏).

I’m not just trying to build hype. I’m making sure it happens.

Remember:

It doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be published.

QUESTION 2

Jay Yang asked:

How do you think about judging opportunities? When do you say yes? When do you say no?

Decision-making is one of my favourite topics. I used to suck at it. But we spend our lives dealing with the consequences of our choices, so studying how to make better ones can have a crazy compounding effect.

“Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to make effective decisions.”

- Shane Parrish, Farnam Street

One of the hardest skills to learn is saying no to good opportunities to wait for the great. Especially online. There’re lots of things you can do, but only a few things you should.

The secret is constraints.

You need to know what you're optimizing for.

Society defaults to status and money.

I made that mistake as a young whippersnapper. I thought dentistry would be great because dentists are rich. But for the most part, they’re also fucking miserable.

When you realize success is subjective, everything changes. You get what you want when you define what that is. Here’re the 3 questions I ask for any business opportunity:

Does this make me better at writing? (the pursuit of mastery)
Does this help my audience win? (the desire to make an impact)
Does this build more leverage? (the pursuit of freedom)

I then follow Derek Siver’s framework:

If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.

Sure you miss out on a few opportunities.

And yeah, you’ll go against your rules. But don’t underestimate how far singular focus will take you over time.

Another great exercise is reflecting on core values. I've lined you up a great resource at the bottom of this email.

QUESTION 3

Aldo asked:

Can you explain the why behind your photo in every email? I expect to see it already.

I’ll be honest with you Reader, I hate selfies. When I see a man post one on Instagram I immediately lose respect for them. But these little pictures go far, and that’s by design. Let me explain.

One of the best things you can do as a creator is pay attention to what gets your attention.

Justin Goff is one of my favourite email writers, and he sends a picture every mail. I noticed I’d actually look forward to seeing his face at the bottom. I was curious about what he’d write.

So now I do it too.

Does it work? I bloody well hope so.

My open rates are now at a 57% average. I started at 32%. I’m not suggesting my cheesy grin is the only factor (I’m not Brad Pitt), but people follow people. It’s nice to put a face to the writing.

Just don’t look too close.

There’s pain behind those eyes.

(Modelling your mentors is a framework I swear by and a topic of a previous email. You can read it here.)

Kieran's Killer Resource of the Week

Core values are one of the most life-changing exercises you can do.

When you know what you stand for, you have a framework for decisions. Better choices, better consequences. I keep my values on my whiteboard to make sure I stay on the path. And this article from Taylor Pearson is one of the best breakdowns I've found.

Take a read here

A Question for You...

What’s stopping you from creating an e-book and selling it to your audience?

Nothing will accelerate your progress more than taking action. If you build something to sell, you have skin in the game. This means more authority. More of a reason to create compelling content. And more self-belief when you realize internet money is real.

Pick a burning problem for your audience. Package it into an actionable e-book. Slap on a price tag. Learn how to market yourself.

I guarantee you won’t regret it.

On Friday

Speaking of trust-building techniques, Friday is one of my favourite:

Storytelling.

I’ll break down my StoryTweet technique so you can build a better relationship with your audience. The internet is getting busy and robots are after your job, so trust me: this one’s important.

Keep writing your way to freedom,

Kieran.

P.S.

If you're interested in a growth-orientated community, I'd recommend you check out the Content Cartel. It's ran by two incredible ghostwriters who have their finger on the pulse of social media growth (Taylin and Jack are definitely worth investing in).

I'll be using their advice and community to take on Linkedin, and accelerate my Twitter, over the next few weeks.

If you want to join me, check it out here.

It's 25% off if you use the code Cartel (~20 early birds remaining).

And if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this edition of Digital Freedom.

Send me a quick message - I reply to every email!