I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Before you set goals for next year
Hi Reader,
Have you set any goals for 2023?
You might feel stuck between:
- Setting small goals you’re likely to achieve
- Setting big goals that motivate you more
I propose looking at it from a different angle:
Set goals that take you on a journey that will change you.
There's where you are now and where you want to be. However, most of your life will be in the middle.
“What do I want?” is a good starting point, but also consider:
- What are my values?
- Who must I become to achieve this goal?
Maybe you have a goal of starting a paid newsletter and growing it to replace your day job income, but are you willing to become a person who writes consistently?
Maybe you have a goal of growing your audience by 10,000 followers (like I do), but are you willing to research what your audience wants and put in the planning and strategy work to make it a reality?
The reason I stated my public goal for ConvertKit is to reach $100M in annual revenue is because it calls me to overcome real challenges that will shape me to be a better leader and founder.
Go beyond asking what you want to achieve in 2023 and ask yourself who you want to become. Let the answer influence the goals you set for next year.
SPONSORED BY SOLO 401K
Claim your $61,000 tax deduction before it expires
Did you know that 94% of entrepreneurs overpay their taxes? Most people don’t know about the big $61k tax deduction you can take.
A Solopreneur 401k is the perfect way for entrepreneurs and freelancers to save for retirement. You can contribute up to $61,000 per year – that’s 10X more than an IRA. And you get the full tax deduction. Use the money to invest in your business, pay down debt, or just put it away in savings.
You can instantly qualify and calculate your tax deduction. But the deadline is fast approaching. If you don’t open your Solo 401k by December 31, you’ll lose your $61,000 tax deduction.
See if you qualify and calculate your tax deduction.
See if you qualifyTWITTER THREAD
$50k in revenue from paid email course
Recurring revenue from a paid newsletter is nice, but it requires a recurring commitment.
If you're considering starting a paid newsletter next year but you're not sure if you're ready to commit to writing weekly emails, another idea is to make an email course.
In addition to this newsletter you’re reading, I also have a secret newsletter about money which just hit $50k in revenue.
An email course is something you can make once without creating an ongoing obligation for yourself. You can add more emails to the end whenever you feel like it, and as it gets more valuable, increase the price.
I posted a Twitter thread this morning on how you can do this:
How to make a paid email course »
DOCUMENTARY
Quitting Wall Street to become a creator
Khe Hy had everything he’d dreamed of as a self-described “nerdy” kid from an immigrant family - a high-paying job in Wall Street, a fancy New York City apartment, and as many shoes as he wanted, the kind he could never afford as a kid. But he wasn’t happy.
No matter how much money he made or how many promotions he got or how many expensive things he could buy, he just didn’t feel alive.
But there was something he was doing on the side that did light him up. So he quit his job on Wall Street in hopes to find a way to make a living doing something he loved.
Watch to find out how he dealt with the people who didn’t understand, and how he turned what he loved into a full-time business that makes him feel alive.
HEALTH
Take a tech-free walk
My friend, Sahil, shared a simple challenge:
Take a walk without technology.
Enjoy your weekend!
Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Hey Reader, If I could solve only one thing in my business, that would have the biggest impact, what would that be? This is the question every great entrepreneur obsesses over. Rather than trying to do everything at once, you look for the bottleneck and focus on solving that. There’s a book called The Goal by an Israeli physicist named Eliyahu Goldratt. It’s a 1984 business novel that business systems nerds love. However if you’re not a business systems nerd you probably… won’t love it. It’s...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent money on something and immediately felt guilty afterward? Will Guidara spends his money foolishly on purpose. And he thinks you should too. He once bought an entire barrel of whiskey and put it in his basement. He also put a skee-ball machine in the office. Is he going to get a monetary return on either of these things? No. But that’s kind of the point. He calls it the 95/5 rule: Manage your money and time like a maniac 95% of the time (no expense is too...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent a whole day on something almost nobody saw? It's painful when the whole reason you worked hard was because you wanted to reach people. If you teach a workshop in person, you reach the 20 people in that room. But if you record that same workshop once, you can keep teaching for years on autopilot. This is the concept of leverage, and it's something I talk about in my upcoming book, The Ladders of Wealth (you can pre-order it now). A lot of people will look back...