Creating is lonely sometimes…


Hey Reader,

One of the best things about being a creator is the flexibility and freedom you get to make your own schedule and work from wherever you want. You can wake up and write your next newsletter or video script on your laptop in your pajamas.

But working from home can be isolating. Even if you’re an introvert, it gets lonely at times. You go to a coffee shop to mix things up, but even when you’re around people, you’re rarely around your people.

The people who get it. The people doing things similar to you:

Other creators.

Where do you find these people? Well, if you’re like me, you find them online. You follow their work, you DM them, and maybe you even hop on a call every now and then.

But what I’ve found is that the best, and most valuable, relationships I’ve built have been with people I met at conferences. Some of them I met for the first time and others I followed for many years online before meeting in person.

3 days in person changes everything.
It accelerates relationships more than six months or a year of talking online.

Once we’ve met in person, the online connection changes forever from that point on. We become “real” to each other, and it completely changes the dynamic.

Many of these people became my business partners, investors, board members, mastermind members, and some of my closest friends.

We collaborate and promote each other’s work all of the time now (without any of us having to ask for it). I consider those connections to be so valuable, the cost of attending the conference doesn’t even register.

It’s hard to say what my life might look like today had I not gotten out of my comfort zone and met people all those years ago. Because it’s not just the relationships I formed with them but also the relationships I formed with people they introduced me to. My network grew exponentially, and that played a huge part in ConvertKit becoming the success it is today.

Conferences so fundamentally changed my life, I decided to host one of my own in beautiful downtown Boise, Idaho.

Started in 2017, Craft + Commerce is still going strong 7 years later with our next event happening June 5th-8th.

We have some incredible speakers lined up this year, but beyond those keynote talks, we’ll also have intimate workshops, parties, meetups, and plenty of opportunities for you to connect with people who just might become your lifelong friends.

You can view our full agenda, venue details, and learn more about Craft + Commerce here.

But if you’d like to save $200, click the button below. Our Early Bird promo lasts just 3 more days. After February 23rd, ticket prices go up.

This will be the only time I mention the promo in my newsletter, so don’t wait!

Grab your ticket now and save $200:


SPONSORED BY LEVEL UP CREATORS

How to use AI to write on-brand content that sounds like you

You’ve heard AI can help you save time writing copy, but every time you’ve tried to use it, what’s generated sounds like it was written by a robot.

It’s not that it’s impossible to get good AI generated content that actually works for you. It’s that you’re missing the right prompts.

When you include your own unique Creator Brand Data points in your prompts, you’ll be able to generate copy that’s much more engaging and requires fewer tweaks. Say goodbye to bland, generic content, and say hello to an authentic voice that resonates with your followers!

Get the free guide »


PODCAST

IMPORTANT: New email authentication requirements for online marketers

ConvertKit’s Head of Deliverability, Alyssa Dulin, joins Amy Porterfield to discuss the recent requirements announced by Gmail and Yahoo. It’s crucial to understand these new changes if you want people to receive your emails.

In this episode, Amy and Alyssa break down exactly what actions you need to take to make sure your emails land in the inbox.

Listen to episode »

X POST

Observations from reading 50 newsletters

Do you write an email newsletter?

Josh Spector shares 10 candid insights from reading 50 newsletters that might make you completely rethink how you write yours.

View post »

Again...

This is the last chance to get $200 off your Craft + Commerce ticket.

Hope to see you there!

—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.

Read more from Nathan Barry

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...

A hundred dollar bill against a plain light background.

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...

Potential vs realized leverage

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...