THE BIG PICTURE

1. Talk to People About Your Products

One of the simplest yet underrated strategies to enhance your product is to talk to people about what you’re building.

These conversations help you uncover blind spots early, better align your product with your audience's needs, and increase your chances of creating something valuable.

As a bonus, those connections can turn into early champions of your work (people who might help promote your product later).

For example, I’m writing a new book about AI and Change management and I posted this on LinkedIn a few weeks ago:

The response was incredible.

I got insights about the specific challenges leaders face in integrating AI into their workflows, the anxieties their teams feel around AI-driven changes, and nuanced issues I hadn't even considered (like hidden resistance).

Bottom line: don’t build in a vacuum.

Start talking to real people early and often. It’ll make your product better.

TIME-SAVERS

2. Write a Shorter Book

Most people quit after reading the first 60 pages of a book.

So why not write only 60 pages?

Authors win (it’s faster to write, easier to edit, and simpler to publish).

And so do readers (it’s easier to finish, learn from, and apply).

How short should your book be?

As short as it needs to be to deliver value while still being useful.

Case in point

I wrote this one-page book as a joke 18 months ago

Just to prove that you can write super-short books

Didn't think people will like it.

But it ended up with 44 five-star reviews…and it hit the Amazon bestseller list last week.

Turns out, short sells.

ADVANCED STRATEGIES

3. A Simple Way to Grow Your Newsletter

I run 3 newsletters on Beehiiv and one of my biggest challenges is getting more subscribers.

One way is to run paid ads, which is effective but can get expensive (I shared numbers in last week’s newsletter from my conversation with Francesco about Facebook ads).

But there’s a much cheaper way: organic growth.

So how do you grow organically?

One strategy I’m using is the referral program built right into Beehiiv.

Here’s how it works:

You offer readers a freebie (like a book, course, or digital product) as a reward for referring others.

Beehiiv handles the rest:

• It creates custom referral links

• Tracks how many referrals each person gets

• Lets you control how many shares are needed

• Even hides or shows the incentive based on conditions you set

It’s an incredibly easy way to tap into the best growth strategy out there: word of mouth.

If you’d like to check out how this works, watch this short video I posted on Twitter/ X:

You’ll need to be on a paid Beehiiv plan to use the referral feature. If you want to try it out, click here for a 30-day free trial + 20% off your first 3 months with my affiliate link.

WORDS I LIKE

4. Write Music

From Gary Provost’s “100 Ways to Improve Your Writing”

ONE-MINUTE HACKS

5. A Quick Side Gig Hack You Can Apply Today

Just start.

Don’t overthink things.

You’ll learn as you go and you’ll figure things out.

Many people I talk to want things to be perfect and are stuck in consumption mode (watching one more video, reading one more book or taking one more course).

You’re better off jumping right in.

Start small and start messy.

Just start.