Hi Reader,

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How's the holiday season treating you so far? Well, I hope.

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I'm checking in with you to let you know about an update in the world of Create Inspire Convert.

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Usually around this time of year (well, realistically in October), I do a retrospective in my business.

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Meaning -

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• I check in with my marketing plan. Am I making progress on the goals I set for my business? What can I do to wrap up the next few months in a good way?

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• I check in with myself. Where in my business am I feeling energized? Drained? What opportunities do I have to make a change, or double down on something that's working?

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• I check in with my team. What worked for them? What didn't? Are they happy doing what they're doing, or do they want to pursue something else?

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At the end of this retrospective, I typically have a good idea of what the next year needs to look like. At least the first quarter of it or so.

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This year's exercise surprised me.

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While I did make progress on my business goals. And while my team was doing well.

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I ... was not.

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There were aspects of my business that were draining me. In fact, most of my business was draining me.

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It's not that I lost my passion for what I do.

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It's more like I realized I'd structured my business in a way that was leading toward giving too much, without having a balanced return.

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So. I had to make some changes.

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The first change I made was I shut down ALL my ads. Every single one.

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I haven't run any ads since October. And I don't plan to turn them back on any time soon.

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This effectively killed my "lead acquisition" strategy. But that's okay. Because I realized the aggressive growth business goal I had wasn't something I actually wanted.

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Next, I adjusted the deliverables on my membership (The Marketing Society) and removed all live components.

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While I love The Marketing Society and the people in it, the performance numbers don't lie. It's time to sunset this program. I am no longer accepting new members inside it.

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I consistently heard from my members they felt bad they couldn't make the live calls, and they couldn't get through the content. I definitely worked over the last year, trying different ways to do things to overcomes this, but nothing worked to stop the decline. So, I had to accept the reality.

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Last, I looked at this newsletter. I've mostly consistently been creating newsletter content for a couple years now. I have over 250 newsletters I've written since 2020. The average open rate on my newsletters is 48-50%, and when I have a link to click, the average click rate is 4-5%.

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And you know what? That's an incredible accomplishment. I'm very proud of it because it tells me I'm creating the right content for the right audience.

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One problem, though.

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I've noticed, over time, the response rate to my newsletters has declined.

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I care MORE about response rate than anything else. Because this tells me the health and engagement rate of my email audience.

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Which is you, Reader.

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It tells me whether you're just curious about what I have to say (you opened the email)...

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Or if you resonated with what I had to say -- meaning it was directly applicable to you and you found value in it. In other words, you replied or took some other measurable action that indicates resonance.

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Those numbers have been on the decline. I build my business on data, not feelings. So, to me, those numbers tell me a story that this weekly newsletter is losing its appeal and it's purpose.

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That's why I've been silent here for about a month because I had to work out what I was going to do. The decision I arrived at is this: I will stop doing weekly newsletters altogether in the same way I've always done them.

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Instead, I'm going to test something.

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I've already tested this with The Marketing Society. When I made the announcement about the shift away from the live component, I invited anyone to downgrade their membership and join my new weekly, paid newsletter for $5/month.

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I had a lot of takers.

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Know what that means? It means the decline I saw was what I thought it was... overwhelm with the content and the feeling that they HAD to show up to get value. It was never my intention to add to anyone's plate, so instead I created something that would remove the guilt while still providing value. Something that was lower commitment. Hence the paid newsletter.

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Now here's where this applies to you.

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This current weekly newsletter you've been reading for the last however many months (or years) almost always gives you information you can take (or not take).

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What it does not do is tell you how to implement it. Sometimes I do that, but not typically. It also doesn't really tell you how to directly apply the information. And sometimes it's pretty long. Okay, most of the time it is.

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The new paid newsletter I'm inviting you to join is different because it addresses all of those things.

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Here's how it works:

• You'll get a newsletter on Friday from me. That's 4 newsletters a month for $5.

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• Each newsletter will focus on ONE action you can take for your business, to help marketing it online effectively and with purpose. Sometimes this may mean we have a theme for the month. Other times it may be we're working on something for just a week. The point is - you'll be able to take action. This will be 1,000 words or less so they won't take up a lot of your time, either.

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• You will also receive an audio recording of the newsletter in case you'd rather listen to it.

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• Last, I'll archive the newsletters so you can access the archive at anytime.

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My goal with this is to simplify my life and yours by giving you 1 focus at a time. Eliminating the need to show up for anything other than yourself. Without feeling like you have to spend hours on an online marketing task to accomplish something.

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If you want to sign up for this newsletter, you can do that here.

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If you don't want to, that's okay too. I will check in with you once a quarter with an update on what we've been covering and invite you again, though. 😎

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The first paid newsletter goes out this Friday, December 23rd.

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The last thing I'd like to say before I sign off is this: I've really enjoyed sitting down each week and writing to you here. Thanks for the opportunity to do that. I hope you found at least 1 thing valuable in the time we spent together.

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Have a wonderful rest of your week,

Amanda

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