The #1 Rule for Launching a Hot-Ass Successful Project: You Gotta Keep it *Simple*

I’m working with a group of people who are all making local newsletters in their community.

(Want in? There’s still some space to join The First 100, and we’re having a BALL. You can get started right away on the curriculum!)

I’m also making a local newsletter here in the place where I bought the farmhouse 🚜 🌾 👩‍🌾, and for one reason only:

Because I know I can sell it if and when I want to move on. Which I am known to do. Nomad for life. ✌️

But, you know what else is also rad about writing a newsletter to your town?

You don’t need tens of thousands of people to sign up.

You just need 1,000.

That’s our first goal together in the group. One-thousand readers. Because you know why?

If you asked any local business if they would pay handsomely to have 1,000 people come through their doors, the answer would be a resounding YES. 🙌🏻

1,000 people isn’t anything to stick up your nose at when it comes to helping a local business. Particularly when you’re someone like a realtor, for example, who just needs ONE client to earn a $45,000 commission on a house. 🏡 This means that it would (really, truly) be worth it to them to take out, say, a $1,200 ad package in your newsletter. That’s a 36.5x return on their investment. 😱

We can sell these kinds of ads ALL DAY LONG.

It’s a very straightforward business model.

You pay me, I write about you, you get customers, we all make money.

And, doesn’t that sound lovely? Simplicity! Plus, different in the local newsletter game is that YOU aren’t the product for once. Creators, I know you know what I’m talking about. Your personal brand isn’t the main attraction. Your product—the local newsletter—is. And that can be really freeing. 🕊️

But, like any business, there are a few sticky traps you can fall into. And, there’s one in particular that can royally screw up this beautiful, straightforward, easy business model.

Are you ready for it????

This is the #1 sin of all biz newbies worldwide.

ARE! YOU! READY!

The #1 sin is….

Trying to make it bigger before it’s even been born.

Case in point: we were having a conversation yesterday over in the local newsletter group about all the cool things you can (totally) do with a local newsletter.

• You can have a job board!
• You can have a community directory!
• You can have merch!
• You can have events!
• You can have monthly meetings!
• You can have a morning talk show!
• You can install a live town cam so people can “see what’s happening” at the gas station in real time! (Okay, that one might be a stretch. 🤣)

All of this stuff is SO EXCITING, it’s easy to want to start implementing ~everything~ right away. New logos! New websites! New directories! New hats!

My advice to you?

Hold your clydesdales, buttahcup. 🐎

I used to be the worst offender of this. Part of the reason I love making things on the internet is because we DO have all of these cool capabilities. And, I love nothing more than brainstorming in a notebook for hours! (True story, I am a pen-n-paper lovin’ weirdo.)

But, what I found over the years was that the more big ideas I had for a project, the more pressure I put on a project.

Now, it wasn’t just a fun newsletter I was excited to write to see how it went; now, suddenly there’s the pressure to make this thing a multi-million-dollar internet business by the end of Year One.

And, you know what happens when you put that kind of pressure on a new project?

It buckles.

It’s not strong enough yet to carry the weight of all of these components.

And as a result, it fails. Not because it wasn’t a good idea. And not because you didn’t want to do it. But because great execution requires great restraint.

You can’t add to something that doesn’t yet exist.

You must make it exist, first.

You must do the hard work of saying “no” to all the extras.

You must resist the idea that it isn’t “good enough” to launch without all of the bells & whistles, or that you look like small peanuts, or that you look unsophisticated or underambitious, or like a big ol’ idiot blimp.

You have to do one of the hardest things for an entrepreneur indie maker to do:

You’ve gotta keep it deadly simple…on purpose.

Deadly simple means that you will launch (and not get too overwhelmed). Deadly simple means you won’t procrastinate (forever and ever, too many moving parts). Deadly simple means you’ll find the joy in what you’re building (not dread). Deadly simple means you won’t get distracted and lost and drown in your own self-imposed deadlines. (We’ve ALL been there.)

Deadly simple is the BEST thing you can do for your project.

Deadly simple is also the most profitable thing you can do for your project.

Because you can’t make money with something you could never get off the ground.

Sometimes, good ideas can be fatal to the best ideas.

My advice to you: pull in the reigns. Resist doing more. Keep your idea lean and mean. Do it simple on purpose. MAKE YOURSELF BEHAVE. Avoid shiny anything. Understand this is a beta. Understand this is an experiment. You need to see if it works, before you can double down on its growth.

You need to give it a fighting chance, before killing it with bloat.

Repeat the following mantra: I will make this deadly simple on purpose. I will make this deadly simple on purpose. I will make this deadly simple on purpose. Even if I feel like an underachieving imposter-syndromed wannabe.

If it doesn’t feel simple, it gets the ax.

PERIOD.

Make the thing first.

Make sure you’re happy.

Make sure it’s working.

Then make it BIG.

Otherwise, the pressure of BIG can keep even the brightest ideas small.