Hey Reader, There’s been a lot of talk of “cold showers” recently. Maybe you’ve heard this. Super-pumped productivity whizzes on social media telling their legions of loyal followers how they: Get up every day at 5am Start with a freezing cold shower “Blast” an entire day’s work in 2 hours Go to the gym for 4 hours (only a slight exaggeration there) Eat a slab of red meat for breakfast Have everything done by noon and do nothing for the rest of the day You may think this sounds like fiction,...
about 1 year ago • 4 min read
I Asked My Followers How Often They Opened Their Emails. Read time: 2.5 minutes The results surprised me. How often do you open emails from people or brands you’ve subscribed to? (Thanks for opening this one, by the way!) Is the answer: always? Sometimes? Never? Think about it for a second. I asked my X/Twitter followers that exact question a few weeks ago. The results were surprising. Over half of the 71 poll voters said they rarely open emails from sources they’ve actively given their email...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
If You Want To Build An Online Course, Here's Where To Start Read time: 3 minutes 5 must-have tools I fully recommend for course creation. “I have no idea how to grow my business.” “There aren’t enough hours in the day to manage my social media accounts.” “How do I get my followers to actually buy from me?” I heard this sort of stuff a lot last year. I’m in regular contact with dozens of local business owners every month. It’s just part of the solopreneurial role I made for myself (for better...
over 2 years ago • 4 min read
Why You Should Set Unrealistic Targets and Shoot For Them Anyway Read time: 4.5 minutes A few years ago, I took part in a hiking challenge that almost killed me. Well, not quite. But it sure as heck felt that way at the time. I was one of several hundred participants in a fundraising event in the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland. The challenge involved hiking our way across a dozen peaks in about twelve hours. I’d trained for weeks. I thought I was ready. Narrator: “David was not ready.”...
almost 3 years ago • 4 min read
Do One Simple Thing to Get 20,000 Website Views Every Month Read time: 4 minutes This 100% effective strategy blew up my website. “If you build it, they will come.” That’s according to Kevin Costner, anyway. But strictly speaking, it’s not exactly true, is it? I’ve seen many a small business appear on the high street only to disappear without a trace after a year or so. Why? Because they didn’t get (and keep) a steady-enough stream of footfall. The same can be said for websites. Just because...
almost 3 years ago • 4 min read
Start An Online Store With Just One Product Read time: 3.5 minutes How one simple item helped kick-start my brand. I had no intention of making money with my first business. Weird, right? That’s because my first business started life as a blog with about nine readers. But like all good things that receive a little nurturing, it grew. And grew. And grew. One day, I looked at the stats for that little blog and realized it wasn’t quite so little anymore. “Hang on a tick,” I thought, “do people...
almost 3 years ago • 3 min read
How (And Why) To Grow Your Following On X/Twitter Read time: 4.5 minutes The brief story of how I gained 16k followers in one year. I used to be a lurker on Twitter. You know what I mean, right? I had a Twitter account that I logged into every day but never posted on. I just logged in and… lurked. In fairness, at the time I didn’t have much to say, or any real reason to actively build a following. I was just there for the doom-scroll, Liverpool FC’s latest transfer updates, and to stay...
almost 3 years ago • 5 min read
Get 200 Business Leads Every Month While Watching TV In Your Pyjamas Yes, you heard me right. Read time: 4 minutes I gather roughly 200 business leads a month for free without getting off the sofa. Hear me out. I’m in marketing (sort of). I started a website a few years back called Trek NI, through which local walkers and hikers can discover amazing new trails across our little country. Northern Ireland is small but the craic here is mighty, in case you hadn’t heard. After a while, the...
almost 3 years ago • 4 min read
Social media follower counts are vanity metrics.Essentially, that means they don’t matter a whole bunch. They’re just there to tickle egos.Your audience size is less important than what you 𝐝𝐨 with it.Do you have 100k followers on TikTok? Great.Do they help you generate income?If the answer’s no, then that 100,000 figure may as well be 0.𝐀 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭/𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝.On the flipside, 100 people who love you and...
almost 3 years ago • 1 min read