Tuning My Song

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Today, I'm working on the third edition of my newsletter, The Aha Moment. Last month, someone commented that publishing this newsletter takes guts. I wholeheartedly agree. Developing an email newsletter can be a daunting task and I am not immune to the vulnerability that seeps in as soon as I hit the SEND button each month

I saw a cartoon the other day that sums it up pretty well. You think you have a good idea, you get inspired, and so you create. You create, and then you share/publish/show your creation to the world. Immediately, self-doubt sets in. You think about how immature, irrelevant, unprofessional, and/or unworthy your creation is compared to the thousands of others out there. Why would anyone find your creation to be of interest?

That is the vulnerability I'm talking about. But thankfully, my guts, in the middle of the swarm of butterflies, say, "What's the worst that could happen? If someone unsubscribes it's okay. It's feedback. It means you're one step closer to having a more engaged audience. Not everyone has to like you. A smaller but more engaged audience is fine." And so I wave off the vulnerability until I'm about to hit SEND the next month.

You create because you have this need to share your perspective, your voice. Maya Angelou's famous poem, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," hits on this. As does this quote from the late 1870s:

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best."

Every bird has a song.

Nobody ever starts out as the best. We all have to work at it. If I waited until I had the best email newsletter in existence, I would never have sent the first one. But now that I've started the process, I can adjust my approach until I feel less vulnerable, more comfortable, and my audience engagement increases.

I guess this is what some people may call a beta process. Thank you for being my beta testers!

Sign up for my monthly email newsletter.

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