🥳 Personal Message: 1 Month In. Here’s the Recap

This is The Level Ups. Modern business news for the future business leader (in plain-Jane English)

Today, we’re switching it up.

• Recap of the first month.

• Plans for what’s next.

• Sharing part of the vision.

Let’s get into it.

Reflecting on Month 1:

First, major thanks to you for subscribing!

I’ve been building this for a month and having so many of you read it every day is amazing.

An average newsletter has a 20% of its subscribers open the emails. The Level Ups is at 56%. Great stat for the first month. We published 25 articles on everything from AI to "quiet quitting."

Here are the most popular posts in case you missed them:

• 👗 Bella Hadid’s Spray Paint Turns Into Actual Fabric (amazing video)

• 🔒 Members Only: The Business of Exclusivity

• 😬 Why LinkedIn is Cringe And Their Content Business Might Be Going Under

• 🤔 The Full Story on Quiet Quitting.

• 🌲 Patagonia: Billionaire Founder Gives Entire Company to The Environment

• 🤖 Will AI Put Artists Out of Business?

Upcoming Improvements:

Many of you have shared great feedback with me so far. 90% of the input is possible, and the rest is beneficial.

A few things I’ll be improving:

• Content on how big moves from major companies apply to (or can be used by) small businesses and employees.

• Content on building great companies with engaged teams.

• Sending emails at the same time every day. Haven’t set a time, but thinking earlier in the day.

• Adding a way for subscribers to submit topics. Sending me stories you’re curious about for me to cover in more detail.

• Technical improvements about how the website connects with your account. These have been brought up with my ESP, beehiiv and we’re addressing them.

What’s Next:

Value-add services for subscribers.

• I created resume.thelevelups.com as a free service to help people get a job or recover from a layoff. Now, it's for subscribers.

• So far, I've done 29 resume reviews, and it's made me consider adding different services like it.

• I've referred many of these people to recruiters and business owners actively recruiting. I'd say that's massive value for subscribers of a free newsletter.

Product Hunt - online community for internet entrepreneurs.

• People launch companies on the platform, and the community “upvotes” their favourites.

• I’ll be launching there officially very soon.

• Will send details and would love your support! Product Hunt has millions of website visitors, so a good launch is awesome exposure.

Advertising.

• As many of you know, I run ads in the newsletter (it’s how the business makes money).

• It’s a fine line. Nobody likes to read ads all day, but they’re essential for obvious reasons.

• Will try to carefully select advertisers you’ll actually wan to hear from.

Business Community.

• This is an idea near and dear to my heart.

• A space for people to talk business “high signal” and without the bs.

• Perks will include private events with experts, discounts on software products, “how to build it” sessions, and more.

Very special thanks to subscribers who have pre-purchased their memberships. You know who you are, and it means a lot to me.

Bringing it All Together

Story time.

My love of writing and business manifested as The Level Ups. But it wasn’t that straightforward. I worked many different jobs and started a dozen other companies before getting finding the connection between these two interests.

Now, I write full-time, which I’ve wanted to do since I was 14. I didn’t know it would be like this exactly, but it was always a dream.

My business journey until now would’ve been much easier (and more fun) if I had a valuable publication to turn to. The major publications have great coverage, but they’re not helpful.

That's part of my vision for The Level Ups and why I’ll be moving the content in this direction. More content on how business actually works, where the opportunities are, and which traps to avoid.

Yes, I’m still making mistakes every day. That never goes away. But I can build this for people like us to level up and be better. All based on research from the best companies and business people worldwide. For us.

• To make bank.

• To do what we love.

• To have an impact on the people around us who matter most.

It’s been 1 month and we’re not there yet, but we will be.

Of course, I didn't start this without having something in mind for myself. I also want to make money, be successful, and take care of my family.

Thing is: I can only do that if this business is valuable to you. The Level Ups is here to generate that value. Today it’s with emails, tomorrow; it’ll be much more.

Thank you for being on this journey with me. It’s been a great month.

All the best.

Message me anytime.

Darwin