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Ali Abdaal's Head of Content Emailed Me Today
Matt Karamazov
August 22, 2024
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đź“š Hey! Time to win.
I got an email today from Ali Abdaal’s Head of Content, Ines Lee.
Not out of the blue, though. It was a reply, from an outreach email I sent her.
The purpose is to work out a potential collaboration for Ali’s new book, Feel-Good Productivity, which I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while.
I haven’t read it yet, but I expect to really like it, and one other productivity book that I can confidently recommend right now is Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport.
But this isn’t about productivity, it’s about momentum.
Specifically, creating momentum in your business. I’ve been flooded with cool, interesting, lucrative opportunities recently, but I’ve created most of them myself. Or, rather, I’ve initiated most of them myself.
Through outreach. Literally “putting myself out there.”
Because listen, even with my 113,000 Instagram followers and tens of thousands of followers on other platforms, I actually don’t get a ton of inbound.
Sure I get a little bit (I actually had an author pitch me their book a few minutes ago via Instagram DM, and it looks like one that I’d love to share). But if I relied on opportunities coming to me, I could never grow my business as fast as I’m growing it right now.
It just wouldn’t happen.
But the dozen newsletter partnerships, the guest posts, the podcast/speaking opportunities, the collaboration posts…all of that?
All outbound. All from me introducing myself to people I want to work with, looking for win-win propositions, finding out how I can be helpful to them, and seeing what they say.
So put yourself out there more. Ask for what you want. Introduce yourself to people you want to meet. Make some moves!
There are still 12 spots remaining inside The Competitive Advantage community and you can grab one of the last remaining ones here.
If you want my personal help to add between $1-5K/month in monthly recurring revenue to your business, and grow your audience and authority by leaps and bounds at the same time, that’s exactly where you need to be. Join here.
Within My Direct Control:
Read 20 Books | 13 Books Left
Publish 8 New Time Mastery Videos | 8 Videos Left
Publish 31 YouTube Videos | 26 Videos Left
Publish 155 Medium Articles | 136 Articles Left
Completely Update My Social Media | Almost Finished
Completely Update My Patreon Page | Incomplete
Completely Update My Newsletter Platforms | Incomplete
Launch Affiliate Program for My Paid Community | Incomplete
Update 30 Patreon Book Notes | 30 Book Notes Left
Network with 500 New Authors | 428 Authors Left
Not Within My Direct Control:
Get Monetized on YouTube | 3,498 Watch Hours Left (12.5% Complete)
Negotiate 12 Newsletter Partnerships | 6 Partnerships Left
Organize 12 Instagram Collaborations | 11 Collaborations Left
Reach 118,000 Instagram Followers | 4,304 Followers Left
Reach 23,000 Threads Followers | 4,300 Followers Left
Reach 10,000 Twitter Followers | 2,267 Followers Left
Reach 4,000 Medium Followers | 2,059 Followers Left
Reach 2,000 Facebook Followers | 691 Followers Left
Reach 2,000 LinkedIn Followers | 1,169 Followers Left
Reach 10,000 YouTube Subscribers | 8,504 Subscribers Left
Reach 10,000 Reading Life Subscribers | 5,601 Subscribers Left
Reach 1,000 Competitive Advantage Subscribers | 459 Subscribers Left
Reach 50 Competitive Advantage Members | 12 Members Left
Reach 50 Patreon Supporters | 20 Supporters Left
Note: I’ll update follower counts once per week, since it’s such a waste of time to go through all of them every single night. Also, Threads annoyingly doesn’t give exact numbers. Oh well.
Read 7 New Books | 6 Books Left
Publish 2 New Time Mastery Videos | 2 Videos Left
Publish 7 YouTube Videos | 7 Videos Left
Publish 35 Medium Articles | 34 Articles Left
Upload New VSL for Skool Community | Editing Now
Upload Skool Community Testimonials | Gathering Now
Upload All Old Podcast Episodes | Almost Finished
Completely Update My Instagram Profile | Almost Finished
Completely Update My YouTube Profile | Almost Finished
Completely Update My Website | Almost Finished
Completely Update My Newsletter | Almost Finished
Completely Update My Patreon | Almost Finished
Update 15 Patreon Book Notes | 15 Book Notes Left
Network with 140 Authors | 135 Authors Left
Note: “Week Three” Runs From August 18th-24th
Woke Up: 12:00PM
Sleep Quality: 80%
Pages Read: 84
Workout: Rest Day
Work Completed:
Posted 1x on Instagram
Posted 3x on Twitter
Posted 3x on Threads
Posted 3x on Facebook
Posted 3x on LinkedIn
Worked on Setting Up Collaborations
Worked on Updating My Various Platforms
Managed Paid Competitive Advantage Community
Completely Organized My Workflow for Tomorrow
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I did nothing today except read, connect with people, and build out some of my website, specifically the new index/library of all the book breakdowns I’ve written. I’m going to start making those available right on my Beehiiv website, as opposed to having them spread out everywhere, split between Beehiiv and Ghost.
So that took a while, plus setting up all those collaborations and stuff! Man, as an introvert it really takes a lot out of me. Spending so much time and energy on those pulled me away from some of my other content goals though, so tomorrow I’ll have to make it a “coffee day” and just plow through some stuff.
But hey, it’s 3:32AM here right now and I’m going to bed!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:
Work with me personally to scale your business past $5K per month and experience the intoxicating freedom of finally being in control of both your time and your income. High-performers only.
Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,300+ books, exclusive discounts, monthly donations made on your behalf to an incredible literacy charity, and more!
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