🎯 Work Smart Wednesday - April 3, 2024
How to get your first 1000 email subscribers, my new favourite tool for short form video creation, and a quote on getting started
Work Smart Wednesday
👋 Hey there!
Here is your weekly dose of Work Smart Wednesday
In these emails I will share with you 3 things to help you work smarter in 3 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,077 more minutes to conquer your goals this week
1. 📬 How to get your first 1000 email subscribers
This article was one of the best simple guides I have read in the last 3 months.
I found it referenced within another Substack article I stumbled across while travelling to Sweden, and I immediately subscribed to the writer.
The article is simple: it covers what the author did to build their email subscriber list right up to 10,000+.
It outlines what worked, what didn’t work, and how long it took to reach each milestone.
I have already started implementing some of the tips, and I plan to test the recommended strategies over the next few months across Work Smart Wednesday. I will let you know how it goes.
My biggest takeaways?
The first 1000 is the hardest
Who you know, and/or luck, is a major contributor at the start. But it can be overcome.
Testing and tracking data to see what works and what doesn’t really helps you focus on taking actions that make an actual difference
The original author could do with some help with ads!
Read the article. If you want to grow your email list (hint: you REALLY should), then this is a great guide outlining exactly what you can do to grow quickly and easily.
For long time subscribers, you will notice that the article on how to get your first 1000 subscribers mirrors many of the things I shared about the reality of going viral. That piece is worth a refresher, or checking out if you’re new to Work Smart Wednesday.
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2. 🎬 My new favourite AI tool
I love this tool. I found it by accident a few months ago and have been telling my clients about it constantly since then. It felt time to share it with you, too.
Me and my clients have been using it to create high quality short-form content quickly and easily, some of which have generated more than 1,000,000 views (and a good number of conversions!).
The tool is called Opus Clip.
Put short, it takes a long video clip and automatically cuts it into short clips for you.
The AI selects the most interesting parts of the video, cuts the clip, and then does everything required to make the video look great (auto-captions, auto-reframes, etc).
I have been using it to create short ‘soundbite’ style clips from recordings of my podcast appearances. Clients have used it with their YouTube videos, speech recordings, course content, and many more.
You can see an example of what Opus does on my LinkedIn post here.
The free trial is great (and it doesn’t require a credit card or anything). Well worth giving it a shot.
3. 💡 Quote I'm pondering
"A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step” - Lao Tzu
To start something is often the hardest part. While I do believe the proverb “One finish is worth 100 starts”, people often wait too long to get started.
Your first email will suck, your first offer will suck, your first workout will suck, your first speech will suck, your first anything usually sucks.
But you can’t be good at something until you have been bad.
Put the ego aside, get started.
Get started, then be open to adapting and trying new things. Improve as you go.
That's it! I can't wait to hear what you think. What did you find most useful? What do you want more or less of? Reply to this email now and let me know
Also, if you have anything interesting to share, I want to know about it😊
Have a great week,
John
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