The power of my extremely small email list

There are 92 people on the email list for this blog. Of that, approximately 35% open each email. That gives me a weekly readership of 32 people.

By any standard metric that seems tiny. Email lists are generally measured in thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Followers on social media sites are measured the same way.

32 people reading what I have to say barely counts for anything. Or, one might first think.

First, most of my writing comes from the writing prompt “What do I need to hear most right now?” In the end, I write for myself. This has been an outlet for me to clarify ideas in my head, to see my value, to distill my knowledge, to feed something in myself. I have 32 people witnessing me doing this.

Second, the sheer numbers of articles I’ve written since I’ve started, 166, could fill a book. In fact, more like 3 books. I recently copied and pasted my articles into 3 separate projects:

I’m not a Coach
I’ve Made It! Now What?
Fake it Till You Make It VS Just BE It

I’ve got 3 books that are well underway, writing 1 article a week towards for the last 3 years. It was so easy, and also it took 3 years.

Third, who is in my audience watching me do this? (This is where you come in)

I know from speaking with many of you, you are all interested in making an impact yourselves.

I’m imagining a room with 32 chairs filled. People listening to me share what I have to say. You are doing it right now by reading this.

That you are so engaged with me you found your way to my website, got on my list, both of which are not easily done because I don’t promote it in traditional ways. Then you made the point of opening this email and read it. That makes you a high value participant to me.

You are taking in what I have to share, and then I start to imagine the impact of those 32 people. Imagine the exponential spread of a thought or idea radiating out. Starts with me as a single dot, then goes to 32, and then from there radiates out in an incalculable way.

Pretty awesome when you think about it.

And then it brings me around to a pleasure I get in knowing I’m not following any rules here. That there is no program in the world that would teach you to work with such a small email list. Most people would be ashamed of it or see it as some sort of failure.

And yet, I just outlined how amazing this is for me.

What are you working on today that at first glimpse doesn’t seem successful but would change instantly if you chose to see it differently?