Lesson 14: How to take ideas from newsletters to public channels.
How to offer an idea up to the public to see how much it's worth.
One of the main things we help people with, on the Newsletter Launchpad, is how to more comfortably and confidently put themselves "out there."
And core to that is the idea that you can first share with a friendlier, smaller crowd on a newsletter. Then, improve on ideas and bring them to public channels.
We call this an Idea Public Offering (an IPO, but for your ideas). When we say public channels, we mean places like Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, or anything with a lot of eyeballs and an algorithm; we bring these ideas to platforms like that because that is the best way to bring more people back to subscribe to your newsletter.
We’ve talked about this more in-depth in previous editions. But instead of talking more about our theory, we will show you an example. A how-to-IPO your newsletter ideas.
Now, onto our example:
One of our recent community members, Jen, started a newsletter three weeks ago called "Engineers' Gate." In her very first edition, Jen had an idea that was so good community members pointed it out and said she should offer it up on public channels.
Specifically, community members pointed out her "Reframe" module (which is pasted below for your convenience).
But simply taking that and pasting it into a social channel will not work so well.
Even though Jen did a great job in her newsletter, that environment is very different from places with algorithms. The idea has to be polished and redone for social channels.
On public channels, like Twitter, few people know Jen. But in her newsletter and in our community, everyone knows something about her, so she has credibility with us.
So in her newsletter, Jen can get away with sharing ideas however she feels comfortable. And she can bury important parts like the fact that she has 15 years of experience as a recruiter.
But very few people in public know these important details about Jen.
So if Jen had posted this on social channels with the important parts buried, chances are high, it would go unnoticed.
However, Jen did not do this. She prepared her content for IPO with feedback from folks in the Newsletter Launchpad community.
The credibility came to the top. And she compressed, clarified, and re-wrote things for social consumption.
These might seem like small changes, but these small changes could be the difference between no one seeing the content and many people seeing it.
By IPOing this idea from her newsletter on public channels, Jen gained over 20 newsletter subscribers, not bad for a first edition. And awesome when you think about how hard it is to actually get someone’s email. And not only that, but because of Substack recommendation features, Jen helped folks in the community gain readers too from this thread. Win, Win.
You should subscribe to Jen’s newsletter below, she will teach you a lot about the tech industry.
You should also consider how you might be able to IPO your own ideas from your newsletter to public channels.
Newsletter of the Week:
We spoke about the Reframe module of Jen’s newsletter, where she gives advice on the mindset of recruiting and interviewing. If that doesn’t float your boat, check out her other modules on living in New York City and running!
Her newsletter is great.
Tip of the Week:
Invite your friends to your newsletter.
Populate your safe space with people that you want to read your newsletter. They’re not going to find it by accident and these are great people to have in there because they’ll help you improve ideas with replies before you take them to public channels with lots of strangers.
This will also be a good forcing function and reason for you to send the newsletter each week.
Thank you for reading. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend or two. It helps us and it might help them.
Louie & Chris
P.S. you can respond directly to this email. We read every reply. We'd love to hear from you.