My cofounders and I worked at building Refinery29 for a loooong time, logging slow but meaningful growth and mini milestones. We got major momentum after 8 years and at that time people were constantly saying "wow, you really popped off!" "you guys are an overnight success!" Overnight = 8 Years in my case. A good reminder as I build the next thing!
Congrats on building such an epic brand with Ref29, and for staying the course for 8 years until you started feeling momentum. Well worth it!! Can’t wait to see what you’re building next. Any hints? 👀
This is it! You only succeed overnight if there was already enough work done before, all those small steps. All the little and annoying home works. All the connections allowing you to go further.. and that never happens overnight 🙂
It's like a recap of our mentoring call for me to come back to over and over again! So much gold in all your shares, but this one is so valuable for those starting out. Appreciate you!
I would really love to know more about your outreach system – is this different to your feedback system? I always feel a bit unsure of what to message people and how to start these conversations. I'm really keen to build this into my weeks too for both professional and personal connections. Maybe a post idea for you!
As someone just starting out, it's amazingly helpful to see your daily actions broken out. Also, so appreciate the reminder about 'the magic of compounding'. In investing, I know compound interest doesn't kick in right away - but it inevitably DOES. Your post here has given me renewed energy to keep going. Thank you! J
Very inspiring post, I wanna start my 30 min writing habit too. Thanks Anna! When you say that you reach out to at least one new person a day via LinkedIn or email, what is the main goal for you and how do you approach people - e.g. inviting for a chat, or offering some services?
Thank you for sharing and being transparent with what goes behind the scenes in your day-to-day! This was incredibly helpful and encouraging to read. I was feeling overwhelmed about creating my own systems. What you said about starting small habits everyday and then seeing you stack them with new habits made sense. It’s a slow crawl but rewarding once you figure out what works for you. Thanks again and appreciate the shoutout to us here in the US!
It’s definitely a slow crawl, and it’s taken probably a year for me to create a system that works for me (which is basically creating a checkbox for everything 😂)
That’s what I’m learning too…it’s going to take actually *doing* the things every day for a long time before streamlining your system. Your checkbox method is such a great idea to stay accountable and eventually discover what habits work best!
When you say you committed to writing for 30 minutes every day, what does that mean exactly? What are you writing about? Are you publishing what you wrote?
Literally as it sound - I simply wrote for 30 minutes every day. I didn't put any constraint around it and my only goal was to form a habit. To give you a sense - in my first 30 days of writing for 30 mins every day I finished one essay titled "How I stopped feeling ashamed that I'm not a morning person". I pitched this out to one digital publication to see what would happen and they picked it up (I couldn't believe it lol), and this was super encouraging. I also started writing a 3000 word memoir about a trip I took with a friend to Spain.
In my second month, I managed to complete 2 essays, both about business. I pitched them out to many publications and no one picked them up, so I didn't do anything with them. Eventually, months later when I created a blog, I put them up there.
I wrote for 30 mins every day for 9 months before starting my Substack and publishing regularly.
Great post, Anna! I’m interested in your Notion set up. I remember reading in another post that you shared (or are about to share) more info on how you use Notion to run your business?
My cofounders and I worked at building Refinery29 for a loooong time, logging slow but meaningful growth and mini milestones. We got major momentum after 8 years and at that time people were constantly saying "wow, you really popped off!" "you guys are an overnight success!" Overnight = 8 Years in my case. A good reminder as I build the next thing!
Congrats on building such an epic brand with Ref29, and for staying the course for 8 years until you started feeling momentum. Well worth it!! Can’t wait to see what you’re building next. Any hints? 👀
This is it! You only succeed overnight if there was already enough work done before, all those small steps. All the little and annoying home works. All the connections allowing you to go further.. and that never happens overnight 🙂
Can you please share your Notion system, that would be amazing!
Will do! Packaging it up as we speak 🥰
It's like a recap of our mentoring call for me to come back to over and over again! So much gold in all your shares, but this one is so valuable for those starting out. Appreciate you!
Appreciate you!! ❤️
I would really love to know more about your outreach system – is this different to your feedback system? I always feel a bit unsure of what to message people and how to start these conversations. I'm really keen to build this into my weeks too for both professional and personal connections. Maybe a post idea for you!
I’m writing a three part series on this starting Friday! So many people have asked so I’m doing a deeeeeeeep dive.
This is one of my favorite articles that I’ve read.
Thank you ❤️. Right message, right time?
Yes! Absolutely!
🫶🏼
I want to steal those notion templates. 🫣
I'll be packaging this up to sell shortly!
As someone just starting out, it's amazingly helpful to see your daily actions broken out. Also, so appreciate the reminder about 'the magic of compounding'. In investing, I know compound interest doesn't kick in right away - but it inevitably DOES. Your post here has given me renewed energy to keep going. Thank you! J
It does eventually! I think I started to see the compounding around month 8, if that’s helpful ☺️
Yes that is SUPER helpful. Thank you!
Very inspiring post, I wanna start my 30 min writing habit too. Thanks Anna! When you say that you reach out to at least one new person a day via LinkedIn or email, what is the main goal for you and how do you approach people - e.g. inviting for a chat, or offering some services?
I’ve received this question so much of the back of my newsletter! I’m going to write about this in next week’s post in depth ☺️
Great, thanks! :)
Thank you for sharing and being transparent with what goes behind the scenes in your day-to-day! This was incredibly helpful and encouraging to read. I was feeling overwhelmed about creating my own systems. What you said about starting small habits everyday and then seeing you stack them with new habits made sense. It’s a slow crawl but rewarding once you figure out what works for you. Thanks again and appreciate the shoutout to us here in the US!
It’s definitely a slow crawl, and it’s taken probably a year for me to create a system that works for me (which is basically creating a checkbox for everything 😂)
That’s what I’m learning too…it’s going to take actually *doing* the things every day for a long time before streamlining your system. Your checkbox method is such a great idea to stay accountable and eventually discover what habits work best!
Thanks for showing the visual of how the habit has evolved, I like that :)
You’re welcome!
Ahh I’m so glad you wrote this!
I think it's an important message to share!! Everything worth doing takes AGES 😂
10000% 😂 I know this too and a reminder is still always needed
When you say you committed to writing for 30 minutes every day, what does that mean exactly? What are you writing about? Are you publishing what you wrote?
Literally as it sound - I simply wrote for 30 minutes every day. I didn't put any constraint around it and my only goal was to form a habit. To give you a sense - in my first 30 days of writing for 30 mins every day I finished one essay titled "How I stopped feeling ashamed that I'm not a morning person". I pitched this out to one digital publication to see what would happen and they picked it up (I couldn't believe it lol), and this was super encouraging. I also started writing a 3000 word memoir about a trip I took with a friend to Spain.
In my second month, I managed to complete 2 essays, both about business. I pitched them out to many publications and no one picked them up, so I didn't do anything with them. Eventually, months later when I created a blog, I put them up there.
I wrote for 30 mins every day for 9 months before starting my Substack and publishing regularly.
Thank you, that’s really helpful!
No probs ❤️
Always appreciate you sharing the nitty-gritty (and screenshots of your notion setup), great inspo !
🥰
Great post, Anna! I’m interested in your Notion set up. I remember reading in another post that you shared (or are about to share) more info on how you use Notion to run your business?
Thanks! Yep....I'm slowly in the process of templating my entire system and packaging it up for people. Stay tuned!
Love the Daily tracker! Is that a Notion template?
It's one that I created for myself!
Cool! I feel like you can definitely sell it
I’m in the process of packaging all my Notion templates up for people to buy. Coming soon!
🙌