The 'rules' for generating momentum.

A step by step framework that may (or may not) work.

👋🏼 Hey, I’m Anna! I’m a founder and operator in an ongoing relationship with writing. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share business, career and life lessons that I’ve learned over years of trying hard, failing often, dusting myself off and improving until I succeed.

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It was 5:30 in the morning and I’d been woken by a shard of tangerine sun piercing through the bedroom’s Venetian blinds. Slowly, groggily, my eyes opened, and as usual I reached for my phone, my first instinct to check the emails that had come in overnight.

As my eyes came into focus I noticed one with the subject line “New free subscriber to Anna Mack’s Stack!” in the inbox. I scrolled a little. Another one. Then another. Then more. A lot more. I suddenly sat bolt upright.

Poking my sleeping boyfriend I whispered,“Hey, I think something weird has happened!”

My heart started racing. Had someone posted my email address on one of those spam sites? I immediately jumped onto social media to try and identify the cause of this highly unexpected but very welcome surge.

It wasn’t long before I discovered the culprit; a founder and writer I massively admire - Michelle Battersby - had recommended my ‘stack to her Instagram audience totally out of the blue. I immediately DM’d her with a heartfelt thank you.

After over a year of writing consistently, and after twenty three weeks collecting ideas, workshopping concepts, refining frameworks, writing anecdotes, agonising over subject lines, doing shitty first drafts, editing, polishing and publishing, this subscriber burst is the first time I’ve received a big signal that I’m doing something worthwhile. That I’m writing something valuable. That I’m resonating. That perhaps I’m onto something.

I’ve felt this feeling once before.

It’s called momentum.

First just a little, then all at once.

We all know it’s important to hurl yourself off the cliff of your comfort zone and take that first scary step in the direction of your new life.

But after taking that first action, then what? How do you go from making the leap to generating momentum? How do you go from struggling to push a giant boulder up a hill, to that boulder picking up speed and taking on a life of its own? And how do you stay the course without killing yourself in the process?

I don’t know all the A’s to these Q’s but I do know a little about it. Seven years ago I co-created a podcast that grew to be one of the most loved entrepreneurial shows in the country. The first months were a slog but over time something shifted. High profile guests started pitching themselves to us. Brands reached out wanting to advertise. We landed a partnership with Australian Fashion Week. We won a coveted national podcast award.

So how did we go from winging it with a travel recording kit to being on the national podcast stage? How did we gain that elusive momentum? Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I’m pretty sure we followed a series of four key steps:

1. Make noise.

2. Listen for a signal.

3. Respond.

4. Repeat.

Step 1: Make noise.

The first step in kickstarting the momentum flywheel involves playfully putting stuff into the world with the explicit goal of seeing what pops off.

In the early days of the podcast we interviewed lots of different types of founders. We tested various ways to market the show across all our social channels. We dabbled in video (this was pre Tiktok). We tried paid ads. We plastered all of Cremorne with stickers promoting the show (#sorrynotsorry Yarra Council). We made noise and got noticed.

There are lots of ways make noise, here are just a few:

• If you’re starting a new business, get an MVP into the hands of customers as quickly as possible to gather feedback and validate your idea.

• If you’re launching a new product, beta test designs or formulations with existing customers in exchange for their honest thoughts.

• If you’re building a new process within your team, start with a small, controlled pilot and build as you learn what works.

• If you’re a musician, bang your drums, clang your tambourine and sing loudly into the ether.

The key is get out there, give it crack, rattle the can, rustle some feathers, and move on to step 2.

Step 2: Listen for a signal.

Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I’m no physicist but it follows that if you make noise, you’ll receive a signal in return.

Signals can be loud, letting you know that people want what you have to give. When our podcast was picked up by the country’s largest network after just nine months, it was an obvious, exciting, motivating signal that momentum was starting to build.

But signals can also be soft. You may blink and miss them. After a year or two of working hard on the pod, a few high profile people started pitching to be guests rather than the other way around. Brands started approaching saying they wanted to advertise. It was a slow, soft burn. But it was momentum nonetheless.

There may also be times you’ll put stuff out there and receive crickets in return. But no signal is still a signal. A loud one, in fact. It’s a sign that whatever you’re doing is not what you should be doing, and that you should change tact.

The trick to identifying these signals - loud, soft or otherwise - is to listen for them. You have to put down the tools, close your calendar, wipe the to do list, and get quiet. Pay attention. Get curious. Investigate. Analyse. Assess. Listen. Hear. Then move on to step 3.

Step 3: Respond.

Once you’ve identified a signal, the next step is to respond accordingly.

If you hear a loud signal, double down. Keep doing what you’re doing. And do it more. Do it faster. Bigger. Better. With more time. With more money (if you can). Put fuel under the fire that has already started to burn.

If you hear a soft signal, get curious. Try again and see if you can generate a similar response. Confirm it’s a pattern not a fluke. Adjust your approach. Try to turn soft into loud.

And if you don’t hear a signal, become cutthroat. Stop. Cull. Kill.

Step 4: Repeat.

Return to step 1.

The shout and the echo.

I’ve learned some things about momentum through growing the podcast, and I’m now starting to apply these lessons to my newsletter. I’m just getting started, but here’s a few things I’ve been trying:

• Each week I pitch ideas to my boyfriend and close friends (make noise) and gauge their response (listen) and choose my topic based on what lands (respond).

• I post ideas I’m thrashing about on LinkedIn (make noise) to see whether people engage (listen) and build out newsletters for the ones that hit (respond).

• I pitch my finished essays to publications for syndication (make noise). I see if they get picked up (listen) and double down on the types of articles that do (respond).

This methodology feels solid and to a degree it is, but if I’ve learned anything through starting and growing a business, building an audience and working with startups, it’s this: it’s impossible to know when the signals will arrive. They may come after a few days of experimentation, after months of being consistently inconsistent, or after years of making noise. You can’t know when. I can’t know. No one can. The key is to keep going long enough to find out and see the compounded results of your effort, without spiralling, questioning, self sabotaging and destroying yourself along the way.

If you’re building, creating, pivoting, transforming, leaping, growing or hurtling into a new phase, I hope I’ve encouraged you to make noise. I hope you put your thoughts, ideas, product, services and creativity out there loudly. I hope you sing into the abyss with every inch of your heart and soul.

Because if you shout, you might hear an echo.

It may not come immediately. But it will.

First just a little.

Then all at once.

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👀 How have you generated momentum in your life?

Let me know below!

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