To What End?
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Hi, Reader! I won't bury the lead today; I'll get right to it. This newsletter is going on a hiatus. I love writing this newsletter, so a great deal of thought has gone into the decision to stop. Read on to find out why the newsletter is going on a break, and maybe you can take something away for yourself. Let's get into it. ------------------ The Origin of the Newsletter I sent my first newsletter on March 23, 2023. Since then, a total of 76 newsletters have gone out. I never missed a week until earlier this summer. At the start, I had a few reasons for starting this newsletter: 1) Inform friends, family, and podcast listeners about what I'm doing in real estate; 2) Teach about commercial real estate; 3) Promote the podcast; and 4) Maybe raise capital for real estate deals. In essence, begin to create a "thought leadership" platform to continue to build my real estate business. Many other online creators have these goals, too. Many try to reach these goals by being active on their social media channels. But not me. I like the idea of newsletters, because it's long-form. I don't enjoy being active on social media, so I connected more with the idea of a newsletter. It seems more personal. And even if you're active on social media, most experts agree that creators should also be building an email list that's separate from social media. So I put my efforts into the newsletter. The Results The newsletter has gone well. I enjoy writing it and especially enjoy the teaching aspect. The number of newsletter subscribers hasn't grown a ton, but open rates are strong - almost always over 50%. By comparison, in general, most email newsletter open rates hover in the 20-30% range, with marketing emails opened at a much lower rate. So for nearly every newsletter of mine to exceed a 50% open rate tells me that my audience (albeit small) is connecting with what I'm sending because they continue to open my emails. (warm, fuzzy feeling.) But, to what end? You probably receive other newsletters. You've probably noticed that all of these newsletters have one core purpose. If you haven't noticed, I'll tell you: Sell. They might be selling you shoes and apparel, online courses, a coaching program, to come to their church, or some other product or service. In the real estate world, these newsletters are trying to sell you on a deal. Brokers are trying to sell you the actual deal, and investors are trying to sell you on a deal in order to raise capital for it. Selling is not inherently wrong, but I'm not selling anything. I don't have any courses or coaching programs or t-shirts or shoes to sell. I'm not actively raising capital. Maybe there's been a soft nudge once or twice to reach out to me if you're interested in investing. But the nudge was probably so soft that you missed it. I think it's helpful for all of us to consistently check in with ourselves with how we're spending our time. After all, if there's one thing in life we can never get more of, it's time. Why am I doing this? To what end? If we don't have good answers, hopefully we can adjust our actions. At this point, I don't have a good enough answer in order to continue the newsletter. I continue to love the teaching aspect of the newsletter. But I've decided that I do not want to be a thought leader, and I do not want to raise capital from strangers to syndicate big deals (though, I will continue to offer double-digit returns by working with close friends and family). This reflection is combined with competing interests for my time. Namely, wanting to be an active and present dad to my growing kids and my newest business endeavor. The podcast will continue (for now), because I still have a compelling enough why to continue to put time and effort into it: to learn about commercial real estate from people with more experience than me. In all things that you put your time and effort into, I hope you continue to ask why. And when you don't have a satisfying answer, make a change for the better. I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email or connect on Linked In.
Did you miss a newsletter? Click here to look through the archives. Curious about commercial real estate? Read The Top 6 Reasons to Invest in Non-Residential Commercial Real Estate. |
Jonathan Hayek with The Source of Commercial Real Estate
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