Welcome to issue #18 of TRUST-able. 

I am Robin Good and I am writing you for the sunny island of Holbox in Mexico.
Come visit me sometimes.

I compile this newsletter for independent authors, creators and consultants who want to become trusted advisors in their market niche.

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To get in touch with me, Robin Good, just email me at:
RobinGood@substack.com 

I am here to make friends. 

N.B.: There are two language editions of this newsletter:
The original English language edition and the Italian version.

Each edition has a short version, which you are reading right now, and a long, deep-dive, 30-page Google Document, with more info, detail, images and personal stuff, which you can read here.

Follow a path with a heart.
The time is NOW.

Robin Good

Read the Full Edition Gdoc

1) How To Create Real Value

Curate

Contrary to what most people think, great value can be generated by analyzing and interpreting what’s already out there rather than by writing something new. The lowest form of curation is sharing. Next is curation with opinion. Above that is curation with insight.” Share = find unique relevant stuff. Opinion = have a unique point of view.
Insight = interpret and extract actionable lessons.

Source: Nicolas Cole | The Startup - “How To Become A Legendary Thought Leader Whose Ideas Change The World”

Mixtape

This is the art of bringing together different voices on a common theme, issue or problem. You scour and search the world audio podcasts (via ListenNotes and Spotify) to find who has been covering a certain theme or topic. You bookmark, save or download the episode (or extract the relevant parts from it) and you put it together with other ones in a well thought out sequence.

Source: Stan Wilson - "Creating a Soundtrack of Ideas: The Power of the Podcast Mixtape"

Remix (YT Videos)

Did you know that by default 99% of videos on YouTube are available for you to remix into new content? Both videos and shorts from your own Youtube or from other YT channels can be used to create so-called YouTube remixes (max 60” long).
Here are three great ways to leverage this new content creation opportunity. Find out more on how to use this value-building feature here.

Source: Anna Sonnenberg - “How to Easily Create YouTube Shorts With YouTube Remix”

2) How To Cultivate Relationships

Reach Out Daily

[For most people] networking means grabbing business cards at events, getting coffee to “pick people’s brains”, etc.. The more talented ones realize that networking is largely about giving. Making introductions, offering to help, providing feedback and advice. Give, give, give. They have a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Inside the spreadsheet this is what they have organized:

-   5 key people who are most critical in accomplishing their goals
(with whom they get in touch multiple times per week).

-   25 more people
(they get in touch with them once per week).

-   150 further contacts
(to be contacted once per month).

Source: Sean Johnson - “The Secret of the Best Networker I Ever Met"

Build a System

An actionable guide and resource to help you build and grow your community built on the direct-experience and knowledge of 110+ community builders. It includes:

• 818 community building resources

• an actionable dashboard and checklist system and can function as a guide, database, idea-generating machine, framework and most of all, as an actionable resource.

100% free.

Community OS

Choose the Right Platform

What I have learned in the last few years is that newsletters are a much better vehicle to build and cultivate relationships than social media (as we use it today). This is why I so heavily recommend all of my clients to have one. But the first thing they ask me is always: “What newsletter platform should I use to do this?” To help you better assess which platform may be best for you I strongly suggest you give a good read to Dan Oshinsky recent guide on choosing Best newsletter platforms for an indie entrepreneur.

Source: Dan Oshinsky - “AWeber, Beehiiv, ConvertKit, Ghost, Mailchimp, or Substack: Which Is The Right ESP For Your Indie Newsletter?”

3) How To Communicate Effectively

Replace Adjectives 

Add some emotional tone to any commercial message by using this simple tactic: Turn any description into an action. Instead of saying: "Our new mascara is effective, healthy, and perfect for your skin." Say: "Our mascara cleans your pores, moisturizes your skin, and adjusts to your skin type."

Source: Chase Dimond - Twitter 

Learn To Say No

31 templates to say no with class in every situation. Importable into Gmail.
Based on real responses written by great people (from Steve Jobs to Paul Graham).
Curated by Pat Walls.

Source: Pat Walls - Starter Story - “How To Say No”

Left Align

Most indie publishers fall into the trap of formatting much of their website text according to the templates they use. Many types of text blocks in these templates have text center aligned by default. The consequence of this is that each line first letter starts in a different position. This formatting works fine when you have a title or a maximum of two lines of text. When you have more (like in a testimonial), having each line start in a different position, makes reading more difficult, and makes the page look amateurish when compared to professional publications layouts. For maximum legibility align any text that is more than a few words or more than two lines of text, always to the left.

Source: Robin Good

Read the Full Edition Gdoc

4) How To Market Yourself

Build a Cult

By spreading what makes you radically different from everyone else you can build a cult-like following. A cult-like following is made up by people infused with a great sense of pride and purpose who then go beyond rationality to see their cult-brand win. To achieve and maintain such status it requires:

• Believing in deeply non-conforming ideas

• Spreading, cultivating and reinforcing them

Source: Jordan Odinsky - “Cult Wars The Making of a Cult Brand”

Develop a Unique Voice 

If your writing style is so original and unique that it can be easily recognized even when presented out of the context, you have developed a unique voice. A unique voice is characterized (among others) by tone, level of directedness, sentences length, number of pauses, the words and adjectives you use. Becoming aware of these variables empowers you to start experimenting and using them. Reading many different authors and books enriches your available writing patterns and vocabulary making it gradually easier to express yourself.

Source : Robin Good

Create a Personal Profile

Having a public web page where you can list your online communication channels provides a useful resource for anyone wanting to know you better. Here’s a new web app that does this at zero cost. Check it out now: Bento

*Find more little-known zero-cost tools, like Bento, by subscribing to Good Tools.

Source: Ivan Mehta - “Sequoia-Backed Bento Wants To Be More Than a Link-in-Bio Tool for Creators”

5) How To Get More Visibility

Write Great Titles

…that attract audience attention. There’s a big difference between promising things that you can’t deliver and phrasing your titles in ways that entice the reader into opening them. The first is called Clickbait while the second one could be labeled Legitbait. Legitbait = Clickbait that is enticing, but does not mislead the user. It is legitimate and delivers on what it promises to show. N.B.: YouTube has changed over time to prioritize videos that have high engagement and click-through rates, making clickbait more important than ever. 

[Video] duration: 19’:24”

Source: Veritasium - “Clickbait Is Unreasonably Effective”

Reply To Others

Spend time replying to other people with high visibility while bringing deep value to the table. By doing this on social media platforms like Twitter, you get a lot of exposure you wouldn’t otherwise have. Thanks to the high reach and engagement level of popular personalities in your niche you can rapidly get attention and new followers you’d have to work a lot harder to get. The secret is in replying to those with high visibility by providing some real good value to the question being posed. Sharing something that is not widely known, a useful resource you have built or suggest watching, can do the magic.

Inspired by: Victor Bigfield - “Invest In Your Personal Growth in 2023”

Zag

…the age of average is the age of opportunity. When every supermarket aisle looks like a sea of sameness, when every category abides by the same conventions, when every industry has converged on its own singular style, bold brands and courageous companies have the chance to chart a different course. To be different, distinctive and disruptive. It’s time to cast aside conformity. It’s time to exorcize the expected. It’s time to decline the indistinguishable. It’s time we reintroduced some originality. Or as the ad agency BBH says.

When the world zigs. Zag.”

Source: Alex Murrell - “The Age of the Average”

6) How To Monetize

Diversify

This guy used to be a doctor in the UK. Now he earns millions online. To do so, over the course of a few years, he has found at least 12 different ways to monetize his content. Diversification, when it comes to monetization, is the ultimate goal to grow and remain profitable over time.

[Video] duration: 46’:14”

Source: Alì Abdaal - “How I Earned Millions in 2022”

Smash Objections

Handle potential objections upfront, before they try to contact you and ask. Better yet, list specifically the top reasons why customers do not buy your product / service. “It’s called “The Objection Smasher.” Create a public facing landing page and list out the brutally honest 5-10 reasons customers don’t buy your product and why they churn.

Source: Dave Gerhardt - LinkedIN Post

Ask Them

To gauge the best price for your service / product, find out what your potential customers are willing to spend by asking them some simple questions.

“a) At what price would you think product is a bargain – a great buy for the money?

b) At what price would you begin to think product is getting expensive, but you still might consider it?

c) At what price would you begin to think product is too expensive to consider?

d) At what price would you begin to think product is so inexpensive that you would question the quality and not consider it?

Source: Mike Pritchard - "Van Westendorp pricing (the Price Sensitivity Meter)"

7) How To Stay Ahead

Develop a Personal Moat 

“A personal moat is a set of unique and accumulating competitive advantages in the context of your career. It should be a competitive advantage 

1. discover what’s easy for you but hard for others,

2. then get so good they can’t ignore you,

3. and then leverage that to accrue social and financial capital.

4. Don’t skip steps 1 & 2.

Source: Erik Torenberg - “Build Personal Moats”

Build Skills & Expertise

The best way to become a highly respected authority in whichever niche is to invest in your specialized knowledge and skills. “Specialized knowledge and skills are so rare that the statement “if you build it, they will come” is actually partly true in this unique case. In other words, focusing on knowledge & skills enables you to most quickly gain the other loops — capital, network, and legibility.” 

Source: Erik Torenberg - “See Your Career As a Product”

Look for the Next Level

When you feel you are not getting any better, it means you are platooning and it’s time to upgrade to a new level. “Writing is not about setting up a process once and then following it for the rest of your life. It works for a while despite those flaws, but then you inevitably reach a plateau. Which is great—because that’s a sign that you are ready for an upgrade. To upgrade, you need to design a change. Then, you apply this change consistently for another creative period after which you are bound to hit the plateau… and the fun starts all over again.”

Source: Marta Brzosko - “How to Overcome Writer’s Block in 30 Days: A Complete Guide”

Read the Full Edition Gdoc

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Recommended Tools

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Save hundreds of dollars of app subscriptions.

The free tools newsletter for indie entrepreneurs.

In the last issue:

• Sounds Generators

• Habit Trackers

• Minimalistic Writing Editors

• Timers

• Ad Blockers

• Website Blockers

• Inbox Cleaners

• Article Cleaners

• Video Cleaners

• Browser Tabs Organizers

From the Heart

Slow Down 

“Slow down and focus on what’s important and meaningful right now.

Stop worrying. 

… and instead ask yourself
what’s important and meaningful in your life.”

What is it exactly?

Can you write it down?

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so, wants nothing.”

For some it can be doing something creative, for others being able to use their talent and passion to sustain themselves economically. For some it may be researching and studying something that fascinates them, for others it may be helping others achieve their goals. 

Whatever it is that is meaningful for you, true happiness comes when you stop worrying and you start trusting your guts. Follow what is meaningful. Authentic. True to you.

Source: Aurora Eliam - “4 Quotes by Seneca to Help You Re-Evaluate Your Life”

Read more on these topics by checking out the extended edition of this newsletter.

Please support this newsletter, by becoming a paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading.
If it did help or inspire you, please do let me know
(write me at robingood@substack.com)

Follow a path with a heart.

The time is NOW.

From sunny Holbox,
Robin Good

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