20k subs & what is to come

So I’d told you I wasn’t emailing this week, but yesterday I crossed over a big milestone:

Hopefully this email doesn’t make me dip back below it…….

When I started this newsletter, I honestly had no idea this was in the realm of possibility.

Today, instead of posting about finances, I take some time to reflect on the journey, share some stats, look at the most popular posts, and share some things I learned along the way (just scroll down for the headings).

In April 2021, I made the decision to start a podcast.

In the podcast, I took books I was reading pulled out personal financial applications that people could apply in their own life.

I had some previous experience with the medium of podcasting (a story for another time), so it seemed less imitating than committing to writing on the regular.

Little did I know that podcasts are impossible to promote without another platform… so I started a Twitter.

But, within a few months, it all lost its shine. While I knew all the concepts, I didn’t have the passion to teach them on Twitter. And as I looked around, I saw those creating around me obsessed with the ideas they were talking about.

That just wasn’t me.

So, I found myself searching. I briefly wrote about marriage. I’m a Christian and have always been a reflective person, so I explored writing around purpose and meaning. But nothing felt right…

The whole time the answer was right in front of me: write about what you know the best… business finances.

Flashing back, when choosing my major in college, I had 2 choices: Accounting or Engineering. Well, not literally, but my limited high school mind saw only those two.

I decided on Accounting because I was fascinated by how businesses ran and knew it would get me an inside look.

That helps explain why I didn’t go the traditional CPA firm route… I just didn’t care that much about Accounting.

It also explains why I chose the small business route! I was working at one of the largest private companies in the world and happened across an opportunity to work at a small, but growing, business.

I jumped. It seemed like a great opportunity, but it also meant I wouldn’t be doing Accounting all day. Instead, I’d get to explore the other parts of the business too.

This suited me well and I thrived on the daily challenges it brought.

10+ years later I see how these experiences modeled me into someone fascinated by the connection between numbers and business.

It equipped me for the role I now play.

So, when I posted the first business finance piece of content, it was more about scratching my own itch than a desire to deliver true value.

When that first post was a hit, I had to stop and reflect: did people actually want to read this stuff?

Posting the business finance content got me excited because I could visualize the bottom lines of the business owners I was speaking to changing.

Where personal finances were dull to me, business finances were just the opposite. The complexity meant it was full of color and caveats.

The chase of finding the optimization energized me. As I posted more, the hunger for the content was evident… so I kept posting.

Then, in May 2022, something crazy happened… I went viral and gained 20,000 Twitter followers overnight.

This was the final piece… the transformation… the full on pivot… to talking about business and business finances.

It was at that time that I relaunched my newsletter as “Frameworks & Finance” and the rest is history.

It hasn’t been a straight line, but it has been consistent.

Each step along the way, I’ve received tons of feedback about the ways that my newsletter has impacted them personally and professionally.

For those who have shared… thank you.

For those who have yet to… please do.

It’s what keeps me going.

The stats

• 434,200 emails delivered
• 203,929 emails opened (47% average open rate)
• 25,130 total subscribes
• 5,088 unsubscribed
• 38% month-over-month growth (which means I’ll be at 250k by the end of December, lol… don’t think that’s happening)

The hits

Here are the most opened posts (as determined by open rate) since I started:

1. How to pick a banking partner (and not get caught in a bank run)
2. The art of hiring: Knowing when to make a hire
3. Master your financials with these 3 numbers
4. 7 ways to protect your business from fraud
5. How to track (and understand) cash flow
6. 7 tips for the coming AI revolution
7. 18 signs your pricing is too low

Lessons learned

This last year has been a journey. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way:

1. If you enjoy it, someone else will. Don’t overthink what’s worth writing about or not. You can never tell what piece others will love, so you might as well write what you want to write.
2. Subject lines are important, but consistently good content is more so.
3. Writing a good newsletter takes more time than you think. It can take me anywhere from 2/3 hrs to 10 hrs, depending on the density of the topic.
4. You have to have a regular time and place you write. For me this has become Saturday mornings with editing happening throughout the week. When you don’t, it becomes a negotiation.
5. Target audience is hard. I thought I’d be speaking mostly to business owners, but I’m also speaking to a lot of finance people. That’s great, but it has made me re-evaluate my approach with some content.
6. I need to share more, personally. I thought I was just sharing about finance, but no one likes dry writing. To liven up the writing, I have to incorporate more personal thoughts and antidotes. It has been fun!
7. When you teach, you learn. I’ve learned so much this last year having to think more deeply about these concepts. That’s on y’all and I’m grateful for it.

This is in no way all-inclusive and likely seriously lacking.

More than almost anything, the relationships I’ve built with others on the same newsletter journey have been the biggest gift of all.

A lot will be changing in the coming months. I can’t wait to share all of this with you!

I will be releasing a course, launching a referral program, and making some changes to the format of the newsletter.

But more than anything: I’m looking for ways to deliver even more value. If you have ideas, I’d love to chat with you about them. Reply to this email and I’ll do my best to respond to all.

Thanks again for joining me on this journey.

Talk to you next week,

-Kurtis

PS. If you’d be interested in advertising to 20k business owners and finance nerds, click here to reach out.

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