21 little ways to deepen you relationship with anyone


Short one today…

If you want to build a relationship with readers and followers, try these 21 tactics:

  1. Write and send a daily email. Readers will expect to hear from you.
  2. Share a recent win…or a loss (people love the losses more than the wins)
  3. Ask a new subscriber, “What are you working on?”
  4. Describe your morning or evening routine.
  5. Offer up a contrarian take on a topic like AI. My take? Write what AI can’t.
  6. Write about something you learned or discovered.
  7. Include a photo of yourself, not from 15 years ago!
  8. Reference where you live or where you’re from.
  9. Write about your job… readers love learning about other people’s work
  10. Insert an element of movement into your content, e.g., “I was at the gym today and…”
  11. Create behind-the-scenes content about your business.
  12. Write about a book you’re reading or learning from.
  13. Reference a current event. The Drudge Report is an excellent source of inspiration.
  14. Include a story about your family. Pseudonyms work well here.
  15. Share your weekend plans.
  16. Describe your creative process. I’m a big fan of 90-minute blocks of deep work.
  17. Describe your workplace setup. I write on a laptop and work using a dual monitor set up.
  18. Talk about your creative or business goals. I’m growing a private Telegram group ) for creators this year.
  19. Draw on a cultural reference. I’m from Ireland, and anytime I mention drinking Guinness, a reader writes in!
  20. Share how you’re using a tool or an app. Yesterday, I sent you an email showing how I use Claude.
  21. Describe a big mistake you made.
  22. Share a conversation or an idea that changed your business.

Grammarly Discount

I've partnered with Grammarly for this newsletter. It's a tool I use for my business. I use this app daily for grammar checking, plagiarism checkers, AI generation, and more.

Claim your 25% discount

Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins

Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.

Read more from Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins
A group of men sitting next to each other

I’ve spent thousands on business masterminds over the years. I’ve paid for online and in-person masterminds. Online masterminds are convenient. You can join the weekly accountability calls and check-ins on your lunch break or at night. But I find all those weekly Zoom calls and live cohorts exhausting. It’s also hard to get value from a program where you must wait your turn to ask the facilitator a question. I’ve sometimes paid more to circumvent that problem and get 1:1 time with the...

man using laptop computer

Over the years, I’ve started and stopped a few Substack publications. I even interviewed co-founder Hamish McKenzie for my podcast. For a while, I figured Substack was more suitable for journalists and politics bloggers. Now, I’m more bullish on the platform than ever. I love reading stats about how other creators are finding success on it. I recently read a report from Ciler Demiralp of The Newsletter Circle. Her team analyzed 75,000 Substack publications. Here are a few findings that stood...

This post got me some clients on LinkedIn. It also got me thinking more about self-editing: Proofreading doesn’t have to be complicated. These 7 editing tips will save you time. Copy and paste your draft from one writing app to another. Change the font size and line spacing to Courier, 1.5 Separate writing and editing. Use a dedicated grammar checker before pressing publish. Need to fix something later? Type "TK. You’ll spot it instantly when editing. Read your text aloud. Create a checklist...