Almost ten years ago, I was reading Inspired Marketing!: The Astonishing Fun New Way to Create More Profits for Your Business by Following Your Heart (2008) by Joe Vitale, who is most famous for appearing in The Secret (which you can now watch on Netflix).

His book taught the idea of acting on the inspirations you receive as fast as you can.

Shortly afterwards, I got the idea of starting a weekly email newsletter. I didn’t know what I was doing… where it would lead… how to do things properly.

But I acted on that inspiration and made a start.

It turned out to be one of the smartest things I ever did. I wasn’t offering products or services to my list; I was simply creating useful content.

But my subscribers—several of whom who started reading my newsletter in 2008, still read it today—appreciated that I showed up in their inboxes week after week. Those readers referred copywriting clients to me, and for the first time, I earned an impressive amount of money doing what I love. (Before I focused on my career as a mental health speaker, I was a copywriter.)

Building a list of email subscribers is one of the smartest things you can do. In copywriting circles, we’re taught, “The money’s in the list.”

I want you to consider building your own list.

You don’t need to be a writer. My friend Josh curates content instead of creating it. Each week he sends out a list of links to articles he’s found interesting. Guy Kawasaki recommended a similar content creation approach in a now irrelevant book on how to use Google+.

You don’t need to be ready to start. I wasn’t ready. In fact, I was so clueless and cheap that I cut and paste the names of my subscribers into Gmail. I didn’t know about email marketing software like ConvertKit, which is what I use now.

You don’t need to know where it will lead. This isn’t about possessing the perfect knowledge of where it will lead. Get started, then ask your audience what is they’d like to know about. Let them direct your future direction.

When I got started, I didn’t even have a website. I have one now. Somehow you’ve found it, and I’d love to hear what you think of it and have you learn about me. So please share your thoughts in the comments. And if you’d like to get the weekly email newsletter I send out on a Friday morning, fill out the form below.