You know, for people who want up-to-the-minute information as of 18 hours ago.

Okay, it was about their online weather, not the print edition.

Still, it struck me as being out of sync with what a print newspaper is known for. Kind of like if your local donut shop started offering classes on “How to Eat More Healthily.”

When it comes to developing new services and offerings, the further those are from what you are known for – or what even people who have never heard of you assume you are good at – the steeper a hill your prospective clients have to climb.

Start with things that make intuitive sense and, meteorologically speaking, you’ll have the wind at your back. (Sorry)

I know, I’ve never heard of him either.

At least I thought I didn’t. 

Because just as I was about to hit the “this is spam” button, I realized I had quite deliberately (and fairly recently) signed up for his newsletter.

I just didn’t remember, and his name, all alone and out of context, was nearly not enough to remind me.

We each receive a ton of emails every day. The political requests for donations, in particular, tend to come from people we’ve never heard of – with just their name in the email “from” line.

So, it’s more important than ever – and it’s been important since the beginning of email time – that you do whatever you can to remind the people who get your newsletter (many of whom, over time, may not know you personally) who you are.

My go-to for a long time has been “Name | CompanyName” in the “from” field (e.g., Michael Katz | Blue Penguin).

It’s not foolproof, but if they delete your email without opening it, nothing else matters.

As an email newsletter specialist, one of the questions I often hear is, “How did you get to be so good looking?”

The other one is, “How do I keep people from unsubscribing to my newsletter?”

I can’t help you with the first, but the answer to the second is simple: Don’t ever publish anything; it’s the arrival of your email that prompts people to unsubscribe.

With that in mind, I have two suggestions…

#1. If you’ve been more or less absent all year, sending something now of limited (or zero) value is a surefire way to remind people of that and have them unsubscribe.

#2. You can avoid that problem – and reap many benefits –  by publishing consistently throughout the year.

Start fresh in 2026.

Nothing wrong; she’s been my accountant for more than 25 years and has been great to work with.

But my business, my wife’s business, and our lives in general, are much less complicated than they once were.

At this point, her firm is just way more horsepower than we need (i.e., considerably more expensive). We probably should have done this three or four years ago.

It’s easy to just keep pushing “repeat” on processes in your business – especially when they work just fine. 

It might be worth looking at what you are doing and who you are working with, and making sure it all still makes sense.

Unfortunately, the person I was meeting with – a person I am a client of – was late.

How late? Three minutes. 

Not terrible. But for a scheduled Zoom call … unnecessary. Especially if it happens more than once. 

You are your brand. Showing up late is the spinach in your teeth of professional services. 

It has nothing to do with the service you provide. But it has everything to do with how you are perceived.