The Useletter
When I started writing my newsletter nearly a decade ago, I made a promise to everyone who signed up. I would write because I have someone to serve, not just because I have something to say.
For the last few years I’ve wrestled with adding to the noise. Everyone I know is starting a Substack or asking for an email address. I opened my inbox one morning and saw six newsletters from people I genuinely admire, and realised I hadn’t read any of them. Not because they aren’t good. Because our inboxes are like Times Square: everything screaming for attention.
I’ve always had ideas worth sharing. Now I think I’ve finally found a way to turn them into something you can use, rather than something you have to get through.
Every Useletter has four parts
One piece, usually three or four minutes, on one idea about team culture, with a mental model where it helps. There’s a thirty second version in the margin if you’re in a rush, and something to listen to while you read if you want it.
One question to reflect on, sit with, or journal about.
One thing you can actually do, built for that piece: a tool, a map, an assessment, a conversation you can put in your calendar in two taps. It ends with something you can take to a room, not a summary of what you just read.
Where everyone else landed on one question, and a place to tell me what you think. It comes to me, and I’m the only one who reads it. Tell me what helped, and ask the questions that shape what comes next. That’s what turns a broadcast into a conversation.
What I’m committing to