Analog Action by Matt Ragland

Hey Reader, did you know you're different from most people on my email list? How do I know this? Because you actually DO stuff with what I send you. Most people just save emails to a folder called "read later" and never look at them again. You can actually take action. That's pretty rare these days. 💡 One Big Idea: You Are The Outlier I was thinking about this yesterday after I skipped the gym for two weeks. That little voice in my head started whispering "You're out of shape now. You've lost...

Hey Reader, I joined a church softball league this fall. It’s slow pitch. You know, where they lob the ball to you like you’re a toddler learning to swing 🥎 I started strong. Got on base 8 out of my first 10 at-bats. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then game three happened. I struck out. In SLOW PITCH softball 🫨 The ball was coming at me slower than my morning coffee brew. And I whiffed 💨 To make it worse, I’m pretty sure I pulled something swinging so hard at nothing. My back...

Hey Reader, I've been thinking about something that might sound different than a lot of the advice you've heard. It's that most side hustlers actually do too much early in their journey, which is odd because you don't have much time to begin with. Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, you need to make clear decisions and stick with them for at least 100 days. Let me explain why this works—and share how it completely changed my creator journey. 💡 One Big Idea: Four Decisions That Create...

Hey Reader, I did something weird this past week that hit me way harder than I expected. I took 119 pictures of old journals—one from 15 years ago, another from 10 years back—and fed them all to Claude. It shot back a detailed analysis of my past self that was more revealing than I'd bargained for. Here’s what happened. What I Discovered The biggest thing wasn't what had changed, but what hadn't. The core values that mattered to me 10-15 years ago are still important today. But seeing them...

Hey Reader, it's Labor Day weekend here in America and the official return of college football! One benefit of being back in Florida is the opportunity to see my beloved Gators play more often. I'm taking my two older boys to next week's game and can't wait for the experience with them. If you're rooting for a college football team this fall, write back and let me know who! Even (especially?) if you're a rival like Georgia, Tennessee, or FSU. And bonus points if you use a fun GIF. 💡 One Big...

Hey Reader, a couple days ago I asked a quick question about newsletters—specifically if anyone was interested in me being your personal newsletter coach for a 10 week program I’m running. The program has two goals for you… You become a better writer through repetition and coaching You make money on your newsletter because you are a better writer If you’re interested in working with me this fall to build a newsletter machine that powers your business, click reply and just say “Newsletter”. 💡...

Hey Reader, This week I hosted my second live summit, a great event with amazing speakers like Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Nat Eliason, Chenell Basilio, Ed Latimore, Sam Vander Weilen, and more. I wrapped up the summit with a big announcement, something I had to keep under wrap (no pun intended) until the end. 🥁 Drumroll please… I have sold HeyCreator to Mighty Networks and will be a part of their new Creator Masterminds community as a creator-in-residence! Ok let’s talk about what this means. As...