Can you believe it? Just like that, we’ve reached the 100th issue of the Vibe! We’re thrilled to be “the newsletter that people actually read” and can’t thank you enough for coming along for the ride. There’s been so many weeks of inbox insights over the last two years. That said, this feels like the perfect time to announce that this will also be the final issue of The Vibe.
Ha! I’m totally kidding. There are so many more ideas and weird perspectives I have to offer. You should see the yet-unused topics sitting in my drafts waiting to hit your eyeballs—everything from self sabotage to magic mushrooms to life lessons from bees (for real). So stay tuned!
This week I want to reflect on the journey that has been writing The Vibe and some cool $#!% that has happened along the way.
Let’s get retrospective and introspective!
in the beginning
Like most businesses, we created a newsletter to promote our new business to let people know what we do, when we were opening, etc.
Now, being an unconventional entrepreneur, I am always highly resistant to the norm. If there’s a traditional and proven way of doing something, I generally feel compelled to do it differently (sounds edgy, but it’s f*!$ing annoying sometimes!).
The “normal” way of doing things is to bombard your clients or followers with updates, sales, and pepper in some psychological marketing warfare using a scarcity mindset (only 3 days left to save 80%! Act now!!) and preying on people’s insecurities (New year, new you! It’s time to lose weight!).
I genuinely can’t stand that sort of thing, and made it my mission to provide value to interested people by providing some quick weekly insights on life and the pursuit of understanding what the hell it means to be human – I mean, that’s wellness, right?
And here’s the thing… it’s working. Not to brag (okay maybe a little), but our open rate on our newsletters is 3X more than the average for health and wellness businesses. Why? I think it’s because we’re keepin’ it real at Vortex.
We started as a writing duo, but my lovely husband Steve, with all of his intelligence, experience and wisdom, is not a huge fan of writing and has an adverse reaction to brevity (love you, babe!). While we’ve had some awesome cameos by Steve (and I’m sure we will in the future, too), I think we’ve both established that writing is more my thing, even when I don’t want it to be.
Initially we had made a mission to have extremely short, digestible content – 1-3 paragraphs max. That didn’t last very long. The problem is… y’all liked it too much.
The issues got longer, and the subjects drifted further away from anything to do with our business… which is what, again? Oh right… a high-tech self care studio.
The biggest struggle along the way: waiting for inspiration to inspire people is tough. Sometimes Fridays would approach and I’d be in a gentle panic with no idea what to talk about. It feels like throwing a dinner party with 1000 people with different dietary restrictions and not knowing how to cook.
Thankfully, somehow, I always find some nugget of truth I’m dealing with at the time, and I just allow my brain and heart to flow onto the page… while also questioning myself with every sentence – “Who am I to give advice? Does this even make sense? Why the hell didn’t we make these damn things monthly??”
What I never anticipated was that dozens and dozens of email responses we would get over the course of the past two years. Who responds to newsletters!? I never have. But our readers do… it’s appreciated and it’s amazing.
As cheesy as it sounds, that old adage of “if you can touch just one’s person’s life, it’s all worth it” comes into play quite a bit. I show up every week in the hopes that you’ll show up every day as yourself, doing your best to navigate life on this crazy space rock.
‘Cause let’s be real… we’re all in this together.
book it, dano
If you enjoy my many tales of synchronicity, here’s a fun story for ya:
One Friday afternoon about a year ago, one of our readers responded to an issue of The Vibe and talked about how much they looked forward to reading each week. She said “have you ever thought about writing a book?”
I had, in fact, thought about it. I wrote the intro to my “life-changing” book in my early 20’s when I had life completely figured out (hahahahahahahahahahaha). Fast forward, I haven’t touched it in about 17 years.
The fun part is, just minutes after I read that email about writing a book I got a voice message from my dear friend Chris-Anne. She’s a best-selling author and all-around intuitive and magical human. Chris-Anne was reaching out to me while on a break from an author summit that her publisher was putting on. She had just left the room with some big-name self-help and personal development authors, many of whose books are on the shelf at Vortex.
Chris, in her always-soft-and-calm voice, very casually said to me, “Hi, I’m in New York at my summit and I just left the room with all these authors and all I could think was that you are supposed to be in there. I think you’re supposed to write a book… So write a book, I’ll give it to my editor and we’ll get it published.”
Sure thing, Chris. I’ll get right on that!
Since then, the Universe keeps nudging me about this, as inevitably a few times a month someone responds to the Vibe and says “you’re a good writer… you should write a book!”.
Loud and clear, Universe… I guess I’ve got to write a f*!@ing book now!
everybody’s got a story
Here’s what I’ve learned by sharing my personal stories and insights on life. People can relate to anything when it’s presented in an honest and authentic way.
We all have our filters that we view the world through, so any time we share a part of ourselves, other people translate the meaning and message to automatically adapt to their life. It’s actually pretty amazing. I mean, I’ve written about losing a friend and made people cry and I’ve written funny stories about baseball that made people cry.
So here’s where I’ll leave you until #101:
Be yourself. Be honest. Share who you are, where you came from, where you’re at and where you’re going. You just never know whose life you’re going to touch.
Thanks so much for having even the slightest interest in Vortex and The Vibe. I look forward to continuing my mission of being a cheerleader for humans who want to step into their full potential, with a lot of insights, laughs and curse words along the way.
Cheers to 100 more!… Oh $#!%…
