Hey friend, how was your week?
It’s been 4 weeks since I wrote the last newsletter, and I was genuinely surprised to see some of you email back asking what happened. I expected Instagram DMs. But newsletter readers checking in? That felt like a new level unlocked.
I was away in India last month for my brother’s wedding. Calling it a “vacation” would be inaccurate. It was three weeks of absolute chaos — family, functions, travel, noise, laughter, and explaining to people for the 47th time that Dubai and Riyadh are two different cities in two different countries.
Somewhere in between all this, I remembered a question I once asked my former CEO at Animaker when I resigned.
“You’re handling so many things. Don’t you get tired? If you slow down or take a break, doesn’t it feel like taking your foot off the accelerator? Aren’t you worried things will slow down?”
This month, I got to experience the answer firsthand.
News flash — things do slow down.
The channel dropped from 3M+ monthly views to around 600K in the last 30 days. Newsletter growth stalled. Website traffic slowed down too.
But then comes the more interesting question.
Can we build the momentum back again?
If yes, how fast?
And if we do — will it grow even faster the second time?
I guess we’re about to find out together.
When I started posting content consistently, there were times I’d upload a video expecting it to perform well… and then nothing would happen for the first few hours. I’d keep refreshing analytics like a maniac.
Eventually, I developed one line to calm myself down:
“It doesn’t matter whether this video gets 100 views or 100,000 views. I’ll still be here tomorrow posting another one.”
That mindset helped more than any strategy.
Now, apart from surviving on dosa, coffee, and sarbath drinks during this trip, I also decided to experiment with fiction books.
I walked into a bookstore at Prozone Mall in Coimbatore and asked the salesperson to suggest two beginner-friendly fiction books.
First one — Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Considering today’s political climate, I genuinely think everyone should read this tiny 100-page book. The scary part is realizing how many characters from the story exist in real life around us. Wild to think this was written in 1945.
Second — Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
I honestly don’t know how to explain this one.
I finished the book sitting inside a town bus and spent the next few minutes just staring outside the window trying to process what I had read. Kafka has this strange ability to make you question your own life, choices, and identity.
If you’re someone like me who always thought fiction was “just storytelling,” these books might open an entirely different doorway for you.
Right now, I’m halfway through The Death of Ivan Ilyich. ChatGPT and Claude both recommended this book to me saying this will change my life. We’ll talk about that next week once I have completed it.
To conclude — I’m back.
Let’s end this year on a high note.
See you next week 🙂