3 things I wish I knew before growing to 10,000 subscribers

After four years of sending newsletters, I've made a lot of mistakes. Some were small. A few were embarrassing. One nearly made me quit entirely. But looking back, there are three things that would have changed everything if I'd known them earlier. I'm sharing them today because I see newer creators making the same mistakes I did — and I'd rather you skip the painful part. 1. Your open rate is a vanity metric (until it isn't) Everyone obsesses over open rates. I did too. But early on, a high open rate just means your mom is reading. What actually matters is reply rate — how many people hit reply and say something human. That's the signal that you've built a real relationship, not just a list. 2. Consistency beats quality, until quality beats consistency The first 100 issues of your newsletter should just exist. Don't overthink the format, the niche, or the brand. Ship it. Show up. The creators who win aren't the ones who write the best issue — they're the ones who wrote 200 issues and got good by issue 50. 3. Your email list is the floor, not the ceiling I used to think of my newsletter as the product. Now I think of it as the distribution channel. The creators building real businesses treat their list as the foundation — and build community, courses, and conversations on top of it. Your inbox is just the beginning. If any of these hit home, I'd love to know which one. Hit reply, or drop a comment if you're reading this on the web. Until next time, Rohan