Discovering What Sets Your Newsletter Apart
Take this free, science-backed assessment to help craft a newsletter readers can’t find anywhere else
In a crowded world of newsletters, standing apart isn’t about flashy signs or gimmicks. It’s about understanding who you are at your core.
I know, easier said than done, right?
But don’t worry—you’re in good company. Most of the people I’ve interviewed over the last 20 years—business leaders, writers, architects, engineers—don’t know how to put into words what makes them truly unique either.
They think they know. But when pushed, they fall back on the familiar: "I make customer satisfaction my priority." Or "I build the highest quality homes."
Well, that’s what everyone around you does, isn’t it?
What I’ve learned, though, is that if you’re writing a newsletter you want people to read—and maybe even pay for—platitudes will not do. You need to go deeper. You need to know what sets you apart at a fundamental level. And that often involves understanding things beyond your writing skills and personal interests.
That’s why I want to talk about how to find the What Sets You Apart factor (as discussed here earlier this month along with other online shopping principles). And I want to introduce you to an online assessment I discovered in 2017 that transformed how I understand building sustainable work. It’s not the Enneagram, StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs—it’s a tool created after a three-year study, led by 55 esteemed social scientists who identified a set of character strengths. At the time, the study had been called one of the most important initiatives in psychology of the past half century. After seven years of using my own results in every major work and professional pivot, I don’t think they were exaggerating.
Rethinking How We Build Our Work (and Newsletters): Why It's Time to Put Yourself Back in the Equation
When I took this survey online, it didn’t just give me a feel-good list of traits. If I’m being honest, the results didn’t make any sense at first because I was used to other online quizzes using units of measurement or complex interwoven matrices to tell me what I did and how often. Here, I was being given a set of character traits designed to help me with how and what I give the world through my talents. As I re-read the results week after week, I began to recognize glimmers of myself — but not necessarily in my day-to-day business … yet.
Over time, I realized that I was learning how to consider myself in a brand new context — I was learning to recognize what was innately me when I didn’t have pressure to make money. When the weight of capitalism and fears of joblessness and homelessness weren’t in the mix — when I was with my most trusted confidants — different, more easeful characteristics emerged. And the reality sank in: I had never considered how to build work that took me into account.
I began trying to apply these character strengths during a particularly frustrating time professionally — three years into working for myself, when I felt like I was pivoting my service offerings every three or six months. I returned to the list of traits and wrestled with them. Anytime I felt my work drifting or losing focus or if I felt myself burning out, I could usually tie it back to a moment in time where I felt pressure to just say yes to a job for the money — and didn’t bother to calculate how much of the work used my strengths.
It seems to me that many of us have been programmed to identify the work we can do well and leave our intrinsic qualities out of the equation. I thought for a while this was only the case for delusional entrepreneurs who want to chart their own destinies and deal with business tax forms. I thought it maybe had something to do with our unique value proposition just being hard to pin down. But I’m here to tell you, many of us also do the same dance on Substack.
Why This Matters for Newsletter Writers
I’ve lost count of the number of times that newsletters on my Notes feed have been reinvented. Mine, included. When I first began writing and experimenting here, I thought I was going to write about life lessons to share with my newborn daughter. But that was too narrow, I found. Even with the character strengths in my back pocket, there is something auto-piloted inside that says, “Make the product first and figure yourself out later.”
I rebranded, renamed, did the What Sets Me Apart dance but I started putting a little more positive pressure to get clearer each time about the overlap of my character strengths and the newsletter I really wanted to create. And you know what? Eventually, after lots of self compassion and consistently showing up as myself, I iterated my way into a newsletter that fits at an intriguing intersection (to me, at least!). As I practiced letting those traits fuel my writing, I started to see a newsletter that was different, lasting and full of potential.
So why am I telling this to thousands of people who write newsletters? Because I think if you’re wondering how you’re really going to make this newsletter thing become more than a nice hobby, the best place you can start is not by thinking of the best title for a new essay series — it’s by looking inside yourself and considering how you naturally show up and engage with the world. If you’re wanting to find a newsletter that only you can deliver, I think this tool can help.
Over time, building a newsletter that uses your character traits could be part of the secret sauce here. Because what I’ve discovered is that when your work (and newsletter) relies on who you are at your core, it’s infinitely easier to maintain creative energy, grow sustainably and connect with readers in an authentic way. You’re not just publishing essays; you’re building something that’s unmistakably you. And navigating the ups and downs of running a newsletter becomes a lot more manageable.