Most People Don’t Realize They’re Afraid of the Send Button. Here’s How to Fix That. There’s this tiny moment right before you hit Send on a broadcast email. That half-second where your thumb hovers… and your brain whispers, “Are we sure about this?” Most creators think that’s just nerves. It’s not. It’s your system telling you the truth: You don’t actually know what your subscribers are about to see. And honestly? That’s fair. Because Preview mode doesn’t show you the real email. It doesn’t run merge tags. It doesn’t pull your actual sender info. It doesn’t render like Gmail or Apple Mail. Preview is a sketch. A guess. A wish. And wishes break the moment you go live. Here’s the fix.. boring, simple, and wildly effective. Create a tag inside your CRM.. something like “Email Test Group.” Add your controlled inboxes to it. Gmail. Outlook. iCloud. Whatever you use. Then.. here’s the part almost no one does.. actually build a real broadcast, exactly as if it were going to your full list. Same subject. Same merge tags. Same links. And send it to your test group. Not a simulation. The real thing. You’ll see exactly what your subscribers will see, in the wild, delivered by the actual system that’s about to send it to thousands of people. It’s shocking how much that calms the nervous system. Because the real point isn’t “testing.” It’s craftsmanship. It’s caring enough to make sure your message lands clean, polished, intentional. Most people will never know the difference. But you will. And your audience can feel the difference between a rushed email… and one that was treated with respect. So here’s your upgrade: Set up the test tag. Use it every time. Warm your domain with it. Pull your own emails out of spam and into Primary. Train your inboxes to trust you. Do this consistently and you’ll not only lose the fear of hitting Send… You’ll start sending emails you’re actually proud of. 🚀 - James

There’s something underrated about trusting the right systems. When I used to build software, one of the most powerful shifts came from building notification systems. If something broke, I didn’t have to sit there refreshing logs all day.. I got pinged when action was needed. You stop worrying. You stop checking. You stop burning cycles in your mind trying to remember what might be breaking behind the scenes. That’s what a trusted system does. It lets your nervous system rest. Same thing happens with funnels. When something breaks and you don’t know it, you’re carrying that tension without realizing it. Your brain knows *something* might be off... so you keep checking stats, second-guessing results, trying to force momentum manually. But if you’ve got a system that watches the moving parts and tells you when something needs your attention.. You can *relax* and do the work that actually matters. Build a system that earns your trust. Then let go of the wheel. What do you keep an eye on in your business? Where do you get your alerts from? 🚀 - James

When growth stalls, most founders blame the funnel. “We need better copy.” “We need more traffic.” “Maybe we just need to launch something new..” But here’s the thing: Sometimes the funnel isn’t broken. Sometimes the top of funnel is working just fine. Sometimes. the ceiling’s the problem. ⚠️ Enter: The Growth Ceiling.. It's a concept I pulled from a book by Dan Martell et al. called Software as a Science. It’s the point where: The number of new customers coming in is equal the number of customers churning out. Doesn’t matter how hard you grind. If you don’t fix the math.. you won’t grow. And here’s the crazy part: It’s not even a complex formula. You just need 4 numbers: • Total Customers • New Customers Per Month • Monthly Churn % • Monthly ARPA (Average Revenue Per Account) That’s it. Once churn rises to the point where it offsets your new customer acquisition, you're on a treadmill. This is where most founders panic and start throwing Hail Marys.. new campaigns, new launches, bigger ad spend… But they never fix the retention. Or the ARPA. And eventually… they burn out. If your growth has slowed and nothing seems to fix it.. run the numbers. Your funnel might be fine. You might just be at your growth ceiling. 🚀 - James

Three days. That’s how long I spent trying to get one thing to work. I tried everything. Broke it. Rebuilt it. Tried again. Failed again. Found a workaround I hated. Stared at it. Shipped it anyway. It’s ugly. It’s not the way I wanted it. But it works. And that’s enough. Because here’s the trap: We want things to be clean. Polished. Clever. We want people to look at our work and go “Wow.” But sometimes the only path forward is duct-taped and janky. And the only question worth asking is: Did I do my best? When I lay my head down at night, that’s the one that matters. Not “Was it perfect?” Not “Did they like it?” Not “Was it impressive?” Just: Did I show up fully? Did I give it what I had? If the answer is yes— I win. Even if it’s messy. Even if it’s late. Even if no one sees it but me. Because perfection is slow death. And momentum is life. Keep going. 🚀 - James

If your funnel's acting weird.. and you can’t figure out why.. It might be a silent killer you’re not even thinking about. I’ve seen this happen: The page looks perfect. The offer’s legit. The traffic’s flowing. But conversion is just meh. Turns out.. there’s a script error buried in the background.. and no one knew. This kind of thing can completely throw off tracking, first and third party. Here's how to fix it. > Use Chrome DevTools or right-click → “Inspect” → go to the Console tab. If there’s red, something’s broken. > Test every page. Not just your opt-in. Confirmation page, upsell page, even your “Thank You” page. > Use tools like Funnel Pulse, Sentry or Raygun to automatically catch and alert you to client-side errors. Your funnel can’t convert if it can’t run. Fix the bugs, get the conversions. Then go chill.. 🚀 James