Hello Reader,

How’s your business doing right now?

According to a report I recently came across on LinkedIn, the solopreneur economy is booming…💥

The report suggests that AI is the single-biggest catalyst behind this growth, enabling us solos to build highly profitable businesses by automating work that once required teams (I can attest to this, certainly from a software development perspective).

Its conclusion is clear: the future belongs to lean, AI-leveraged businesses that can scale revenue without scaling headcount.

So, the message is simple – embrace your potential – you’re a small business owner with an unlimited number of opportunities in front of you!

And, the most effective way a solopreneur can do that is using an email-first™ business. 😊

Email Deliverability Is Key To Your Success

People can’t read the emails they don’t receive.

This week, I attended an email deliverability webinar – it was an eye-opener on what’s happening when it comes to using AI to help write emails (ISPs like Google, Yahoo, etc. are becoming so smart at figuring stuff out!).

But here’s the surprising part (for me, at least) – they don’t necessarily appear to align AI-use detection with deliverability penalisation.

It’s a HUGE topic and super-complex when it comes to how ISPs analyse email content (and indeed, us, as email marketers), but suffice to say, they consider way, way, way more than ‘Was this written with help from AI?‘ when deciding on where to direct your subscribers’ emails.

Amongst many others things, they consider your…

• complaint rate (when someone clicks ‘Report Spam’, thats a complaint – aim for < 0.1%)
• engagement (are subscribers opening, clicking, replying to your emails?)
• authentication (do you have SPF, DKIM, DMARC configured properly?)
• sending history (are you sending regularly to a consistent volume?)
• domain reputation (are you using a trusted domain, e.g. emailfirst.co to send from?)
• recipient behaviour (are they right-clicking and adding to ‘junk’?)
• language patterns (e.g. excessive sales, repeated phrases, keyword stuffing, etc.)
• …+ much more!

So, if you are using AI to help write your emails (which is different from AI writing them for you), you may be okay, providing everything else you’re doing is best practice.

💡My Recommendation Use AI to help with your research, suggesting ideas, and mapping out perhaps the structure of your emails – but when it comes to the actual ‘copy’ – make that your own, it just naturally comes out of the screen as ‘you’.

Kit’s New Navigation – 3 weeks to go…

If you haven’t logged into Kit for a while, you may not have noticed that there is a new navigation layout which is available to try.

Replacing the former horizontal layout, they’ve introduced a collapsable vertical bar that just makes more sense (IMHO).

When I made the switch initially, it all felt a bit weird because some things have moved around and have been placed under new headings, but thankfully it’s like most things – use it for a while and the ‘old’ way starts to feel weird.

If you haven’t made the switch yet, you have just a few weeks left before the ‘old’ one is removed and you’ll be forced into using the new one.

💡My Recommendation If you’re still using the ‘old’ navigation, switch over to the vertical one today and start to familiarise yourself with it – you can always switch back and forth between both versions until August 20th, then it’s game-over – it’ll be the new navigation for everyone! 😊

Kit Stores Your Landing Page Versions

You know what it’s like – you spend time making changes to your landing page; perhaps swapping out the main background image, changing font sizes or colours, or even editing the main body of the text – and then you think… “Hang on, that’s not what I want – I want what I had previously!“

In the previous iteration of Kit’s landing page builder, it would’ve been a case of ‘tough luck!’ – you need to re-edit it to get back to where you were…. but no more, because version control has arrived!

Each time you make changes and hit the ‘Publish‘ button, Kit saves that version, meaning you can easily restore it at any time.

By clicking on the little clock icon, you can list the previous versions of your landing page, select the one you wish to restore, and Kit does the rest for you.

One thing to be aware of is that if you do restore to a previous version and then still see the ‘old’ version being served up when you visit the URL, it’s most likely to be a caching issue where the browser still has a copy of the old one. If this happens, normally clearing your cache will solve the problem.

💡By the way… The same features now exists in Kit’s broadcast email editor where it automatically saves a restorable version of your email every 5 minutes. This is different from the auto-save feature that saves your current version upon any content change being detected, immediately.

A New LinkedIn Feature

I’m only active on one social platform, LinkedIn (you may already know, I’m not a big fan of being on social). 🤷🏻‍♂️

Like most platforms, it’s subject to the usual slurry of AI slop, some of which is more obvious than others.

I sense that more and more people are becoming turned off by it (understandably so), and I guess LinkedIn decided it was time to do something about it.

So, they have introduced a new option for members to report content they believe to be “AI slop”.

If you see a post that you believe to be AI slop, you can now click the little ellipsis and then the ‘Seems like AI slop‘ drop-down option.

Obviously this (potentially) comes with ramifications. What happens to members who have their content flagged as AI slop when it’s genuinely not?

Is it possible someone could have a personal vendetta against another member and decide to just flag their every post as AI slop?

Could a member who relies on LinkedIn to make a living be penalised incorrectly?

I don’t have the answers… but, personally, I’ll be reluctant to use it until I better understand its consequences (and its effectiveness, if any).

I haven’t used the feature yet, so not even sure what it actually does – but I’d imagine that somewhere in the depths of the Microsoft vaults, someone is doing something with the data being collected…🤔

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that other social platforms are doing something similar.

(And, just to avoid any potential misunderstanding, I’m not suggesting for a moment that this post by ‘LinkedIn for Marketing’ is AI slop – I merely chose it to avoid using an actual regular LinkedIn member’s post! – I did try to flag one of my posts as AI slop, but the option didn’t appear… it makes sense, I suppose!)

New ‘Hub’ Features 👏

(The Hub is a private community I designed and built specifically for solopreneurs who want to design, build, and grow a profitable email-first business – with the support and guidance of a Kit Certified Expert, every step of the way.)

This week has been another productive week in the ongoing development of what I believe will become the most value-packed and helpful resource from which to learn Kit and use it as a platform to grow a more predictable and profitable email-first™ business – the Hub.

I released four new features that you may find helpful; Hub Insights, Mastermind Groups, Private Podcasts, and the one I’m most proud of, ‘Ask John‘, a private mentoring feature where you can send me voice notes and written messages whenever you get stuck or have a question.

🎓 Hub Insights

I share my latest thinking, ideas, lessons, and discoveries with Hub members. Every insight is created by me and designed to help you build a stronger email-first™ business. Whether it’s a new strategy, a practical tip, or something I’ve learned while working with clients, you’ll find a growing collection of exclusive content that keeps you learning between our live sessions.

🧠 Mastermind Groups

The pilot cohort is just about to kick off. The idea is to give you the opportunity to work more closely with a small group of Hub members over a three-month period. Together, we’ll tackle challenges, share ideas, provide accountability, and help each other make meaningful progress. If you’ve ever wished for more personalised support and regular feedback, this is for you.

🎙️ Private Podcasts

Sometimes it’s easier to learn while you’re out walking, driving, or taking a break from your desk. Private Podcasts are short, exclusive audio episodes available only to Hub members, where I share ideas, observations, lessons, and practical advice that you can listen to whenever it suits you. Think of it as having me in your ears, helping you build a better business one conversation at a time.

🗣️ Ask John (Private Mentoring using Hub Voice Notes)

The feature I’m most excited about is Ask John. Whenever you get stuck, have a question, or simply want a second opinion, you can send me a written message or a voice note directly from inside the Hub. I’ll personally respond with guidance tailored to your situation, creating an ongoing private mentoring conversation that you can return to whenever you need it. It’s like having a mentor in your pocket, ready to help you move forward with confidence.

As you’re already a Hub member, Reader, you can login here to check out the new features;

Login to the Hub

Until the next one…