Hi friends,
Happy Thanksgiving / Turkey Day 🦃 to all my American friends and everyone else who’s celebrating it!
I celebrated my first Thanksgiving only 5 years ago when I was living with my American flatmate Katie in Rotterdam. (She also introduced me to S’mores and Girl Scout Cookies 🤤)
Since then, Katie has hosted a huge Thanksgiving dinner every year for our group of international friends in The Netherlands.
Last year, we had 15 people, 2 turkeys, a bazillion side dishes, and a crazy amount of fun.
Why am I telling you this?
Because this is what I’m especially grateful for this year: people who share. Their traditions, their expertise, their knowledge, their time, their feedback, their love. Often without asking anything in return.
To sharing… *clinks virtual glasses*
Speaking of…here’s what I want to share with you today…
📖 Full Recap: How we launched Minimum Viable Video for the first time
Launching anything for the first time is scary! Against all odds, Cam and I kicked off the first cohort of Minimum Viable Video 🚀 last week. In the spirit of building in public, I’ve written a full recap of what it took to sign up 20 students to a brand-new program, the activities that mattered, and what we’ve learned along the way.
💡 You’ve got to keep showing up
Yes, it’s this time of the year again.
Please, please, please don’t be that person who only emails their list when they suddenly want to sell something.
If someone has given you their email address, they want to hear from you!
It’s your duty to show up for them and give them what they asked for: valuable content…aka tips, insights, news, stories, podcast episodes, videos, recipes, articles, tools, pictures of your cute pet, you name it.
If you don’t email your subscribers at least every two weeks (absolute minimum), you’re depriving them of your expertise and knowledge.
And the tiny connection that was formed when they signed up slowly dies off.
Instead, nurture and deepen that connection with your emails. Stay top of mind.
That’s how you make people pounce on your products when it’s time to sell.
👩🍳 Katie’s Signature Thanksgiving Appetizer
This day is all about food, and I can’t help myself but share one of my favorite recipes with you. This simple 3-ingredient appetizer is so good, it might just steal the show from the main course.
What you need:
- croissant pastry
- 1 piece of brie cheese
- apricot jam, cranberry jam, or preferably both
How it’s done:
Wrap the brie fully in croissant pastry and bake it in the oven as per instructions on the croissant pastry packet. It’s done when it’s crisp and golden on the outside (usually takes 10 min). Cut off the top layer to expose the gooey cheese. Now spread a good helping of apricot and cranberry jam on top and close the brie again. Serve with crackers.
It’s a heavenly combination of sweet, salty, crispy, gooey, savory…you get the point. Also a big hit on Christmas, btw.
If you’re trying it, let me know how it turned out!
Thanks for reading! Thoughts or feedback? I’d love to hear from you!
Grateful hugs,
Julia
PS: What I’m also grateful for this year is YOU. You reading my emails. I couldn’t have imagined a year ago that I’d be sending out a newsletter every week to so many wonderful people. Thank you for being here! I really appreciate it.
PPS: I’m writing this letter to you from Canada, where I became a permanent resident today. Yay! I’ll be quarantining for the next 14 days in an AirBnb in downtown Toronto. As the city is under a lockdown, I won’t be missing out on much. Perfect time to make progress on some projects you’ll hear about soon.
