Seven. Ooh, ooh there's eight.
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​Last week my neighbor and I instituted a new rule - we can't end our daily walk until we've seen at least 20 dogs.
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Generally not a hard ask—dogs in Richmond are about as ubiquitous as tattoos.
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But yesterday we walked a new route—and we'd only seen 8 by the 45 minute mark. Blame the snow, blame sleeping dogs lying in, but the pups were not out.​
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No problem, I told her. I've got a cheat code.​
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There's almost always a few dogs roaming around in the museum sculpture garden one block away from our houses. Go to where there's a lot to sniff and you're likely to find more dogs.
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​The same thing holds true for getting more subscribers. ​
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(Maybe not the sniff part.)
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But getting more of the right eyeballs on your stuff means going to where the people are.

While I'm still a firm believer in creating your own high-performing in-depth content (like my blog post about Substack that's generated over 90,000 views and tons of subscribers), nothing beats getting seen as a vetted resource by someone else's audience.
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And this week one of my favorite annual list-building activities continues with Shrimpmakkuh - Laura Belgray's blog post round-up featuring must-have lead magnets created by members of her group program. ​
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Side benefit of being Laura's designer? I snuck my stuff into her blog post - they call me Smartello for a reason! ​
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Everyone who participates promises to share the blog post with their audience (we're talking thousands of potential subscribers).
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Nothing gets me off my duff more than someone else's hard deadline. So when I saw Laura's note prompting last-minute entries, I updated my best-performing freebie for 2026. See also: lazy behavior. ​
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I've used this same smart checklist for years - I simply do a quick content review, swap out the cover and update the copyright.
[GRAB YOUR COPY HERE]​
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​You don't have to keep creating new stuff. You've probably already made something your ideal clients want right now - you just have to get it in front of more eyeballs.
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​you've got this,
Michelle
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p.s. If you're like me, you need external motivation to get your to-do list done (like finally getting the donation bags out of your trunk). I'm creating more done-with-you offers for early 2026 - click what's been hanging out on your to-do list below.