Interview Date: February 25, 2024
Table of Content
CREATOR INTERVIEW
Mike Cardona is known as an “automation alchemist” who helps digital creators save 20+ hours a month.
He is also the creator of Hidden Levers AI where he shares actionable tips and done-for-you AI/automation templates.
In our interview today, we talked about:
- The big mindset shift leading him to start creating content
- What an “automation mindset” is
- Key tasks for newsletter creators need to automate
- His favorite automation
- His initial learnings about paid subscription
Let’s dive in.
NEWSLETTER IDENTITY CARD
TOOL STACK
- ESP → Beehiiv*
- Writing → Google Docs, Ulysses
- Planning & Task Management → Airtable, Trello
- Automation → Zapier, Make
- Design → Canva, DALL-E
- Analytics → Plausible
- Time tracking → Rize.io
- Other → Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity
START
You shared an honest summary of your past 13 years on X. One big milestone was in 2021 summer when you started to create content. But it took so long to start.
What held you back from creating content the whole time, and how did you overcome your fears in the end?
My biggest fear was what others would think about my work. Worrying thoughts like – what if my writing sucked or no one liked it?
Essentially, I built it up bigger in my head than it needed to be.
As Tim Ferriss says, what we fear and dread the most is often exactly what we need to do.
I spent a long time feeling alone in those fears until I joined Kevon Cheung’s Build in Public cohort. Connecting with others who were struggling to put themselves out there made it easier.
“The biggest mindset shift was moving away from trying to create genius content to being useful and freely sharing what I already knew.”
I stopped worrying about trying to be an authority.
The more I consistently showed up and added value to people, the more comfortable I felt confidently expressing my own viewpoints.
How did you decide to start Hidden Levers AI? And then how did you decide to focus fully on it in May 2023?
Some context:
I ran an automation agency and even though it was running well and profitable, I was unfulfilled because I wanted to create. After some self-introspection, I sold it pre-pandemic. My goal was to create without trading time for money.
And once I started creating content it generated lots of consulting requests which went well.
But once again found it was taking time away from me being able to create and improve my writing. When I found my energy levels dipping then I knew it was time to make the switch.
It wasn’t immediate. It took a couple of months of planning and make sure things were aligned.
How Hidden Levers AI started:
I previously had a newsletter called Busy to Leveraged, which was automation-focused, but I decided to rebrand.
I wanted to narrow my focus to solo entrepreneurs and digital creators (which is still broad, haha).
When ChatGPT was released, I initially thought it was all hype.
However, after experimenting with it and integrating it into my workflows, I was blown away. I knew my audience would find value in it, which confirmed that the rebranding was the right choice.
GROWTH
What are the key growth strategies you currently utilize?
I like to use templates that include an automation tutorial or AI prompt or checklist and embed my Beehiiv subscribe form.
It doesn’t generate as many subscribers as a giveaway but I believe it’s a better ‘trust magnet’.
Plus, I’m able to grow a library of assets I can package up as a lead magnet or another digital product and avoid re-creating content.
In terms of growth & monetization efforts, what didn’t work for you?
Cross-promos – These didn’t work for me. I believe it was because the promo I shared either wasn’t aligned with my audience or the copy wasn’t effective.
There were also a lot of logistical challenges.
Taking sponsors – Even with the streamlined system I had to manage sponsors, it wasn’t worth the few bucks.
AUTOMATION
The importance of building efficient systems might be underestimated among newsletter creators. Why do you think it is crucial?
Yeah – from the outside creating a newsletter seems like an easy thing to do – write and publish.
But, there are so many tasks involved in creating a newsletter that’s often overlooked from writing, curating content, building a swipe file, and distribution.
And without distribution, it’s incredibly difficult to grow and often left for last since there are so many other things to do.
“Automation allows newsletter operators to remove the tedious and repetitive work so as to focus on stuff that matters: writing, engaging, learning, and distribution.”
Imagine that I run my newsletter business with manual work. I’m eager to introduce automation but lack the know-how. Where should I begin?
While starting out,
“One of the best things to do is adopt an “automation mindset” and proactively look for ways to run your newsletter more efficiently.”
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
For example, my friend Christine would spend 30-45 minutes every week manually reviewing emails and adding them to her swipe file Airtable database.
Here is her manual process before the automation:
When she received an email in Gmail that she wanted to add to her swipe file collection, she added the “swipe file” label to the email.
Then every Sunday she reviewed those labeled emails and manually added them to her Airtable database.
This task, while seemingly minor, takes up a significant chunk of time that could be better spent on more impactful activities such as content creation or engaging with her audience.
“A proactive automation-first mindset means finding a solution before it becomes a problem.”
Here is what I’d recommend:
….
Check out the article below for Mike’s full roadmap to automate your newsletter tasks.
What are the most critical tasks to automate for newsletter operators?
For newsletter creators, critical parts to automate often include:
- Creating, naming and organizing folders
- Research or curating links to databases
- Backing up email subscribers
- Automatically compressing images
These seem like minor tasks but eat up a lot of time.
Can you give one example of your favorite automation you use to run Hidden Levers AI?
- When I go on walks or have an idea, I use AudioPen to record and talk. It cleans up the audio removing filler words – automatically.
- Then, when I apply a specific tag, an automation will take the transcript, turn it into an outline based off of a pre-made template and generate a Google Docs and store it in my database.
It’s one of my most used automation and lets me focus on writing instead of the tedious admin work.
MONETIZATION
You launched a premium membership in September 2023. What are the initial results and learnings?
Currently, I have about 65 paid members. I’ve had to make many changes so I stopped marketing it except for a link in my newsletter. Given that, it has exceeded my expectations.
I should have waited until everything was more organized before diving in. For instance, I don’t do client work and wanted to stop sponsorships for now. Adding more to my plate was a bit much.
How did you decide to start a paid subscription?
I’m not a fan of monthly subscriptions (for communities) so I changed to Lifetime when it was newsletter only. Now that I’m moving to Skool, I’m offering community access for 12 months (free).
I’m still experimenting so we’ll see how it evolves.
E-MAIL SERVICE PROVIDER
Why did you choose Beehiiv? Pros and cons?
Beehiiv* is great. Love their analytics and design. The branding used to bother me but not anymore (yeah, it’s that good).
NEWSLETTER EXPERIENCE
How did building Hidden Levers AI contribute to your life professionally and personally?
Professionally it’s helped me clarify my path and where I want to go.
“Clarity is key to figuring out this creator stuff.
Consistently showing up and publishing creates feedback loops helping remove a lot of the fuzziness in our dopey brain when we’re starting out.”
I’m still in the early stages but it’s already contributed a lot professionally. Plus, getting to meet your heroes is a crazy thing.
Personally, it’s helped me get over my fear of hitting publish.
If you had a chance to start over, what would you do differently while building your newsletter business?
- Not compare myself with others.
- Get absolutely clear on who my readers are and not make assumptions about them or try to force them. I’ve pivoted about 3x which led to a plateau.
- Accept the fact that your stuff will suck. It’s ok. I would never read my old stuff because I couldn’t stomach the cringe (bad idea). It’s difficult to improve if you aren’t actively making an effort.
ADVICE TO ASPIRING CREATORS
What would it be if you had the right to give one piece of advice to aspiring newsletter creators?
If you’re a beginner online writer, then put in the reps before stressing about quality.
FAVORITE NEWSLETTERS
What are your favorite newsletters that you can’t wait for the next issue?
I’m a huge fan of the work of
FINAL WORDS
Build an asset (media), not a newsletter business.
Even if you don’t want a large team. You must remove yourself from the day-to-day stuff.
Where to find Mike Cardona and his work
Subscribe to ‘Hidden Levers AI’!
3 Popular Issues from Hidden Levers AI
- Repurpose Content Like a Pro
- Create Your 90-Day Content Library
- Simplify Your Content Repurposing and Distribution with Airtable
*indicates affiliate links
