What I wish I told him

This conversation is imaginary. But some of it is based on fact.

As I recorded the voice notes for the next batch of content ideas for the 'Imaginary Conversations w/ Adi' Newsletter-

I pulled up Slack to reach out to our Copywriter, Navin.

I wish I could I build the kind of resilience I saw in Navin, I thought.

I don't have the resilience in me to overcome the loss of my parents. Like him. Atleast, not yet.

Ever since he started working at GrowthClub, his journey has been a rollercoaster ride.

Straight out of college. Joins an agency, and his plate fills up with different kinds of work.

Just as I ideated the new Newsletter format a few hours ago, I reached out to him on Whatsapp.

"Bro- I have a radical new content format in mind. Do you have two minutes to spare? I just need a quick opinion."

It was almost 9 PM. He was online on Gmeet in 2 minutes. I showed him where to find the first draft so that he could read it and share his opinion.

Among 148 of my contacts I reached out to on Whatsapp for their opinions on the new Newsletter format, he was the first one to send in his feedback.

And now I'm about to send him a bunch of content ideas like a hooligan disrespectful boss who sends in rough non-structured voice notes, expects him to transcribe it, then cut out the important parts, and then craft ready-to-go posts that get a million views a month. Disresctful AF, I thought.

Maybe I should try to automate this process somehow. I could use a transcribing tool. Is that subscription with Headliner.app still active? Or maybe I could get one of the freelancers to help him out?

How about I give him more time? But I mentioned in the very first post in the Imaginary Conversations series that these would be published daily. It's a commitment, but I can do it with a more streamlined process.

The reason you've not been able to publish consistently lately is because the process at the backend wasn't smooth enough.

The process of me coming up with a bunch of content ideas, writing some experiential stories and thinking about some videos - the idea-to-publishing stage process isn't streamlined enough.

And I feel that for the newsletter format which needs to be published every single day, I need to make sure that the entire process is streamlined enough for daily publishing.

And with me de-prioritizing our own content to the point that importance is always give for client work, there are many nights where I go to sleep without writing anything after being too drained from the day. I think I feel inspired on tiring nights, but if I'm too tired to continue staying awake, how can I write?

Let me discuss this with Nikhil and find a solution tomorrow.

The reply notification in Slack from a client's leads channel broke my chain of thought.

I opened our workspace and typed in.

@Navin, bro- I'm planning to continue experimenting with the new content format I asked you about. But for me able to able to set aside time everyday to type out, format and publish these will affect other priorities. At the moment, the only idea I have to ensure this goes out consistently- that is daily, is to send you voice clips and depend on you to transcribe, edit, format and publish them. Can you please handle this?

I wanted to tell him that he'd been doing great work, and that he had a good future ahead if he kept trying.

I wanted to tell him that he had the potential to lead GrowthClub's entire content team one day.

I wanted to tell him that I admired that resilience in him.

I wanted to tell him that I was glad we had him.

But by then he replied. It was 11 PM.

"Sure Adi, I'll take care of it. Will you send me the voice clips now.?"

And I never said anything.

"Yes Navin. Thanks and good night."

Not a day goes by that fails to remind me that I'd be a much better leader if I wasn't an introvert. But I guess I've come a long way from being that naive young boy who used to go weak at the knees when talking to people.

I have to keep trying. So that maybe one day, some day, I'll get there.