One of the best things about the internet is discovering creators who write immersive stories with an equally exciting social media presence.

Alice Lemee is one such creator whose newsletter and tweets got us hooked! In today's Morning Rush, we're sharing our conversation with her, which covers her growth story and advice to beginner newsletter creators.

But first, who's Alice Lemee?

Now, let’s dive right into the conversation. 👇

Thousand Faces Club: Can you tell us about yourself and what made you start Internetly?

Alice: I'm a full-time freelance writer, part-time digital nomad and creator. I help creator economy companies and influencers grow their business through content creation strategy and storytelling. I started Internetly in 2021 because I wanted to share the process of becoming a freelancer and creator and continue to create my own projects instead of fully devoting myself to my clientele.

Thousand Faces Club: How many followers do you have, and how did you get your first 1,000 followers?

Alice: I currently have a little over 1,500 Internetly subscribers. I got the first 1,000 by sharing the news on my social media (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) and with friends and family. From then, my process has been incredibly simple! I'm consistent (I've skipped maybe 4-5 editions over 1.5 years), and for every edition, I share it on my Twitter account (which has about 21.4K followers).

Thousand Faces Club: What does your content strategy involve?

Alice: It's nothing crazy. First and foremost, I try to be as "authentic" (what a buzzword) as possible. I reveal a certain vulnerability, that you just won't get on Twitter or LinkedIn. Secondly, even though the newsletters mention my life and what I'm up to, I always try to pivot to the reader in the end. I constantly ask myself, "How can I make this useful for them?" I want the reader to feel this newsletter is a gift for them (and not some self-indulgent ego trip).

Check out Alice’s A Freelance Writer’s Guide to Twitter & Personal Branding on Gumroad. 👇

Thousand Faces Club: That sounds awesome! As a creator, how do you approach distribution?

Alice: I'm a bit sheepish to admit I don't have the best distribution! For now, I follow a consistent format I stick to when promoting the newsletter on Twitter. I summarize the top 3 points and put the link in a second tweet below (so Twitter doesn't suppress my post with the link in it).

Thousand Faces Club: And yet, you grew quite well! All credits to your content. Talking about content, what are the bottlenecks you face while building content or the newsletter?

Alice: The typical bottleneck is feeling like you're too busy to actually create anything! The way I bypass this is with a technique called "make it personal." If I'm about to choose working on a client project over my own, I'll think, "You're letting someone else's goals and agenda get above your own. How does that feel?" The answer is, well, not great. But I use that as fuel to think, "Okay, it's time I power through because I don't want to leave myself behind."

Thousand Faces Club: Right! On a larger level, what are some of the biggest challenges that creators face today?

Alice: It's so easy to want to get swept away by the algorithm's siren call. We've all seen Tweet threads that just compile other threads garner tens of thousands of likes, or threads that start with "Twitter is a university, but 99% don't know how to use it correctly" (IYKY). The real challenge creators face is ignoring the noise, going inward, and creating real, genuine content that comes from their soul. It might not get the resounding applause of the algorithmic newsfeed, but it's certain to inspire a few people more than you could possibly imagine.

Read one of Internetly’s posts here. 👇

Thousand Faces Club: Beautifully said! So, what does 2023 look like and do you plan to monetize your newsletter?

Alice: Yes! In March I'm stepping down from a client to pour more time into monetizing my newsletter. I'm currently on Passionfroot, and they have some pretty solid features to help me find sponsorships. And in 2023, I'm all about less client work and more writing on personal projects. Hope to take Internetly to 5K subscribers. Fingers crossed!

Thousand Faces Club: Got any advice for beginner newsletter creators?

Check out Alice’s website here.