Jay Papasan shares his journey of growing a newsletter from 89 to over 12,000 subscribers through consistent creation and valuable lessons. He emphasizes the importance of patience, vulnerability, and simplicity. Quality relationships with a dedicated audience outweigh sheer numbers, and actionable steps in content creation drive growth. By nurturing genuine connections and using accessible writing, creators can significantly impact their audience. The challenge encourages starting a new project without waiting for perfection.
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insights INSIGHT
Audience Growth Timeline
Audience growth often starts slow but gains exponential momentum over time.
Perseverance and doing the right things consistently lead to powerful results.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Imposter Syndrome Moment
Jay Papasan shares a personal story about feeling imposter syndrome at a mastermind with famous authors.
Despite his success, his vulnerability connected deeply with his audience who resonated with the feeling.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Less Is More For Readers
Keep your content brief and respectful of your audience's time.
Newsletter reads under five minutes consistently get higher open and share rates.
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Atomic Habits by James Clear provides a practical and scientifically-backed guide to forming good habits and breaking bad ones. The book introduces the Four Laws of Behavior Change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. It also emphasizes the importance of small, incremental changes (atomic habits) that compound over time to produce significant results. Clear discusses techniques such as habit stacking, optimizing the environment to support desired habits, and focusing on continuous improvement rather than goal fixation. The book is filled with actionable strategies, real-life examples, and stories from various fields, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking to improve their habits and achieve personal growth[2][4][5].
Humour, Seriously
Why Humour Is a Superpower At Work And In Life
Jennifer Aaker
Naomi Bagdonas
This book, backed by extensive research, teaches how to use humor effectively in professional settings. Aaker and Bagdonas debunk common myths about humor, explain how to identify and employ your own humor style, and provide practical tips on using humor to make a strong first impression, deliver difficult feedback, and foster a culture of levity and creativity. The authors emphasize that humor is not about telling jokes but about incorporating fun and light-heartedness into formal communication to form better relationships and relieve stress.
Getting Things Done
David Allen
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen. The book provides a detailed methodology for managing tasks, projects, and information, emphasizing the importance of capturing all tasks and ideas, clarifying their meaning, organizing them into actionable lists, reviewing the system regularly, and engaging in the tasks. The GTD method is designed to reduce stress and increase productivity by externalizing tasks and using a trusted system to manage them. The book is divided into three parts, covering the overview of the system, its implementation, and the deeper benefits of integrating GTD into one's work and life[2][3][5].
FedEx Delivers
How the World's Leading Shipping Company Keeps Innovating and Outperforming the Competition
Madan Birla
The book analyzes FedEx's success through firsthand accounts of its leadership strategies, emphasizing employee creativity and disciplined execution. It presents a framework for building innovation cultures, detailing how FedEx's practices in idea generation, acceptance, and implementation created sustained competitive advantage across industries.
When Jay Papasan launched the Twentypercenter newsletter, it was his personal version of a Rocky-style training montage. He committed to writing, editing, and publishing a new piece every single week—no matter what. 137 newsletters later, he’s gained more than just consistency. He’s built a powerful, intentional audience and uncovered key lessons about what it takes to grow something meaningful.
In this solo episode, Jay shares 16 and a half of the most valuable lessons he’s learned along the way. From the importance of patience and vulnerability to the surprising power of simplicity and repetition, Jay opens up about the creative systems and mindset shifts that helped him grow from 89 subscribers to over 12,000—with zero paid ads.
Whether you’re starting a newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel, or just building something of your own, these lessons will help you create with purpose—and keep going long enough to see it pay off.
Challenge of the Week:
Pick one idea you’ve been waiting to start—a newsletter, podcast, blog, or creative habit—and publish the first version this week. Don’t overprepare. Don’t wait until it’s perfect. Just hit send. Then, create a simple system that will help you show up consistently from here on out.
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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods.
We talk about:
Why creativity snowballs once you start creating consistently
How quality beats quantity—and why 1,000 true fans is enough
The critical role of systems, habits, and reader feedback in sustainable growth
The ONE Thing 
