my personal review system (steal this)

Back in late 2020, Morning Brew sold to Business Insider for $75 million.

And that sparked what I thought was a brilliant idea:

What if I started a newsletter like Morning Brew... but for freelancers?

The model was clearly working...

Freelancers were a fast-growing audience...

And running an email-based business where the email WAS the product sounded pretty damn appealing.

Even though it violated the story-driven philosophy I’d embraced for years.

So in March 2022, I launched what became The Freelance Gig.

I designed it to copy Morning Brew in every possible way.

News stories with sarcastic humor... GIFs and memes... tips and tricks in a playful tone...

And most importantly:

Mailing every single day, Monday through Friday.

Because that's what Morning Brew did.

More sends = more ad inventory to sell.

Makes perfect sense, right?

So for the next 18 months, I published 277 editions of the newsletter…

… until a slow motion epiphany revealed a blunder of epic proportions.

Here's the deal:

I've kept a journal since 2015.

Every Sunday, I'd write a long “stream of consciousness” entry about whatever was going on.

(Super helpful for metabolizing thoughts & feelings.)

But at the start of 2023, I decided to formalize this into more of a "personal review."

I created a simple set of questions to ask myself at the end of each week, month, quarter, and year...

To see if my actions were actually aligned with the goals I'd set.

As I started implementing this...

The fog began to clear.

And what I saw was deeply unsettling:

There I was, grinding away 7 days a week to publish a content-heavy newsletter to a list that wasn’t really growing or making much money.

In other words…

I'd blindly copied Morning Brew without realizing where it was going to lead:

Spending ALL my time creating content for the newsletter…

And having zero time to focus on growing the list.

(Keep in mind I still had a full-time job and another list to manage…so my bandwidth was pretty limited.)

How could I be so stupid?!? Lol

Those two priorities (publishing and list growth) were in direct conflict with each other.

Yet it was literally impossible for me to see until I zoomed out.

I was too busy crawling through the mud to stand up and look around.

I immediately shifted to a weekly cadence...

So I could reinvest all that extra time into list growth instead.

I eventually shuttered the freelancing newsletter so I could focus on all my time and energy on building this one instead…

But nevertheless:

The experience taught me a valuable lesson.

Specifically:

How badly I needed a system to minimize “drift” in my life and business.

And shine a much-needed light on where my words and actions are misaligned.

Which is precisely why I’ve been refining my own Personal Review System ever since.

As we head into 2026…

I can’t think of anything more topical or valuable for anyone who wants to step into the new year with clarity and conviction.

So if you're interested in seeing how it works and potentially steal it for yourself…

Then reply to this email with the word “REVIEW”.

I'll send you a video walkthrough plus all the templates you need to duplicate it for yourself :)

Jim Hamilton