Brought to you by...

I joined Lex Roman's Legends membership months ago and chose the lifetime membership. The deciding perk? A free ad in one of their newsletters.

Have I used it? Nope.

Last week, Lex offered members a deal: share a relevant newsletter or article with one person, and in exchange, they'd promote one of your links.

I did the sharing part immediately. The "pick which link to promote" part? Still sloshing around my inbox and to-do list.

Jessica Lackey runs a monthly promo in her newsletter where community members can share their newest offers. I've submitted something once. Once! Out of all the months I've been a member.

I'm telling you this because I think it's a pattern worth naming. I don't have trouble making things. I have trouble showing them to people after they exist.

Case in point: last week I logged into Tally, my form software (referral link), to start building a new quiz. And there, sitting in my long list of forms, was a quiz I genuinely do not remember creating.

"Are you paying to be ignored?" is a 7-question assessment that tells you whether your email list is healthy or quietly decaying. It scores your answers, gives you per-question feedback, and sorts you into a result tier with next steps.

It was 95% finished. The structure was solid. The questions were good. The conditional logic was all wired up. The outcome page just needed more context.

I spent hours building this thing last year and then apparently wandered off and forgot it existed.

This is, ironically, exactly the kind of decay this quiz is designed to detect. Except instead of dead subscribers dragging down a sender reputation, it's a finished-enough asset sitting in a drawer, generating zero value.

My mastermind group asked me recently why I don't promote my own stuff in Mail Fails. It's a daily newsletter. It goes out every single day. It has an audience that cares about email. Why wouldn't I put an Inbox Welcome offer in there?

I didn't have a good answer.

It's not that I think self-promotion is bad. I help clients promote their stuff for a living. I've created whole frameworks about post-conversion experiences and making your offers legible. I literally have a content pillar called "The Moment After" about what happens when you don't follow through on the thing you built.

But when it comes to my own work, I hit this weird wall. It feels too direct. Too salesy. Too "look at me".

Here's what I'm trying instead: I'm going to sponsor myself.

Not metaphorically. Literally. I'm adding a recurring sponsor block to my newsletter — the same format you'd see if a brand were paying for placement — except the sponsor is me, promoting my own things.

"This newsletter is brought to you by Inbox Welcome" is doing something sneaky. It uses the container of a sponsorship to give me permission to promote. You know it's a pitch. I know it's a pitch. We both know I'm the sponsor and the editor.

It creates just enough distance to make the sell feel like a wink instead of a plea.

And it's mechanical. I don't have to decide each week whether today is the day I feel brave enough to mention my own work. The block is there. I fill it. It rotates. Done.

Let's give it a go, shall we?

This newsletter is brought to you by: Are you paying to be ignored? Take this 2 minute quiz to find out if your email list is working for you or sabotaging your goals. 7 questions, instant results, zero judgment. Take the quiz →

Sponsoring yourself pairs well with "Call me when" to structure the uncomfortable promotional stuff some people...not naming any names...may be avoiding.