Newsletter

I hate selling – and it has worked for 10 years

René Hjetting

06 Mar 2026 — 3 min read

Made together with Midjourney

For the past 10 years, I have sold 100% of my courses and workshops on one channel.

Not LinkedIn. Not YouTube. Not cold calls or networking meetings where everyone tries to sell to each other.

I've never been good at selling. The idea of calling strangers and persuading them to buy something is just not me – I don't want to be the one pushing for something people haven't asked for.

I've tried networking meetings. I like meeting people, but not when it's about pitching yourself. I post on LinkedIn, but only when I have something to say – not because I'm following a strategy of daily posts.

So what do I do instead?

Two things. I cultivate my personal network over coffee meetings – online and in person – without a sales agenda. That's how I get my consulting assignments.

And then I write this newsletter every week.

I think there are two reasons why it doesn't feel like selling.

The first is that I never write to ‘my readers’ as a group. I write to one person.

A specific person I know who is facing a specific problem.

Every time I sit down to write, I think of a specific person in my network – not a persona or a target group, but a real person I've had coffee with.

I ask myself: would she think this was worth passing on? If so, I continue writing. If not, I start over.

When you write to one person, it feels like a conversation – not a sales letter. And the reader notices the difference.

The second reason is that I don't decide when someone buys. They do that themselves. My job is to show up every week with something valuable.

A few years ago, a reader wrote to me after following my newsletter for almost two years.

She had never clicked on anything, never replied to an email. Then she signed up for my course and wrote:

‘I was waiting for the right moment.’

I hadn't pushed her. I had just been there.

Consistency is not a strategy for growth. It is a strategy for trust.

If you also hate selling, maybe it's not your technique that's wrong. Maybe it's just the channel.

Can you recognise yourself in this?

Then you may be ready to build your own system – one where you sell by sharing knowledge, not by persuading anyone of anything.

Build your own profitable newsletter is a 7-week course where I help you get started, find your voice and start selling through your newsletter.

Just like I've been doing for 10 years.

You can read more and sign up here.

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