A note on the retreat I could not host

Insideletter

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How is the winter? I am really enjoying it.

I am feeling a bit emotional today, because it is the 20th of December. If everything had gone as planned, we would have been celebrating India’s first-ever newsletter retreat today.

As you know, I had been planning and working very hard on it. Unfortunately, I could not make it happen.

I started the Insideletter newsletter brand in May 2025. The two people who genuinely motivated me to begin were Chennel and Matt.

Matt was hosting his Audience Camp retreat for creators and media founders.

That inspired me, and I started thinking about doing something similar in India. Most people here do not even understand what a newsletter business is, so I felt there was an opportunity to introduce a new angle. But for that, I knew I needed more exposure.

To build momentum, I ran a free six-week cohort for 27 people, though around 35 initially joined. I believed it would help me gain attention and traction, but it did not. As you know, getting attention is extremely difficult.

After that, I decided to start a community and launched it shortly after the cohort. Unfortunately, it was a complete failure.

At the same time, I was still working on the retreat idea. I reached out to a few people, and Tanu was one of them. She was genuinely proactive and supportive. But over time, I realised that most people were not responding or showing real interest.

I had already started planning logistics, including hotel bookings, but since I could not secure even the first sale, I had to postpone the retreat.

It was a setback for me. Still, I plan to try again in 2026.

What I failed to achieve in 2025 was reaching the masses and building the level of trust it required.

In 2026, I want to focus more on trust and do my best to reach a wider audience.

That said, I do not want to push myself too hard. I want to keep things simple, and if it does not work, I am at peace with that.

My goal is to build a simple 1-person media business. At the same time, it is my passion to create a community of like-minded people where we can help each other grow and share knowledge.

I will try, but not at the cost of my peace.

I cannot do this alone. I need your help, and here is how you can support me.

I’d love to invite you to join the Insideletter community. Where i help you to build a 1-person newsletter business.

You can join here.