Big ole mistake

It’s a low-energy day over here, and I was struggling with what to write…

Then I came across this post on newsletter mistakes from other writers, and it reminded me of one of my own.

A big one.

So I figured I’d share it.

A while back, as part of a grant program I help manage, I built out a bunch of automations in High Level when we switched systems.

Including one that notifies people when they’re selected as finalists.

That workflow was supposed to be manual.

We’d review applicants, and then manually add the finalists to that sequence.

But there was another workflow (a totally separate recurring one) that accidentally added people to that same finalist notification. I’m not even sure how it got set up that way.

Long story short: over 1,000 people got an email saying they were finalists.

As soon as we realized what had happened, we sent a message apologizing and saying we’d made a mistake.

But...the inbox exploded.

I spent two full days replying to angry emails, confused texts, and a wave of disappointment and frustration.

It was a mess. And it could have been a disaster.

I owned the mistake.

And learned the hard way to never ship critical email workflows without double-checking (and triple-checking) every trigger and endpoint.

If you’re building email automations (especially ones that matter to your audience’s expectations): check everything. 

Test edge cases. Know where each action is sending people next.

And when you screw up? Own it.

We did. And we survived it.

Of course, that’s not the only email mistake I’ve made.

Heck, I’m making half a dozen right now with this newsletter.

I’ll try to share those another time.

For now, here’s the article that inspired this.

What’s the biggest email mistake you’ve made?

Hit reply and tell me. I’d love to know I’m not alone. 🙂

Nathan

If you’re stuck on your newsletter, lead magnet, or AI setup, book a coaching session at this link and I’ll help you sort it out step by step so you can move forward with confidence and a plan.

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