Atomic Efficiency: Forms Made Easy, Growth Hacks, and 1% Wins 🚀

Hey there!

Charlie here from https://charliezeng.substack.com/. You may notice the different service provider (Beehiiv) I’m using today. To keep receiving emails from me, please add us to your address book :)

Thank you for following along so far. To improve the experience and what you will get out of it, I have restructured what the newsletter will be about.

First things first, the newsletter will be called Atomic Efficiency, a 5-minute read to upgrade your business:

• 1 Tool (tried & tested) that you may use

• 1 Case Study to learn from

• 1 Mental Model to adopt

• Behind-the-scenes from my projects

• [Bonus] Free tools that I built when available

Without further-a-do, let's jump in!

🛠️ Tool of the Week: Effortless Forms with Tally (Tried & Tested)

Are you tired of clunky, complicated form builders? I recently stumbled upon Tally, and let me tell you, it’s a game-changer for simplifying how you collect information online.

Imagine embedding beautiful, functional forms directly into your website, landing pages, or even just sharing a link – without the usual tech headaches. That’s Tally in a nutshell.

I’ve personally integrated it into https://charliechan.me/ to make it super easy for people to connect with me, and the experience has been incredibly smooth.

Why I'm loving Tally:

• Dead Simple to Use: You can drag and drop elements, customize fields, and have a form up and running in minutes.

• Free to Start: They offer a generous free plan that’s perfect for getting started and testing the waters.

• Embed Anywhere: Seamlessly embed your forms into any website (like I did!), Notion pages, or share them directly via a link.

• Stay in the Loop: Get instant email notifications whenever someone submits a form. Perfect for lead capture, feedback collection, or order forms.

• Beyond Contact Forms: Think surveys, quizzes, feedback forms, order forms, event registrations – the use cases are endless for your business.

💡 Want to upgrade and ditch the branding? They’ve got paid plans too, and if you're interested in taking the plunge, I've got a little something for you. Use this link for 50% off for 3 months on any plan.

🚀 Case Study: From Side Project to $10k MRR - Lessons from a Social Media Scheduler

In the spirit of keeping things lean and effective, let’s look at a brilliant example of focused execution. I’ve been following @jackfriks on X (Twitter), and his journey building a social media scheduling tool is incredibly inspiring.

In a crowded market of social media management platforms, he carved out a niche and built a tool that's now generating over $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue! How did he do it? It boils down to two key principles:

1. Audience First: He wasn't just building in a vacuum. Jack cultivated an audience on X before launching his tool. This gave him a built-in user base ready to jump on his solution from day one.

2. Simple & Affordable: Instead of trying to build a massive, all-in-one platform like some of the big players, he focused on solving one core problem – easy social media scheduling – and offered it at a super accessible price point.

(Check out the pricing screenshot from the source image – simple and targeted!)

The Takeaway for You:

Don't get bogged down in analysis paralysis. Often, the best ideas are the ones you do, not just the ones you overthink. If Jack had researched the saturated social media scheduling market and focused on all the competition, he might never have started.

Instead, he focused on:

• Identifying a pain point: The hassle of manual social media posting.

• Building an audience: Creating a community around his expertise.

• Offering a simple, affordable solution: Solving one problem exceptionally well.

This case study is a powerful reminder: Solve a specific problem, build a community around it, and don't be afraid to launch even if the market seems crowded. Focus on execution, not just endless planning.

🧠 Mental Model of the Week: The 1% Daily Improvement

Want to achieve significant growth without burning out? Adopt the 1% Daily Improvement mental model.

The core idea is simple: focus on getting just 1% better each day in key areas of your business. It sounds small, but the compound effect over time is massive.

Think about it:

• 1% better at marketing each day: Imagine slightly improving your ad copy, your email subject lines, or your social media engagement daily. Over a year, these tiny tweaks compound into significant marketing gains.

• 1% more efficient in your workflows: Streamline a process, automate a task, learn a new shortcut. Daily efficiency gains add up to hours saved each week.

• 1% better at customer service: Refine your responses, anticipate customer needs, improve your onboarding process. Small improvements in customer experience lead to greater loyalty and referrals.

How to implement it:

• Choose one or two key areas: Don't try to improve everything at once. Focus on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your business.

• Identify small, actionable steps: Break down your goals into tiny, manageable tasks that you can accomplish daily.

• Track your progress: Even simple tracking can help you visualize your improvements and stay motivated.

The 1% daily improvement model is about consistent, incremental progress. It's about building momentum over time and achieving remarkable results through small, sustainable actions.

🎁 Behind-The-Scenes: My AI-Powered X (Twitter) Experiment

Speaking of small daily improvements, I’ve been experimenting with boosting my X (Twitter) presence. I noticed engaging effectively on the platform was taking time and effort, so I decided to build a little AI-powered Chrome Extension to help!

The goal? To make my X posts and replies:

• More polished: Better grammar and vocabulary thanks to AI assistance.

• More engaging: Injecting more personality and making them less… well, boring.

• More frequent: Making it easier to contribute more meaningfully to conversations.

It’s still in the early stages of testing, and I'm definitely curious to see if others would find this kind of tool helpful. It's a fun project that combines my interest in AI with my desire to grow my online presence. Stay tuned for updates!

That's your Atomic Efficiency upgrade for the week! Go ahead, try out Tally, reflect on the social media scheduler case study, and start thinking about how you can apply the 1% daily improvement model to your business.

Here's to making every minute count!

Stay Efficient,

Charlie

P.S. What are your thoughts on the format for our newsletter? Hit reply and let me know – I love hearing from you!