Over the weekend, I hit 5K subscribers on LinkedIn.

When I was telling my friend about it, I immediately caught myself saying, “It’s only 5K”. I started to discount it (like us ambitious humans tend to do in our society).

But if you take a look at an audience of 5,000 people, it’s actually huge.

To me, the number of followers doesn’t really matter. Well, only a tiny bit.

What matters more is the principle behind the goal. The fact that each week I’ve opened up LinkedIn, stared at a blank page, wrote, rewrote, erased, wrote again, and hit publish is a feat in itself.

As with most things in life, it’s less about the destination and more about the journey. Through exposing myself online, I’ve:

These aren’t external successes, they’re internal ones.

But many people don’t even start. Or they start and then stop when it gets scary and hard. So I put together some habits that I think might help .

They’re sort of like the 7 habits of highly effective people but my personal version. Let’s call them, Maggie’s 7 habits of highly effective people.

I wasn’t honest with myself for several years. I kept shaming myself whenever I deviated from the traditional path. Why couldn’t I just be like everyone else in a 9-5 who tolerated their job? It wasn’t until I got honest that I knew I needed a bigger change that a new job couldn’t fix.

Highly effective people have done the inner work. They’ve uncovered the why underneath the why. They’ve sat with big existential questions, like, “If I don’t go for it, will I regret it?” They don’t trick themselves into being someone who they’re not.

When you think about a leader, I bet you have an idea of what their vision looks like. This could be someone at work or someone you follow on social media. Everything they do ladders up to their vision.

When I ask potential clients about their vision, 90% of them don’t have an idea of what they want to do in 20 years (I didn’t either). But without a clear vision, it’s hard to decide what to focus on today.

I’m a big believer of riding the momentum train. When I get hooked on an idea or hobby, I can’t take my mind off of it, and I have to see it come to life. Sure, not everything makes it on momentum alone, but I’ve been trying to get better at thinking → writing → posting, especially on Substack where it feels more casual over there.

When effective people have an idea, they move swiftly toward it. Instead of plotting it into “one day”, they make it happen little by little. They reach out to someone this week to have a conversation. They create a 1-pager with their offer and set up discovery calls to get feedback. They move swiftly because they know it will give them loads of information that thinking for days will not.

When I was working as a product marketer at Slack, I interacted with every single team in Marketing. I’d schedule a kickoff with them, share our product launch goals, and my job was to enable the other teams to execute against them.

But there was a key difference in how other teams shared their plans. While some teams were waiting for direction, others had already come up with ideas. Highly effective people are proactive and always solutions-oriented.

If you’ve heard the phrase, “comparison is the thief of joy”, I tend to agree but find it difficult not to compare ourselves. As human beings, it’s only natural. So instead of trying to stop our very human tendency, I’ve learned to reframe it, and I think others have too.

Effective people don’t use comparison as a way of measuring their own self-worth. They use it as fuel and information. They learn from other people within their industry or niche to constantly improve.

This is the hard part. When a launch fails, when it’s harder than you thought to land your first client, when you’re not seeing enough validation that this side hustle you thought could replace your full-time income, highly effective people don’t quit.

I’ve personally had this happen to me a few times, and every time there is a period where I question if I’ll actually “make it”….if my idea was worth sharing or why no one showed up like I thought they would.

But when you’re trying something new, it’s very important to get back up. You put a band-aid on your ego, take in the learnings, and try again. Anyone else watch Knight of the 7 Kingdoms? (don’t watch if you can’t handle gore)

I used to be a victim of my life. I felt stuck but didn’t do much to change it.

Highly effective people know that they’re the creator of their future, so they take an active role in creating it. They’re not victims but instead, they own up to it and go back to #4 (being solutions-oriented).

Okay, this is more than 7 but these are my rules! These people have fun with what they do! Their energy is magnetic, contagious, and rare. You follow along because you want a piece of it, too.

Hitting 5K didn't actually feel like the milestone. The milestone was becoming the kind of person who shows up and writes every week, even when the page is blank and the self-doubt is loud.

What traits do you have right now? What’s one trait you want to improve to be more effective in your work/life? Hit reply and let me know!

I’m hosting a workshop this week for OGC on building portfolio careers. I’m going to lots of IRL events. I’m currently sitting in my car trying to finish this newsletter 🙂 I’m writing it, no matter what it takes!

Virtual: Build Your First AI Automation with Cowork | Tues, April 21
​Moxie is hosting a hands-on workshop where you're going to build your first AI automation. Connect your inbox, connect your calendar, and walk out with something that'll make your life easier. RSVP here >

NYC: Morning Magic Picnic by Generalist World, Taylor Harrington | Thurs, April 23
This is a curated group, but if you feel like you fit the vibe, you can mention your name when RSVPing, and if they have space, they’ll extend the invite! RSVP here >

SF: Build After Dark | Wed, April 29
​Build After Dark is a 4-week evening series for women in non-technical roles who are ready to build something and finally have the support system to do it. You'll learn to build and ship a real AI project, using tools like Claude Code or Codex, with expert support the whole way through. RSVP here >

SF: Corporate & Ex-Corporate SF Coffee Meetup | Fri, May 1
I’m coming to San Francisco in a few weeks, and I’d love to meet up with anyone who is interested in grabbing coffee. Whether you’re in corporate or looking to build a portfolio career, hope you’ll join! RSVP here >

Unblock Strategy Sprint
Get 60 minutes of strategic support on Zoom, personalized strengths mapping with an Enneagram assessment, and 2 weeks of async support to help unblock your goals and come up with a concrete action plan.

Reimagine 1:1 Coaching
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