Hey, friend.
I don’t mean to alarm you, but…
We are friends.
Right?
You value my work.
Right?
What do you like about Permission to be Powerful?
What made you subscribe?
I want to know who my real friends are.
So I’m asking outright.
Are you a real one, or not?
Not to be confrontational.
I’m asking because I need friends right now.
Real ones.
The kind who help in small, consistent ways.
Here’s the ask.
If you value my work, I’m asking for $3.
That’s it.
A real-friend amount.
Support that’s easy to say yes to.
Yet actually changes my life.
Every $3 coming in makes what I’m carrying feel a pound lighter.
So here’s why I’m asking now.
Last year, I made almost no money.
I made so little I qualified for Medicaid.
That was intentional.
I went broke on purpose.
I exhausted my savings.
And I spent the year doing one thing.
Building an audience from scratch.
This wasn’t a dream.
This wasn’t a side hustle.
I locked myself in a room for a year.
And I bet my life on this mission.
It was a full-blown escape plan.
After Tony Robbins fired me, I was done being a copywriter for hire.
Done being someone’s bitch.
Done letting my income depend on moods.
On whims.
On which way the wind was blowing that week.
That model is broken.
AI only made that clearer.
I had to evolve or die.
So I went all-in on building my own machine.
And it was brutal.
I got nuked.
I built my list to 15,000.
Substack wiped it out overnight.
I rebuilt.
I moved to MailChimp.
Wiped again.
Twenty-three thousand gone instantly.
I rebuilt again.
I taught myself email deliverability from scratch.
The hard way.
How to protect a domain.
How not to get flagged.
How to build something real without Big Brother breathing down your neck.
I’ve moved email systems four times.
And now I’m moving one more time.
Because I want full control.
Open source.
Zero fixed costs.
Total ownership.
This weekend, I almost finished the migration.
It took all weekend.
I can’t believe I’m almost there.
And the payoff is coming.
The list is at 87,000 subscribers.
Next month, I expect to cross 100,000.
That’s a big deal.
It’s also the most dangerous moment.
Because I’m in the ugly middle.
The bridge.
The part where everything works…
Except the money hasn’t caught up yet.
And right now, I’m out of cash.
Not “tight month” out of cash.
Collections out of cash.
I won’t be homeless.
I moved into the Rochester Zen Center.
So I could survive the build.
Monk life is not for the weak.
Hours of meditation.
Manual labor.
A stripped-down existence.
I’m grateful.
And I’m ready for this chapter to close.
This has been the hardest year of my life.
It’s also the year this finally starts to work.
So I’m asking.
Not for a miracle.
Not for a rescue.
For something small.
Something consistent.
$3 per month.
From the people who actually value what I’m building.
If my work has mattered to you.
If you’ve felt seen.
If you’ve learned something.
If you’ve enjoyed the stories.
This is the moment it actually helps.
This is happening either way.
Support just determines how I cross this bridge.
Steady.
Or exhausted.
Thank you.
USE THIS CODE TO ENSURE YOUR DISCOUNTED PRICE: 29DB7
(the artist formerly known as Anton)
Tony
Editor in Chief
Permission to be Powerful
P.S. As a thank-you, I’ll make you an honorary member of the Vacation Vault.
The Vacation Vault is normally $8/month.
Today, I’m asking for $3.
That $3 helps me get through this month.
After that, the regular price is $8.
You can cancel.
No hard feelings.
I’ll still be grateful.
What matters most is making it through this month.
Here’s what’s open right now:
Miami Beach (ends 03/09)
Bali (ends 03/06)
Santa Fe (ends today 02/15)
Austin, TX (ends 02/28)
Charleston, SC (ends 03/02)
And coming soon:
Nashville. Malibu. Costa Rica. Cancun. Key West.
All locked inside the Vault.
👉 ENTER THIS CODE AT CHECKOUT TO SECURE YOUR 62% OFF DISCOUNT: 29DB7
($8/month after that)