Photo by Rohit Tandon / Unsplash
Return on Security, a year in review for 2021.
This post is a reflection on my experience with ReturnOnSecurity.com and the evolution it’s seen this year.
Here's the tl;dr on this 🧵🧘 Better focus lead to better business💡 I learned a lot by iterating and being consistent🤝 A lot of cool people influenced and helped me🔥 2022 has a lot of new value coming
Prefer this as a Twitter thread? Here it is!
Return on Security, a year in review for 2021
Here's a 🧵 about my experience with https://t.co/BuGoVbjGui and the evolution it’s seen this year.— Mike Privette (@mikepsecuritee) December 31, 2021
Return on Security came indirectly as a result of my selling my first consulting business.
I made content creation and a newsletter a key part of that business.
It was a strategy I had not seen in my niche yet and it helped me win business and establish my writing presence.
After the acquisition, I needed a place to establish myself as my own voice instead of using a business cover.
I didn’t want the two to be conflated but instead be able to stand on their own.
I still wanted to consult and I still wanted to write but under separate cover.
I also wanted a place to distill my thoughts from my different experiences and to add value to the cybersecurity field at large.
So I ported over some older content and decided to plant a new flag at ReturnOnSecurity.com
Luckily, people still liked the content and helped share it, and gave me encouraging feedback to keep writing more.
For those early supporters, I can’t thank you enough! ❤️
Here’s my most popular post on RetunOnSecurity.com from 2021
Here’s my most popular post of 2021 from ReturnOnSecurity
The Trouble with the BISO Role https://t.co/YVP0EFjGB9— Mike Privette (@mikepsecuritee) December 29, 2021
I also carried over my newsletter and kept writing the cybersecurity market insight reports.
The initial format was long-form on specific cybersecurity product spaces.
It had both a free and paid version and was sent monthly.
For the uninitiated, I used the same styling as @trends_vc
I'm a Pro member of this community and can't recommend it enough.
This newsletter and community helped me be a better writer and kicked off my creator journey.
It’s insights like this that helped me iterate and focus better in 2021
3 questions to ask yourself before the new year:
What am I best at?
What am I most interested in?
What can I stick with the longest?
These will help find your highest point of leverage.
Eliminate, automate, outsource or delegate everything else.— Trends.vc (@trends_vc) December 30, 2021
Side note: Did I create the first @trends_vc-like newsletter in a different space?
I like to think so.
Am I the @DruRly of the cybersecurity industry? 🤔
I hope to be! 🤞
I needed some kind of pivot to become more relevant and play a game I wanted to keep playing.
Play long-term games with long-term people like @naval says
I liked the long-form style of writing but I wanted to add NEW value to the community.
That's hard when there are already so many good people writing and curating content in the cybersecurity space like:
To name a few.
If you're not following these people and subscribing to their newsletters, you're missing out.
This is when the Security, Funded newsletter concept was born. 💰🙌
What first started off as a few Twitter threads to test the waters
Here's the latest in cybersecurity funding from the week of 4/25/2021
10 companies raised $383.9M 🧵 👇— Mike Privette (@mikepsecuritee) May 3, 2021
Later became my new standard.
I went all-in on Security, Funded as the main newsletter.
The newsletter subscribers more than doubled after this pivot and I learned a few new things.
I learned:
How to get better at content curation
How to better define my target audience
How to consistently show up for a weekly newsletter
How to raise sponsorships
How to market better
I also stepped up the Pro Membership game this year.
I stopped giving away the market reports for free
I added a new monthly investor roll-up report that analyzes investing trends.
I got clarity on the value proposition for Pro Members as well thanks to
There are certain core concepts I find myself telling creators all the time to help them grow their audience or business.
Here they are…— Josh Spector (@jspector) October 1, 2021
As a result, Pro Memberships increased substantially this year 😳
Paid member growth snapshot
Becoming a Pro Member helps make Return on Security a sustainable effort.
So what about 2022 for Return On Security?
You can expect:
🆕 More original content and insights🤝 New partnerships, new value creation🔈 Audio versions of some Pro reports💼 A revamped job board experience✅ Increased opportunities for access
What else do you want to see?
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Mike P