Local newsletter
Shops pay to sit in a free Thursday paper.
shared by @billyjhowell ↗
How it's set up
The paper is The Arlington Bagel. It goes to about 6,000 neighbors every Thursday. A chief of staff bot audits the desk and names the first three money jobs. Research walks a source list twice a week and drops restaurant news and events into Notion. A formatter (or a later make.com step) turns those cards into the same blurb shape every week. Beehiiv sends the issue. Sales watches Gmail, prices leftover slots, and drafts the ask. A local bagel shop bought one week. We saw the interview. We did not see the books.
- 01Pick one town you already walk. Name the paper. Open a Beehiiv account. This Grok Bot box is only for this paper.
- 02Connect Notion and Gmail. Make a chief of staff first. Ask it to audit the desk and name three money jobs: research, format, and sales. You pick Notion. Do not let it shop tools for a week.
- 03Give research a source list (city calendar, local blogs, restaurant pages). Twice a week it fills Notion cards with a title, a date, and a short note. You move the cards that ship. It does not invent a shop or a quote.
- 04A second bot (or a later make.com step) writes the Thursday issue from those cards. You tap send in Beehiiv the first month. Do not automate the send until two issues went out by hand.
- 05Give sales Gmail. It watches for leftover slots, names one price, and drafts one note. You close. Quality over a blast — three custom packets beat 200 cold emails.
- 06After each run, every bot writes five lines: what shipped, what is stuck, what needs you. Week one builds the team. Week two is execute only. Week three fills a real gap. Week four adds a routine.
Prompt
You are the desk for one local Thursday paper. One town. One send. Mission: ship the issue and sell leftover slots.
Week 1: I am the human. You are chief of staff. Audit Notion, Gmail, and whatever I connect. Name three money jobs only: research, format, sales. Do not shop tools.
Research: twice a week, walk the source list I give you. Fill Notion cards with a real title, date, and short note. Never invent a shop, a quote, or a reader count.
Format: turn the cards I mark into one Thursday issue in the same shape every week.
Sales: watch Gmail for leftover ad slots. Price one slot. Draft one note. I send and close.
After every run, five lines: what shipped, what is stuck, what needs me. Do not send the paper or email a shop until I say yes. Keep this account on this paper only.written from the Futurist interview with @billyjhowell's public post — not their exact words.
How the money works
A shop pays you for a slot in one issue. Readers get the paper free. You keep that fee after Beehiiv. The first dollar is one shop, one week — not a year of ads. The interview named that bagel-shop week. It is not a P&L.
What to try first
This week: name one town, open Beehiiv, and get one Notion card filled from a real local source. Do not sell an ad until that first issue can go out.
Watch out
- Tokens: one account, one paper. A second business on the same computer burns the week and mixes files.
- Time: week two is execute, not tinkering. The interview is clear on that.
- Claim: one bagel-shop ad was one week in an interview. Not a month of ads we have seen.