Hey friends,

Hope you’re having a great start to the year. I’m in Toronto for the next week, where -15 °C days are a regular occurrence. Despite the blistering cold, there’s something nice about the quiet mornings that accompany the rhythm of heavy snowfall. It puts you in a reflective yet focused mood, which is the space I find myself in now.

Speaking of which, I recently sent out an email sharing that I’ve started a Substack newsletter. It’s quite possible that many of you didn’t see that email, which is why I’m also sharing it here.

In my first post, I reflect on More To That’s journey so far, and where I see it going. To make it concrete, I gave myself an exercise to distill it all down to ~1,000 words in the form of a new About page. The result (including some drawings, of course) has been included in the post.

I have a lot in store for the Substack version of More To That, and I look forward to sharing it all with you. If you’re not subscribed to it already, feel free to check out the inaugural post below and subscribe there. I’m excited to see where things go:

​A new chapter for More To That​

Reflections on The Inner Compass

About 6 months ago, I released my first book, The Inner Compass. By all external measures, the book has been a success (especially as a self-published book). It’s sold thousands of copies, received hundreds of reviews, and is being translated into multiple languages.

But all of that seems secondary when I think about the kinds of messages people have been sending me. I consistently receive messages from real people telling me about real, heavy problems that my book has helped them with.

Consider this email I got a few days ago:

What metric captures the essence of this emotion? Trying to use as a 5-star Amazon review as a surrogate for it is just laughable.

I’ve been reflecting on this because prior to publishing the book, I was spiraling with self-doubt. I thought the book was good, but that it wasn’t ready to be out yet. I thought it needed more refinement, more stories, more everything. But the truth is, that desire for it to be perfect was just fear in disguise. It felt safe to be in my own little corner working on it, but safety isn’t what gets your creation out into the world.

It all comes down to the courage to trust yourself. To trust that you’ve done what you can, and that now it’s time for your imperfections to come into contact with others. And because everyone contains imperfections of their own, they will relate to the fact that you have them too.

I felt this before publishing my book, before starting my Substack newsletter, before any creative project, really. My hope is that you allow a similar texture of courage to carry you through 2026 as well.

*Note: As a reminder, if you purchase The Inner Compass, send me your order receipt and I’ll send you a bonus booklet called “A Month of Reflections”. These are 30 carefully selected excerpts of my work that have been designed to give you a mindful start to each day. Given that we’re in the beginning of the year, this would be a great time to get started.

A Brief Parting Question

In my first Substack post, I shared that I'm going to teach people how to build writing-based businesses. What aspects of a writing-based business would you like me to show you?

Someone in the comments asked me to dive into self-publishing, which I plan to do. I also have plans to share how long-form writing can be used as a cornerstone of your practice (given that it be split into short-form, and can also be adapted to any platform). I also have plans to show how you can use AI for ideation and how you can use it to help with every other aspect of your business (i.e. the parts of the business that take you away from the writing itself). I have a lot of topics that I plan to address, and I’m excited to dive into it.

But I wanted to ask you directly what you’d like to know. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience that I’ve cultivated over the past 7 years building More To That, and I want to know what I can offer.

As always, hit reply to share any thoughts, to respond to the parting question, or to simply say hello. I love hearing from you.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to share this email with anyone who might enjoy it. Have a great rest of your week!

-Lawrence Yeo

P.S. If you want to learn how to write posts like the one I shared today, check out my writing course, The Examined Writer. It’s 3 hours’ of self-paced material, all designed to elevate your writing practice.