When I started a newsletter in 2015, I had no expectations. I had just written a book, and I thought it would be a good idea to connect with readers.

I didn’t think I would write weekly articles and build a blog. I had a very basic website with a newsletter sign-up. And initially, the only people who joined my newsletter were friends and family.

I used Mailchimp back then, and I had turned on email notifications for every new subscriber. For the first few weeks, I recognized all the email addresses of the people who joined.

But on September 3, 2015, I received the first notification that included a stranger’s email. Here’s the email (blurred the details for privacy):