Newsletter Therapy
Helping you send emails that delight, entertain, inform and sell.
Compared to what?
Hey Reader! Comparison is the thief of joy. And yet it’s often hard to resist. Yesterday I read an email from someone I don’t know very well - a business acquaintance - and it made me feel like a straight-up loser who has done nothing in the past 25 years but read celebrity gossip and complain about the weather. My own fault; I went looking for reasons to feel inferior and so of course I found them. She’s done a bunch of interesting things, and has apparently done them all annoyingly well....
quitting is for quitters
Hey Reader! I almost dropped out of college at the end of my sophomore year. It's fair to say that I was an indifferent student, by which I mean I worked at the things that interested me and struggled to stay focused on the things that did not. I went to this school with a weird structure - only one class at a time, for three and a half weeks, then a long weekend and on to the next thing. I used to blame my inability to stay focused on that, but in retrospect I guess I just have ADHD. Maybe...
Surprise me!
Hey Reader! You ever find an easter egg? 🐣 Not the plastic ones filled with jelly beans, or the kind that comes from a chicken and is then painstakingly dyed by a kid exercising an unusual amount of dedication. I mean the kind that’s just for someone in the know, like a video game that sends you a secret message if you type a particular word or move a player to a specific point. Or a movie that references another movie, or includes subtle clues that reinforce the story. What makes an easter...
Perfect is not the goal
Hey Reader! I was born in Toronto, which means I have the great privilege of holding citizenship in two different countries. 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 According to Canadian law, my kids can inherit my citizenship. There are forms to fill out and identity documents to collect, you send them all to some office in Ottawa and hey presto! You get a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship. It’s pretty handy to have nationality options, especially these days. So you might think that I jumped on this years ago and got them...
Ship sinking, still sailing
Hey Reader! I've had a hell of a time coming up with something to write about this week. There is a LOT going on in the world right now. None of it good. That can make it hard to focus, and honestly sometimes writing an email feels pretty trivial in the face of all that’s happening out there. However! We still have businesses to run and emails to write. So I thought I’d introduce the idea of taking something that's hit the news and using it to write about your own stuff. 💡 For example: ➡️ Is...
What fresh hell is this?
Hey Reader! We appear to be living in, if not the worst of times, certainly not the best either. So is this something you should talk about in your business newsletter? Short answer - if you want to. With this caveat: please do not preach. What I mean by that is don’t make your readers feel like they’re somehow wrong for not jumping on your high horse with you. A while back I was inundated with social media posts by a woman I know. They all revolved around some version of “I won’t look away”...
No pressure, but…
Hey Reader! If you’d joined us this week at Consistency Club, you’d have spent an hour writing, asking Very Important Questions, and feeling seen and heard by your fellow writers. What is Consistency Club? It’s an hour every week devoted to getting the writing done, whether that’s your newsletter, web copy, Threads post, letter to your grandmother… In short, whatever type of writing you need or want to accomplish. We get together via Zoom every Wednesday at 10am Pacific time. You can come...
You should see the other one 😵
Hey Reader! I’m an Aries with a spontaneous nature and a short attention span, so I’m kind of terrible at planning. This has led to some terrific outcomes, like a spur of the moment 2 month road trip to Guatemala. I’ve also suffered the slings and arrows, i.e., taking my asthmatic lungs on a 3 day hike above 11,000 feet without an inhaler. 😬 It’s a mixed bag, just like anyone's stash of traits and habits. But as a person without a lot of built-in organization, I’m good at coming up with...
the words you take in
Hey Reader! Americans don’t read books anymore. That’s more or less the conclusion of a YouGov poll, and honestly, are we surprised? To recap, 40% of Americans did not read a single book last year. Maybe you’re one of them - no shade, reading books isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if you’re doing any writing at all, it might be making that task harder. Me? I’m in the weirdo 4% who reads 50 or more books per year, which is really all you need to know about my reclusive (not to say obsessive)...
No egrets. I mean regrets.
Hey Reader! I had a friend in college named Sally. Her rallying cry? “Dump the bum!” A guy isn’t treating you like the queen you are? Don’t think twice. 🙅🏻 It’s kind of like that with your email subscribers. If they're not giving you anything, i.e., opening your mail. they're merely clutter. If you've got a bunch of these deadbeats on your list, it's time to do some clean up. 🧹🧽 Lest you think I'm being harsh, there are practical reasons for list cleaning. For one thing, it improves...
Helping you send emails that delight, entertain, inform and sell.