Newsletter Therapy
Helping you send emails that delight, entertain, inform and sell.
brain for rent
Hey Reader! My youngest and I have this thing in common: we're prone to taking up new projects and going DEEP. This is why she has 100 houseplants and multiple fish tanks. It's why I've started a bunch of blogs and newsletters and businesses. It's like neither of us can just enjoy a hobby without making it our whole personality. đ But there are benefits to this slightly obsessive behavior. If you want to know anything about keeping a fresh water tank, call Grey. She can tell you how to set it...
Restating the obvious
Hey Reader! 50% of parenting is repetition. True? Feels true. Itâs one of the many aspects of raising littles no one tells you about. You will repeat yourself constantly. Itâs how we learn, so it kind of makes sense, but thatâs cold comfort when youâre telling your child for the ten millionth time to put their dishes into the dishwasher. Or to brush their teeth before bed. Or to leave sticks outside. That last one may not apply to all parents, but my kids were big fans of bringing the outside...
And another oneâŚ
Hey Reader! Another Tuesday, another email sent. Except that this time I did not send it. In fact, I did not even write it. I was having A Day and being thoughtful or clever or interesting or even mildly capable felt out of reach. So I didnât write the email and I felt bad about it. And then I spiraled into âIâm going to end up in a crappy nursing home with no friends, living on applesauce, listening to the wails of the senile and lonely.â Because at a certain age thatâs just where your mind...
Compared to what?
Hey Reader! Comparison is the thief of joy. And yet itâs often hard to resist. Yesterday I read an email from someone I donât 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. Sheâs 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? đŁ 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 thatâs 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. đ¨đŚ đşđ¸ 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. Itâs 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 thatâs happening out there. However! We still have businesses to run and emails to write. So I thought Iâd introduce the idea of taking something that's hit the news and using it to write about your own stuff. đĄ For example: âĄď¸ 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 donât make your readers feel like theyâre 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 âI wonât look awayâ...
No pressure, butâŚ
Hey Reader! If youâd joined us this week at Consistency Club, youâd have spent an hour writing, asking Very Important Questions, and feeling seen and heard by your fellow writers. What is Consistency Club? Itâs an hour every week devoted to getting the writing done, whether thatâs 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...
Helping you send emails that delight, entertain, inform and sell.