This is a longish one, so I’ll cut to the chase! I’ll be hosting a live, in-person workshop on Tuesday, September 16 at Kiln, a co-working and office space here in Portland.

I’m calling it Open, Read, Repeat: Crafting Irresistible Emails

Fancy, right?

1120 SE Madison St., Portland from 11:30-12:30

It’s free and there’s no formal registration. Feel free to reach out for more details - I’d love to see you there!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Hey Reader!

Once upon a time I took a medical of absence from my stressful job and took up embroidery.

By which I mean I became absolutely obsessed with embroidery. 🪡🧵

I spent the three weeks of leave listening to the Harry Potter books (may you be thrashed by your own Whomping Willow, JK Rowling), taking walks, and making tiny stitches in fabric.

It helped me to heal from a toxic work environment as well as some pesky physical issues likely brought on by that real-life monster, menopause.

Here are some pictures!

As you can see, I was doing super abstract work.

People liked it! And I loved doing it. I could unpick and redo those stitches for hours at a stretch. I didn’t get bored, I didn’t get frustrated.

I was in love.

So I decided to make a business out of it. I mean, for better of worse that’s kind of my MO. I started by applying to holiday craft shows.

Alert! Bragging ahead!

I got into every single one of them, even the really competitive ones.

Clearly, this was going to be a great success!

Craft shows (fairs, whatever) are a LOT of work.

You’ve got to build a booth, or at least come up with a display strategy. You’ve got to load in and load out, create signage, price your work, be friendly and engaging for hours on end.

It’s fun, but it’s tiring. And expensive!

And if you’re a wee bit of a perfectionist, you might spend hours and hours and HOURS preparing. Just saying.

So I went to my first show, and sales were decent - not amazing, but okay.

It was all downhill from there.

The juries (i.e. the people who approved my applications) loved my stuff. My friends loved my stuff. The people wandering through the booths loved my stuff. But no one wanted to buy it.

I get it. Small-scale abstract embroidery isn’t on everyone’s Christmas list.

I started a business doing the thing I loved.

Do what you love and the money will follow, right?

Yeah, no.

The thing is, I started this business with no strategy. It seemed like a great idea; it would allow me to go all in on the only thing I really wanted to do.

But I didn't take the time to see what other people were successfully selling. I didn't stop to think about what shoppers were actually looking to buy for holiday gifts.

Overall I didn't take the market into account; I just wanted to sell what I wanted to make.

Turns out a business with no strategy is a lot of work for very little reward. Unless you love sitting at a table all day hearing, “That’s beautiful!” as people pass by to spend their money on earrings at the neighboring booth.

Pretty soon I gave it up; running a business that isn’t making money is not a fun job.

Same same with newsletters. If you don’t have a strategy you’re probably not going to increase your sales, you’re going to struggle with what to write every week, and you’re going to want to give up.

When I say strategy I’m not talking about charts and numbers and midnight scribblings. I just mean that you should understand why you’re doing it.

• Is this primarily a nurturing exercise? Getting people to know and like you so that when you’ve got an offer they’ll hire you or buy your stuff?
• Are you trying to get more eyes on your Youtube videos, or downloads of your podcast, or attendees at your retreat?
• Do you want to sell things to your readers? (I hope you said yes to this one, because ultimately this is the real magic of email.)

If you don’t have specific outcomes in mind you’re likely going to throw a bunch of words out there and hope for the best.

Not every issue has to have sales as the goal, and if you want to send an email whose only purpose is to gush about being one of the lucky few to attend Beyoncé’s latest tour, go for it.

I’m not jealous. 😆

But if you haven’t done it yet, I encourage you to make a list of things you’d like your readers to do, and tailor your emails to direct them thusly.

Don’t be like me, dragging my embroidery around the city on every rainy December weekend, assuming I’ll sell it because it’s pretty.

Yours in obsessive pursuits,

Julia

PS - If you live in or around Portland, please come to my workshop! I promise you’ll learn something new.

​TWICE knows that strategy is everything, and so does this email. Forward it to someone who's tired of throwing spaghetti at the wall.

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