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 there something you can say about the US women's hockey team winning gold and then being dismissed and belittled by the president - and by extension their male colleagues? 😤

➡️ Or how about the Wuthering Heights movie skewing so drastically from the book? 📕 ⇏ 🎥

➡️ Are you interested in what actors were wearing to the SAG awards? 💅

➡️ Are you worried about what might happen to the price of gas with our latest military incursion? 💰

I'm not saying you have to take a stand on current events. But is there something happening in the world right now that somehow relates to your life or your business?

I find drawing lines really fun, so let me try to attach these ideas to my own little project, i.e., talking about newsletters.

✅ The treatment of the US women's hockey team has struck a deep chord with me, as a woman who has lived in this patriarchal society for lo these 60 years. 🏒

But the grace and humor with which the women have responded to the nasty comments by the Prez (and the unapologetic cosigning by their male peers) reminds me that we can’t control the way people think about us, we can only control the way we react. 🧘🏼

So I’m just going to keep on writing my truth, week by week, and I invite you to do the same. Don’t worry about a few potential haters; your people will find you. Keep writing to THEM.

✅ Wuthering Heights is not my favorite book by a long shot, but it is a well-written work and completely changing the story is not cool. I mean! Come up with your own damned story, Emerald Fennell! 📖

As Kim Kardashian might say, no one wants to be original any more.

Pretending to put a beloved book on screen then totally changing it is just lazy, and smells like a cash grab. It's always better to do your own thing than co-opt someone else's thing. Just write your own stuff and be proud of it. That goes for screenplays or emails.

✅ I have a lot of less-than-charitable thoughts about celebs and their goings-on, but I do love a good red carpet.

As someone who dresses mostly in jeans and hoodies, I love to see gorgeous gowns and velvet tuxes. 💃🕺

Is the spectacle reminiscent of the band playing on the deck of the Titanic as it sinks? 🚢 Yes it is. But a little glitter can be the perfect distraction from the horrors of, well, everything.

It's also a reminder that we have to go on with the show ourselves; a business is a thing that needs tending, even when the ship appears to be sinking. So keep working and keep writing and use whatever distractions you need to do your thing and not sink into despair. 🪩

✅ Gas prices will be going up.⛽️ May as well stay at home, eat good food, and write terrific emails!

See? You can play narcissist and make anything and everything about you and your business! Give it a try! Grab hold of something your audience is already paying attention to and make it your own.

Yours in adapting, not co-opting,

Julia

​R.E.M. knows that the end of the world isn’t really the end, and so does this email. Forward it to someone who needs a life preserver.