Ok fine, but what do I send?

I hate this question. I don’t know. If I told you what to email to your list, you would resist. You wouldn’t want to do it. It wouldn’t feel authentic. It wouldn’t feel good.

If you want to start sending more frequent emails to your list, the first thing you should do is start writing every day (for at least 20 minutes). Don’t even try writing an email. Just write whatever you want to write. If you don’t know what to write, try using “because, but, & so” with this sentence stem:

I don’t know what to write because ….

I don’t know what to write, but …

I don’t know what to write, so …

Those will get you somewhere.

If you don’t like the “I don’t know what to write” stem, pick another one. 

The magic is in the syntax — the “because, but, and so.”

Because opens a chain of causation… it forces your mind to think about cause looking backwards in time.

But forces you to hold two contradictory concepts in your mind at one time. It creates a direction change — a U-turn.

And so also deals in causation, but it’s forward looking.

That’s just a place to start. You might even find that whatever comes out is pretty god damn interesting, honest, and compelling. You might even want to send it.

It will probably be more interesting than every damn email you’ve sent in the last 12 months.

But the point is not to get you to write your next email. It’s just to get you writing.

It’s really hard to write something you feel happy enough with to send if you haven’t been writing at all. The habit should come first. You’ll find what you want to say. Something will feel right.

If you do this for a few days — write for at least 20 minutes without looking at your phone — and you still don’t know what to send to your email list, respond to this email and let me know.

We can talk on the phone and I’ll help you find your answer.

I’ve been getting back to consulting over these last few weeks. I had a realization about how I like to work… or maybe more accurately, how I DO NOT like to work.

I don’t like getting involved in the implementation details — the nuts & bolts. I like the higher level strategy type work. I like the client leaving the call knowing what to do… what the write, what to post, what to say, what to charge.

I like asking questions and listening. There’s always at least one moment — one response, one story — where I can feel electricity in my body…  when I feel that feeling, I know that’s the thing you should work on.

It’s clear.

The other day, a woman responded to one of my emails with some encouraging words and I immediately hit her back like “hey you wanna talk on the phone right now?”

She said “yes. Here’s my number: …”

I called her. 

She runs yoga & meditation retreats in Australia. Her whole shtick is about finding calm and eliminating distractions — turning off the phone and getting out into nature ’n all. So when we started talking about sending emails to her list, she told me she’s conflicted — it seems antithetical to what she’s all about.

Makes sense. She’s telling people to turn their phone off and get away from technology, yet here she is, showing up with another email in their inbox, asking for the attention.

⚡️ I felt that electric feeling.

“Have you ever told them what you just said to me? Have you ever told them you’re conflicted about communicating with them because you don’t want to be the distraction you’re telling them to avoid?”

She said “well, no. But I love that.”

And she got to work.

As far as I know right now, her plan is to finish writing that email, send it as a broadcast message to her existing list — and then to make it the first email in the automated series that goes on when a new person signs up.

V good idea.

So… I don’t know what you should write. I’d suggest just start writing for at least 20 minutes every day — without looking at your phone. If you get stuck, use the “because, but & so” syntax I mentioned at the top of this email. 

If, after a few days, you still don’t know what do send, respond to this email. I’ll help you figure it out — no charge.

-Ry

PS - no, you don’t have to send emails every day like I’ve been doing. But who knows… maybe you’ll want to?