Put Those Merit Badges Down

Why Doesn’t Anyone Care About What You’re Selling? Because You’re Not Teaching Them How.

The man side-eyed me over his bushy white mountain-man beard.

I shifted from foot to foot, desperate for his answer.

After a long moment, he said, "Well, I guess we see what YOUR priorities are" and handed it over...

20 Jan 2020 - Why Words Mean Everything, New Town, And Writing Your Book.

"How do you even know that?"

The trivia team stared at me in bewilderment. And, to be fair, knowing the difference between L. acidophilus and S. thermophilus bacteria by sight isn't exactly what you'd expect from someone who's not a microbiologist.

But, being a writer gives me a lot of random knowledge (and an extremely questionable Google search history.)

And for a long time, I kinda just thought that was it. But then...

27 Jan 2020 - Cosmology, GSD, and fake beards.

So I don't know if you know this, but you're part of a pretty special minority in the Internet-space.

These weekly emails that I send out go out to -- as of this week -- 128 people. And that's with an increase of nearly 30 people since I came back from sabbatical.

My mailing list has always been super tiny, as have my social followings, and that's been OK. My businesses have grown, and we hit the supposedly-magical 6-figure mark last year. But...

3 Jan 2020 - The Idiotic Mistake I Made For 10 Years Running And How I Fixed It This Month

The whole thing started as a joke. 

I was on the phone with a longtime client, and the conversation had drifted from her content into her dating life (as it does.) 

She was bemoaning the fact that she'd been on a couple of casual dates with this guy, and didn't want to see him anymore, but didn't know how to say that in a text without sounding like the world's biggest jerk.

"Can't just you just, I don't know, do me a template or something?" she jokingly said.

I picked up that gauntlet and ran with it. What I created ended up being the single most popular piece of copy I've ever created ... and I'm giving it to you, as a Valentine's day gift.

10 Feb 2020 - The Most Popular Piece Of Copy I've Ever Written

There’s nothing quite as dispiriting as taking the time to set up an email campaign, getting the little high five from the Mailchimp monkey, then getting … absolutely nothing in return. And yet, it’s pretty damn common.

Some people will tell you that it’s because email marketing is a spent force. That you should ditch it and focus on Instagram, or YouTube, or Facebook ads, or whatever else it is that they happen to be an expert in.

Here’s the thing: people are hella burnt on email campaigns. But the problem isn’t the medium — it’s the method.

How do I know? Because I average about 35% – 40%+ open rates for regular emails … and 45% – 60% for sales emails on my own list, and the clients I write email campaigns for get similar rates.

And, in case that's not enough numbers for you, last year I made a client $23K in a day using just 3 emails.

So if email marketing can actually work … why do yours flame out like little Hindenburgs of wasted time, money, and energy?

12 Feb 2020 - Why Your Sales Emails Fall Into A Black Hole Of Nothingness

A very short and sweet one from me this week, as I'm in Mexico writing a book with a client.

Pop quiz: I say the word "chair", and you picture ... a chair, right?

Now, I say the word "liberty". What do you picture? The Statue of Liberty? Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People? Fireworks?

Whatever it is, you're not picturing the actual concept of "liberty".

This is because as humans, our brains are really good at dealing with concrete things, like chairs, and apples, and microphones.

But we're really bad at conceptualizing things like liberty, or wellbeing, or love.

To accommodate, our brains attach these ideas to concrete things, like when I say "liberty" and you picture the Statue of Liberty, or whatever.

These ideas of concrete things are called schemas.

Here's where it gets cool: you can use schemas to make people understand and care about pretty much anything, even if they don't really know what it is, or they aren't inclined to care right off.

So, connect the abstract results of your work to a concrete schema in their life, and suddenly, boom, they're in.

Hook that feeling people get from your business onto a schema, and suddenly you're way more compelling.

And, if you really want to have fun with it, take something you care about (i.e. making the world a better place) and tell a schema-heavy story, and you'll get followership like you wouldn't believe.

24 Feb 2020 - Schemas Are Everything

I’ve been running this business for 10 years.

In that time, there’s been a recession. Racist riots. A presidency so hated its start depressed online business for a quarter. And now a global pandemic that has everyone losing their shit.

On the micro level, I moved countries upwards of a dozen times. Got married, and divorced. Lived some of the best days of my life, and also had six weeks of depression and suicidal desires so deep I literally didn’t get out of bed. Nearly went out of business and took up bartending. Grew two businesses and partnered in two more.

And, throughout all of that, I’ve had a choice. Do I write? Do I get on my platform and talk to you? Or do I pause?

23 Mar 2020 Please Don't Stop. Please Do Pause.

It's easy to feel that potential, in this moment, as we come to a transition point in a year, starting a whole new decade. But the truth is, we're always there. The difference between a mere moment and a moment of glory is making the choice to serve in devotion. To say yes to your thing, and live it out in your way.”

A Call To Courage

Word wrangler. Grammar janitor. Timecard apostate.

Bolt from the Blue Copywriting