It’s 12:34pm on Sunday as I type this.
I’m sitting on the couch watching Eli play with cars on the windowsill in front of me. Esther fell asleep in the car on the way home from church, so Hayley is waiting outside near the car.
Which means for once, it’s actually almost peaceful in here!
(Oops, spoke too soon — Eli’s just run over to see what I’m doing … ah, and to ask if he can play Mario Kart.)
Anyway. In a couple of hours I’ll be riding over to my parents’ house for my youngest brother’s 18th birthday dinner.
You should see the present I got for him … we have this sort of tradition in my family that as a joke (or not?) we just go to the supermarket and buy people this whole stack of junk and snack food. So I have this cardboard box in front of me stuffed with whipped cream, chocolate, chips, lollies, chewing gum, condensed milk (I know haha) and all this other snack stuff.
Funny, tasty, and cheaper than a new iPhone 😂
But in the interim, while I have a little while before I leave, I figured I’d use it to write my email to you.
Honestly?
I’m toying with the idea of not sending on Sundays. Because while I love daily practice, I also would like a day to spend with the kids.
But for the time being I’m doing a ‘hybrid’ and just freestyling my email rather than crafting anything more intricate … and maybe I’ll do that on Sundays instead of pressuring myself to be any cleverer.
Because do you want to know a secret?
Well, it’s not a secret. I kind of told you this just a few days ago. But I’ll tell you again:
People love hearing personal details about other people’s lives.
Case in point:
I’m subscribed to a lot of copywriters’ lists. And there’s one guy that literally JUST gives copywriting tips, right? I mean, no story. No anecdotes. No personal details. Just tips.
That’s good, isn’t it?
It gets to the point faster? Doesn’t waste anyone’s time?
Yeah … nah.
Fact is, this newsletter happens to be …
THE MOST BORING THING ON PLANET EARTH.
(“Daniel, today we’re going to talk about sentence length in your copy. Sentence length is actually a surprisingly important part of copywriting. Write sentences that are too long, and people lose you. Too short, and BLAH BLAH BLAH HAVE I WON THE GOLD MEDAL FOR THE MOST BORING NEWSLETTER ON EARTH YET OR WHAT”)
So even right now, as I teach you this lesson about writing interesting emails (a copywriting tip), I’m writing a “bad” email — getting to the point slowly as I slather on (blather on?) the personal stories and details:
Where I’m sitting as I write. What my kids are doing. Where I’m going tonight. What I bought my brother. And so on.
Does that appeal to everyone?
No. Some people will disengage, and stop reading my emails. Maybe even unsubscribe as they scream “JuSt GiVe Me TiPs!!”
Frankly, I’m happy for those people to leave. Bye-bye! Make sure you don’t get lost on the way to the unsubscribe link — and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
But other people will grow to like and trust me a little bit more because of what I’ve shared.
That’s the secret to building a brand people love.
I’ll leave you with that one for now.
This week I have a lot on … a sales page to finish tomorrow, a bunch of beta students to help out in Inbox Detonator (my new coaching program — join my email list if you’re interested), and then … a project with my friend Steven which we’re both super excited to launch.
I’ll let you know next week how many of my goals I managed to hit …
All right. I trust this has been helpful for you. Time for me to get back to my day.
Catch ya later,
Daniel Throssell