Email Valhalla

On book-cleaning duty

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Just the other day I was cleaning my wishlist for future books to buy and read.

And with ‘cleaning’ I mean deleting all of the overrated junk books I added to that list over 2 years ago when I didn’t know what actual good quality books—both fiction and non-fiction—looked like and I purely followed whatever was hot at the time or whatever the “top 10 books to read” listicle of the month was being shared on Twitter.

That’s how I ended up with books such as Think and Grow Rich, Atomic Habits, The 48 Laws of Power, How to Win Friends & Influence People, The Four Agreements, The Daily Stoic, and many, many others like it on my bookshelf.

Some of them I read, some of them I only read a few pages before dumping them and moving on to the next.

But all in all, I’m glad to be able to remove all of these books from my wishlist and to recognize the quality of the books I once read, and sometimes even adored, in the past. It shows me how much I’ve grown. How much I’ve learned and come to realize what matters and what doesn’t. And most importantly, how much I’ve trained my bullshit, or in kinder words, my flawed-argument-aimed-at-a-mass-market-audience detector.

Now, I have no idea how many books I removed or how many were on my list when I started—I didn’t check.

But I do know how many I’ve got on my wishlist right now… over 500 books!

Just to give some perspective: I only really started reading, collecting, and wishlisting books in the past 2 years or so and my current collection of books in my bookshelf is just shy of a 100.

I might have said this before, but if you would’ve told me about this just 3–4 years ago I would’ve called you crazy. Me? Reading books daily? And having a ginormous list of books I want to read??

Truly absurd.

Anyway. I don’t really know where I’m going with this except for sharing a fun and perhaps insightful anecdote about your ability to predict to future.

As for another future prediction I feel a lot more confident in than the knowledge of what I’ll enjoy doing in 5 years time: despite people saying email has been dead for years and years now, email doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. In fact, even with Google’s latest announcement of making it easier for people to check their current email subscriptions all in one place, and allowing them to easily unsubscribe, this will only make it so much more lucrative for people who know what they’re doing, who write engaging emails people want to read, and who aren’t seen as yet another newsletter filling their inbox with spam.

As time goes on, the competition will only get smaller.

So now might just be a great time to improve your email writing ability and prepare for what’s to come in a way that’s all but guaranteed to grow your skillset, your business, and your wallet.

To do so, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Let this email be an important reminder for you about the power of effort

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I’ve written about consistency a lot in the (not-so-recent) past.

And when looking back, I have to admit: I’ve been losing mine. The reasons for this are plentiful, but if I had to pick just one or two, it’d have to be because of the many new projects I’ve been juggling at the same time while simultaneously not being as motivated, or for a better word, excited, about many of them.

It’s not that I don’t care about these projects—on the contrary.

Instead, it’s because I stopped putting in as much effort as I once did. I tried to do more while doing less, instead of accepting the reality that trying to do more at once means I’ll have to put in even more effort into everything I do.

There’s no “this thing can wait because I’m working on something else right now”.

No.

That diversion of focus snowballs into the next day, and the next, and the next, and before you know it you’ve been half-assing your work, finding shortcuts wherever you can, losing momentum, and getting a whole lot less done than you were if you simply stuck to just doing one thing—but doing it well.

As seasoned readers of mine know, I’m equally speaking to you, my reader, as I am having a conversation with myself. One that’s true, honest, transparent, and highly necessary—a practice I may or may not have neglected for too long.

With that said.

From now on, you can expect a lot more effort from me in my writing once again. You might even speak of a resurgence or revival of my writing where I’m going back to creating with the same rigor, passion, and effort that I did before.

You may also expect a new release of offers soon—something I haven’t done for many months now. I won’t reveal what those new creations are just yet. But know, if all goes as planned, they’ll be crafted with even more passion and effort than before.

I hope this message is a welcome reminder in your inbox of something vitally important.

In the meantime, my opinion about the power of email as a medium still remains unchanged. If anything, it has only gotten stronger. So I can only recommend you to check out Email Valhalla if you’d like to learn how to write highly engaging emails people love to read and buy from.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Social media is an untapped goldmine of information

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I’m not a big fan of social media.

But, rather counterintuitively, I do spend a lot of time on social media. Focused and targeted time that is.

More specifically…

I spend lots of time on social media—think Reddit, Instagram, and Youtube—doing market research. The amount of information I’ve discovered simply be thoughtfully scrolling through social media, i.e., carefully paying attention to emerging trends, seeing what’s popular (and why), then interacting with (or ignoring) specific content to “train” the algorithm to show me more (or less) of a specific type of content so I can learn more about certain trends and niches as a whole—as well as checking out the comments and interactions people have with that type of content to learn what attracts people, why it attracts them, and what gets people to take action themselves (giving their email, downloading a lead magnet, buying something,…) instead of merely saying “that’s cool/pretty/cute/beautiful!” and scrolling onto the next thing.

Used correctly these mediums are nothing short but a goldmine.

Even if you have nothing to do with that specific niche. Simply seeing how another audience—one that shares just a few similarities (age, location, interests,…)—interacts when left alone is information that’s quite literally invaluable to get your hands on.

A good marketer aims to know their audience better than they know themselves after all.

Another way to get to know your audience better is by staying in daily contact with the people who buy from you. Something you can easily by writing daily entertaining emails they love to read (and reply to).

If you’d like to learn how to do that, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Focus on the fundamentals

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Just yesterday I started all over with a new project I’m working on.

Everything I did so far, for the last month or so, all of it for nothing. Starting again, from scratch, nothing to latch on to. Nothing to re-use, recycle, or repurpose.

Nothing…

Except for one thing….

The experience I’ve built up from the previous project and the knowledge I’ve gained about the process. This experience allowed (and will allow me) to get to the same place I was previously, which took me over a month to get to, in less than a week.

That’s what happens when you focus on the fundamentals.

When you prioritize learning the process, understanding the why instead of the what.

That’s why step-by-step framework and solutions are a trap most of the time. Sure, the process might get you great results, but they cause many people to lose sight of what’s important—to understand why the process works instead of merely being able to replicate it.

Because there will come a day when you won’t be able to replicate the same result following the same old steps. Something, somewhere will have changed. And you will have to change along with it.

Those who want to survive need to learn (and learn to adapt).

Speaking of learning the fundamentals…

In my course, Email Valhalla, I primarily focus on teaching you the fundamentals of great engaging email writing that keeps people reading day after day. If that’s something you’d like to learn then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


Said is dead

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If you’ve ever dabbled in writing, especially in fiction, you might have heard someone say “Said is dead” before.

Now, in case you haven’t, all you have to know is that it refers to dialogue attribution. Think of something like the following:

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“What time is the store closing?” said Bob.
“Normally around 8 pm,” said the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 10 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” said Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob said, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” said the bartender.

===

You may (or may not) have noticed all the abundance of “said” used in the above text. Truth is, that’s how writing has almost always been done. And it worked.

In fact, most people don’t even notice the amount of times “said” is being written. So nothing to worry about, right?

Except, because people can’t stand doing the same thing over and over again, especially from a writing perspective where it becomes painstakingly obvious, they have to reinvent the wheel and switch it up all the time.

That might lead to something like this:

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“What time is the store closing?” Bob cried out.
“Normally around 8 pm,” groaned the bartender, pouring Bob’s seventh whiskey of the evening, “although, sometimes they stay open past 11 pm for special occasions.”
“That’s just perfect,” bellowed Bob. “knowing my luck there’ll be some random special occasion just today, for no apparent reason whatsoever, forcing me to remain here in this god-forsaken town of a dump and wait until the store’s all empty.”
“But, you know,” Bob smirked drunkenly, “if it wasn’t for you here, I might have had to wait all that time entirely sober. So I’m sure glad you’re still here, buddy.”
“Thanks.” groaned the bartender again.

===

Hopefully you realize how terrible this is.

Yet, I can guarantee you, this happens… A LOT. Especially with new self-published authors who think they’re the second coming of Shakespeare.

How many times have you heard someone “smirk drunkenly”?

Now, that’s not to say the first text with all the saids scattered in it couldn’t be improved (it can). But by using attribution such as “he replied”, “he added”, “he asked”, “he explained”.

But anyway, enough about that—you probably didn’t sign up to this list to get lectured about dialogue attribution.

The point I’m trying to make is that people will gladly choose an objectively worse option over a better and long-established one, simply because they crave something new.

And so it goes when people decide to put all their trust in social media and say some absurd lines such as, “email is dead”.

It’s not.

It never was. And it likely never will be.

So until then, I highly suggest you practice and hone your email writing skills for the entire medium is a longstanding and objectively better, safer, and even more forgiving, option.

And on that note, check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


I lost 4 hours of my life going with the flow

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Yesterday, I found myself designing some graphics for one of the new projects I’m working on.

My process is simple.

I first look online for some inspiration. This could be designs I’ve made in the past, designs used by (indirect) competitors, or general art I remember from somewhere or came across while browsing online for a particular style or imagery.

Then, once I have a vague idea of what I want to do, I fire up my graphic design software of choice, most of the time that’s good old trusty Photoshop, although sometimes I’ll use another for a particular purpose, and I slap together a bunch of stuff, trust in the creative process, and just keep going until I have something I’m relatively proud of.

The crazy part, however, is what happens to my perception of time during this entire process, more specifically when working on the design itself.

I might open up Photoshop at 2 pm, play around with it for what feels like half an hour, save my progress, close the program, only to look at the time and realize it’s suddenly 6 pm!

Whenever this happens, I just smile.

Not because I might have “wasted” a ton of time, potentially even missing some appointments and having to reorganize my schedule—which doesn’t happen a lot, but it happens. But because I realize I just got out of a 4-hour long flow state, as it’s called. A state in which you’re so transfixed, so focused on what you’re doing, you lose all track of time, you have no distractions whatsoever, and almost stop perceiving your surroundings altogether.

You’re truly “locked in” as the youngsters would say.

That’s a good sign. It’s a sign you’ve found something that truly moves you, something that engages you to your core, and more importantly, something you should do a lot more of, because that activity, whatever just got you into the flow state, is something you were, in some way or another, meant to be doing.

Almost as if you were made for it.

Now, the difficult part is realizing when you’re in that flow state because you’re not thinking about anything else except what you’re doing, so let alone thinking about recognizing whether you’re in a flow state or not.

But once you find something, remember it.

Think about it and find a way to incorporate more of that into your schedule, your work, your responsibilities, or whatever else you’re doing.

I’m utterly convinced that thriving, whatever that means to you personally, only really occurs when you design your life in such a way that optimizes your time spent in a flow state, or “flowing” as I like to call it.

So find what engages you, and incorporate more of it into your life.

Which, coincidentally, is a good reason to learn how to write short engaging emails that keep people reading day after day, so you have more flexibility in how you spend your time, and how much creativity, something that’s highly linked to getting into a flow state, you’re able to put into your workday.

If you’d like to learn more about that, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


This email talks about simple and effective writing

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Everyone talks about simple, clear, and effective writing.

Yet so many people, including those who preach the way of simplicity, hardly ever write ‘simply’.

Why is that?

Well, for one, I’m guessing, many people have this image of ‘A writer’ as someone capable of writing this elaborate, literary, almost heaven-like, prose that shall be remembered for decades, if not centuries.

Just look at one of the most prominent figures in English literature, even to those who don’t know anything about literature at all, Shakespeare. Nobody ever said, “Oh I just love how simple, clear, and effective Shakespeare’s writing is!”

It’s almost always the beautiful poetry-like prose that gets quoted, remembered, and revered in everyday circles.

Or at least, that’s what most people think…

After all, we still highly revere and remember the writing of Ernest Hemingway who wrote simple prose, almost too simple on some occasions. Just look at this little gem:

“He came to the river. The river was there.”

Now, isn’t that just wonderful?

I don’t know about you, but I love that type of writing. People often overcomplicate literature and its prose. See, most people couldn’t care less about the literary merits, the outstanding poetic prose, or even the grammatical correctness of a novel. Instead all they care about is being told an entertaining story, something that will fascinate them for hours in a way that almost makes them forget they’re reading a story, all while they’re passing time on their way to work, on a flight, in the waiting room at the dentist, or even when just for winding down at the end of the day while getting ready to go to sleep.

Good writing, fiction or non-fiction alike, engages people.

That’s all it has to do.

And more often than not, simple and effective writing is the way to go about it.

Speaking of using simple writing to engage and entertain people. Check out Email Valhalla to learn all about it. Chances are, you’ll get paid for it as well.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/


How to grow your list (without social media)

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Social media is a new thing.

Marketing and sales aren’t.

There have been plenty of ultra-successful marketers selling all sorts of products, services, and even experiences for far longer than social media has been around.

Don’t get trapped in this mindset that social media is the end-all-be-all. The only people who want you to believe that are the ones who want to sell you their social media course.

I’m not saying social media doesn’t work—it does.

But it’s not for everyone and it isn’t your only option.

Realize that, while powerful and useful, social proofis far lower on the ladder of necessity than you might think.

90% of all the ads you see (if not more) don’t use any kind of social proof. They simply make you aware of a problem you might be having, and then offer you a potential solution to said problem.

If the advertiser did his homework, aka he knows what keeps his market up at night, then the problem will be so close to home you can’t help but pay attention to whatever solution the ad might be offering. And if the solution is positioned correctly then you, the customer seeing the ad, will end up buying it.

Regardless of whether you’ve heard of the product before or your next-door neighbor Nancy also happened to have used that same product.

Once your realize this, that’s when countless doors will open for you.

You’ll realize all you have to do is get your product, service, or better yet, yourself (and a plug to your email list—the most valuable asset you’ll ever build and which allows you to create repeat buyers and die-hard fans instead of having to survive on one-time sales) in front of your target audience while talking about their problems or their interests—regardless of what market you’re in (every single product in the entertainment industry solves the “problem” of boredom—which just so happens to be at an all-time high right now; making it the best time ever to grow your entertainment business if you know what you’re doing).

Some possibilities:

  • Run ads on Google, Facebook, Amazon, popular forums, or wherever your target audience hangs out (simple yet effective)

  • Get on podcasts as a guest speaker: start small and build your way up. You won’t get on Joe Rogan’s podcast as a no-name but there are thousands of people with dreams of building a big-name podcasts who just so happen to always have a need for guests to interview. Mention what you’re working on and how that could interest their audience and chances are most, if not everyone, would like to talk to you.

  • Write blog posts, articles, or press releases for online newspapers, other people’s blogs and email lists, internet magazines, or any of the tens of thousands of media outlets all scattered around the internet (most of which are owned by people who dislike writing articles but want to publish as much content as possible so they can make a living off the ad revenue)

  • Message local newspapers, radio shows, or television channels: Most people lead boring lives. So just by building a business or doing something artsy or creative, you instantly become so much more interesting—which is more than entertaining enough for every local media outlet to want to interview you (what’s a better story than the “local celebrity”?)

  • Meet new people and keep an eye out for potential joint-ventures: You’re not alone in your market. Use this to your advantage. Work together with other creatives or entrepreneurs. Ask if they’d be interested in recommending you or your products to their audience if you’d do the same for them (or simply pay them to recommend you).

There’s a lot more where that came from, but this should be more than enough to keep anyone busy for quite a while already.

After all, no amount of information will save you if you never get to implementing things.

So get to it.

Start implementing at least one or two of these and build yourself a big email list.

At that point, you might want to master how to write engaging, entertaining, and persuasive emails that’ll help sell your products while keeping your readers reading day after day as well.

For that, consider checking out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


The purpose of entertainment

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Henry David Thoreau, the American essayist, poet, and philosopher once wrote:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

“For books are not to teach us how to live,” writes Frederic Gros in his book A Philosophy of Walking, “but to make us want to live, to live differently: to find in ourselves the possibility of life, its principle.”

Both Thoreau and Gros argue that true, valuable, and insightful books can only be written when combined with lots and lots of walking.

True walking.

Not the kind you do when you’re out shopping, rushing to get to the train station, or going to the hairdresser around the corner.

True walking is when you’re out in nature without a destination or goal to achieve, with no purpose whatsoever. It’s just you, Mother Nature, and your thoughts. Often for hours on end—even though it’ll only feel like a few minutes at most after you’re done. That’s how time functions when out in the open, connected to the world around you, and without a care in your mind; the flow gets all tangled up and you have no idea how many seconds, minutes, or even hours have passed.

“What’s the point of telling me all this?” you might ask.

Well, it’s simple really.

First, it might be a worthwhile idea to go on more walks, experience life more clearly, and inspire you to write your next masterpiece.

Second, and this is where today’s marketing lesson comes in, the first Thoreau quote I shared helps you answer the question of “What problem does an author solve?”.

To clarify what I mean, take a look at the following quote by famous comic book writer, publisher, and producer, Stan Lee, who single-handedly grew one of the biggest multimedia enterprises to date:

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“Entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.”

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Or in other words, you’re helping people want to live (and live differently).

You can prove this to yourself by looking at people’s expenditures during difficult economic times, filled with doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety. You’d expect people to start saving more and only spending their hard-earned money on basic needs for survival such as food, shelter, hygiene, and transportation.

Instead what you’ll find is, yes people will spend more of their budget on those things (relatively speaking), yet they’ll also start spending a lot more money on entertainment as well.

After all, what good is mere survival without the will to live?

Now, you might nod your head while reading this and think “okay that’s cool”, but not so fast. Because this is truly important news for you to keep in mind as long as you work in the entertainment industry—which, at this point, almost everyone does to a certain extent.

Why?

Because that’s the key to all your marketing!

The big question people always have is “what can you do for me?”, no matter if they’re buying new clothes, booking a vacation, taking a language course, or shopping for new books in their local Barnes & Noble.

You simply cannot succeed in your marketing endeavor if you’re unaware of ‘what you can do for them’, or in other words, ‘what problem you’re solving’—a question that is a lot easier to answer in non-entertainment-related markets.

Speaking of marketing, and more specifically email marketing…

You might want to check out Email Valhalla if that’s something you want to learn more about.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


The marketing world is changed, I feel it in the water

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Recent trends in people’s beliefs, skepticism levels, and general outlook at life are changing how to play the game of marketing.

For instance, people have been bombarded with hype, impossible-to-keep promises, ridiculous guarantees, and over-the-top aggressive copy shouting in people’s faces for years now. That would be fine if those marketers could, somehow, keep these otherworldly promises, except, they obviously couldn’t.

And so people have been burned one too many times, and they better know what to expect. In fact, it’s generally true that the more hype, promises, guarantees, aggressive copy, and crazy boasts a sales message has, the worse the end product (or service) is.

Almost no exception.

I’ve been guilty of this myself. I won’t pretend otherwise. Everyone starts somewhere, after all. And proper learning happens through imitation of those that went before you—often in a different time, playing by different rules.

Does this mean there’s nothing to be learned from the old-school marketing legends?

No of course not, after all, we’re all building on top of one another, standing on the shoulder of giants as they say. It’d be stupid to reinvent the wheel every few decades just because the playing field has changed.

You don’t dive straight into the teachings of Schopenhauer without first familiarizing yourself with David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Doing so would be missing the bigger picture, unable to follow along with Schopenhauer and only ‘understanding' superficial arguments and statements, if any.

No, you start from the beginning and build your way up.

There’s a reason why Plato’s Replubic is still widely, although lessening at a sad and alarming rate, read as is Homer’s Oddysey and Iliad. It’s because those are the foundations almost everything else, even centuries later, to this day, is still built upon.

Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent here, again…

The point remains, study your classics, even in today’s digitally dominated field of marketing, and ease up on the aggressiveness of your claims and your copy.

And after that, maybe check out Email Valhalla to learn how to get paid writing entertaining emails that keep your readers reading day after day, without having to rely on the usage of overtly aggressive marketing language.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla