For the past few days, I’ve been reading (and enjoying) On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft by Stephen King.

I received this book as a Christmas gift just last week. And as luck would have it, this was a newly printed 2024 edition of On Writing, which included a brand new foreword by Stephen King titled, “On Joy”.

In this foreword, King writes the following:

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“… I have sat down to write on days when I was feeling fine. I have sat down on days when I was sick with the flu and running a fever. I’ve sat down on days when I had a horrible hangover. I worked on this book after being struck by a minivan while I was out for an afternoon walk, with my broken leg stretched out under the desk. And do you know what? The worst day I ever had was fucking great.”

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And this as well:

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“Sometimes [writing] come[s] hard to begin with; it’s like exercising with stiff muscles. You have to loosen them up, and then you’re fine.”

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After reading these paragraphs, I immediately knew—more like felt—what he meant.

People like to complain all the time about everything that’s troubling them, making it seem as if they’re dealing with ginormous problems, problems so big you can’t even begin to comprehend the scale and size of them. Especially writers (and creatives in general). They like to pretend they’re doing the most difficult, most demanding, most taxing task ever to be created in human history.

But let’s face it. Writing is one of the easiest, least demanding, and most joyful professions out there.

More.

All of this is a skill. Something you can practice and get better at. That includes enjoying every second of the time you spend writing. That especially includes getting rid of writer’s block entirely.

Even more.

I’ve previously written a short, bite-sized book dedicated to just these topics. How to learn the art of loving to write, including many tips & tricks for making the entire process much easier, more productive, and a heck of a lot more—yes even more than it already is—enjoyable.

Check out the book here: https://alexvandromme.com/loving

Yesterday, after reading John Bejakovic’s email in which he reflected on 2024, I suddenly had the urge to write an email reflecting on 2024.

But what, specifically should I reflect on?

Luckily for me, I have a baseline. In fact, it just so happens that last year (December 30th, 2023 to be precise) I wrote an email talking about what I wished to accomplish in the following year.

Apparently, I only had one goal in mind: “To spend more time reading”.

Fair enough. I picked up a new reading habit back in 2022 and this habit picked up tremendous pace throughout 2023.

To give you an example. In the whole of 2022, I read a total of 9 books. This turned into a whopping 31 books in 2023. That’s quite a lot I’d say. Now, I definitely don’t buy into the whole “you have to read one book per week” shtick—especially not considering the size and depth of some of the books I read.

So the question now is, how did this year, when my goal was to “spend more time reading”, compare to 2023?

Well, it turns out, quite badly.

I read a total of 13 books in the entire year.

So much for New Year’s resolutions, huh?

Yet, that said. I might not have completed more books (or even came close to it), I did spend a lot of time reading, or at least as far as I can remember. Most of the books I started are a lot bigger, more in-depth, and require slower reading (that’s a win in my book—pun intended). I’ve also started reading a lot more historical articles, blogs posts, and other types of writing I did not (and will not) track.

But enough about the past. What about the future?

Well, I already have multiple projects planned—which I’m excited to start working on. But in general, I plan to get serious about growth. That means lots of advertising. Lots of new products. For all kinds of markets, in fact. This year is dedicated to becoming a better all-rounded marketer, able to get into new markets at will, research them, create products, grow a customer list, and get paid.

The past two years have been well spent on building a stable foundation.

It’s time to test out just how stable that foundation truly is.

Anyway.

Another idea I came up with (read: stole from John’s email yesterday) is to plug a general store link that shows everything I’ve got for sale at the moment.

Just take a look. Who knows, you might even see something interesting.

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

Many moons ago I went for leisurely stroll of about 30 km.

At one point, in a forest, Google Maps told me to turn right, over the bridge to cross the river and continue walking in the same direction.

Except…

There wasn’t a bridge in sight.

I went back and forth a few times, thinking I must have passed it somewhere and it might be hidden in between some bushes.

But no luck.

The river, however, was small enough for me to consider just jumping over it. It was a big enough river to make it a challenging jump, but the ground where I was walking was also a bit higher than the ground on the other side, so I had some luck there.

After an embarrassingly short time of thinking, I decided to just go for it and jump. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?

Anyway.

I got ready, took a step back to get myself a running start, and went for it.

The good news?

I made it over the river, all in one piece, and without getting wet.

The bad news?

I now found myself a foot deep in what turned out to be a wet and barely solid underground of mud (which wasn’t clear just by looking at it). So much so that I lost my shoe right after I jumped and tried to continue walking.

So there I was, happy that I made it and didn’t get wet, yet my feet, shoes, and bottom of my trousers were covered in mud.

Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from jumping over rivers—I’d happily do it again. But this experience did bring up a good point…

No matter how much you prepare, or how well you plan everything out, there will always be stuff you didn’t (or couldn’t) account for that’ll mess up your plan and alter the course you’ll have to take.

Luckily, as I’ve heard the great Matt Furey say “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer”.

And that’s why I highly recommend you to check out Email Valhalla so you can learn how to write better emails that’ll get you paid ( so nothing bad will ever happen to you).

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

It’s that time of the year again.

Today, during a tutoring call with a client, I mentioned how much fun I was having writing a new sales page—especially coming up with the headline.

I explained to him my process of coming up with attention-grabbing AND entertaining headlines.

Namely, I write an entire list of different headlines in rapid succession, not caring about the quality of any of them. In fact, I only have one goal during this process: to write the most absurd, often unhinged and unorthodox as can be, having as much fun as I can have, trying to jam in a bunch of wordplay, making outrageous statements, being an absolute lunatic, and doing whatever else I can possibly think of without any mental restrictions whatsoever.

Next, I let them simmer for a day or two before I come back to look at them again with a fresh mind.

Then, and only then, do I pick the best variations and decide the winner—and the final headline that will end up on the live sales page.

I do this because, as every good writer ought to know, if you have fun writing it, others will have fun reading it.

It also has to grab the attention of the right audience, no doubt about that. But that takes care of itself if you do the necessary research.

As for the headline in question, the one I wrote today and told the client of mine (and the one I’m quite proud of if I do say so myself)?

You’ll find it soon enough

In the meantime, check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

What's a writer's favorite dinosaur?

A thesaurus.

Now, perhaps this silly little joke won’t land me a Netflix special together with Dave Chappelle, after all.

But it more than fulfilled its purpose.

More specifically.

For the reader (that’s you) to continue reading this email. Which, if you’re currently reading this, did its job.

See, whereas the subject line of the email serves the one and only purpose of making people open the email (unless you’ve already established a relationship with your reader—at that point, the subject line matters a lot less than the “from” line), the opening line instead serves the one and only purpose of getting people to read the second line, and then the third, the fourth, the fifth, and so on.

Now, there are many ways to write great opening lines that make people continue reading.

One of which is to be different than every other email in your reader’s inbox, to say something unique, to be entertaining even and make them smile—or at least chuckle internally.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there.

You’ll want to follow up your email with something education, informative, inspirational, or anything that gives your reader the feeling of being worth their time—simple entertainment won’t have people coming back for more every single day after all.

The simplest way to do so is by tying the topic of the opening line to a useful lesson or insightful anecdote.

After that it’s simply a matter of connecting everything together and packaging it up into an enticing and simple-to-follow call to action.

So if you enjoyed this mini-masterclass in grabbing attention (and keeping it) when it comes to email writing, then you’ll want to check out my flagship course Email Valhalla which will teach you all about how to write emails that get you paid while keeping your readers reading day after day.

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

The Transformer movies.

See, ever since I was young, I remember loving the Transformer franchise, getting multiple Transformers action figures as Christmas and birthday gifts and whatnot, and when I outgrew those action figures, I ended up spending hours playing Transformer video games.

I eventually outgrew those.

But then I started getting fascinated by film music, at which point I was deeply obsessed with—among others—the original Transformer soundtracks by Steve Jablonsky, and later got fascinated by filmmaking as a whole.

And look, the Transformer movies have many flaws—more than anyone could count.

It also didn’t get better as time went on (Don’t even get me started on the most recent releases).

But you know what? That doesn’t matter at the end of the day.

The franchise doesn’t take itself that seriously. And why should it?

It’s making a world of its own. I have no doubt that when Michael Bay was directing Transformers he said to himself “you know what would look totally sick and make for an entertaining picture?” and then did whatever he had in mind.

Without any fear of being ridiculed, of being parodied, of not making “the perfect picture”, there’s no sliver of doubt about the intention behind the films and their entertaining nature.

And it shows in the earlier films (and some scenes of the later ones as well, although arguably less so).

That’s the difference between the artist and the entrepreneur

A true love for the craft—not just the numbers.

And that, to me, is what it’s all about.

See, I don’t care about building the perfect business, the best-optimized funnel, the most automated systems, or anything else.

It’s not about that.

It’s about the creative freedom. About doing what you love. Thinking something might be enjoyable and simply doing it no matter how ridiculous it might seem, how unoptimized it might be, or even how “the public might not like it”.

Authors write the books they wish would’ve been written, simply because they want to experience the joy of reading that story.

That’s the way one should aim to build their creative business.

And if you’re interested in learning one of the ways—if not the best way—to go about building such a business, then you might want to check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I want freedom over my time.

I want the freedom to work from wherever I want, with whomever I want, whenever I want, and on whatever I want.

But that doesn’t mean sitting on the beach drinking cocktails all day.

That gets boring quickly.

No, I do want to work.

But it has to be work that allows for creative self-expression and interesting challenges to overcome. I want to keep pushing myself further and achieve more today than I did yesterday.

As the old adage says, it’s about the journey, not the destination—yet it never feels as such.

In short.

I don’t want less work.

I want less meaningless work so I can replace that time with more meaningful work. I might not even call it “work” anymore when it comes to it.

But that’s what it is.

Work I truly and utterly enjoy doing.

And the only way I can think of to get there, and more importantly, stay there, is to start building something of my own. To develop my skillset, build my own offers, grow my customer base, and become my own employer.

The specifics don’t matter. It’s about the big picture here.

That’s the ultimate goal. To be truly free to work on whatever I want while getting paid more than enough—which is only to rid yourself of all the symptoms that come with not being paid enough, not the goal in and of itself.

So no. I don’t want money.

I want the freedom of self-expression and meaningful work.

If you find yourself nodding in agreement right now. Then maybe it’s time to stop wasting any more time and get to it.

Also, if I can recommend an immensely valuable skill to learn that’ll be incredibly useful to you, no matter what path you’re going down, then it’ll be to learn and master the fundamentals of marketing, and more importantly, email marketing. Because that’s going to enable everything else you’ll be doing.

And for that, there’s no better place to be than Email Valhalla.

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

Well, almost useless, at least.

Let me explain.

First of all, you’re not in business to get your emails opened, are you? You’re in business to make money.

So what does that tell you?

Well if you had to choose between making $100 per email while having a 50% open rate or making $1,000 per email but having an open rate of 12%, which one would you choose?

So, we’re optimizing for sales, not for opens—an important distinction to make.

“But Alex, if you increase your open rate from 12% to 50%, wouldn’t you make more money?” In theory yes, in practice no.

I first learned this from email marketer John Bejakovic, who shared his odd discovery that all his emails with the highest profits had the lowest open rates. I share this discovery.

Why does this happen? Who knows? There could be (and there are) multiple reasons.

One of the most logical explanations has to do with the subject line. If a subject line is highly specific, then fewer people will open your emails. But the people who do will be better-qualified buyers, and thus earning you more money.

On the other hand. It’s not just all about money > open rates.

Open rates themselves are flawed. Over the years many ESPs have taken different privacy actions to protect their users. This means that the methods used to track if people opened your emails aren’t working anymore.

How do you even know if people opened your email in the first place? Well, that’s done through embedded images.

Whenever I send an email, my ESP (Beehiiv) embeds a tiny image, just one single pixel. If you open the email, you’ll automatically send a request to download that image.

But here’s the thing. A lot of people have images disabled. Aka, you can’t track them. And here’s the new change. Google, outlook, and many others intercept these images and alter them before showing them to you in your inbox. Also disabling the tracker that’s embedded.

So yeah. You can’t trust email open rates. And you shouldn’t take drastic measures regarding them.

But there’s something else you can trust. Those are the fundamentals of email marketing. Learning how to write quick and easy emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading every day. No longer do you have to follow rules and metrics made up by people who know nothing about email.

Just do you, write engaging emails, and get paid.

Interested? Learn more about how to do so here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

Here’s a fun fact for you:

You don’t know how to ride a bicycle.

Your body knows. But you don’t.

Don’t believe me?

Alright, let’s play a game to test it then, shall we?

Imagine you’re riding a bicycle. You’re currently cycling straight ahead on a flat road. No curves, no hills, no nothing.

So what are you physically doing?

Well, your feet are on the pedals, pedaling away, and your hands are on the steering wheel stabilizing (although the bike does most of the stabilizing on its own—but let’s ignore that for now).

So far so good.

Now, 20 meters in front of you there’s a curve to the right coming up.

Ok so you'll want to make a right.

But how?

I’m serious. Think about it. Put your hands in front of you as if you’re actually on a bike right now. What movement do your hands make in order for you to turn right?

Did you think about your answer?

…

If you answered something along the lines of, “I just turn the steering wheel to the right” then you, my friend, would’ve crashed and clearly don’t know how to ride a bike. At least not mentally.

I’m sure you would’ve made the turn just fine in practice.

But only because your body knows what to do.

See, there’s a lot of forces at play here. But to keep it simple. When cycling your body and your bike are moving at the same speed straight ahead and your center of gravity (of your body) is right above the bike, meaning you’ll stay upright just fine.

Now what happens if you suddenly steer to the right, just like that?

Well, then the bike will steer to the right (that’s true enough) but your body still hasn’t adapted yet. It want’s to keep moving straight ahead, at this point your center of gravity is off and you’ll fall.

In order for your body to adapt (and make the turn correctly) you have to do something called “counter-steering”.

Aka, you have to, ever so slightly, turn left FIRST before turning right.

This makes it so your body will start “falling” to the right, after which you’re able to actually turn your steering wheel to the right, so that the bike will catch your body as it’s “falling”, and successfully make the turn.

Yes, this is how turning works on a bike. This is a fact. No this is not made up. There’s actual science behind it. And yes you can quickly verify this yourself by simply googling “countersteering” and reading the wikipedia page that comes up.

In fact, here it is:

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“To negotiate a turn successfully, the combined center of mass of the rider and the single-track vehicle must first be leaned in the direction of the turn, and steering briefly in the opposite direction causes that lean” — Wikipedia

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Why am I telling you this?

Well simply because it’s a phenomenal thing to realize. Ask this to all of your friends or colleagues. I can guarantee almost nobody will actively know this.

And yet, I’m pretty sure almost everyone will make that turn correctly (all the while constantly “counter-steering” in the process.

It's the simple fact that your brain & body work together in such spectacular and almost magical ways, sometimes (read: often) even beyond human comprehension (for now at least).

At the end of the day, “knowing” something isn't nearly as important as having experienced something.

You can read all you want about counter steering. It won't help you turn your bike until your body (not your mind) figured it out through first-hand experience (that mean by trial and error).

Bottom line?

You “learn” by doing, wether you mentally realize it or not.

So if you want to improve, let's say, your email writing skills? Then writing an email every single day quite possibly the best thing you could do (there's nothing even close to the amount of improvement you'll see)

And to help get started doing just that, check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

I used to hop on many sales calls back in the day.

Back then I was still very much running a client-based business. Specifically consulting clients.

But there was one problem.

A large one holding me back from getting a vast amount of clients… or any other “success” metric, for that matter.

The problem?

I was needy.

I just needed to get those clients. I needed to close them, no matter the cost. To convince them to give me money—even though, in some cases, I just made up my offer a few hours prior to the call.

And as anybody intuitively knows… it doesn’t pay to be greedy.

You need to understand that in every interaction, whoever needs the result less has the power. They have the upper hand. They have the bargaining power. This goes for everything. From sales calls to applying for a job, going on dates, selling second-hand products, asking for a raise, buying a car, deciding where to go on holiday next year, hell even deciding where to eat.

So if you want to make the most out of every life situation, understand this:

You are the prize.

They need to pass your qualifying process. Not the other way around.

Even if you don’t feel like you’re the prize, figure out your shit and find a way to feel like the prize. No matter what process or growth you have to go through to end up feeling like it. Work on yourself. Get yourself physically, mentally, and physically right. All of these will aid in every aspect of your life. And the result will be a mindset shift that’ll serve you for decades to come.

And while this is a mindset shift you can technically make at all times.

There is a practical element you could do to make it easier for you to reach this state of feeling like the prize.

More specifically, the act of getting results.

No matter how paradoxical—or obvious—it sounds. Getting results will help you get more results. Not just because of the case studies, the referrals, the social proof, or anything else of the sort.

It’s all because you’ll trust in yourself and your ability to get results. Which means you won’t ever be needy ever again.

You know you can easily get results again, no worries.

There’s more than enough fish in the sea, that’s for sure.

This also applies to your emails.

A needy email will never sell. It’ll only hurt you.

Speaking of important email lessons. If you’d like to master the art of writing daily entertaining emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, to learn all about it.

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