I’m going bouldering later today for the first time in months.

For the past however long it may have been, I couldn’t go because of an injury that had to recover.

But now, with lot’s of physical therapy behind my back, a lot of specific exercises, and a whole lot of patience, well now I’m finally going to get back at it on the wall for the first time.

Yet it’s still going to be a different session than I’d normally have.

See, I’ve been told to build it up from the bottom again. To go slow and see how it goes. My shoulder injury hasn’t yet healed completely so I can’t just go all out again, that could easily mess up my shoulder once again and send me back another few months.

There’s just one big problem.

Doing the easy stuff and taking it slow, as if I was a beginner (the advice my physical therapist gave me) is boring as hell.

So, logically I had to come up with a new game plan.

Instead of doing the usual bouldering stuff I’d do—only a lot easier—I’ll turn this first session into a technique session where I’ll spend the entirety of my time improving my movement and practicing the fundamentals.

I won’t just be going through the movements on easier climbs.

I’ll purposely turn the “easy” climbs (aka, not difficult on my shoulder) into real challenges of technical skill. The purpose won’t be to finish the climb. The purpose will be to finish the climb as flawlessly and as efficiently as possible.

This is called “forward intent”.

Aka, making something more difficult than it needs to be with the sole purpose of improving your craft.

Forward intent, as well as going back to the basics and practicing your fundamentals, is something you can (and should) do in business as well.

Add constraints to the things you do, really focus on practicing you otherwise wouldn’t, and don’t skip the “boring” parts.

And if you’d like to know a nice way to start improving your craft, especially your email writing ability, then check out my flagship course Email Valhalla, where I hone in on the fundamentals to get your email writing capabilities to the next level.

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

Every product has flaws.

So does every service, every piece of content, every work of art, every person, every institution, and everything you see all around you has flaws. There’s nothing exempt from this rule.

But that doesn’t mean everything is bad.

In fact, it’s the contrary. It’s those flaws that give meaning and value to everything you use and consume. Perfection is another word for meaningless.

The things in life that don’t have flaws, don’t upset some group of people, or don’t work or function exactly as some group of people would hope, those are all meaningless and have nothing to offer.

People differ by nature.

Everyone has different needs and requirements, different interests and passions, different tastes as well as dislikes. Something that’s perfect for everyone, by definition, has to be so bland, so generic, so stripped of everything that gives it meaning, that it becomes all but useless, obsolete, and devoid of meaning.

Give me one valuable product, one great work of art, one anything really that does everything perfectly for everyone all around the world.

But let’s get back to why I’m yapping on about this.

What I wanted to make clear is that whatever it is you’re creating, it has to have a flaw.

And wherever there’s a flaw, there’s an opportunity.

More precisely, there’s an opportunity to highlight, not belittle, but highlight, maybe even exaggerate, your flaw. Talk about all of the flaws you can find about your product, then talk about why your creation has that flaw, what that flaw allows it to do or why it needs to have that certain flaw for it to work as you intended to do.

Every flaw gives meaning to a creation.

Highlighting the flaw turns it into a strength for the right group of people your creation is made for while automatically disqualifying and repelling everyone it doesn’t benefit (which would’ve been awful customers to deal with anyway).

A high-powered industrial vacuum cleaner will make a lot of noise—that’s considered a flaw. So highlight how much noise it makes by clarifying the noise is exactly because of the extremely high suction capability the vacuum cleaner has (something your ideal customer wants).

On the other hand.

A compact vacuum cleaner made for at-home use will obviously be a lot less powerful because it has to be a lot smaller, and more compact, maybe even with a pretty design, to fit in with the interior or be easy to hide away in a closet or a shelf. Highlighting the flaw of it being less powerful than an industrial one by explaining how a less powerful one allows it to be as small as possible while also being completely silent during its use.

Now, you might find this to be a stupid example, but either way you get the point.

Highlighting your flaws and turning them into sales angles is an extremely powerful copywriting tool that could singlehandedly ‘disarm’ your, oftentimes wary, customer from most (if not all) his objections—or at the least it won’t cause your customer to dismiss your product if he has to learn about your product’s flaws on his own without your explanation as to why that’s the case.

Anyway.

If you’d like to learn more about how to talk about, promote, and sell a great product (or even how to create one) then you might want to check out my Product Creation Made Easy framework.

It definitely ain’t cheap, but that gives you an indication of how high of a quality you can expect from it.

The product wouldn’t have been nearly as good, nor would I have been able to create a high-quality one, if it hadn’t supplied me with the resources I needed to support myself while I kept working on it to make it as good as it could humanly be.

Not to mention the amount of praise and kind words I get from people who bought the product at the current price.

Anyway.

Enough time talking.

Check out Product Creation Made Easy here: https://alexvandromme.com/product

 

You may (or may not) have seen my website already.

More specifically, the blog part where I upload most of my emails to get some (even though it’s not a lot) organic traffic, but mostly to have proof of work and build credibility with new people coming across my website, all with one single purpose—to grow my email list.

Anyway.

I specifically mention the blog part because by all standards, my blog looks incredibly old and ugly. If you didn’t know better you might think this is a remnant of some ‘90s blog which never got taken down.

Just look at it.

A white header, a blocky bright red navigation menu, an entirely black background, and every post is black text in an annoyingly yellow column outlined by a glowing white border. Needless to say…

My blog isn’t going to win a beauty contest anytime soon.

But this is done by design.

You load up the blog/website and it’s just different. Almost like entering a whole new world. It catches your attention. There’s something special to it… you can’t quite put your finger on what it is that makes it so enticing… after all, it really shouldn’t be.

But it is.

It just works.

And it’s done deliberately.

Nowadays everyone has to be beautifully designed and pleasing to the eye. Now, I don’t know who said it originally, but someone a lot smarter than me came to the realization that “in a beautiful world, the ugly stands out”.

And so it is in marketing.

So the next time you create something, anything, no matter what it is, maybe try switching it up. See how ugly you can make it.

Maybe it”ll stand out. Maybe it won’t.

Either way, you’ll undoubtedly learn something new in the process.

Anyway.

Speaking of creating something new. If you’re interested in ideating, creating, and launching a profitable digital product in 21 days or less then you might want to check out Product Creation Made Easy, which teaches you my entire product creation framework.

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

Nor do I even try to sell any of my products (let alone even mention them).

Here’s why:

See, my reasoning is twofold.

First, I simply can’t be bothered.

Yes I’m certain I could earn more money, sign more clients, and sell more products if I were to mention and actively sell on my timeline.

But I don’t enjoy doing so.

And seeing as how ‘enjoyment’ is one of my 3 main business pillars, alongside simplicity and freedom, that should already be reason enough.

But still.

The second reason, and a more “reasonable” answer for some perhaps, is that this is my way of giving something back to everyone on my list.

I’m intentionally limiting the people who have access to my products, services, promotions, and bonuses to those on my email list.

Yes obviously I’m creating content, writing emails, offering services, and coming up with valuable products because I want to get paid.

I need to eat after all.

But I’m not desperate to get paid—there’s a true superpower in taking the approach of “no matter whether you buy my stuff or not, I’m eating steak either way”.

I don’t just accept anyone and everyone as a customer. I just simply don’t allow just about anyone to give me money.

I’m very selective about that.

I can count more clients I refused to work with than I can the ones I did.

That doesn’t bother me.

Maybe you’re calling me crazy right now (and you know, maybe I am, who knows?) But still, I’d call you inexperienced in the way of dealing with clients. You have no idea how enjoyable it is to work with good clients and how absolutely awful and outright painful it is to work with your average Joe.

In a sense, you could say I’m not trying to build a business.

I’m building a lifestyle—one that’s enjoyable at all times.

And that requires extreme filtering.

If you’re not filtering (heavily) in your business, I can all but guarantee you’re not enjoying it.

So, let me ask you.

What sort of filters do you have in place in your business?

And if you’d like to learn how you can run a successful business while limiting the number of people who even get the chance to buy from you, then you might want to check out Email Valhalla.

Click here to see what I’m talking about: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

One of the biggest improvements I made in my email and business career was when I started telling more stories everywhere I went.

In my emails, in my X or LinkedIn posts, during X spaces (when I used to do those), during consultation calls, in the DMs to explain concepts and close prospects, or simply outside of business when talking with friends or family members.

No matter when or where.

It’s always a good time to be telling stories—not to mention how good of a practice it is to develop your own storytelling and, in turn, your copywriting abilities.

I've never come across a situation where sharing a well-told and relevant story didn’t help me out in any way, shape, or form.

And I don’t want you to read this and think you have to become a guru who doesn’t shut up about storytelling tips, tricks, tactics, or god forbid, teaches you how to use ChatGPT to tell better stories, yet never actually tells any stories.

Seriously, there’s a direct inverse relation between how often someone shares storytelling tips and how often someone tells relevant stories.

That’s good life advice as well.

Don’t listen to the person doing the most teaching.

Listen to the person doing the most doing. (take that grammar nazis)

And talking about people doing a lot of doing—I happen to do a lot of doing, especially when it comes to sending emails, they get a lot of doing from me.

So much doing.

I sometimes even do the doing multiple times a day, like I’m doing right now.

That’s a lot of doing.

Anyway.

If you want to learn how to do the doing as well, then check out Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

And I’m not afraid to say it.

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, none of that. It’s not about that.

It’s about the creative freedom. About doing what you love. Thinking something might be fun and enjoyable to do 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 end up writing 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 to learn one of the ways—if not the best way—to go about building such business, then you might want to check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

A popular piece of content-creation/email writing advice is to “Write to your past self”.

What people mean when they say it is to think about where you were 2 months ago, 2 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Then think about all the problems you faced, obstacles you had to overcome, and wrong beliefs you held. And address those. This way you write as if you were writing a note that was about to be put in a time capsule and sent to your past self.

It sounds great in theory. It really does.

I used to follow the same advice myself.

But I stopped.

The first reason for this is simple:

I can’t remember what my past self used to struggle with. And even if I could, I don’t understand the feelings that accompanied them. My whole perspective is different now than it was even 5 months ago.

It’d be foolish of me if I tried talking to that specific person.

And that’s exactly why the creator economy is so great. You learn from the people 1–2 steps ahead of you, not someone 5 whole years ahead of you—another popular piece of advice.

So if you learn from someone right in front of you, why would I write to someone way behind me? It doesn’t make sense.

Another reason is that I simply can’t be bothered anymore.

The advice my past self from 5 years previous would need doesn’t interest me anymore. I’m at a different level right now. I’m interested in other topics.

If I were to talk about topics that didn’t inspire me, then my content would be bland and uninspiring, which directly hurts you, the reader. The energy wouldn’t be the same anymore.

So I simply don’t speak to my past self.

I write about what I currently find interesting. What I’m discovering in real-time.

This makes my content interesting and engaging. And I can take you with me on an adventure. A real-time adventure you can see unfold right in front of you.

Neither you nor I know the ending. Nobody knows where we’ll end up. That’s what makes it all so exciting.

So let this be a reminder not to blindly follow every single piece of advice you get. Think for yourself, carefully judge everything you hear, see, and experience.

Then decide what’s best for you and your goals.

And if you decide building an audience that loves to listen to you, longs to follow you on your adventure, and wants to buy your products is what’s best for you and your goals. Then you might want to check out Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I don’t often talk about this, but I used to be the president of my fraternity about 3 years ago back at university.

(The uni/student culture in Belgium is quite different here, so it’s not exactly a fraternity—a lot more “professional” for one—but that’s the best explanation I can give in just a few words, so let’s stick to that terminology for now)

One of the events we organized was a mentorship-type program where (close to) graduating students get in touch with working professionals in the field to help them figure out what to do and where to go after graduation.

A lot of fun and a lot of help for many students.

Anyway.

During this event, the alumni would start by giving a quick elevator-ish pitch about who they are, where they work, and what they do.

One guy we invited (and accepted) to join as a mentor had started his own company where he builds software infrastructure aimed at helping other maritime transport businesses digitalize the tracking and monitoring of their supply chains.

He gave his pitch in a very corporate and professional manner—almost like a consultant would present his solution presentation to his clients.

Another mentor who joined the event was one of Belgium’s leading experts in explainable AI who, at that time, still worked in the IT department of one of the biggest Belgian banks.

His pitch was the exact opposite of the first guy.

Instead of going for the professional and consultant-like approach, he went for the informal and student-culture type of talk—cracking jokes, making fun, talking about the exciting trips and after-work parties (which may or may not involve lots of drinking).

And this made me think.

At the end of the day, they both share the same type of information (who they are, what they do, where they work). But the way they presented themselves and, by extension, the type of person they were talking to, they were completely different.

Same information, different target audience.

Now I’m not saying one is better or worse than the other.

It all depends on who they were speaking to and what they hoped would happen. Maybe the first guy wanted to attract high-quality profiles to hire for his own while the second guy simply wanted to attract a wide range of students to get a recruitment bonus.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong on that and it was nothing more than the personalities of both those people.

Who knows?

What I do know is that there’s always a million ways to position the same (and I mean the EXACT same) information to a thousand different audiences.

And if you’d like to learn more about how to speak to your target audience, specifically through email, then you might want to check out Email Valhalla.

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

Let’s jump straight into it:

• Your job isn’t to educate, it’s to entertain & promote

• Email daily—nobody ever made less money by more frequently speaking to their customers, entertaining them, and letting them know about your offers

• Don’t be boring—being boring is the biggest sin in all of marketing

• Screw perfection, embrace your flawed self

• Actively try to find the limits of everything you do (and see whether you can cross them)

• Nobody likes an expert as they do a leader

• Write like you talk—accent, grammar mistakes, and typical speech patterns alike

• Share stories and share’em often

• Answer the questions you receive publicly

• Be a real person, share your opinions (especially, but not limited to, the controversial ones)

• Join the Email Valhalla supremacist fangroup.

Every single one of these has made me more than you could ever imagine.

But who am I to tell you what to do?

So as with anything, test them out for yourself and see how it goes.

And about that last one…

…more information about Email Valhalla, and how to build a better email business, can be found here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I’m always working on something.

Whether it’s writing an email, reworking a sales page for the 10th time, crafting a new offer, batching social media content, working with clients, or updating a product I made a while ago.

This might look overwhelming to many people.

More.

Some might fall into the trap of working on their stuff indefinitely, trying to get it “just perfect”.

Yet this is the least productive task you could probably spend your time on.

That 100th revision won’t make the difference. That one typo you fixed in your 2,117-word email won’t make you more money. That logo you redesigned won’t magically land you more clients.

Creating more content, launching more offers, and talking to more people. Now that will make you more money.

Which brings the question: how do you handle saying to yourself “it’s good enough” and just go with it.

My answer?

Public deadlines.

See, I’m a big procrastinator.

Always have been and always will be. I never get anything done unless it’s absolutely necessary. This has put me in a lot of trouble in the past. But it didn’t need to.

I realized it last year that I could use this to my advantage.

How?

By setting deadlines.

Whether artificial or real—setting deadlines is the secret to getting things done. Especially for a procrastinator—they get extra productive when those deadlines come close.

So imagine I have to write an email that has to be published by 8pm.

There’s no way I’m procrastinating on that one when the clock strikes 7.30. Neither will I avoid researching a topic for a coaching call an hour before I’m supposed to hop on the call.

But there’s one problem.

What if there is no deadline?

Imagine if you wanted to launch your newsletter or create and sell a new product. It’s your own project. You don’t have a boss to tell you when something is due.

But you do have (potential) customers, readers, followers, or whatever you call the people who like your stuff.

The solution?

You announce that you’ll be launching a new product before you even start creating it. Tell your followers that your course will launch in 2 weeks. Even stronger. Announce that your product is available for early purchase at a discounted price.

Now you have no choice but to 1) create a sales page 2) write those promotional emails 3) create a curriculum 4) design your product 5) figure out your pricing and most importantly 6) get everything done in 2 weeks.

No time to mess around. No time to procrastinate. And no chance for you to “keep gathering information and not take action”.

Now I’m sure this might not be possible with everything in life.

But so far I’ve found a way to apply this trick to everything that’s functional and important in my life.

Try it out for yourself and see how much you can truly get done in a short amount of time.

On another note.

If you’d like to discover my framework for writing high-converting emails that keep your readers engaged and coming back each and every day, without having to spend hours writing them (in fact, you could easily start writing emails in less than 5–10 minutes), then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla