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 know many people who live and die by their numbers.

Every offer they make, every email they write, every decision they make is all backed up by market research, customer surveys, focus groups, testing groups, and everything else you can think of.

I’m not saying it doesn’t work.

It does. In fact, it might even be the best thing to do. It might even be the most profitable (especially in the short run).

But it’s not how I roll.

For one thing, you become a slave of the market, always chasing where the demand goes—always testing, always iterating, always dependent on the whims of your customers.

You’re essentially choosing to be the one who chases instead of the one who is being chased.

You’ll never truly lead your market (which is a whole discussion on its own).

But more.

You’ll never truly have the freedom to do exactly what you want, when you want, and for how long you want it.

You don’t build a business that survives—even thrives—for years, decades, even generations, by being the one who chases.

Still more.

I doubt anyone who does business this way can ever feel truly fulfilled—which is one of the main reasons I don’t do data.

Everything I do, everything I create, everything I sell is stuff I think is cool (and helps my customers, important not to overlook this part). It’s stuff I’d do regardless of whether I get paid for it or not (the only difference is that I can do a lot more of it when I do get paid).

So here’s something important for you to consider.

If you’re a data person. And you’d like to optimize everything you do for maximum profitability. And you’re prone to chasing whatever the market wants (i.e., you saw AI is “the next new thing” and jumped on the bandwagon, until the hype dies down and you’ll jump to something like VR when it’s “the next new thing”).

Then it’s probably not doing you any good to listen to anything I have to say. Let alone try to implement what I do for your own.

Our businesses (and business philosophies) function differently.

Which isn’t a bad thing. But it’s something to consider.

That said.

If you do share the same philosophy to business. If you aim to build something that’s truly yours, do the leading instead of the chasing, think long term, and stick to whatever you think is cool regardless of what others say.

Then you should check out Product Creation Made Easy.

It’s my entire product creation framework where I show you how to create products you think are cool and stuff you want to create—while still making sure it’s something people would want—all the way from ideation to having a profitable launch and beyond (i.e., to keep getting sales months and even years after the initial launch).

Here’s the link for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product

As with everything, the answer to “Should I run ads?” is “It depends”.

It all comes down to your current situation and what you’re trying to achieve.

For one, if you don’t have anything to sell yet, it wouldn’t make sense to run any ads. Sure, some people argue running ads can be beneficial to grow your list—which it is. But simply having a list filled with people without having anything to sell to them is a recipe for disaster—let alone the fact that you can’t possibly target your ad towards qualified buyers if you don’t even have anything to sell.

See, business has to be done in the right order.

First, you look at the market you want to sell to. Next, you discover the problems that plague that market. After you made a list of problems, it’s time to pick one or more (preferably one) and build a solution for that problem.

Then, and only then, can it be beneficial to run ads.

A specialized ad speaking to people in your market who struggle with your chosen problem AND want to solve said problem.

Notice how I explicitly mentioned people who want to solve that problem. There’s no point selling people something they don’t want. You won’t convince people that they have a problem. You can only make them aware of just how big a problem is if they’ve already experienced minor issues relating to that problem.

In this short amount of time I’ve already covered multiple mistakes many people make when it comes to running ads—major problems as well, the kind that could cost you thousands every single month if you’re not careful.

And this is sadly just the beginning.

I’ll dive deeper into the many, many mistakes people tend to make over and over again in my upcoming paid ads course for independent creatives.

More information about the course and its release coming soon.

In the meantime, reply back to me with any and all advertising-related questions you’d like me to cover in the course and I’ll make sure to include them as best as I can.

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 not aware 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…

I’ve been busy working on a paid ad course, specifically for independent creatives active in the entertainment industry, which will help you create profitable ads, built upon age-old direct marketing knowledge, in such a simple and streamlined way that you don’t have to waste years of your life getting a PhD in advertising, so you have more to do what you love most.

It’s not quite here yet, but it will be soon…

So keep an eye out for that.

Humans say “People dumb. Write simple.”

Me not agree.

Yes, difficult bad. But people dumb no.

Still write simple? They notice. People insulted. Not good relationship. People go. You zero sales. Business bad.

Better:

Write entertaining. Respect people. Do special. Yes write short. But use occasional difficult word.

Diversify.

That how humans like you.

Good relationship. Good business. Good sales. They happy. You happy. Everyone happy.

Yes.

For learn more good tips.

Go: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

It only takes you one Google Search to be bombarded with dozens of articles, blogs, videos, courses, podcasts, interviews, or social media posts telling you how to monetize an email list.

More.

90% of those (if not more) will tell you to get as many people as you can onto your list (or newsletter as they’re most likely referring to), disregarding the quality of the readers you’re inviting to be on your list and then to continuously run ads or accept sponsorships.

And while this isn’t a bad business model per se—especially not for people who just like to write long articles and not have to worry about anything else—it’s far from the most effective, reliable, or even the simplest method there is.

Again, I’m not saying that type of model is bad.

It’s just not for me.

I would much rather build a small but extremely focused and high-quality (quality over quantity here) email list filled with readers eager to read what I write and buy what I offer them.

The only downside to this type of business model?

You need something of your own to sell your readers. But seeing as you’re on my list, chances are you’ve got that covered already (or will have soon enough).

In this case, many of the so-called “list-building hacks” other people can’t shut up about don’t actually work for us. Running paid ads to your (free) email opt-in won’t do you any good. Neither will social media giveaways where you ask for people’s email addresses in exchange for some random freebie they’ll receive—most, if not all, of the social media game will actively work against you since that’s very much a quantity over quality type of medium.

You might have noticed that all the above methods I mentioned share one common theme.

They all focus on getting people on your list by promising them FREE (!) stuff.

Unfortunately, the people you’ll attract this way are the same type of people who’ll get angry at you for trying to sell them something—even if it’s a $5 product that might literally change their lives forever.

These types of people won’t help you run a business—which is what you’re trying to do after all.

A better way is to pre-qualify and pre-sell people as soon as they enter your world through one of the many portals you’ve scattered around the internet (I’ll dive deeper into this specific topic of “building your world and opening portals” in other emails—as well as in an upcoming course all about business worldbuilding).

That means, to immediately let them know you plan on selling them something.

Don’t hide this fact. It’s not only stupid, crooked, and absolutely visible to everyone with half an eye sticking out their ass. It’s also the smartest thing you could do. Doing so sets the stage for the future and it repels any and all cheapskates who won’t ever buy anything from you anyway.

This doesn’t mean you HAVE to sell them something straight away… but a simple tripwire (before or after joining your list) or one-time offer when they subscribe to your list (even if they choose not to buy) goes a long way.

I’ll go deeper into how to grow an email list in my flagship course, Email Valhalla, which teaches you everything you need to know to run your own email-centered business as a creative, including how to write simple and effective daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day.

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

The short answer: I enjoy it

The longer answer: I enjoy it and it makes me more money.

Jokes aside, I could go over all the reasons why I write daily emails—aside from helping me make more money, being top of mind, having a better connection with you, my reader, and getting better at writing infinitely faster than someone writing monthly, weekly, or semi-daily emails.

But I won’t go into that today.

Another reason is that I find it motivating as well.

First of all, I get more responses. More people reply sharing how they liked my emails. It helps me stay accountable making it so I can’t take a single day off. I have to show up every single day, even when don’t feel like it—especially when I don’t feel like it.

I simply have to write something, come up with ideas, write a (hopefully) engaging story, and share the lesson in a way that hits just right, so it’ll be impactful to you as a reader, ensuring you’re getting a benefit from it and continue reading my emails the following day as well.

That’s far from an exhaustive list of why I write daily emails.

But it should be more than good enough to get you started.

So if you’d like to learn the craft of writing emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, then check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

So read a recent question asked to hundreds of (aspiring) self-published authors.

The most common answer (it’s not even close compared to the second)? To quote one of the users, using the exact words they used:

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“Marketing is such a pain in the arse.”

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Which honestly saddens me.

Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming either. In fact, if done right, it can almost be a “set and forget” type of deal.

Sure, it might take a short while to get everything up and running. But once you do, you’re done… forever if you’d like.

Even if you publish new books, create new offers, venture out into new territory, everything you did the first time can be re-used, re-purposed, and re-peated to save you a bunch of time (and a lot of headaches).

So, if marketing can truly be that simple… then why are so many people finding it a “pain in the arse”?

My best guess?

Because there’s too much noise out there; too many so-called “experts” who truly have no idea what they’re doing, and haven’t achieved anything worthwhile themselves (or maybe they have but it was purely by accident and they have no idea how to reliably do it again, let alone for someone else in another market).

I dare you to look around, really look at who’s doing the talking, who people are following, what they’re doing, and what everyone has accomplished.

It’s truly the blind leading the blind out there.

Which brings me to the good news of the day…

Because of this exact reason I’ve decided to create a paid ads course, backed up by years and years of old-school direct response marketing (the type that brings immediate results, measured in $$$) specifically focused on independent creatives in the art & entertainment industry, with a very (and I mean VERY) big emphasis on self-published fiction authors—arguably one of the most difficult markets to do advertising in because there’s no real talk of “benefits” or “big ideas” many guru fanboys like to brainlessly yap about all the time, so if it works for them, you’ll be sure as hell it’ll work for anyone in the entertainment industry.

A fair word of warning.

The course won’t be sexy, nor will it contain a buttload of new trendy tactics. No exciting stuff at all. Just pure principles, simplicity, and effectiveness.

The bad news?

The course isn’t here yet (but it’s close!).

You’ll just have to sit down your sweet patooty and wait a bit longer.

Until then, consider checking out Email Valhalla to help you master my way of doing email marketing, which will act as an extremely profitable “supplement” to my way of doing advertising, making it so it’s virtually impossible not to succeed.

For more information about Email Valhalla, click the following link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I enjoy eating potatoes (also known as taters or, more cultured, Po-Tay-Toes).

But I can’t remember the last time I ever ate a lone potato, without anything else—I won’t eat a lone one anytime soon either.

That’s the thing with preparing a good meal.

Sure, part of it is about your selection of ingredients and how you decide to prepare them. But more important is how you choose to combine those ingredients.

I’d eat fries with some salad and a steak all day, any day. But you’ll have to drug me before you ever get me to eat fries stuffed in a lemon & chocolate cake decorated with hot sauce.

See, I’m not one to make generalizations, however, I do believe I’m quite safe saying the above statement holds true for most people (don’t bother replying to this email about how you’re different because you’re vegan or whatever—I do not care and you’re smart enough to understand the point I’m making).

Chances are, I’ve told you nothing you didn’t already know.

So why, whenever I look around at the market, do I see tons of people valuing individual, mostly hot, exotic, and trending ingredients over the big-picture meal they’re preparing? It’s all “Try out this new guarantee to skyrocket your sales” or “Check out this new subject line hack to double, triple, or even quadruple your open rate!!” Yet when you ask these people about their big-picture business plan, they’ll tell you a story with more holes than a fishing net.

The sad part?

Such a business plan doesn’t have to be more than 4 simple questions:

1. Who are you helping?

2. How are you reaching them?

3. What are you selling them first?

4. What are you selling them next?

Answer those four questions for yourself and you’ll already have yourself a better-functioning and more effective business than 90% of posers and wannabes you’ll see crying about on social media.

Anyway.

If you don’t want to be stuck eating lone potatoes all your life, I’d highly suggest you check out Email Valhalla which will not only show you how to write emails that get you paid while keeping your readers reading day after day, but it’ll also show you how to build yourself an actual (extremely simple, yet outrageously effective) business without so much as a single hole in sight.

Check out the following link to learn more: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Last night I went to get some drinks with a few friends.

One of those friends had already previously expressed her long-time interest in writing her own novels at one point in time. We’d often chat about the act of writing a book and what type of genre/direction she’d want to go in.

So much so she even considered pursuing some form of creative writing education in the UK (don’t remember all the details—this was quite a while ago).

That said.

Like most people’s dreams, that’s all that happened; talking about the dream, never making any real steps towards accomplishing, or even starting, that dream.

Well. until now at least.

Apparently she started taking notes, creating outlines, doing research, brainstorming about ideas, learning about the trade, and picking up both writing and marketing tips and tricks from people she looks up to (or at least that’s who I’m assuming she got it from), even getting set up with useful writing tools and software to make her life easier.

Now, I’m still unsure how much writing has been accomplished already—if any.

But at least she’s actually fired up and making considerable progress towards her final goal—all of which is to be applauded and supported—I sincerely hope she goes through with it until the end, I really do.

All of this, however, reminded me of an important lesson.

Something I learned quite some years ago from (in)famous psychologist, author, speaker, deep thinker, and celebrity with an extremely engaged and almost cult-like following, Jordan B. Peterson. Love or hate the guy, I don’t care and that’s not what really matters here anyway. If you’re not wise and intelligent enough to realize you don’t have to like, or even agree with, someone in order to learn from, get inspired by, and broaden your perspective on how you view the world, then you’ve got much bigger issues to focus on in your life.

I’m not even sure if this is something I should attribute to Peterson, but it’s who I heard it from first and who comes up first in my mind whenever I think about this.

And that specific valuable lesson in the following:

You have no idea how little encouragement people need to drastically improve every single aspect of their lives. Yet most people still aren’t getting any encouragement at all.

Imagine how much better the world would be. How many more creative masterpieces, technological breakthroughs, or truly revolutionary thinkers we’d have if more people simply got told “I believe in you" or “Go give it everything you’ve got” at least once?

Truly a shame.

Anyway.

Let this be your reminder to believe in yourself and go give it everything you’ve got. You’ve only got one life. Nobody else is going to write that book you’ve been dreaming about, direct the movie you once envisioned, record the song you keep humming to yourself, build that life-changing product you once thought about when you couldn’t sleep, but never did anything about it because you weren’t sure if you were up to the task.

Well, I’m here telling you that you are.

Even more.

It’s almost laughably easy to produce and create anything you put your mind to in today’s digital age where you can reason billions of people all across the globe from the luxury of your home just by pressing a few buttons on your computer.

In fact, using today’s advertising technology it’s truly never been easier to reach anyone you want (you have no idea how specific and niche your target audience can be).

And I’ll show you exactly how to make that dream of yours a reality in my paid advertising course… once it’s finished, which will be sooner than you might think, so keep your eyes open.

In the meantime, consider learning how to write daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day by getting my flagship course Email Valhalla today:

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