Branding

Here’s a good one for you:

Some 15 years ago famous actor Robert Pattinson had to deal with quite the number of obsessive fans who went as far as camping outside of his apartment for weeks just to get a chance of seeing him.

Obviously, nobody likes this kind of attention. So 22-year-old Pattinson had to come up with a solution to solve his obsessive stalker problems.

His solution?

He asked his stalker out on a date.

I’m not even kidding, you can look this up and verify it yourself.

He took her out on a dinner date and, I quote: “I just complained about everything in my life and she never came back”.

Now that’s giving a new meaning to “never meat (get it?) your heroes”.

So think about this the next time you consider complaining about the problems in your life. Whether it’s to your friends, your family, your co-workers, or, worst of all, your audience and (would-be) customers.

If an obsessed stalker suddenly decides they never want to hear from you again. Just imagine the effect complaining will have on your audience.

Anyway.

In case you’d like to learn how to write actual good emails so you can make sales daily and/or get clients on repeat, without having to complain about anything, then consider checking out Email Valhalla.

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

If you claim to be an expert—let alone a leader—then you should have something to say every single day.

Nobody cares about how much you know (or think you know) unless you prove it on a consistent and regular basis.

If you—an obvious expert and experienced veteran and among the top 1% of peak human evolution in whatever market you're in—only have something to say once every week or so… Yet Timmy, who might have spent a few months watching YouTube tutorials and has only recently started working with clients, shows up every single day, sharing a valuable lesson, insight, principle, or tactic that's on his mind that day…

Who, out of the both of you, would look more credible and build up more authority in the market?

But I get it.

You might not have the time to be posting every day. Fair enough, you're running a business after all. But don't keep shouting about how only posting once a week, or maybe even a few times a week, is the optimal move.

It’s not and you bloody well know it.

Posting content, no matter how or where is done (or should be done at least) for the sole purpose of grabbing attention, showing people you know your shit, and driving that traffic to somewhere that gets you paid (which requires trust).

So if you truly want to stand out.

If you truly want to make a difference.

If you truly know your shyt.

Then back it up by showing up day after day and proving you're worthy of being called "an expert".

And there’s no better place to prove you know your shit every single day than by sending it straight into the inbox of your audience.

For more about how to go about doing so, 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