The fear of highschool presentations

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.

If you’re anything like most people, chances are you still remember the time back in high school when the teacher would force you to stand in front of the class and give a presentation about some random topic.

You’d get all nervous and sweaty. Your mouth would dry up so quickly that no amount of water would help. You’d stumble and stutter over your words.

Even more.

You suddenly became aware of everything you were doing. Where should you rest your hands? By your side? No that feels weird, behind your back, safe and hidden from view? No, the teacher doesn’t like that. The classic “in front of the crotch”? No, no, you’re not some bodyguard. What about flailing them around all the time? No, you don’t want to seem nervous—even though you very much are. And what about your feet? Should you lean? Where should you look? Oh god, they’re all looking at you. What if you say something wrong? How would you ever recover from this???

And on and on it went.

Maybe you didn’t experience those occasions as badly, maybe you experienced them even worse, who knows.

All that’s to say, this isn’t an uncommon experience.

But why is that?

Now imagine that you, at a similar age as the example above, met up with one of your best childhood friends (or a group of friends) and just so happened to start talking about the same topic as the presentation you had to give.

Your friend sounds interested and wants to know more about it. You’ve researched the topic for a while (or at least read the Wikipedia page) so you can talk about it for a while, if not for hours.

How easy (and even enjoyable, regardless of whether you truly ‘love’ the topic that was given to you) would that conversation, that ‘presentation’, be?

Answer: it’d be the easiest thing in the world, wouldn’t it?

But why is that?

And more importantly, how can we apply this knowledge to our current everyday life (I’m assuming you’re no longer being forced to give presentations in your local high school).

Well, for the answer to that question, you’ll have to check chapter two of my self-published and already well-received book titled,

“The Art of Loving to Write“.

(Available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle format)

It’s an incredibly short, yet powerful, read. And one so inexpensive (as opposed to some of my other products) everyone can afford it.

No matter who you are or what market you’re in. If you do any type of writing in your life (professional or personal), I can guarantee this book can and will be useful to you—so useful in fact that you’re likely to see immediate improvements the same day after you finish reading the book.

Which, good news, the book is short enough for you to finish it in one sitting if that’s what you like

Anyway, here’s the link to get your hands on The Art of Loving to Write: https://alexvandromme.com/loving

Stephen King on the art of loving to write

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

Make writing sales pages fun again

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/

My secret to enjoying life more often

Whenever I put more effort into my business—aka whenever I write more emails, create more content, or talk to more people—I earn more money.

But above all, I enjoy everything a lot more.

It doesn’t just work with business stuff.

I also enjoy reading more if I read more often instead of less.

Now, I’m no expert, no psychologist, no other special type of person who studied stuff like this and can confidently say why this happens.

But I can tell you my experience. And I can guarantee this is no fluke.

In fact, try it out yourself.

Take something you don’t absolutely despise doing. Something you find at least something interesting. And just do a lot of it.

You’ll become better at it. Start to discover the hidden intricacies of the skill you’re pursuing. And you’ll start to appreciate everything you’re doing—and can do—a whole lot more. Which often ends up with you enjoying the activity even more.

I’m not saying you can’t enjoy stuff you don’t do often. Or you can’t enjoy stuff you’re not good at.

Far from it.

I enjoy playing the guitar and I’m awful at it.

But most of the time, your enjoyment only becomes stronger when you actually put in the time and effort to develop the skillset and the understanding to appreciate everything you (or even other people) are doing.

Which brings me to my point.

If you don’t feel like you enjoy writing emails. Or you don’t see it paying off monetarily. Then maybe, just maybe, you’re simply not doing it enough?

And in that case, maybe check out Email Valhalla to help you increase the volume (and overall quality) of your email writing game.

Click this link to learn more: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

How to enjoy doing the stuff you dislike

A fair warning first.

I’m no psychologist, therapist, or any other type of person who formally studied any of this.

I can only tell you about my experience.

But if you pick something you don’t enjoy doing (yet don’t absolutely despise doing either) and just do a lot of it?

Well then you’ll slowly but surely start becoming better at it.

A lot better even in certain cases.

You’ll start to discover the hidden intricacies of the skill you’re pursuing and you’ll start to appreciate everything you’re doing—and can do—a whole lot more.

Which almost always leads to you starting to like and sometimes even come to love what you’re doing.

It’s extremely rare that your enjoyment doesn’t increase when you actually put in the time and effort to develop the skillset and understanding that goes along with what you’re doing.

And so it is for writing emails (or any other form of writing even).

The more you do it, the better you’ll become, and the more fun you’ll have.

This brings me to remind you of my flagship course Email Valhalla which will show you how to write extremely quick and easy emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading for years to come.

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

Something something, overhyped claims

Soon after launch, I received the following review of my book “The Art of Loving to Write”:

(I originally received this email in Dutch from Victor, a long-time reader and fellow Belgian, so the translation is entirely mine but I kept it as close to the original meaning as I could)

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BRO.

I bought your book this morning and immediately finished reading it in an hour.

That's when I put aside my Kindle, picked up my MacBook, and wrote 7 emails in the next 2 hours.

Amazing tips (The one about [how to never have writer’s block ever again] for example)

It motivated me to start writing again. Your book showed me that writing doesn't have to be a drag; in fact, it can be the highlight of my day.

Thanks Alex.

Your philosophy of writing, marketing, and online business just resonates with me. It's so simple, so logical, and so fun.

I look forward to seeing what I'll achieve with this in the coming year.

Cheers,

Victor.

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And so it goes in my world.

If I say something is immediately practically, instantly useable, and will help you write more than you do now, better than you do now, so you can earn more than you do now, all the while learning how to enjoy every second of it so it becomes the highlight of your day…

Then, my dear friend, I’m not just making it up.

That’s, unfortunately, something this industry often gets wrong. So many people out there make extremely overhyped claims they can never hope to deliver on.

Sure, it works to get the initial sale.

But nobody earns a living from the first sale. It’s the second, third, and even tenth sale that helps you earn a living.

And no way in hell will someone who’s lying about their claims ever get repeat customers.

Those people simply aren’t capable of playing the long game.

If, instead, you are one of the people who knows how important it is to play the long game, and build yourself a business that’s meaningful and worthwhile (not just a get-rich-quick scheme).

Then I’ve got an important suggestion for you.

Learn how to write a lot and, even more importantly in my biased, yet correct, but humble opinion, learn how to enjoy every second of the writing process. Because you’ll be doing this for a long loooooong time.

And man, would I hate to see you “suck it up” for years because you never learned how to enjoy the writing process.

Which brings me to my book, “The Art of Loving to Write”, which Victor just told you all about.

“The Art of Loving to Write“.

You can find it on Amazon all over the world in both paperback and Kindle format.

It’s an incredibly short, yet powerful, read. And one so inexpensive (as opposed to some of my other products) everyone can afford it.

No matter who you are or what market you’re in. If you do any type of writing in your life (professional or personal), I can guarantee this book can and will be useful to you—so useful in fact that you’re likely to see immediate improvements the same day after you finish reading the book.

Which, good news, the book is short enough for you to finish it in one sitting if that’s what you like

Anyway.

Go check out The Art of Loving to Write here: https://alexvandromme.com/loving

Numbers? Never heard of her

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

Why do I write daily emails?

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

What are people saying about my book?

Here’s a review I received shortly after launching my latest self-published non-fiction book on Amazon, The Art of Loving To Write from game developed and owner of Eventide Games Studios, Aaron.

Check it out:

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“My book order arrived yesterday. I ended up finishing it around 50mins. Short and sweet.

Overall, the book achieves its purpose: gives you perspective and advice to make writing easy, fun and meaningful so you'll love doing it and won't want to stop.”

“It repeats a lot of the same ideas you have in your emails which bring a repetition element into the picture and lets the idea sink in more. That part I am fan of and it brings a breath of fresh air in a different form.

It also demonstrates and backs [my top-secret and tremendously powerful systems for making high-quality products as fast as possible]. Big brain moves.

I'm happy with the book.”

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So there you have it.

Short, sweet, and extremely useful (not to mention entertaining).

Just like you’ve come to know my stuff—which on it’s own is a valuable lesson to take home: make sure you develop a signature style over time so people know what to expect from you.

Anyway.

If you’d like to check out The Art of Loving to Write then click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/loving

What does it mean for something to be “fun”?

For the past week, I’ve been back on track, writing more than I have been in quite a while.

More specifically, I’ve been working on what will most likely become a physical book, with the preliminary placeholder title of “How to Make Writing Fun, Simple, and Enjoyable (while writing faster than ever before)”.

It’s been a lot of fun, so far (meta, right?).

But the whole premise got me thinking: What does it mean for something to be considered “fun”?

For starters, and contrary to popular belief, if something’s “easy” (that is, entirely without a lack of challenge), then I’ve got it on good authority it ain’t going to be a “fun” experience. There’s simply nothing LESS FUN than boring activities.

This is what many of these “I want to sit on a beach and drink pina coladas all day” types of people miss.

They only say such stuff because they currently aren’t capable of doing so (as humans we tend to want the things we cannot have—such is the cruel way of life). In fact, if they could, chances are they wouldn’t even want to. Maybe you’d enjoy it for a day or two, sure. But after three, four, let alone a full week, you’d be entirely sick of it and you’d crave for some challenge, some excitement in your life, something to dedicate yourself to and actually work on achieving something worthwhile and meaningful (what’s considered meaningful differs from person to person).

But what does this have to do with writing?

You see, if I could hand you a cheat sheet with the exact steps to take, the exact actions to make, and the exact buttons to press (such a cheat sheet doesn’t exist, but let’s assume it does), then writing for you would be the most boring task you could think of.

It’d be monotonous, repetitive, factory-like work which, no matter how much results or how good of an outcome would come of it, none of it would bring you fun, much less true joy.

So, if making the practice “easy” doesn’t do the trick, then what will?

Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about—intensely. And I finally figured it out.

See, everything that’s fun can be boiled down to 2 ingredients.

And once you know these two it’s easy to inject them into almost every single activity you do (making it so you can turn almost any activity or experience into one that’s as fun as it can get).

Imagine how much more work you’d get done if what you were doing! You wouldn’t even consider it “work” anymore at that point.

So what are those two ingredients?

Well, to figure that out you’ll have to buy my book when it releases.

Until then, why don’t you check out Product Creation Made Easy? I’m using almost the exact same method I teach in there to write (and eventually launch or publish) the book. I say almost, because as with anything, there’s always room for adaptation and improvisation—which I show you how to do in the course as well.

Anyway.

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