Hi! I’m in Nashville, where I just attended a mastermind my friend Kate Northrup hosted for her top affiliates. We all promoted her yearly program Relaxed Money, something I love writing emails for because they get to be about one of my favorite topics… Poultry farming. Kidding. Money, obviously. I love that stuff! I especially love the money I make from writing about anything I enjoy, have opinions on, obsess over, or even loathe. That’s what my emails let me do. I write whatever the f I...
about 19 hours ago • 1 min read
Hey! Just realized it’s been a year — Around this time last October, I got a subscriber email from my friend (and Shrimp Club alum) Frenchie Ferenczi. Subject line: I’ve gone woo(ish). She wrote about a spiritual teacher who was helping her connect to her intuition and let it guide her business. She had me at woo(ish). Hi, I thought, that’s me. I even coined a term for it years ago: “Woo-Adjacent.” Wrote a manifesto, started a Substack, even looked into trademarking the phrase, then wondered...
1 day ago • 2 min read
Hey, so, everyone’s talking about it, and I can’t stop thinking about it. You seen it yet? If you know what “it” is, either you have, or you’re planning to (and dodging spoilers). Or, c) not interested and wishing people would stfu about it. In case you’re clueless, I’m referring to You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary. Having seen it Monday, here’s my advice: You’ve probably at least seen the “Why would I deceive you?” moment that launched a thousand memes:...
4 days ago • 2 min read
Hey! If you’re in the online biz/marketing world I call “The Space,” you’ve probably heard (and heard and heard) about an overnight sensation named Jessi Jean and the big “Yap Challenge” launch that made her 7 million bucks. Or something like that. She was teaching people to do what she does on social media: talk casually on video. AKA “yapping.” (Something I’ve been doing for years, but not with the ubiquitous, tiny, fuzzy mic or the name “yapping.”) And that puppy SOLD. Her big money...
7 days ago • 2 min read
TODAY! I’m speaking in Suzanne Kingsbury’s Gateless Fall Festival. Hope you’re coming to: A Clear Map to the Book You Really Want to Write. ← Click to sign up if you haven’t yet. Yes, you’ll get the replays. OK — you know that email I sent last week announcing my new free email class? (It was about Netflix’s East of Eden series and started off with a note on Florence Pugh’s lip filler. Read it here if you missed it.) When I wrote it, I was pretty sure I’d get a fuming reply from at least one...
8 days ago • 3 min read
So — every single time I try to make money by sending a bunch of emails, the weirdest thing happens: It works! Some promotions do better than others, but if an offer doesn’t sell well, it’s almost always because of one thing: I was lazy. Or disorganized. Or discouraged by initial sales. Or cocky that my light drizzle of promotion would be enough. Or, despite everything I preach, reluctant to “bombard” your inbox. Sometimes, all of the above. But it’s still the one thing: I didn’t send enough...
10 days ago • 2 min read
Hey - just finished East of Eden on Netflix. You watch? The book is one of my all-time favorites. I read it in 1992 on a 10-hour flight, which felt like 2 hours (even in Economy) because it was that unputdownable. I loved the series. My only complaint is Florence Pugh’s lip filler, which has no business in a turn-of-the-century period piece. She might as well be wearing lululemon pants and a sports bra. The reason I’m bringing up East of Eden, though, is a business lesson. The central family,...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Hi hiiii — If you were around for my Tough Titties launch or have my course Book Launch Hero, you’ve heard me talk about my “publishing journey,” and might remember that most editors asked my agent, “Would she be willing to make it a copywriting or marketing book?” Hard no! I’ve always been glad I stuck to my guns, and on Friday I enjoyed a fresh wave of validation. Farnoosh Torabi and Richelle Fredson had me as a panelist at their fabulous event “Book to Brand,” alongside other authors,...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Hey hey — I’ve never sent “last chance” emails for Shrimp Club before, because I didn’t think anyone waited till the last possible second to make that kind of investment. It’s not exactly an item you grab at the Target register, like a sweater defuzzer. But this year, as I’ve had Shrimp Club veteran and copywriting/marketing star Kevin Oberhausen conduct interviews with current and past members, I’ve discovered something: Turns out, Shrimp Club is sometimes a (semi-) impulse purchase. Alex...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Pssst! Today is the LAST DAY to join my 8-month live mentoring party/mastermind Shrimp Club! I may send more emails, so if you’d rather not hear about it, here you go: DON’T email me any more about Shrimp Club. Reader — Were you around for Clubhouse? That platform gave me PTSD. Imagine a swarm of blowhards claiming they were “just here to add value” — and then that “value” was a ten-minute recitation of their CV… …Or a feature-film-length tale of how they were an aimless, dead-broke sad sack...
19 days ago • 1 min read