I don't rant often. But this is a rant.
Yesterday, I was on a call with a client talking about the Welcome Sequence we're working on.
One of the things we talked about was this:
When it comes to your email marketing...
Is telling stories from your life self-indulgent?
I don't rant often. But my response to this question is going to be a rant.
But before I get into it, I want to be clear:
This rant is not directed toward my client at all. She's fantastic.
I'm just super passionate about this. And sometimes when I get passionate...
I rant.
So here we go. Read the rest of this email quickly and with emphasis.
Is it self-indulgent for musicians to write songs about their own lives?
Can you imagine if Eric Clapton never wrote "Wonderful Tonight?"
How many couples would have missed out on hearing that song at their wedding?
Is it self-indulgent for athletes to devote their lives to putting a ball through a hoop?
What if Michael Jordan never became a sports legend?
How many kids would never have experienced the joy of basketball in their lives without his influence?
Or is it self-indulgent for authors to write books about their life experiences?
What if Saeed Jones or Mary Karr or Joan Didion never wrote memoirs about the events in their lives?
How many people have they influenced, comforted, and inspired through their courage to put their words on the page?
I guess what I'm trying to say is this:
Yeah. You could argue that there's an element of self-indulgence to any form of self-expression or dream-chasing.
You are expressing YOUR self, after all. And you are chasing YOUR dreams.
But if self-expression is self-indulgence...
If dream-chasing is self-indulgence...
And if self-indulgence enables us to help more people than we could without it...
Then I think self-indulgence might be something worth striving for.
P.S. If you're on the same page as me with this stuff...
You might like my course, Stories That Sell.
It's designed to help you transform everyday events from your life into storytelling emails.
Those emails might end up being a little self-indulgent...
But they're intended help you connect more deeply with readers and earn more money for your business too.