Time for one of my regular soap box rants…
Yes I’m still sick, but I’m miles better. I’ve somehow magically recovered my ability to think and put words down again.
Although during this period of man-flu-whatever, I did a bit of “cleaning house”
“What do you mean when you say cleaning house, Stephen?”
I’m glad you asked…
Now you might know that I like emails.
You also might now that I like emails that come from people that actually sit behind the keyboard, write it and hit send.
They’re fun. They’re imperfect and they share little glimpses into the senders life.
Now even though I’ve not emailed for a few days
(I could’ve easily pre-written a bunch to go out daily when I do feel a little bit of the sickness coming on but there’s a reason I didn’t do it)
Which would at least stop me from skipping a day or two and end up getting messages asking if I’m okay and haven’t died.
(To the ones who emailed. I really appreciate it.)
The point is, when my brain was being punched in every direction.
The only thing I could do besides sleeping and drinking water, was to open up my email, eyes in a half squinted haze and delete emails and unsubscribe from lists I don’t want to be apart of anymore.
See the thing is.
I signed up to fellow artists, creatives of all sorts, marketers and even brands that hooked me on their stories and quirks and good stuff, only to later on be fooled that this was all pre-written bullshit past a set period of time (Autoresponder) and then for the next 45723 emails and/or by the time I die…
Explode my inbox with obnoxious BUY MY SHIT OR ELSE emails or the infamous RE: bullshit in all variations…
And so I know for a fact they were only in it for the profits and not really for the people.
Yes. Don’t get me wrong. We got bills to pay and food to eat. But there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it and because they’ve destroyed that sacred set of rules and yes there are email rules. I’ve just opted out with hopes of never being bothered by them again. It’s sad cause I genuinely liked those people but anyways. Life goes on.
It’s just crazy to me that everyone just wants to automate relationships. If you build relationships with a handful of great clients/customers. They’ll keep coming back to you for years and you won’t have to do the hamster dance to paid.
Everyone gives Kevin Kelly a bit of shit but his 1000 true fans still stands today.
It’s just people don’t want to go down that route because it takes work and you need to build relationships first before the profits start to come.
Anyways. My rant is over.
TL;DR be a genuine human and stop trying to automate relationships because it makes you look like a jackass.
I’m off to go drink some lemon tea and get back to sleep.
This virus or whatever hasn’t won just yet.
Stephen Walker.
P.S. Make 1000 true fans your mantra and get to work cause I know I don’t want 42364564574 customers. I want 1000 true fans and I’m sure you do too.