It’s Friday and my kids don’t have school, so for the second time in a week I slept in. I feel a little bit like a new person. And by “new person” I mean “bets are on me NOT ending up in the looney bin today.” Then again… I have the whole day with my kids, so it could still get a little touch and go. They started trickling into my room one by one around 6:30 and we had some morning cuddles. At 7 there was a critical mass of screeching boy and I threw them all out. They’re all now watching the new Bluey. In about an hour I will need to take my van to the shop, I’ve got some loose ends to tie up ..read more

Will’s neighborhood had a big community yard sale this past weekend, so the kids and I collected a bunch of stuff we would have otherwise donated and we went out for it. Let the kids keep all the money that came from their stuff, and gave them a hefty 50% commission on anything of ours they sold, too. Start ’em young and all that. My dad and stepmom live nearby, so they came and spent the morning with us too. My stepmom and I have something in common: We are not tall. In addition to my not-tall-ness, I have particularly short arms. There are little step stools in almost every room of my house ..read more

and no, it doesn’t cost you a thing It’s mah birf day! I took the morning off work and slept until almost 7, yay. I’ve been banned from leaving my room because there’s birthday mischief afoot. The sounds of kids in the kitchen occasionally make their way under the door… So it’s just you and me. I had some people asking if I’m going to pull all my courses out of the vault and do a big birthday sale like I usually do… But nah, I’m dropping something that costs zero dollars and zero cents instead. You can get it here. [https://email.replies.gainerink.com/c/eJxskU2P2yAQhn-NuSUC_IF94LBVaylSut2Vqqo9 ..read more

So. Real talk. When you do what I do, working for yourself as a client-facing service provider in a creative field… There are times when you’re curled up in the fetal position, staring at the wall catatonically because nothing is going to plan and everything feels harder than it should be and it seems impossible that you’ll ever ACTUALLY have the life you ACTUALLY want, which is to say bringing in 500k a year working 5 hours a week… let alone all the invoices coming in on time so you don’t have to do the bill-pay side-step. And then there are times when 4 different clients pop up in a single d ..read more

(didn’t mean to, honest) I made a massive mistake when I first told you about this week’s summit. What day was it, Thursday? Last week was all a blur. I’d shared that I’m one of the handful of speakers in a summit (happening this week!) and that it was free to join. Which it is — that’s not the accidental lie. Where I messed up is in saying there was a paid upgrade option. Because there’s not. Because your access to the summit is free for-eh-vur. I really got my wires crossed on that one, and I’m sorry for any confusion or weirdness. So let me tell you about this whole summit situation, becaus ..read more

For reasons I currently do not understand, I have this persistent memory that takes place in a parking lot near my college campus. I was walking from a food place on Franklin street to some kind of afternoon event, don’t remember which one… And I was crossing the parking lot outside my freshman year dorm. Might have been going to the editorial lab to work on the campus magazine…. I don’t really remember. But I do remember there was some weird stuff happening back then. It was April 2005. We were just a couple years post 9-11. They were trying to find the new pope because JP2 had just croaked ..read more

Had a conversation yesterday with someone who was trying to figure out what his rates should be, and it didn’t go the way you’d expect it to go… especially when dealing with a dude. He’d be out of the game for a little while and was getting back in it. Super excited, already had some new clients lined up, all that jazz. It only took a minute for me to realize that his plan was to figure out the current “going rate” and then charging 25% less than that. But whyyyyyy So I pushed back a little. “If you’re so good at what you do that you send one message to one past client and you have 3 gigs line ..read more

Quick one today because i overslept by 90 minutes and it is now a kill or be killed kind of morning. Last month I casually mentioned that I had an interview for an upcoming summit. Well, it’s summit time y’all! Here’s the info: WHAT: Wendy Breakstone’s Micro Audio Summit, Ditch The Algorithms! Win In The Inbox. WHEN: Starts April 17 (my birthdayyyy) WHO: This is the speaker lineup: Ann Keaney: Leverage High-Quality Content & Conversations to Build Your “Buyers List” Liz Wilcox: I’m Building My Email List ~ NOW WHAT? How to Turn Followers Into Customers Julie Hood: Super Lead Generation ..read more

Over at the agency we’re always looking at the ways other “book businesses” do their ad campaigns and funnel pages. We’ve come across this one agency that works with romance authors (so, not a direct competitor) and they’re doing some curious stuff. They’re running videos as ads in addition to static ads. And these ads are all driving traffic to a curious VSL page that is unlike most VSLs we’ve seen, and completely unlike any VSL page I’ve ever seen. They’re basically “giving away the farm” right here on the VSL. They’re introducing the concept of “do your own marketing, keep 100% of your prof ..read more

We had a GREAT call on Friday for our first Email Incubator session. One call down 4 to go. I love the gals (it worked out to be all ladies) in the group and it seems like our time together will be interesting and productive. Just as I expected it would be. But I have this niggling feeling that something is missing… Or more likely, someONE is missing. And I think that someone might be you. Most of these gals have been to one of my email workshops… And all of them without exception have reported back that once they started doing email my way, email became easier, more enjoyable, and more profit ..read more