Start messy
Ever feel like you sit down to start something… and you can’t find that perfect first sentence?
A lot of people can relate including past Peta (moi), and my client, Casey.
Casey? An absolute legend. We spent last Tuesday working out an epic strategy for Casey’s business which includes writing emails. Eep.
Writing emails is is a huge block a lot of my clients have. You know you’ve got to do them, but you become the bottleneck because your time is spent wondering what to say and how to say it.
Casey had this exact problem. I told her we needed to get some shit out on paper — no matter how messy it was going to be.
We brainstormed content prompted by questions (Give Good Email is legendary for this) and we wrote it all down — even if it didn’t make sense or was just a couple of words.
One minute in, Casey hits me with, “How would it feel to be known as the best company to work for?”
“OMG! Casey! That’s the intro of your email. How amazing is that?”
We moved around the sentences we brainstormed, fleshed it out, and changed up words to be on-brand.
In less than five minutes, we had a draft of her first email. Casey was chuffed.
Casey got to see me work… and it’s not a perfect process. It’s a little… messy. And that’s okay. The most important thing of writing anything is just starting. Giving permission for it to be messy and not fabulous, but just starting.
The next day Casey mapped out two finished emails, re-wrote an entire sales page, created the opt-in form and embedded it on her website, created her discovery call links, planned her diary around getting our big to do list complete… and being an epic mum. In her words — “Clocked off at 3pm to exercise and relax before mum duty starts again”
How?
By allowing shit to be messy but to just be in motion. Friend, no one shoots perfect copy out of their fingertips, and sometimes we need to prioritise done over perfect, especially as business owners.
Some things for you to ponder —
⭐ Indecision and stalling things is okay… if you’re fine with the potential of it blocking income. Not done = potentially blocking cash flow
⭐ Can you set a timer and do B- work for halfa? I’m sure you’ll check your work a couple days later and be surprised how ace it is
⭐ Copy is like the first pancake, the first one is usually a dud. Accept the first paragraph — or page — as the first pancake
⭐ It doesn’t need to be as long as you think. Give yourself a 300 word maximum for your emails
⭐ Done is better than perfect, no?
Peta Xx
This originally appeared as newsletter content
