It marked another anniversary where I successfully escaped my mother’s womb to begin the journey of building my own empire that is life.

Yes, I know. That was a ridiculous way of saying it’s my birthday. But, hey, gotta have a little fun here.

Anyways, following last year, I’m going to share with you a few things I learned since my last birthday.

And these things can be about anything. Copywriting, life, whatever. So let’s start.

1. Context matters

One of the biggest copywriting lessons that I learned since I started the job I’m at right now is that my way of writing email copy is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Because it’s so personality driven, it works best for personal brand businesses, or businesses where there is a ‘face.’ But that’s not the case for typical American corporations.

2. Alcohol

For the longest time, I never really understood why alcohol has always been such a huge thing when it comes to social settings. But as I attended more social gatherings and happy hours, I finally began to understand. The way I see it, it serves as a tool to bond with people. And I’ve also seen the effects unfold over time between co-workers in real time. It’s quite fascinating.

3. Enjoy the little things

It isn’t new when I say that a lot of people are miserable worrying about things they have no control over or generally look at the glass as half empty. Part of me doesn’t blame them since we recently went through two years of quarantine. But it does wonders when you sit down and consciously think about the good things that are going on in your life. Hug a tree, smell a flower, pet a cat. The fact that we’re even alive is a miracle (Just search up the probability of us being born).

4. Keep your world small

I once heard an offhand comment that us humans are not meant to know everything that’s going on around the world, which is exactly what the media does for us. Throughout my early years, I was told that reading or watching the news is something I should do because that’s how I’ll stay informed.

Well, what exactly does it mean to stay informed? More specifically, what should we stay informed on?

Should I really be spending my energy to keep up with the Kardashians? Do I really need to know that someone got stabbed in another town? Why do I need to know what politicians are up to nowadays?

I’d rather stay informed on things that might have a more direct effect on me.

For example, food I should avoid eating, tips on saving money or making more money, how to be more productive, etc.

In other words, I’m keeping my world small by cutting all the chaos out.

It reminds me of that one scene in Man of Steel.

Young Clark Kent was in school. When his teacher asked him a question, he began getting sensory overload. He was seeing through people’s bodies, hearing the pencil taps, the ticking clock. Feeling overwhelmed, he ran out of the classroom and hid in a janitor’s closet, refusing to let anyone in, including his own mother when she came to help.

So she asked,

“Sweetie. How can I help you if you won’t let me in?”

To which he replied,

“The world’s too big, mom.”

“Then make it small. Just focus on my voice. Pretend it’s an island out in the ocean. Can you see it?”

“I see it.”

“Then swim towards it, honey.”

Well, I think that’s enough for tonight.

Mainly because he has a unique way of telling stories in his emails.

Now I’m not writing this to promote another copywriter (Although, I can’t stop you from checking him out now, can I?), but I do want to talk about something he posted on his social media platform.

He took a screenshot of a Markets Insider article titled, “Copper plunges to its lowest mark in 17 months.”

Then he flipped it and came up with his own headline:

“Last time copper was this cheap, it surged by 50% over the next 12 months. Today you have another chance to buy it.”

Why did he do this?

Most likely to demonstrate how an event can be told in two different ways.

You have the negative perspective, which the media loves to do. Can’t blame them though. If their viewers are consuming them like crazy, then why not keep doing it?

Then you have the positive viewpoint which, more often than not from my observations, a lot of people struggle seeing.

Maybe they’re addicted to the news.

Or they enjoy being victims.

Either way, the same struggles exist within the marketing world as well.

You have people who are scared of seeing unsubscribes. Maybe they think those unsubscribers were potential customers they lost? But the way I see it, they were never going to be customers to begin with.

Then you have people who are scared to email more frequently for the same reason above. This one I can understand because I felt this way before I started my commitment to daily emailing. However, from what I can recall, I don’t think anybody unsubscribed when I announced that I was going to start emailing everyday.

Yes, some people unsubscribed over time, but other people joined too and they don’t mind seeing my name in their inboxes everyday at all.

Just something to think about for today.

If you want to learn my ways of emailing, go to the link below:

https://EllisenWang.com/email-titan-sample

Relaxing?

Good.

Mine was great too, thank you for asking. In fact, let me share with you what happened.

It actually wasn’t too eventful.

I didn’t party, I didn’t see any friends. In fact, I spent a lot of time on podcasts and other content from content creators that I’ve been following for years.

And somehow, and at some point, I discovered a person, named Daniel Kish, who founded a non-profit called World Access for the Blind, where he and his instructors teach blind people how to navigate the world using echolocation.

Yes, the same technique that bats, whales, and dolphins use to see.

He even was given the nickname, “The Remarkable Batman.”

He did a TED Talk, where he shared how he ended up blind, how echolocation works, and performed a demonstration to have the audience experience echolocation.

Throughout his talk, he talked about how there’s a lot of fear around the concept of blindness, yet showed a video where blind people are riding bikes, hiking, playing, etc.

And they were all showing emotions other than fear.

He concluded his talk by telling people that our brains have the ability to help us overcome any challenge that life throws our way.

And I believe that 100%.

Early on in my career, I interned at a startup non-profit, where the Executive Director instilled in me that for every problem, there’s always a way to solve it. And oftentimes, there are multiple ways.

That way of thinking has served me well so far, and I believe it’ll continue to serve me well throughout the rest of my life.

So when you encounter issues while running your own business, just know that there is a solution out there.

More importantly, there is a solution out there that’s most suitable for you.

I believe my way of email copywriting and email marketing can be a great solution to those who want to write better emails and develop a highly engaged email list.

But it’s not a solution for everyone.

Not everyone is willing to write an email everyday, and that’s ok.

Not everyone is willing to turn their brain into an idea generator running 24/7, and that’s ok.

But if you are interested, you can start learning about it here:

https://EllisenWang.com/email-titan-sample

On my way home from Boston, I was given some “special” candy, if you know what I mean. One and a half pieces of it.

I ate the half piece during my train ride home. Slept like a baby.

I took the other piece after dinner, sat down to relax, then fell asleep. Woke up at 2 in the morning feeling like my face got beat with a bat.

And I was just dazed the entirety of the following day.

I couldn’t work. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I was just out of it.

Fortunately, I feel normal now, it’s as if that episode never happened. But I think I experienced a hangover of some sorts for the very first time.

Life lesson for me: Do not take THC before sleeping

Anyways, while my mind was up in the clouds, I did have some wandering thoughts.

For example:

I recently finished reading Will Smith’s memoir. Towards the end of the book, he talked about his struggle with balancing the “people pleaser” side of himself and his “selfish” side.

He shared a moment where he was working out alone in a gym, and he adamantly wanted that workout session to be his “me” time. Then someone started recording him saying,

“Hey Will, can you please say hi to my son with down syndrome? He’s a huge fan of The Fresh Prince.”

“No,” he replied.

“Why not? Come on man, he has down syndrome.”

“…Because I don’t want to.”

The man walked away extremely disappointed. And he couldn’t handle seeing that disappointed look. He broke down and didn’t even finish his workout.

People have told me that fans said Will Smith is nothing but a d*ck in-person.

Is he really though? Or are the fans just perceiving it that way?

Personally, I saw nothing wrong with what he did during his workout. He wanted to practice establishing boundaries, and that’s exactly what he did.

And if you’re in a service business where you work with clients, that is something you must do.

Unless you like being pushed around, disrespected, or be seen as untrustworthy, it’s only to your benefit that you set boundaries.

And yes, those boundaries may turn off some potential clients and it might be scary to lose out on the work and revenue. But if it’ll save you the trouble and headache of dealing with incompatible clients, then it might be worth losing out on those potential clients.

As much as I’d like to go on about my experience on the cruise, it has to end at some point.

This one is going to be an arguably juicier story, so get comfy.

I personally didn’t witness this, but my friend did.

My friend went to dine at a steakhouse by himself and sat next to a nice family who was celebrating their mother’s 90th birthday.

Apparently, they ordered a cake in advance with special instructions (They wanted a specific cake and wanted it cut into 10 pieces or something).

Everything was going fine until the cruise staff brought out the cake.

The family saw (1) It wasn’t the cake they wanted and (2) It was only cut into four pieces.

And suddenly, that niceness turned into pure bitterness.

They started complaining to the staff. And the staff, doing their best to maintain their customer service standard, apologized and brought the manager out to fix things.

But the family didn’t want to stop. They wanted to complain more, and complain they did.

And once they decided to leave, they wanted to get one last word in.

So the son told the cruise staff:

“My mother is celebrating her 90th birthday and she didn’t get the cake she wanted. You guys BLEW IT!”

How did the staff react? They simply rolled their eyes, and it’s understandable. I mean, it’s just a cake for goodness’ sake.

Even if it’s your goal to give your customers the best experience possible, it’s simply no use trying to please the overly-entitled customers.

Those are the people who take the “The customer is always right” expression literally. Those are the people who make the worst customers.

If they were to ever come across your business, you’re better off letting them go and have them bother another business that’s willing to deal with them, in my opinion.

And for your good customers, they deserve your best treatment. After all, they are funding your livelihood.

If you want to learn some ways to enhance your customer service, I suggest picking up Vance Morris’ Tales From the Customer Service Crypt.

https://EllisenWang.com/customer-service-crypt

For some reason, in my office, there are a lot of books lying around.

Today is Independence Day.

I was on an elevator one day.

To me, it’s always fascinating to watch how things operate in other countries vs in America.