With the exception of young prodigies, chances are, when you try a new skill for the first time, the end results will be pretty ugly.
If that upsets you and you expected perfection on your first attempt, then you, my friend, might be dealing with one of the criminals from the Imposter Syndrome Organization, the Gruesome Genius. If you read that email, then you know what I’m talking about.
But if that doesn’t upset you, then you understand that it’s a perfectly natural process.
For example, here are some of my first failed attempts:
Art
Going back to Halloween 2020, I decided to do some pencil sketching and tried copying a drawing my friend sketched, it was a picture of a couple kissing. Long story short, I had no idea what I was doing and my version of the sketch turned out nothing like my friend’s drawing. My version looked like two mannequins hugging with their heads touching.
My friend did say it looked decent. But personally, I think he was just trying to spare my feelings.
Music
I still remember my first attempt at making an instrumental track. Let’s just say, when I listen back, it makes me cringe. There was literally no structure throughout the track. It just sounds like a bunch of random sounds thrown together. I’d delete it, but maybe I’ll use it for a before and after comparison.
Communication
Back when I interned at a startup non-profit educational organization in 2016, one of my responsibilities was to give an orientation to new internship and volunteer candidates. With the Executive Director’s help, we put together an outline along with some talking points. When I gave the orientation the first few times, I stuttered a lot, my mind went blank multiple times, and I had to look back on my index cards a lot. I looked extremely unprofessional to the point where it probably drove some of the candidates away.
Writing
Specifically email writing. If you’ve been on my list since the beginning, then you can probably tell the difference between how I wrote then and how I write now. The difference is huge!
But with all these skills, I eventually improved over time through repetition and feedback.
That’s one of the benefits of writing daily sales emails. You improve faster because you’re getting all the badly written sales emails out of the way quickly.
Something for you to keep in mind.
And if you want to learn more about writing engaging sales emails, check out the sample chapters of How to Become an Email Titan.