The Essential Message Blog

Zen And The Art Of Email Maintenance, Part 1

Email interrupting your workflow? Inbox interfering with your inner peace? If you're like most of us, your answer is a weary, defeated "yes". While email has certainly simplified communication and is a valuable business tool, it can also be a cruel, cruel mistress. How many of us have opened our email program only to be overrun by a bloody onslaught of new messages - messages that add even more chaos to the already message-ridden battlefield that our inbox has become - and beat a hasty retreat, vowing to deal with them later?

Never fear, grasshopper. In this first installment of Zen and the Art of Email Maintenance, we will look to the East and discover the 5 Precepts of Email Management; how to, as Buddha put it, be master of email rather than mastered by email. (I may be paraphrasing here - some of these old, dusty scrolls are hard to read.)

The Quest for Knowledge (Treading Through the Info-Muck)

Recently, renowned agricultural commodities analyst (and my dad) John DePutter told me that "our clients tell us they don't need more information. Information is not want they want. Knowledge is." He explained that there's already too much information available, making it difficult and time consuming to isolate what's useful and reliable - and what's not - from the plethora of information available in newspapers, magazines, and most of all, the internet. However, knowledge is still key: it's more important than ever for his clients to gain the knowledge they need to make important decsions, whether they're selling crops or making investments.

Your Questions, Answered

Last week I was posting about learning. And as we've all hopefully learned by now, one of the best ways to learn is by asking questions.

What questions do you have?

Would you like to know...
- How to write more effective copy for your website, brochure, or sales letter,
- How to speak about what you do with greater confidence and clarity,
- How other people are dealing with challenges similar to yours,
- What an “Essential Message” is, anyway, and how to get one?
- What life is all about (okay, that one we may not be able to answer).

I have a great idea how you can get your such questions - and many others - answered. (Read on to find out what it is!)

Learning is Tough (Learning, Part 2)

Learning is tough: It's one of the toughest lessons I've ever had to learn.

Back when I was interviewing people for a position here, every single one of them told me they loved to learn. But learning - real learning - is often a painful process.

Adding to an already-existing knowledge base, or improving on a skill? That can be easy. Learning to do something you're afraid of? Learning something you don't want to believe? Learning when to keep going and when to give up? Learning what your true purpose is? Learning what really, really, really makes you great?

Well, that stuff is hard.

Learning & Teaching (Learning, Part 1)

After a brief (well, sorta brief) hiatus, the Essential Message blog is back! And it's also now February, which means we're that much closer to spring! As 2007 churns on, this is a great time to think about your potential growth for this year.

When we're busy making resolutions for January, we often concentrate on all the "bad" stuff we're doing and want to fix - as opposed to all the wonderful opportunities out there for learning, growth, and fulfillment.

In my job, I'm often being taught - learning to become a better writer and a better consultant through Michel's ongoing coaching. But lately, I've also been doing a little bit of teaching. That is, I've been spending more time working with Michel on his writing.

Better Questions for Better Letters

Last night I had a wonderful experience helping coach my friend through a rather beleaguring process known as the PhD application.

How exciting it is to discover once again that the principles that drive The Essential Message approach work so well in so many different situations. While focusing on your "sweet spot" or your best niche is important, it's rewarding to be reminded of just how well our approach works - not just in business, but in life. Especially when it comes to writing.

One of the key pieces behind our approach is to ask questions - rather than just delivering answers. And it was through asking questions that I helped give my friend a fresh perspective on what could have been a mundane letter-writing process.

Talking. (And Listening.)

Today, Kerry (our manager) and I had an interesting experience in learning how to talk.

Well, not just talk. Talk about our business - in a way that matters to the people we're talking to.

At The Essential Message, his is one of the best things we help people and companies learn how to do: talk about their business in a way that's truly compelling to their audience.

But talking about your business most effectively doesn't mean just repeating your positioning statement over and over. That's a sure-fire way to get eyes to glaze over.

So, in a day that accumulated to a whirlwind of networking, we experimented talking about what we do, and observed the results.

Professionalism Vs Personality

My business card (which is more like a mini-brochure than a standard business card) has lots of cool stuff on it: intruiging copy, an image of Michel in a Karate pose, our arrowhead logo, and even a photo of a beautiful woman (me, of course *grin*).

Yet, I can't tell you how many people comment on my email address: umathurman[at]essentialmessage.com.

They're confused. Sometimes even appalled. Why does the email address reference a famous actress, instead of my own name? Isn't that ...gasp... unprofessional?

Aim Higher

Today I sent Tom Peters an email.

I told him about our new What Drives You Crazy Makes You Great virtual workshop, because I think it is a great example of the "Wow Project" concept he talks about in Re-Imagine - basically taking what could be a mundane business task and turning it into something different, something exciting, something (dare I say it) groundbreaking.

Sex and the Single Business Card

I've been thinking about promiscuity lately.

Not so much the physical type -- more along the lines of promiscuity in business. The word 'promiscuity' is loaded with negative connotations, and in some cases, unfairly so. Consider it as the opposite to 'relationship marketing.'

If you're in a business that has many, many transactions, low prices, and decent barriers to entry (think: convenience stores), then relationship marketing may not make sense. Rather, your goal is to get the customers in, sell them, and get them out.

But even in high turnover situations like convenience stores or ATMs, there's still one type of promiscuity that doesn't work -- a truly anonymous 'one-night stand'.

Using Ritual and Myth in Your Business

Last night was the first night of Passover, a Jewish holiday that celebrates the freedom of the Jews when they escaped slavery from Pharaoh in Egypt and followed Moses to the Promised Land.

I sat at the table with my parents and other relatives as we recited the Four Questions, ate the ceremonial foods on the Seder (Passover meal) plate, and listened to my mother reading about oppression then and now.

Ritual and myth are two powerful forces for humans.

That's Crazy Talk!

Last week a colleague, A, received a very upsetting email from a prospect, B. B basically spent the email yelling at A and telling her she was being patronizing, an idiot, and unhelpful.

My colleague was shaken. I was upset too. We spent a good hour going over the email she had sent B to see where she’d gone wrong and how she’d accidentally insulted the other woman. I have to add that A is a poised professional with impeccable email etiquette. What had happened?