I’m sitting in a coffee shop. I hear indie jazz music overhead. My hot rooibus tea is cooling near my right hand (because I insist on drinking hot tea year-round).
And I’m also a little teary-eyed.
Several people on my email list have sent me Facebook messages and emails wondering where I am, and if I’m okay.
This blows my mind.
Can I just tell you: I love writing. I love people. And I love marketing.
I love the psychology of it. I loves the way the words play on my brain to give me different effects…
… pulling the reader towards me, highlighting the pain, making the future seem so possible and tangible… right now.
All of that done with a verb tense, and carefully chosen word, and some moxie.
However there’s a fear here too: I’m not an expert at all different types of marketing (like some of the copywriters I admire and trust).
I know it’s shocking, but I don’t know everything about everything.
And that bugs me.
(Do you know the feeling?)
But I am an expert at this:
I know people.
I know what they’re afraid of, what keeps them up at night, and why they do what they do.
How?
20+ years of watching people as if my very life depended on it.
Which it did.
Because I was raising 5 children, running a daycare, putting myself through college, and putting my ex-husband through law school.
We got married when I was 17, and he was 18.
That first year, our joint income was $5,368, total.
And over the years, we escaped extreme poverty and built nice lives for ourselves and our children.
You don’t overcome a struggle like that without knowing people.
Because people are the key to getting anything you want in life.
It really is all about your relationships, even if you never meet that person in real life.
In the last 4 weeks, I have:
- Moved my whole family into a house HALF the size of our old one (because my landlord of 5.5 years suddenly decided to sell the house and gave me 30 days notice to relocate);
- Watched my daughter graduate from college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting (4.0 GPA… all in 3 years, because she’s one tough cookie and a very hard worker);
- Cried as my son graduated from high school with honors (#7 in his class, which puts him in the Top 2% of his graduating class);
- Sent that same son off to college… 2 states away (because he got a full-ride scholarship to the Honors Program at the University of Connecticut… and that meant starting school in July instead of September like normal kids, because: high achiever, holy cow!);
- Wrote the sales letter and email copy for a multi-million dollar, international, affiliate marketing seminar launch (that went live while I was on vacation, so I wrote like a maniac right up until the last possible minute); and
- Took my family to the Beach for a week (because it’s our annual trip and if I canceled it, the children would flip their lids. Besides, it’s the New England Coastline, and it’s stunning).
And that’s when I started getting emails and messages from people on my email list.
They wondered where I was, and why I’d stopped sending my daily email.
I was blown away by their care and concern.
And I saw that my writing impacts others. That you actually like hearing from me.
This is seriously humbling.
So I’ve made some decisions:
- I’ll keep writing these emails;
- They’re going to stay personal;
- I’ll talk about people, and marketing, and writing, and life, and what’s it’s like to be one of those 9 Buyers (because it’s a super useful metaphor, and because it’s fun); and
- I’ll make recommendations about products and services that I think will help you. (And of course, I take a commission on anything you choose to buy, because: college is expensive (!), and because making money is a completely reasonable thing to do with your time… that’s why we’re in marketing!)
All of that to say THANK YOU for checking on me, and for reading these emails, and for being the sort of person who thinks my brand of whimsy and action is right for you.
Much love,
Melanie Saladino
Direct Response Copywriter
Customer Avatar Expert
P.S. I’m still offering free “Find Your Ideal Buyer” consultations through August. I might have to switch to a pay-for model, once the kids start school. Either way, If you’d like to know who your ideal buyer is, we can sort that out in about 15 minutes by Skype. It’s a free consultation. There’s no obligation. Click here to reserve your spot.
P.P.S. Can I tell you a secret? I have this crazy idea to start a print letter. It would be 16-pages long, delivered to your home. Like a care package that comes to your house every month, complete with marketing advice, inspiration, buyer psychology training, and take-care-a-you stuff for people who write for a living (and maybe are kinda hard on themselves and would like a little pick-me-up). Plus, stickers. Because I like stickers.
Is that something you might be interested in? If so, could you hit reply and let me know? I’d appreciate it.
Okay, that’s all.
Hugs,
Melanie
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