Recently, I confused some of my email subscribers.
It was in the email about all the reasons I like using email over blogs, videos, podcasts, etc, where I said email is “forgiving.” And apparently I wasn’t clear enough about what this meant (hey, my bad).
So maybe this will make it clearer:
Ever seen the movie Superman 2?
Specifically, the scene where Superman “threw the S”?
No?
Or maybe you just don’t remember?
That’s okay.
I’d gladly block the memory out too, if I could.
But in the final fight scene where Superman is battling three other Kryptonian criminals (who have his same powers), out of nowhere he rips off his “S” emblem and throws it at one of the villains — which grows and turns into what looks like a giant fruit roll-up that temporarily covers ye olde villain up like plastic wrap.
Yeah, it was as dumb as it sounds.
So dumb, you lose IQ points just watching it.
In fact, I recently saw it referred to as “throwing the S” — a term now applied to ANY bad movie scenes. (Kinda like “Wow, George Lucas sure threw the S with that Jar-Jar character!”)
What’s this got to do with email?
Well, if you do a lot of email, you’re gonna throw the S, too — where you send an email (you wish you hadn’t) with something stoopid in it or with an embarrassing mistake, etc.
It happens to me sometimes.
And chances are it’ll happen to you, too.
But guess what?
If you mess up and say something stoopid or whatever, you just roar back the next day with something cool and all is forgotten (or, at least, forgiven) which could possibly even result in a sale.
No harm, no foul.
So that’s what email being forgiving means.
If you throw the S, who cares?
You can easily make things right tomorrow.
And maybe even profit from it.
Ben Settle
P.S. I should get the proof for the Street-Smart Email course this week. I just have to whip up an ad for it and it’ll be for sale probably in a couple weeks (give or take).
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