IMPERFECT CAN STILL BE IMPACTFUL

Let's lean on each other for creative support

Hi, I’m Seth Werkheiser, and I write about email marketing for heavy metal souls three time a week.

I like this quote from New Creative Era:

THE CREATIVE STATUS QUO HAS MADE US LONELY CONTENT MACHINES
PRESSURED TO POST WITH UNNATURAL QUANTITY AND FREQUENCY
TO PURSUE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPRESS OUR WORK
WE PLAY SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME

I’ve been thinking about that first line a bit, as I sort of felt isolated as a writer, as someone trying to offer up ideas. I feel like it’s me vs everyone, stacking up against everyone else trying to offer solutions and ideas in a busy, hyper-competitive world of music and culture.

But I found some comfort in two podcasts recently, that sort of set me at ease, the first being with Bobby Hundreds on the Tim Ferris show:

The one thing that stuck with me was building something within a community.

Think of artists working together on various projects, like Turnstile working with BADBADNOTGOOD and today releasing this EP:

Working with other creative people is good energy, and good energy spreads. As the effectiveness of social media wanes, think of the creative people you can work with.

Next is ‘Common Shapes’ from Cody Cook-Parrott and their episode ‘The Art of Newsletters.’

Here’s a quote:

“Just hit send. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, I imagine people might see your imperfections and think “me, too. I feel that, too. I have typos. I misspell things.” Whatever it is, let your anti-perfectionism be an invitation to your readers that it’s ok to be clumsy and start anyways. It’s ok to be mediocre and still hit send.”

I’ve botched subject lines, missed typos, and sent emails with broken links - life rolls on. Learn from it, and start work on the next one.

It’s most likely no one died from a tiny error in your newsletter. Let your humanity have some space in your work, in your social media posts, in whatever you do.

Things don’t have to be perfect, they just need to be done / shipped / out the door. And like I mentioned above, you don’t have to do it alone!

Feel free to email me a question, check out my resources page, or if you’re completely new to all this, book an hour with me for a one-to-one pep talk and coaching session - we can do this!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Here’s some things I wrote in recent years that you might have missed:

If the work we’re putting in a social media platform isn’t really working, then why keep doing it?

Think about reducing your time spent on social media without completely eliminating it.

Are all those hours staring at our phones worth it for the 14 “likes,” the 3.2% impressions, the 12 clicks?

Imagine if we took one day worth of social media scrolling (like 2+ hours), and instead spent that time on something else?

From EAT MY YOUTUBE SHORTS

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If you have 1,000 followers on Twitter, there’s a good chance you’re reaching maybe 5% of your fans (Buffer, who knows a thing or two about social media, reaches about 2% of their audience on Twitter).

If you have an email list of 1,000 subscribers, you’ll probably reach 20-30% of your fans - and without having to stare at your phone six hours a day “making content,” (check out “You Don’t Need More Jobs” for more about that).

From PISSED JEANS HAS AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER

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“I would say probably 95% of our email list has come from people that have bought things through bandcamp. Every time someone buys something that email gets added into “the list.” And honestly, that has worked out tremendously.”

From JEFF GRETZ OF ZAO TALKS HEAVY METAL EMAILS

I’m Seth Werkheiser and I like talking about email marketing a whole bunch.

• Become a paid subscriber at $6/mo or $60 per year.

• I’m working on a SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE PLAN PLANNING PARTY - a community of people fed up with algorithms! Sign up here to get notified when it’s ready to launch.

• Buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal - it’s still iced coffee season!

• Support a band and buy an album from my Bandcamp Wishlist

Send questions and wedding invitations here: seth@closemondays.com