Sitting on a goldmine won’t make you rich — get off your ass and dig.
Micah H. responded to yesterday’s ‘Partner With Competition‘ email to inform me that he’s living in a similar space and down for some coopertition (collaboration with would be competition). Micah’s email wasn’t just a “yo we do similar stuff”, nor was it rife with inauthentic brown nosing (which, for the record, is easy to see through).
No. Where many people calling themselves marketers would “mail merge to mass send and auto-fill” (i.e. scrape together a list of emails and send slightly customized template messages to a bunch of people you don’t know), Micah opted to send a personal note, but the architecture had a subtle brilliance I couldn’t help but share.
He told a story. His story.
With just four words, Micah showed relevancy to the email in which he was replying to and laid the foundation of the powerful story he was about to share. He spoke naturally, as if we were face-to-face, and linked relevant assets (reddit post, blog post, and offer page), but didn’t beg for action — they passively provided context.
Micah’s email, linked with permission, is a fantastic case study for befriending internet strangers. He didn’t tell me how he felt, he made me feel it myself.
As I told him in my initial response:
I appreciate you taking the time to construct such a well articulated message. Taking a step back to speak as a ‘Social Engineer’… you told a story and interwove the links so well that I was knee deep in your web presence before ever realizing.
Here’s where things get interesting. The conversation that followed (you know… the thing people do when they’re not trying to “sell” each other) had an unintended outcome — one that, until now, Micah is completely unaware he prompted.
While talking about Slack communities, I shared with Micah a bit about how I’ve used automation to augment the conversations in Ghost Influence. As I constructed my response to him I realized something — other people might be interested in this.
I had spent an unreasonable amount of time over the past six months constructing what is essentially a “choose your own adventure” informational product that customizes itself to your personality, business, and immediate needs — it wasn’t until my emails with Micah that I realized the inherent value of that infrastructure.
Coincidently, at the same time, I’ve been in talks with the Founder of Cuppa.io who have been eager to pull information I don’t have the bandwidth to share and turn it into step-by-step courses. Guides on things like ‘how to launch and leverage a podcast’ and ‘effective hiring and training of contractors’. Systems I’ve developed, but am not jumping to develop into courses as my priority is my focus on ‘digital empathy’.
As I responded to Micah, I realized that the systems and processes I’ve developed for my Slack communities (I have three), would make for one hell of a product and I’ve (now) got the tools (this opportunity for partnership) to make it happen.
If I hadn’t taken the time to openly communicate with Micah, I wouldn’t have had this realization and the product would likely have never existed. All too often people hide their thoughts and ideas behind a wall of secrecy or (god forbid) make people sign a non-disclosure agreement before they start sharing with another human being.
Ideas are like plants, they need sunlight and nourishment to grow.
Unbeknownst to Micah, I realized I was sitting on (what I believe to be) a “goldmine” and seeing that I can’t pay rent with a mound of dirt — I grabbed a shovel.
Before the end of the weekend (three days time), I’m going to outline my systems in a Google Doc, compile a list of templates, and detail the features of a “done for you” service that can be accompanied with an informational product. I’ll then discuss this with Cuppa.io and assess the best timeline for proceeding with the project.
- Share your ideas with an assortment of people and they will grow.
- Follow your inspiration with an appropriate level of research and planning.
- Avoid over commitment by assessing new ideas in relation to long term goals.
One of the not-so-secret motives behind this email series is that your responses are powerful prompts for the email I send the following day. You quite directly prompt writing that I’d be unable to articulate otherwise. The least I can do is provide value.
What’s the last idea you walked away from? Did you have an excuse or a reason?