8 Idea Sources

If you're not used to searching for ideas, you might initially feel that your life doesn't have such scenes.

(My grandfather's life has no pathetic scenes, Kaiba!)

And, I could tell you what everyone else tells you...

"Just find a scene that's interesting and write about it"

Which doesn't really help, so, crap those guys 🤷

Instead, I have another, better way to think about it so that you can ALWAYS find a scene in your day that is worth writing about.

A scene worth writing about is a scene that generated a change in your emotions

It's as simple as that.

If it generated some kind of emotion, it's a series of events worth writing about.

If it made you:

• laugh
• chuckle
• smile
• cry
• sigh
• frown
• yell
• lose faith in humanity
• restore faith in humanity
• watch your restored faith in humanity leave again (they grow up so fast)
• stressed
• anxious
• sweat
• fidget
• blush

If it made you feel ANYTHING, it's a scene worth writing about.

In the next parts of this lesson, we'll dive deeper into stuff that trigger different emotions so that it's easier to automatically say — and sometimes even know before the event even happens — that this is a good idea to use in an email.

In theory, I could stop this lesson here and it would still be fine.

But I want to make things even easier for you so let's see exactly where to search when you're looking for email-worthy circumstances that triggered an emotional response from you.

B.1 Emotional Triggers From People

Maybe you had a fight with your brother/sister/spouse

Or maybe you had a surprise breakfast you absolutely loved.

Maybe your kid made something cute you want to write about.

Maybe your friend had a genius idea about a business you should start together (or maybe he shared with you the stupidest thing ever).

Maybe your client keeps pulling goals and milestones out of their own sweet ass without making any sense and gives you the urge to [the rest of this sentence was redacted for legal purposes].

Maybe the store's cashier was very polite or very rude.

Maybe the girl at the coffee shop heard your coffee order wrong and when she repeated it back to you, you agreed instinctively and she poured the sugar in before you had time to correct here.

Or maybe... just maybe... maybe you're crazy enough to write a whole saga about a rude deli guy.

Of course these are little moments.

And I mentioned them first because they're the ideas that are harder to notice.

But that doesn't mean you can't write about bigger moments.

Like a raise you got or a testimonial from a buyer.

Maybe your partner did something really sweet for your anniversary.

Or maybe your brother is visiting for the holidays.

We always get new inputs from people, small or big ones, and thankfully they are a great source of email ideas.

At the end of each day, ask yourself: 'Who did I interact with today?'

Run through your day chronologically:

• Morning
• Mid-day
• Evening

But also note the different places you interacted with people:

• Work
• Grocery store
• Coffee shop

Then check if any person there made you feel anything.

B.2 Emotional Triggers From Events

People are a great source of content. Always were, always will be. But there also are events that make us feel things without necessarily having anything to do with a specific person.

Sometimes it might not have to do with anyone at all, actually. Think of an earthquake. Not the first event that comes to mind but there are no other people causing it (and could literally be 0 other people involved, especially if you live alone) and yet earthquakes make us feel things.

With the risk of sounding like a soulless asshole, earthquakes are good events for emails.

Of course you don't have to (and shouldn't) wait for earthquakes to happen to have an event worthy of writing about.

You can write about big events like finally landing that dream client or firing a nightmare client.

You can write about getting on a podcast or getting invited in an inner circle of some sort.

You can write about a big payout.

Or you can write about smaller everyday events.

Like burning your food ("who let him cook?").

Or forgetting to press Save on a document you had open and now you have to rewrite the piece again.

Or maybe even trying a new recipe because you felt culinary creative today.

At the end of each day, ask yourself: 'Who happened to me today?'

Again, it can be big or small. Maybe you dropped your coffee or maybe you got an unexpected endorsement.

B.3 From Media

This can be something you read, listened to, or saw.

And again the range is wiiiide on this one.

Maybe you saw something horrible on the news (which is the only thing news outlets share 24/7)

Maybe you read a poem that you loved.

Maybe you listened to that new EP that made you cry... and then listened to it again... and then cried again...

Maybe you read a report about the state of the industry and now you're feeling confident about a new business idea.

Or maybe you read/watched a post/email/video by a fellow creator that stirred something inside you (in a good, bad, or odd way).

From this bunch, the most reliable, that are also easily recognizable as email ideas are books. I don't know why but everyone finds it so much easier to express feelings, ideas, and stories they got from a book.

So, here's a good reason to read more, as if there weren't enough good reasons already.

At the end of each day, ask yourself: 'What content did I consume today?'

It can be:

• News
• Entertainment
• Courses and info products
• Seminars
• Social media scrolling

Write down the ones you remember. If you still remember them at the end of the day, it's a good indicator they might be good email fodder.

B.4 From Your Own Head

It's good to be bored. It allows you time to think.

And when you spend time by yourself, thinking, a lot of good things can come out of it.

And some of those things can also be great email ideas.

It can be a new connection you haven't thought about between something you happened to do and a great result you got (eg a specific sequence you unconsciously sent in the last 2 promos).

It can be a breakthrough idea for a new course.

It can also be the resurface of a sad feeling you had about something.

It can be a joke you came up with that made you laugh.

Or a selling angle you're excited to try.

Your mind can give you countless ideas in countless directions, as long as you let it speak.

At the end of each week, ask yourself: 'What have I been thinking about?'

If something has come to mind multiple times in a single week, it means it's either important or interesting.

And these are both things your list would want to hear about. So, talk about them.

This has to do with the main things you believe in and the way you view the world.

For example, maybe you're someone who teaches solopreneurs and believes heavily on 'friends > work' so you speak often about prioritizing that part of your life even at the cost of revenue.

A certain religion could be a big part of who you are as a person and so you could mention that a lot.

On a more practical level, you might believe that the best way to start a business is having a small, local shop at first and advise people to start with that.

You could be a really calm person who believes that confrontation is to always be avoided and try to be at peace with everyone.

Or you might believe that drama is the engine that pushes any business forward and that everyone should actively pursue it in their business.

Take a piece of paper or your favorite notes app and start noting all those things down.

Once you start thinking about it, you'll notice there are a lot of core values, beliefs, and philosophies you hold. You just never thought that deeply about them before.

Just make sure to actually put some time and effort into it.

Maybe you'll pump them out and have your list ready in 10 minutes. Or maybe you need more 'me' time to just think about it over coffee or during a walk.

Either way, create your list and once you have it, you can revisit it and pick any of those things to use as your email idea.

Combined with all the different Email Archetypes you know now, this alone can create a metric crapton of emails by itself.

The juiciest, most decadent part of this list.

Everyone loves it when you have a contrarian take.

The ones who agree with you will get one step closer to becoming superfans that will stay with you for a long long time.

While the ones who don't agree with you will shower you with email content ideas.

it's a win no matter what!

Just make sure that whatever take you have is indeed contrarian.

Because the only way to lose the 'contrarian take' game is to have a vanilla take you present as contrarian.

Eg way back, in the distant 2010s, no one was even THINKING about walking for weight loss, let alone talking about it. Now it's proven to be one of the best things you can do to lose weight.

In a similar but more relevant example, Ben Settle had been saying for YEARS that open rates, click rates, and stuff like that don't matter.

And back then it was truly contrarian. But right now, high-level marketers also have that opinion. So, Settle's impact on the industry has made it so that his take is not as contrarian any more.

Just like your list of beliefs above, sit down and create a list of all the things you disagree with the industry.

Though, I'll be honest, we all think we are contrarian rebels but this list will end up being MUCH smaller than you initially thought.

This has become a very popular topic of discussion the past few years.

I mean, it was ALWAYS popular but more seasonal. Like in the start of the year for example, a lot would write about their predictions for the new year coming up.

But now, with AI and the massive change it brought (and keeps bringing) in virtually all industries, this has been a much more common topic.

Of course, you don't have to — and shouldn't — just talk about predictions related to AI. You should talk about all kinds of relevant predictions.

For example, a prediction I keep hearing lately is that big, chonky courses will go completely out of fashion and people will only be buying smaller, leaner ones that solve a specific, niche problem instead of a bigger ones (eg how to banish the blank page vs learn copywriting).

Another one is that ecommerce brands will be focusing much more on retention instead of just tunnel-visioning on acquisition.

This can be predictions about the industry, the market, the world itself, heck it could even be predictions about the football season.

And of course, if you can combine it with a contrarian take, it will be even better for content.

This is somewhat similar to A. Core values/beliefs/philosophies but I decided to include this in a separate section because this way it will be easier to just hop in, find a good idea and hop back out.

While the Core values section is about the big stuff that shape your life, Rules I live by is more about the everyday stuff that we don't think so much about.

"I wake up at 6am so I can get 2 hours of writing before my partner wakes"

Type shi.

Some things you do a certain way every time but are not big enough to consider your value or philosophy.

Like for example adding cereal before the milk or vice versa. Or handling chores at the end of the day vs the start.

Maybe even the way you prioritize your tasks when you sit down to work.

These are often not visible, but there are a lot of little rules we have for ourselves whether we realize them or not. And they can often become great emails.

Now, before we move on to the next lesson.

When you use one of those ideas, it doesn't necessarily mean you should make the entire email just about this idea. It can be something that you mention at first and then tie into a story.

You can obviously go heavy on the idea and send a Crusader email if you want, but I want you to know that you have more options, like a Slice of Life email or even a Listicle if you wanna talk about something like a 'day in the life' with your Rules I live by as the idea.

The options are limitless when you're using this system you're going through right now.

Well, the title is pretty self explanatory here, but you basically want to talk about moments from your life.

You can talk about stuff that happened to you today or this week but don't just stick to that.

You should also talk about things that you lived and experienced in the past. Even way back when you were a kid.

It could be a big event like your wedding... a different kind of big event like the first time you remember your parents cheering you up...

Or it could be that time you sat down and played with your friends and it felt so nice.

You can also talk about experiences that are not so happy, like my first day in Switzerland where I got lost in a snowstorm and almost died day 1 - good times.

Or like the time my roommate and I broke my room's door down when we were chasing a friend of ours for some sweet sweet payback.

Point is, there are many different points in your life that you remember vividly.

You might not remember them right now because your brain can only hold so much memory immediately accessible... but when you think back to each point of your life, those memories suddenly emerge again.

Try and revisit lots of different parts and seasons of your life and note down those memories.

They are great for email ideas, but I think the most important thing you'll get out of it is remembering some good times you lived and some bad times you pushed through.

And you might learn some more stuff about yourself on the way.

I've fucked up, you've fucked up, we've all fucked up.

And that's fine.

Because you can turn your mistakes into content that brings you MONEY!

(And that's the only reason that's fine, otherwise, if you're not in a position to benefit from your mistake, you're obviously a disappointment and ought to be perfect)

((You understand the above was a joke, right?))

Anyway, one of the things you can talk about in your emails is mistakes.

But you have to be careful with this one, especially if you're selling stuff that rely on your skill and authority.

Because if you're sharing lots of mistakes and failures, you lose that authority and trust and people won't buy from you.

After all, the reason someone buys from you specifically is because they want to be more like you. And if you always make a big deal out of your mistakes and downplay your wins, you'll end up with an audience that does NOT want to be like you - and this will show in how much money they give you.

But there is a kind of mistake related to what you sell that you can share. And that is:

mistakes that you DID and then found a way to (over)correct them

These are mistakes where you realize what you did wrong, fix it, and now you're better off than before the mistake.

Like for example having a sales page that flopped and then you realize you took too long to get to the main point/your lead was too long.

Then you rewrote the page and it ended up being a huge success.

Was it a mistake? Yes.

Did it lead to something better than anything you could do before? Also yes.

That's a win in my books!

Another type of mistake you can share freely is any mistake that has nothing to do with what you sell.

Like for example something you did wrong in the gym and stalled your progress.

When a mistake is completely unrelated to your skill and authority, it's not a mistake anymore.

It's just CONTENT!

It doesn't make you less trustworthy. Just more real.

Now this is something you HAVE to share.

Whenever you have a win (or any past win you had), you need to think about how you'll share it with your audience.

Many reasons for that.

Starting with the obvious one:

When you have a win related to the skill you teach, you obviously increase your authority and trust in the eyes of your audience (+ the email will be a super easy transition to something you sell)

Client & skill wins is a big yes-yes.

Wins in any other field are also a big yes.

This is one of the big things about outside experiences that's great for people who sell stuff based on authority and skill.

If you make a mistake on something outside your area of expertise, people will think "makes sense, copywriting is his skill, not salsa dancing"

But if you have a WIN on something outside your area of expertise?

Boy oh boy, people go crazy!

Like "damn, he's good at copywriting AND salsa dancing? Is there even anything he can't do?"

And weirdly enough this increases your authority in general.

Even though there is no correlation between salsa and copywriting and even though how good someone is at salsa shouldn't play a role in you buying a copywriting course from them.

But the human brain doesn't work like that.

You are perceived as a multi-faceted, highly-skilled individual that's worth learning from because you obviously have a way of succeeding at everything you do.

And finally, the last reason it's important to share your wins...

Because your list cares about you!

If you are building a relationship-first list, where people get to know a bit more of you every day, they want to see you win, no matter what it is you're winning in.

Just like you would share a win with your friends, your readers want to hear about the good stuff happening in your life and be happy with your happiness.

Remember, every day you're sending a message to people. Not to dollar bills locked in a cyber cage in the interwebs.

This is close to what most people know as 'building in public'

You try stuff. You document what worked and what didn't and why.

It's great if you're working with clients and you get to try all sorts of stuff to all sorts of lists with very different products and audiences.

And your readers will LOVE hearing about all that because they get behind-the-scenes content from an actual professional in the heart of the industry.

Someone who is actually on the field right now, living stuff first hand (and your reader is getting it second-hand instead of third/fourth/sixth-hand).

Even if you're not actively working with clients right now, this works equally well if you're doing anything skill-based or if you're coaching people and then sharing the lessons.

And finally, you can also share what you're learning based on the stuff you're doing on your own list.

A new promo strategy you tried, an affiliate offer you promoted, a new sequence you've put in place. All that kind of stuff.

Personally, I don't know how to think about it, because you're telling people "Hey! This is how I was able to get more money from you!" which is kinda weird.

At the same time, if you're teaching them how to make money the same way, they want to hear it because they want to use the same technique, but I would be careful with what I share and how I share it.

Obviously, you can also learn stuff from books and other courses too, instead of just trying things yourself and working with clients, but this is already covered in the Media part of Your Feelings.

This is a very easy idea to turn into an email because it easily fits into the before-after-bridge structure.

It's also great for showcasing how you're evolving and growing, especially in the specific area you're talking about, which shows that:

1. You're seasoned
2. You have potential to evolve even more (and thus get even better) ((and thus your reader will benefit more for sticking around))

It's also one great, reliable way to create a mindshift for your reader, which is the quickest way to become an authority in someone's eyes - change how they view the world.

We all thought some things when we were younger and more inexperienced that are not true anymore.

So the fastest way to get a list of all the things you could write about that fit this then vs now situation is to go back to every time you started a new thing — anything from working out to the skill that's making you money right now — and write down the things you used to think were true that have now changed.

(Or how your methodology has changed, that's also a great way to apply this, although most of the times you're probably better off charging for this in a paid product)

One of the best things you can do for a healthy email list is to let them know that you welcome their input in the form of replies.

If your list is of a healthy size and you have a good relationship with them, you'll probably be getting some replies here and there anyway, but they won't be as frequent and they won't be as usable for content.

While if you do ask them for replies or just let them know that replying to you is a GOOD thing and you show it to them (eg by featuring one of your subscribers with their name and positively, provided they've given you permission)...

You're gonna get much MORE and much BETTER

Now, everybody is different. So, expect sometimes your replies to be all over the place.

And this is GREAT!

Some stray randoms will sometimes find their way into your inbox and will either be the best reply you could hope for or what gets you to finally open that bottle of whine...

You can pretty much pick and choose what reply you want to get when, based on your messaging, your mood, or what you had for breakfast 2 weeks ago.

Now, let's get into the types of replies you can get, starting with the most intuitive one.

i. Questions

People are more likely to ask you more questions (and give you more content for emails) if they feel like they're helping instead of annoying you.

Then, you can take the good ones (or all of them if you don't have too big of a list yet) and answer them in separate emails or batch them into a single email every now and then.

The good thing with these questions is that you don't have to necessarily answer the question straight up.

You can focus on just a tiny part of it...

On the wrong beliefs that made the person ask the question... on the kindness/rudeness of the reader... on anything that stands out and gives you something to talk about.

And of course, other than a great source of email ideas, questions are a great source of market research.

ii. Testimonials

This is heavily used in the DR world and for good reason.

You don't need to think long and hard about what to write this day. And at the same time, you have a highly persuasive email.

A combo made in heaven, I'm telling you.

You can showcase a big benefit they got and show how your reader can get the same if they buy...

You can talk about what made them skeptical and why it wasn't a real problem at all...

You can talk about the person's situation so that other people in a similar situation identify with them and increase their trust that you can help them...

You can talk about a specific thing they did or didn't do that makes them a model student so your other buyers can follow and see similar results

And the good thing — if you welcome people's replies — is that sometimes, you'll be sending your email and unintentionally trigger a bunch of testimonials from different people because of something you said that made them remember all the benefits your products gave them.

iii. Trolls

This is a goldmine within your goldmine.

Troll replies are some of the best content you can use for your emails as you have immediate controversy and drama, which your audience will eat up like fresh fondue.

This course is not the place to address how to react to trolls, but if you play your cards right, a troll comment can sometimes turn into a week of content plus exposure to other people in your niche.

Just make sure to address the troll in a broadcast email.

Do NOT reply to them and only later mention the situation to your list.

Bring the WHOLE situation to your list!

And of course that means that every other reply you'd write for follow up troll comments and replies, it's another daily email to feed the content machine.

iv. Other replies & comments

There are other replies and comments you might get that are worth mentioning but might not necessarily fit the above categories.

Just look for interesting things people say that you might wanna showcase.

This could be a unique insight, observation or perspective...

It could be a hot take that suddenly makes sense...

It could be a joke...

It could even just be a big name replying to your email.

If your readers know them or you can explain quickly why this is not some rando, you can showcase their reply even if they didn't contribute much this time, simply to showcase you have big-name people actively reading your emails.

Before we move on to the next part of the lesson, I want to say that while we focused more on the 'reply' side of audience-generated content, it doesn't necessarily have to come through replies.

It can also come from calls you had with mentees (or even mentors) or generally any way your audience talks to you.

It could be through a carrier pigeon doing smoke signals in the neighboring hill for all I care.

Now we're getting into the evergreen email ideas coming from your audience.

Starting with the biggest one.

i. Pains & Problems

I'm saying 'biggest' in terms of impact but sometimes it might also be the biggest in terms of list size.

Either way, this is a very strong, consistent, and reliable source of ideas.

Go ahead and make a list of ALL the pain points your customer avatar might have. List every single one.

And if there are sub-pains or pains that fit in the same category technically, write them down too, don't skip them.

When you're done you should have a pretty exhaustive list. It might take some time, but it will serve you for years to come even if you don't use it every day.

And now that you have your list, there's one thing left to do.

When you wake up in the morning, just pick one pain point from the list and write about it.

At first glance, this might seem monotonous. And at first I felt the same way too.

Until you realize there are THOUSANDS of different ways to talk about the same thing over and over again

And that's why I created the Email Archetypes. So you can plug your idea in and create new, fresh, and UNIQUE email even if you're using the same idea as yesterday.

ii. Dreams & Aspirations

The opposite of the Pains & Problems list.

If with your previous ideas you showed them a glimpse of hell, now you're giving them a taste of heaven.

Talk about all the things they want to do... everything they want to achieve... what their perfect future would look like 5 years from now (and next week - we gotta appeal to the lizard brain too).

Because if you always talk about the bad stuff, people will tune out.

They don't want to come in and constantly just hear about how shit their life is/will be.

So, give them the good stuff too to lift them up.

Also different people respond to different sales messages. Someone will be more pain-focused, someone else will be more dream-focused.

Make sure you make both of them tune in.

iii. Objections

Finally, objections. Emails are supposed to slowly persuade someone to buy your stuff.

So, if you're not breaking down their wall of objections brick by brick, what are you even doing in your emails?

Building a relationship is good and fun but it's not the ENTIRE game

Let me give you an example:

I love my brother. I'm actually in his place, visiting for a few days as I'm writing this sentence.

But if he sold me copywriting training, I wouldn't buy it - he's a data scientist who hates marketing and selling.

You get me? Great relationship, not great persuasion power.

So you gotta build the desire for what you have, make them want to leave from the place they currently are, and destroy all the objections that are waiting in the road between them and the sale.

If you have a skill you teach others through courses or mentoring, then you should definitely be sharing your wins either as simple off-hand remarks or testimonial emails...

Or sometimes even as full-blown case studies depending on how big the win is.

It could be anything from an email you sent for your client that you felt proud of all the way to explaining how you managed to get 25x ROAS.

Trust and authority grow best when you combine both quality and quantity of wins, that's why you want to have a combination of both.

Small wins remind your audience that you keep doing good work and big wins solidify the opinion in your audience's mind that you're a trusted person in this field.

You never wanna know how the sausage is made.

And that's why it looks so gross and horrible that it might prevent you from eating it altogether after you realize the twisted nature of it.

But it's the exact opposite case when the proverbial 'sausage' is made in a great way that breathes confidence into the main product.

If you have a good product or service to offer (and I assume you are), then showing how you work can make people even more willing to buy from you/hire you.

Because a high quality process of producing the end result often means that the end result will also be just as good.

0 sausage sellers show you how they make their sausage.

But think about how many businesses — especially the high-end prestigious ones — show you how they carefully select their 100% organic ingredients, how they choose only the top 1% ones to use for your product and how they go through rigorous tests to ensure utmost quality.

Similarly in a service-based business (or even info product business), you can show how you do your research, how you understand the client's specific problem before solving it and how you make sure the end result is as good as possible.

If you really are an expert in your field — or as I like to call it, a scarecrow, because you're out, standing in your field — then you probably have your index finger at the pulse of the industry.

You know and see what's working, what's not, and what used to work but doesn't anymore.

And whenever a shift happens in the industry, it's a prime email idea you can use that will boost your status and authority.

And even if no such change has happened in a while, you can simply pick and choose any convention of the industry you know best and that's related to your product or service and simply talk about it as a form of value-giving that again boosts your authority and status.

Your methodology showed them how the sausage is made. This is in the same POV but not really the same.

Around a decade ago, when I was still studying software engineering, one very popular content format was 'day in the life of a Google/Amazon/Other big company software engineer'

And they used to take you through what was supposed to be their day.

You can do something similar in your emails, talking about your day as a freelancer/coach/consultant/whatever.

Or, something that would be much better-suited for an email idea, would be to get them through a specific part of your work.

Like talk about how you went from blank page to writing today's email or how you did research to see if the new product you want to create is actually worth investing time into.

Make them feel what it's like to be in your shoes and make them appreciate the work you do or stress a specific point.

eg how much research it takes to come up with a good sales letter hook or how little time it takes if they use your proprietary product

Sometimes clients suck. But the good thing is that when this happens, you get email ideas out of it.

You probably shouldn't dox them, especially if they are generally a good client, but you can talk about situations that made the moment, er, not spark joy...

And it doesn't have to be just about bad client situations — hence the 'shenanigans' in the title — but you can talk about any other client interaction.

It could be wholesome or fun (maybe that person was uber ecstatic to start working with you. That would make for a fun email worth writing about without talking about a sucky situation).

Talking about client stuff is always good because...

1) It shows you working with clients, obviously and

2) It feels like gossip to your reader. Like you're peeping through the window into some form of corporate soap opera.

And people love anything that has drama or could even potentially have drama.

Fun fact, this was one of my first experiences with email.

(Other than a single piece of training I had gone through from the first ever course I bought and a few emails coming from the late, great Rob Allen)

But other than this handful of emails, my first exposure to email was when I had the idea of creating fictional LitRPG-inspired stories with copywriting lessons in them and someone told me that I reminded them of some dude called... Daniel Throssell?

This kind of emails are a lot of work compared to your average email, so I don't see them executed much other than in Daniel Throssell's welcome sequence and the occasional John Bejakovic fiction email.

But as I said earlier, if you can pull it off (and if your audience is into this kind of emails) then I think it's worth adding this to your email arsenal and using it every now and then.

Now, you can create full-on fantastical stories in other worlds with different rules of nature and all that good stuff, but you don't have to.

You could create a very simple fictional story happening in today's day and age, in this world.

And actually you can use that not just for emails but even go as far as to use it as your sales letter's big idea if you want to.

The most famous example of this is the Wall Street Journal's Tale of Two Young Men which generated $2,000,000,000 (2 billion) in subscription sales the years that it ran.

It told the story of two young men (duh!) who were very similar. They graduated from the same college, were born into similar circumstances (in terms of families, wealth, color, etc) and everything seemed to be almost identical between the two.

They meet after many years and they happen to be working in the same company. Except one of them was the manager of a small department while the other one was the president.

And then the sales letter continued by explaining how the one thing that made such a huge difference after college is knowledge. It kept talking about the importance of it and how the Wall Street Journal would give you that knowledge so you can be the successful person in the story.

Of course using your creativity doesn't just mean "tell fictional stories". What-if scenarios, is another idea source that utilizes your creativity.

It's not only different than fiction, but it's also the source of a lot of breakthroughs throughout history.

Because when you start with a what-if scenario, you allow your brain to start thinking out of the box and find unique solutions and ideas.

And it's an especially good fit for email.

Because with what-if scenarios, you're thinking about something completely new. And because it's something completely new, it's hard to conceptualize indeed what would happen in this hypothetical scenario you introduced.

But one of the best ways to achieve that is talking it out with someone. And that someone is your list in this case.

You present a hypothesis... and then talk your way into what it is and what this would mean for the industry or how it would work or what you'd have to do to make it profitable.

Then, just by talking about it, you start getting more and more context and other than a highly engaging and uniquely interesting email, you could also end up with a breakthrough no one had ever thought before.

(Which also happens to be prime course material, so sometimes this email can be the gift that keeps on giving)

Here is a (non exhaustive) list of what-if type scenarios you can use for email ideas:

• Simple hypotheticals (eg What if I needed to make $7,000 by Wednesday?)
• Thought experiments (eg What if I sold serialized fiction through email?)
• Extreme scenarios (eg What if I sent 1 email per month / 5 emails per day?)
• Scene flipping / Doing the opposite of what you should do? (eg what if I stopped using sales letters?)

A lot of times, what people see as creativity is simply a combination of two things that didn't exist before.

It's good to try and combine new things together from different fields but it's also a best practice in direct response marketing itself: if you see something working in a certain industry, you should try it out in a different industry as well, where people will still perceive it as fresh.

And because cross-pollination might seem too abstract or confusing, here are some subcategories of how you can use it in general and as a source of email ideas:

i. Industry techniques

Like I said, it's a good practice to take something that works in a certain industry and apply it in a different one.

And because I like putting my money where my mouth is, I am looking seriously into SaaS businesses these past few days to see what modifications I'd need to apply in SaaS the same proven retention strategies I've used over and over in ecom.

But it doesn't have to be a whole school of thought you apply from one industry to another.

It could be something much simpler like an offer structure.

ii. Format mashups (combining structures from different mediums)

Another thing you could do is take a specific format that exists in another industry and adapt it to your own.

For example, remember Buzzfeed quizzes? If you're a millennial+, you probably do. Now what if you created a Buzzfeed-type quiz for your niche and get more personalized data about your audience so you know what to sell and how to sell it?

Or you could try a different ad format (eg lately I've seen discussions in about new ecom ads that are just plain text over b-roll, which has been working great)

iii. Conceptual transfer

It's amazing how people exposed to different industries can think so differently about the same things.

For example, one thing a lot of the top fitness coaches do is help you with whatever you hired them for (eg lose weight/gain muscle). But!

On top of their help, they give you extra material and documentation so that after you are done working together, you can keep getting the exact same results by yourself, without their help.

I have yet to see something similar in other types of coaching like copywriting coaches and mentors for example, since we are greedy little capitalists.

But something like that could potentially work great and even make you more money than you would make if you didn't help them become independent.

iv. Process borrowing

Instead of borrowing what works, sometimes you can borrow HOW people work in other fields.

For example, chefs use "mise en place" - the practice of preparing and organizing all ingredients before they start cooking. Everything is measured, chopped, and laid out so the actual cooking is smooth and efficient.

You could apply this exact workflow to email writing: before you write, gather all your ideas, examples, and links in one place. Then the writing itself becomes much faster.

Or look at how software developers work: they break big projects into small, testable chunks. They don't build the entire app and THEN test it - they build one feature, test it, then move to the next.

You could apply this to course creation: don't build the entire course before validating it. Create one module, test it with beta users, get feedback, then build the next one.

The point isn't to copy what OTHER professions do for THEIR results - it's to copy how they ORGANIZE THEIR WORK and apply that organization to your own field.

Very few things grab attention as hard as the news does.

This is the same reason many sales letters use news as a way to grab attention on their headline AND/OR use a news event as the basis for their big idea.

So, it's a strong place to look for an email idea, too.

The other good reason to use news as an idea source is that there's always something happening

There's always new news - whether on a local or global level.

One day Trump does something stupid.

Another, your competitor gets in trouble.

The next, there's a change in the industry that you can write about.

Combine this with the 100% organic, all-natural drama that news is dripping with, you've found an excellent place to look for inspiration

A relatively new source of ideas and one I've used very successfully in ecom, generating lots of sales and lots of engagement.

What I like to do is go on social media (usually on Instagram) and find lots of meme pages around the niche I'm writing for.

Then, when I want to find a new email idea to write about, I visit those pages and look for funny or interesting memes.

Once I find my meme, I either write about the idea presented in the meme or paste the entire meme (with credit) and then riff off of it.

This works great because memes are an exaggeration of reality.

Sometimes this means there's a lesson mentioned in the meme but in its extreme form. Which you can then take, say "all jokes aside..." and transition smoothly into an actual lesson and pitch from your own experience.

Memes are also often about a common theme found in a group (also known as a stereotype), or about news, which we just learned is a good source of ideas.

For example, I used to write to gym enthusiasts and powerlifters. And one common way to joke about powerlifting is to talk about how long they rest between sets, often exaggerating it.

So, I would find such memes and post them and talk about them. And then I would transition into the product I was selling and talk about how good this shirt is for powerlifters because it's breathable or how stretchy it is, preventing it from getting torn when you wear a belt, etc.

Riddle me this, Batman:

Come Christmas time, how many of your favorite email writers will write a Christmas-related email (or a whole Christmas campaign)? And how many will just continue their daily emails like nothing happened?

Chances are, most people are going to write at least one email regarding the holiday season.

And, yeah, Christmas is a big deal in a whole lot of places throughout the world, so obviously lots of emails would be written about it.

But there are many many smaller seasonal and calendar events happening throughout the year that you could still use for an email idea.

Halloween, independence day, any big local event, back-to-school season, tax season, rabbit season, and many more.

If you haven't done it before, google or perplex (= search on perplexity.ai) all the holidays and important days of the country you live in. I bet you'll find at least a handful more than you'd expect.

And that's at least a handful more email ideas for you.

Movies, songs, books, TV shows.

These are all things we enjoy talking about with others. It's not uncommon between friends and family to hear the sentence 'have you watched any good movies lately?' or 'this reminds me of XYZ situation from KLM TV show'

We bond over shared experiences like this.

And whether you use it just as a form of bonding or as a lesson taught through the main character's action or even just to let your audience know that you read/watched ABC, pop culture is a reliable source of ideas.

You can also talk about stuff like sports and how your favorite team is doing lately.

Daniel Throssell actually does that a lot with cricket and even though I have watched less than 3 minutes of cricket throughout my life, these emails can still be entertaining if you do it right.

But there's another use of pop culture that's even more compelling and attention-grabbing than just talking about a piece of content.

And that's gossip!

Now now, if you're reading this, you might not be a big fan of gossip and I get it.

I don't care about why Taylor Swift suddenly stopped adding mustard on her glizzy either.

But what about... industry gossip?

"Goh! Did you hear that Stefan Georgi said copywriting is DEAD?"

It's niche but passes as pop culture-ish gossip.

And it pulls eyeballs like a really strong person pulling something really light (or something like that)

There are other trending topics happening that are not necessarily part of pop culture and not exactly news but definitely pull eyeballs.

One famous (and not trending anymore) example is the Hawk Tuah girl.

If this course is not ancient and retired by the time of this reading, you've probably heard of her.

She went mega viral at some point in 2023 - enough so to instantly get her podcast invites, song duos and a very profitable brand.

Everyone was talking about her and if you had an email list at that point, you should have too.

A perfectly fine, symbiotic relationship.

There are a bunch of stuff going viral every week. Trends come and trends go at least 6-7 times per month (Ha! 6 7!).

And oftentimes, it's in your best interest to be aware of and capitalize on them through your emails.

He who doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it.

And he who doesn't know history can't profit from it in his daily emails.

But he who does is a nerd able to use historical events and people as a vehicle to deliver a lesson.

And these emails are some of the most gripping ones, almost guaranteed to fascinate your readers.

After all, talking about history still falls under telling stories, one of the best tools of infotainment.

One note (not the Microsoft one):

I don't know who comes to mind when I say the words 'historical person' but me, being the Greco that I am, what comes to mind is the heroes of the Greek revolution. You might think of something similar.

But that's not necessarily what I'm talking about.

A historical person is a person that's part of history.

This means, a historical person is also Gary Halbert, Alfred Hitchcock, the advertisers and copywriters of the madmen era, Tupac and a whole lot of others. It's a big group.

So don't get your thinking (and your ideas) artificially limited.

One thing a lot of people do and you can do is... just ask AI 🤷

You can have the AI of your choice interview you and suggest email ideas to write about today.

This can be as simple as "tell me what I should write about in my email today".

And there's no limit in how complex you want to make your process. You can have a long and thorough process of going through your information, data, and experiences or have AI conduct a really thorough interview to uncover gems of the past few days/weeks.

The world is your oyster, whatever that means.

But if you want my biased opinion on the best way to do that, you should check out the Blank Page Thought Partner that will help you find an Email Idea, Email Archetype, and Email Opener for your email.

All while keeping you in control, without suggesting random ideas out of nowhere or jumping to conclusions (unless you use 1 of the 5 different modes which recommends a combo).

It doesn't think for you, instead it amplifies your own thinking.

If you're interested, check it out here

What if every day, before you wrote your email, you received an email idea straight to your inbox?

And what if you also received tips on how to execute on that idea?

And I'm not talking about basic ideas like "oh write about something that happened to work today"

I'm talking about something more thought-out and more unique.

Often the ideas I get from this helper are ideas I wouldn't have come up with by myself unless I was really trying to think out of the box that day.

Which you can definitely do, but it can also be done for you.

That's what Daily Email Habit is.

A simple service of one high quality idea per day and a few tips on how to execute it.

You can use it every day. Or you can keep it as a ready-to-go-idea vault for when you need it. I subscribed to this service before I had an active email list and so, right now I'm sitting at a vault of 180 ideas I could use whenever I want for myself or my clients.

And I saved the best for last: every single email comes with a cool meme on top!

If you want to check out Daily Email Habit, you can find it here.

I'm not political. But there's this quote I really like that is often associated with the left (and sometimes with Napoleon):

Quantity has a quality of its own

So, maybe instead of a few great ideas, you want lots and lots of different ones, to get the creative juices flowing and get you thinking outside of the box

If that's you, you'll probably love content aggregators.

The ideas are not as thought-out or obvious (because it's content that can inspire ideas, not necessarily ideas themselves)..

But there are LOTS of them.

It's kinda like watching the news (which we've already established is a GREAT source of ideas) but for your industry.

Most industries have newsletter aggregators.

Just Google: "[your industry] + newsletter" or "[your industry] + daily digest" or other similar combinations of this until you find something that suits you.

Depending on your niche and audience, you could also go for something a bit more general, like

• Morning Brew (business/tech)
• The Hustle (business/startups)
• Dense Discovery (design/creativity)
• TLDR (tech)

And let's not forget about Reddit - the content gift that keeps on giving.

Other than a great place for research, it's great as a content aggregator too.

(And even huge names use it frequently to write their own emails, so don't think this is just beginner stuff)

Subscribe to relevant subreddits and check your feed daily. Reddit IS a content aggregator, and the upvote system does the curation for you.