Social creatures in a digital world

And my Welcome Sequence Guide is live! Grab your copy today.

Feb 10, 2022

Welcome to Connectable #013 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

I am so thrilled to have you here!

I want to help your business succeed. I want to inspire change. I want you to question your current processes and align yourself with the needs of your audience/community. I want you to attract the right people, solve the right problem and create superfans.

The medium? Email.

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Get your guide!

Ready to hear the best news you’ve heard all week?? 👂

My email Welcome Sequence Guide has officially been published!

It’s the first digital product I have made of this size and I am so happy I finally found the time to finish it and share it with you.

GO CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Get your hands on it today and share it with anyone in your network who could benefit from this! I’d love to hear what you think.

It’s 11 chapters over 44 pages of email marketing tips and ideas.

Social creatures in a digital world

Here’s something I feel a lot of us forget while working and living in the digital world day in and day out: we are in fact highly social creatures—relationships, even when they are digital and we can’t quite put a real-life face to them, matter. We still rely heavily on an array of social signals to inform our online buying decisions.

When we shop online, join digital communities or learn from someone on YouTube, we need a layer of trust and a ‘like’ for the person or people behind the business. We humans aren’t just willing to engage with new relationships out of the blue and are pretty sensitive to feeling like ultimately, we’re just a quick pitstop on someone else’s success journey.

“... an 'ethical bribe' followed by an 'indoctrination' email or two, then BOOM!, we're on the endless offer merry-go-round until we pull the plug.”
Or, on the other end of the spectrum are the intense launch sequences followed by months (or years) of silence, then an obligatory "Hey, sorry I disappeared" sob story email (followed by another money grab launch).
- André & Shawn, Tiny Little Businesses

Believe it or not, it’s your job to convince them that this is not the case, that you are to be trusted and that you WANT a relationship, not theirs to automatically believe you. And not with just one email or one ad, but every single of piece of communication, from words to images to videos.

Here are four steadfast rules I like to stick to.

Integrity: be who you say you are.
Empathy: show your audience that you understand their problems and that you want and are here to solve them. Humans want to be understood.
Credibility: do you have the experience you say you have? Will you actually be able to solve their problems?
Consistency: trust is a long-term thing. Every time we interact with our audience is an opportunity to build, or erode, trust.

Because you know what, as André said it best: “it's easier, and a lot more enjoyable, to genuinely care about your audience.” It’s not rocket science.

The digital space is not a veil behind which you can hide all your unattractive intentions. We are clever social beings, can smell bullsh*t from a mile away and deeply feel when someone does not have our best interests at heart.

And remember, you won’t always get it right - so when you do mess up, apologise.

Newsletter of the week 📖

Public Lab - Kevon Cheung

Public Lab is a free weekly newsletter to help you show your work in public to grow your business with raving fans.

Kevon Cheung has been on this newsletter before in my Q&A section (which you should definitely (re)read cause he has some really cool insights) and in this newsletter👆 he shares more of his authentic tips on building in public.

For any business or creator, just getting your stuff out there and seeing what others think is an invaluable experience and skill. So go check it out!

Article of the Week 📜

First Principles Thinking - Sahil Bloom (The Curiosity Chronicle)

Key takeaways:

First principles thinking is a powerful framework for deconstructing complex problems and generating creative solutions.
A first principle is basic, a foundational assumption or truth— it cannot be broken down any further.
When speed and efficiency are critical, use reasoning by analogy; when creativity and innovation are required, use first principles thinking.
Use Socratic Questioning to dig into the foundational truths of a problem. Once you uncover them, you can begin to slowly build up to a more creative, imaginative solution.