Listen up. I’m not making “newsletters” anymore.
Let me tell you why.
I guess I was bored. And I was boring.
I was embarrassed when people asked me what I did for a living. “I make newsletters for real estate agents and other people,” I would tell the ground.
Then silence.
Well, there isn’t anything else to say, is there? Except maybe a sigh of disappointment. This guy used to work on big-name newspapers. Why the heck is he wasting himself on newsletters?
Was he fired or something?
I was beginning to feel the same. Newsletters. What a snore!
* * *
Then one day I read some blog or something – can’t remember where. And it talked about looking at your business a whole new way.
More metaphysical, law of attraction, naïve claptrap, I thought. Sheesh!
But I read it anyway, and this is what it said – more or less.
We’re all here to make some kind of contribution to the world. And if you’re running a business, that includes you, mister.
You’re not here just to sell a bunch of stuff (so you can buy a bunch more stuff).
You’re here to make a contribution. To help people.
So when I’d done reading. I took a shower…and started pondering.
Yes. I can do that too.
I can make people’s lives better.
I can be on a mission too.
And this is what I came up with:
I will make thousands of business owners’ lives better by giving them the tools to create real relationships with their clients, to bring in more money…and therefore to make their businesses more successful.
Because when their business is more successful, they will be happier, their families and friends will be happier – and the world will be a better place.
So my mission became: A Newsletter for Every Business (Even Funeral Homes).
And tell you what? Without a doubt, from that day onward, I felt good about my business again.
I wasn’t just making newsletters; I was making a valuable contribution.
And here’s where it gets strange. When I started to think like that, my business started to grow rapidly.
My enthusiasm and my desire to help must have rubbed off on the people I emailed and spoke with. I didn’t try to sell…I just tried to help. And so I made more money.
* * *
So how does that relate to you?
Easy really.
Whatever business you are in, you can discover what kind of contribution you can make.
If you are in real estate, you are helping people find environments that will allow them and their families to thrive.
If you are in insurance, you are protecting people from disaster, making them happier because they have the peace of mind that insurance coverage provides.
If you are in the mortgage business, you are making it possible for people to achieve their dreams and put a roof over their heads.
If you are a financial planner, you are taking the fear out of old age poverty by ensuring that people have adequate savings and investments.
If you are an accountant, you are helping people live more fruitful lives because you are saving them money that they can spend on things that really mean something.
And so it goes on.
And with your newsletter, you are sharing that contribution by showing how you can make people’s lives letter, proving that you are there for them and building a real relationship based on service, not on sales.
Your newsletter becomes part of your contribution. It’s content is something you really want to share…because it makes you feel good.
When you think of it that way, every act of marketing, every transaction is a way to make the world better.
And when you’re making the world better, you’re making yourself feel better too.
And the money comes.