How to abandon your dreams

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I. One year ago

Where was I?

Ah, yes. Crushing disappointment. 

A year ago, I was down-on-my luck. I’d lost a TV show, my joy of writing and a sense of purpose. Having reached my dream of becoming a screenwriter, I realised that the intensity of existence required to be successful was not for me.

That painful realisation has left me without a paddle going down depression creek. What was I supposed to do now…give a shit about my day job in marketing, the most uncreative industry in existence?

Well…yeah, actually.

At that time, my best friend from school, Charles, was brewing some alchemy that was about to set the e-com world on fire. He’d begun Pip Decks during the pandemic from his living room. Cut to a few years later, and it had turned into an international company!

It had grown so popular that Charles was hiring extra help. One of the roles was to be in charge of the email marketing of Pip Decks. He asked if I knew anyone who could:

• work remotely

• with no set hours

• on 2x my wage (40x the amount I got paid for the TV script)

• with unlimited holidays

Me. That’s fucking who.

“But listen,” I told him. “I’m going to treat it just like a normal job. The kind where I clock off at 5pm. This isn’t my passion. You’re not going to catch me at midnight working on emails.”

(“hahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” — current day Jacob)

“No problem”, he said.

But there was a problem. A pretty damn big problem. I had no idea how to write a good email, grow a newsletter, and create complicated automated sequences and money-making campaigns…

II. How I learnt to stop worrying and love the email

I got the job.

Look, it was pure nepotism, okay? I’m a big dumb nepo baby…but so is Jamie Lee Curtis, and she was spectacular in Everything, Everywhere All At Once, and you can’t take that away from her! She won that Oscar fair and square! What are you going to do about it? Tell a lovely older lady that she doesn’t deserve an Oscar? Shame on you! Shame!

Anyway, like Jamie Lee Curtis, I also tried very hard. I dove deep into the strategies of email marketing. I joined expensive courses, followed niche subreddits and began a new Twitter account (follow here). Any lesson I could find on email marketing I implemented into Pip Decks.

I was enjoying myself. Shit. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to despise every moment of my day job and yearn to be free so that I could craft my art! What the hell was happening to me?

The combination of complete creative freedom to craft engaging emails that educate and entertain was an intoxicating cocktail. I was being paid healthily for the first time in my life. My work-life balance had never been better.

Was I…h…h..happy?

No! It couldn’t be! I’m not a MARKETER! They’re evil capitalists that trick and deceive you into wanting stuff you don’t need! I’d been doing that shit for ten years! I knew that weird feeling in your heart whenever you produce a piece of good marketing for a bad company.

But this felt different…

It dawned on me that this was the first time that I had marketed a product that I genuinely believed in and in a way that didn’t feel manipulative but playful and creative.

Holy shit. Is this what all marketing is supposed to be like?! (spoiler alert: yes)

III. Zero Grift

But, I noticed something strange…

As I evolved and introduced more fun and creativity into our emails, they drifted further away from what Twitter Gurus would call good email marketing:

• I emailed people daily.

• I wrote meandering stories that rambled on for 1000 words.

• I gave away a tonne of free content.

• And often forgot to include a CTA.

And yet, people were buying — they were seriously buying.

The further I moved away from the SELL SELL SELL mentality of common email marketing gurus, the more Pip Decks made.

Who would have thought that caring about the customer, providing free resources and entertaining them with every email would grow an audience?

It was satisfying in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. I not only had a successful marketing stream, but I had a new ethos to follow.

‘Sell honestly’ is a frequent marketing mantra among internet gurus, but you only need to dig a little deeper to realise many don’t practice what they preach. They still pressured you into buying. They still used shady Twitter tactics. They’re still trying to extract the most money from you with cynical copywriting tricks.

That’s why I created Zero Grift. I wanted to dive into this new ethos. It had given me a renewed lease on life and creativity while also making some top $$$ for the company — why not share it with others?!

The secret to my transformation from miserable scriptwriter to happy marketer is discovering a belief system I could align myself with.

Does everyone agree with this belief system? Absolutely not. There’s a bunch of steak-eating, vaccine-denying, conspiracy-loving direct copywriters that’ll scream SOYBOY CUCK MARKETER if they ever come across this article.

But I’m not writing to them — I’m writing to you. Someone who (hopefully) wants to discover a better way to sell your products online than the ones we see touted by the gurus. A way which gives people autonomy while giving you space to be creative with your messaging.

I’m here to tell you that email is how you can do that.

In the next few weeks, I’ll dive deeper into some themes mentioned here. Together, we can build a cool community of marketers, solopreneurs and creators who want to unlock a new way of selling that is open, honest, relaxed, fun, and above all, creative.

I can’t wait.

Peace,

— Jacob

P.S. This newsletter is always evolving. I’ve added a poll at the bottom of this email. You can rate this and future issues with a click of a button. It’ll help me see which ones have helped you the most!

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