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Every issue of this newsletter gives you the exact systems, strategies, and principles I’ve used to generate 8 figures (almost entirely) with email marketing. So you can build your own systems that will carry you through the next algorithm change or recession. This is what actually works.

Sometimes I think about what I would tell my younger self if I could send him an email.

The version of me who was just starting to figure out email marketing — what would I actually say?

Not motivational advice. Not philosophical reflections about success or following your dreams. I mean a short, brutally practical email. The kind that simply says, “Here are the mistakes you’re about to spend years making. You might want to skip a few of them.”

The first thing I’d probably mention would surprise a lot of people.

I spent far too much time studying copywriting.

And I don’t mean a little too much time. I mean, years. Looking back now, I probably spent the better part of my first seven years in this business obsessing over copywriting techniques, persuasion frameworks, headline formulas, subject line experiments, and every classic direct-response book I could get my hands on. I studied the legends. I broke down successful emails line by line. I rewrote ads by hand just to understand how they worked.

At the time, it felt incredibly productive. In reality, it was mostly a very sophisticated distraction.

Now, don’t get me wrong — copywriting absolutely matters. Being able to communicate clearly and persuasively is a real skill, and if you’re running an email-driven business, it’s a valuable one to have. But there’s a point where improving that skill stops producing meaningful results, and that point arrived for me long before I realized it.

What I was really doing during those years was polishing something that was already good enough.

I kept trying to make my emails slightly better, slightly sharper, slightly more persuasive. I would tweak subject lines endlessly, experiment with small structural changes, and analyze every sentence as if the fate of the business depended on it. But when I look back on those efforts now, the improvements were microscopic. It was like taking something that was already ninety percent good and pushing it to maybe ninety-two or ninety-three percent.

That might feel satisfying to someone who enjoys craftsmanship.

But it doesn’t transform a business.

Those are cosmetic improvements, not leverage.

And leverage — the kind that multiplies results — is what actually changes the trajectory of a business.

The uncomfortable truth about copywriting is that once you reach a certain level of competence, becoming slightly better doesn’t move the needle very much. You can spend an entire afternoon refining a subject line, and the difference between the “good” version and the “slightly better” version might be a few extra percentage points in open rate.

That feels like progress when you’re looking closely at the numbers.

But from a distance, it barely changes the outcome.

Meanwhile, the activities that genuinely move a business forward tend to look much less glamorous. Growing the size of your email list, reaching new audiences, putting more offers in front of the people who already trust you, and building systems that allow the business to operate consistently — those things create real leverage.

The problem is that leverage rarely feels as intellectually satisfying as studying copywriting.

Studying copywriting feels like sharpening your sword. You’re reading brilliant sales letters written by masters of persuasion. You’re dissecting psychological triggers and rhetorical patterns. You start to see how certain phrases guide a reader’s attention and how specific structures lead someone naturally toward a decision.

It’s fascinating work.

And because it’s fascinating, it’s incredibly easy to justify spending endless hours doing it.

But fascination and leverage are not the same thing.

Before we go any further…

If you've ever tried to build an online income before and it didn't work, it wasn't your fault.

The programs were designed for kids with no responsibilities. 

They teach tactics that rely on chasing trends and creating endless content. They assume you have unlimited time and unlimited energy…

So of course it didn't work for you.

A 22-year-old can afford to blow six months on a business that goes nowhere…

They can take wild risks because they've got decades ahead to recover.

You need something proven, something built for where you actually are in life - not for 22-year-olds.

I wrote The Second Act for people with real experience who've been around long enough to know that most "opportunities" are just repackaged nonsense.

The book shows you how to take the professional communication skills you've spent decades building and channel them into an asset you actually own - 

An email list that produces income without asking permission from any platform or employer.

Grab it for $9.99 and get free shipping using the coupon code SHIP4FREE before the price goes back up.

Now, as I was saying…

The real breakthroughs in my business didn’t come from writing slightly better emails. They came from doing more of the activities that actually scale: growing the audience, reaching more people, sending more offers, and creating systems that allowed the business to keep producing results even when I wasn’t obsessing over every sentence inside an email.

Once those pieces were in place, something interesting happened.

The importance of perfect copywriting started to shrink.

Not because copywriting stopped mattering — it still does — but because other forces began to matter far more. When your list grows large enough and your systems are operating properly, the difference between a good email and a slightly better email becomes much less significant.

At that stage, volume and leverage begin to dominate.

More readers.

More opportunities.

More momentum.

Looking back now, I realize I spent years trying to perfect a craft that was already good enough while ignoring the parts of the business that would have multiplied my results much faster. I was sharpening the blade long after it was already sharp enough to do the job.

And that’s the trap.

Copywriting is seductive because it feels like the core skill of email marketing. It’s the part everyone talks about, the part everyone studies, the part that seems to separate professionals from amateurs. But in reality, it’s only one component of a much larger machine.

Once that machine begins working properly — once your audience grows, your systems stabilize, and your offers consistently reach the right people — the marginal difference between good copy and slightly better copy becomes surprisingly small.

Which is why, if I could send that message back to my younger self, it would be very simple.

Learn copywriting.

Learn it well enough that you’re competent.

Then stop obsessing over it.

Because once the writing is good enough, the game stops being about writing better emails.

The game becomes about getting those emails in front of more people.

P.S. If you enjoy these ideas, you’ll love the deeper conversations we have on the List Building Lifestyle podcast.