There’s a group on Facebook devoted to Dull Women. Known as the Dull Women's Club. It's modeled after the Dull Men's Club. Meant to celebrate the ordinary daily life of women, it's a public group that's grown to over 401K members...fast. And the tone of posts and comments from 250K to 400K (in a couple weeks time) has gone from fun and silly and simple to snarky and ... impolite. Whether or not the owners and admins will be able to shift the tone back to fun and silly and simple is up in the air. I'll stay for a while just to see.
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Then, a woman posted a request for pen pals. A memory came back to me. Very strong. Of the pen pals I had when I was young. Actually, they began as in person friends and turned into pen pals because my family moved. I used to trade letters with Sarah in Grand Haven, MI, Laura in Hanover, IN, Skye in Frankfort, KY. Eventually the writing back and forth simply stopped. I'm not sure why.
A few years ago I attempted to connect with a few women in my social media network as a pen pal. We agreed to write to one another. And we did a few times. Then, 2 years ago I sent all 3 a letter and haven't received a response. *shrug* I will assume they got busy and lost interest.
Today I'm a member of Postcrossing.com. I get to send a postcard to a random person in a random country. For every card I send and is received, I get a card from someone. It's quite fun to get a card from a middle schooler in Japan who tells me they adore the park down the road from their house. And a card from a man in Brazil who thinks lighthouses are simply the best thing ever so he writes a short history about his favorite. There are more, of course. The point is I get to connect with fellow humans around the world. And for that moment, I get to honor their existence with my attention and I know I'm getting the same from someone I've written to.
Now I'm ready for more. I'm ready to once again commit to writing a letter to someone. A letter to introduce myself. A letter to share thoughts about something I read or ate or did. A letter to work through life's challenges. And I'm ready to receive the same letters from someone else.
So, because this woman posted in the Dull Women’s Club group about being a pen pal - I went looking. And found a Facebook group called Ladies Who Pen Pal. It has 19.7K members from around the world. There are rules. And there are delightful posts from women who introduce themselves with their hobbies and likes and preferences, looking for pen pals.
I posted my introduction today. My hope is that I'll find 2 women in the USA who want to correspond with me. My hope is that I make a new friend (or two).
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A Marketing Tip
How to outmarket your competition
First, don't panic because it's not going to cost you any more than what you're spending right now.
Stop spending money on ineffective advertising. Unless you're an established, 7 figure a year business, don't pay for "branding ads". Jay Abraham calls them institutional ads. Their purpose is to keep your name in front of your audience. Seeing your name all the time doesn't induce anyone to purchase. Direct response advertising does.
Put all that "branding" budget into direct response ads. Because they're trackable. They ask the reader to respond in some way (by phone, by mail/email, by coupon, by clicking) - and this means you can measure the effectiveness of the ad.
When you can measure the effectiveness, you know by the market's actions and sales brought in whether or not to keep running it or to make changes.
Many of your competitors are spending more time doing 'organic marketing' on social media than they are running paid ads. Because they want to save money. This means they're not making nearly the money you will if you put your time and money into direct response ads (either on social media or elsewhere).
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From the Research Files
aka random bits of info you may or may not be able to use in your life
Temu is a Chinese-owned digital marketplace that has taken the internet by storm in 2023. According to Statista, Temu sees over 30 million new downloads every month, making it the number one shopping app in the App Store and Play Store. Temu's stand-out feature is that many of the site's products are incredibly cheap. That's because many of the sellers use slave labor...
The US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party published a report that states Temu does not take the necessary steps to ensure the products on the site comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Act.
The same report asserts that Temu exploits a US commerce loophole that allows the company to avoid paying tariffs and complying with US commerce laws and regulations.
And...A class-action lawsuit filed in New York claims the app knowingly steals personal information. It argues that TEMU fails to properly protect people who use its app.
PS Do you know Brian Kurtz? He’s the former Executive Vice President of Boardroom Inc. and Founder of Titans Marketing - a direct marketing education company. For over 40 years, he’s been active in the direct response world. He knows and works and shares meals with some of the greatest direct response marketers who ever lived. Those people include Ken McCarthy, Jay Abraham, Eugene Schwartz, Ryan Deiss, Mark Ford, David Deutz, and so many more.
Brian’s online mastermind groups is called Titans Xcelerator and it’s incredible. I’m into my third year of membership and I’ve benefited greatly from the relationships made there. I’ve had access to established multi-figure business owners. I’ve chatted with successful business owners and gotten answers to specific questions about how to improve my business. The result? I’ve pivoted once more in my business and my revenue has doubled … and I’m on target to 10x my revenue this year. Because of who I know, who I listen to, who I learn from in this mastermind.
It’s an affordable (incredibly affordable considering the value I get every week I’m on a call with him and the experts he brings in to share with us)…option for business owners and copywriters who are struggling to grow.
If you’re new to business - you need to be surrounded by business owners who can show you what you should do next.
If you’re struggling to get your business past a milestone - you need access to business owners who’ve taken their business to $1M/year in sales to $50M/year in sales.
If you’re ready to exit your business - you need to be around people who have exited and entered numerous businesses.
