Turn Down a Pot of Gold? Do This Instead…

Yesterday, I attended a mastermind session with Michael DeLon (PaperBackExpert) and his brilliant right-hand-man Caleb DeLon.

The discussion turned to inbox management — how to handle all those emails you receive every day. 

Caleb described how he set up automations (he’s great at that) to organize incoming emails. 

For example, when he gets emails from his favorite marketing experts (he mentioned Daniel Throssell, Laura Belgray and me   ) the messages automatically skip the inbox and go straight to a folder where he can find them later. 

No more slogging through long, random lists of emails. No more manually sorting trash from treasure. 

That results in a huge productivity boost 

Caleb spends less time sorting and sifting email so he can spend time doing useful things — reading info-taining, business-building emails from his go-to experts. 

Caleb doesn’t read my emails every day. He gobbles up a handful at a time (reading time < 5 minutes) at a later date — when it’s convenient for him.  

One of my subscribers once told me: “I LOVE your emails. But I can’t handle them.” 

So he opted out.

His loss. 

“Handling” the emails is easy (ask Caleb). 

Improving your business and life — without the help of experts whose content you love? That’s hard. 

(That’s like telling the leprechaun, “Thanks for the pot of gold. But I have to pass. I can’t handle all that gold. I don’t have any place to store it.”) 

I automatically sort my emails much like Caleb does. 

I might create a video to show how I do it. Want me to send you the video?

If so, reply to this email and write “Sort On!” I’ll send it to you when it’s ready. 

Thanks for reading. I’m grateful.

Tom

He grew up before TV dominated, when radio was king. His favorite “shows” were on the radio — Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Burns and Allen, The Lux Radio Hour, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger. 

I picture Dad in his bedroom…

…ear cocked toward the radio…

…listening…

…visualizing…

…imagining.

Bob Dylan grew up in the same era. He, too, loved his radio.

He listened to radio shows late into the night. And all that listening made Dylan a better creator. 

Here’s how he described it in a 2015 article in The New Yorker:

“It made me the listener that I am today. It made me listen for little things: the slamming of the door, the jingling of car keys. The wind blowing through trees, the songs of birds, footsteps, a hammer hitting a nail. Just random sounds. Cows mooing. I could string all that together and make that a song. It made me listen to life in a different way.” 

“Listen to life
in a different way.”
That’s a good idea.

We live in an anti-imagination, creation-suppressing age.

TV and YouTube paint pictures for us. 

The internet diverts our attention and dulls our senses.

Robots ghost-write stories for marketers present the content as their own. 

No deep listening, visualizing, or imagining required — unless…

…you want to embrace your humanity and stand out as a creative, entertaining human.

If that IS what you want. If you…

…want want your voice to be heard above the robotic din and…

…wish be noticed, admired, and hired…

…you must listen to life in a different way.

Pay attention to the world around you in a different way.

Communicate and relationship-build with prospects and clients in a different way. 

Craft content in a different way…

…a human, story-powered way. 

I’ll show you how.