You Can be The “Luckiest” Content Creator Alive. Here’s How…

In the summer of ’45, on a scorching day in LA, a guy named Mel visited his friend and partner Bob. On Bob’s piano, Mel found a notebook with a few random lines.

“What’s this?” Mel asked.

Bob explained: The heat was driving him crazy. So Bob wrote some lines about winter. He thought envisioning winter might help him beat the heat.

Thirty-eight years later, Mel told Conan O’Brien, “I looked at him and said, ‘This may be a song.’ And in 40 minutes, that song was written.”

The songwriters: Mel Tormé and Bob Wells.

The lines in the notebook: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and “Jack Frost nipping at my nose.”

The tune: “The Christmas Song.”

I like that story.
Here’s how I found it and turned it into this email…

Soon after I woke this morning, I grabbed my favorite mug, filled it to the brim with French roast, and lifted the lid on my laptop. (Moose lay at my feet, wishing I’d hurry up so we could go for a walk).

I visited OnThisDay.com and discovered Mel Tormé died on this day in 1999.

I like Mel Tormé and figured I could mine his life for email fodder.

I asked my GPT-powered robot, “B-9(?)” to: “tell me a Mel Tormé story.”

“B-9(?)” told me “The Christmas Song” story.

I don’t believe anything GPT-powered robots say so I went to Google to fact-check “B-9(?)’s” story.

That led me to YouTube video of Mel Tormé on Conan O’Brien’s show. I got the story straight from the Tormé’s mouth.

Lots of business lessons in this tale…

…beginning with Bob Wells’ notebook. All of the successful writers, songwriters, and other creators I know have notebooks (or digital notetakers) where they noodle, doodle, and jot.

They may create the noodles, doodles, and jots with ZERO intent of turning them into something (Bob Wells just wanted to cool off).

But those nuggets sit in the notebook…

…to be revisited later…

…to inspire a creation.

“The Christmas Song” may seem like a lucky, magical accident. But it began with a few lines, scribbled in a notebook. And it blossomed when a creator saw those lines and thought, “This may be a song.”

Same goes with this email. I routinely visit OnThisDay.com, HolidaysCalendar.com, News of the Weird, online forums, and other places where I gather interesting and entertaining anecdotes and factoids.

Note that word “routinely.”

This is a routine for me. A habit. Part of a system.

I never sit in front of an empty computer screen, wondering what to write today, feeling empty-handed, wishing some magic would strike.

I always have a collection of noodles, doodles, and jots to draw from.

Sometimes, as happened today, I find an anecdote I can instantly turn into an email. Other times, I write a few lines in my notebook, let them germinate, and rediscover them later, ready to blossom into a story.

None of this is an accident.

The Roman stoic philosopher Seneca said,

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Preparation meeting opportunity…

That’s how Mel and Bob wrote “The Christmas Song.”

That’s how I wrote this email.

Routines, habits and systems to create a story-powered, client-attracting super-magnet…

If you’ve ever felt stuck in front of that empty screen, wishing for the creative magic to strike, you need routines, habits, and systems to improve your content-creation “luck.”

A great place to start: Club Storyville — an exclusive, online community and treasure chest for savvy business leaders who want to create more captivating, client-attracting, profit-generating emails, social posts, videos, landing pages, and other content — without getting stuck or working their tails off.

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