You already write … a lot. From social posts to daily emails to messaging your friends, there is a continual demand for you to organize words to communicate. You may not think you’re a writer, but you probably spend more time crafting messages than you realize. If becoming a good writer takes practice, then you’re already practicing. So, what can you do each day to improve those writing skills?
On this Elementality, Reese explains to Abby the writing process he takes his copy through and why the best writing is honest, accessible, and simple. Content creation is at the heart of marketing, and while writing can be intimidating, the good news is that almost anybody can improve with a little direction and discipline.
Podcast Transcript
Reese Harper:
When writing’s at its best, it’s actually when it’s gone through a really, really, really shitty first draft, where it’s like super garbage and you didn’t hold back emotionally when you were drafting. You dumped it all onto the page. You said everything that was in your heart, everything in your mind, everything you’re feeling, and you knew it was safe because you weren’t gonna share it with anyone. You just dumped it all out there. And the only way you could really get the best nuggets are when you know no one is gonna necessarily see what you just wrote.
Abby Morton:
I like that. I never thought about it in that aspect.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. Just like this first thing, no one’s gonna see it. No one’s gonna read it, and you don’t have to share it. But your goal is to get the emotional dump just all the way out, so you’re like, “I said it.” There’s nothing I didn’t say.
Jordan Haines:
Welcome to Elementality. Each episode, we will explore the challenges and the opportunities faced by financial advisors and how advisors can use Elements to grow their business and serve their clients better. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Abby Morton:
Welcome to Elementality, everyone. I’m your host today, Abby Morton, here with Reese Harper.
Reese Harper:
I salute you.
Abby Morton:
So excited to be here.
Reese Harper:
I just saluted everyone.
Abby Morton:
We just had this funny conversation about being picky eaters, and Reese is like, this other person who will go unnamed is more picky than me. And I’m thinking, Reese, I’ve never met anyone pickier than you eating.
Reese Harper:
Yes, I think this is fair. I can give you a brief report of a meal I recently had in Punta Mita, Mexico, at the St. Regis. It’s one of the only four-star Forbes restaurants you can get to in Punta Mita. It’s called Carolina. It was incredible. Ten-course chef-prepared tapas meal. It blew my mind.
Abby Morton:
And that says a lot…
Reese Harper:
Blew my mind.
Abby Morton:
‘Cause you are a foodie. You are like very…
Reese Harper:
I was like, are you kidding me? Are we alive right now? That’s how I felt. Sunset beach…
Abby Morton:
I’m glad [0:02:07.2] ____ that.
Reese Harper:
White sand, 20 ft away. One of the most artistic platings I’ve ever seen. Very reasonable price. It was an experience. They could charge me twice as much and I’d have paid it.
Abby Morton:
Shoutout to Carolina’s.
Reese Harper:
It’s called Carolina.
Abby Morton:
Okay, there we go. Go check it out.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. West of… If you haven’t been to Puerto Vallarta, Punta Mita is about an hour north. And you’ll think you just floated up on a cloud to heaven.
[laughter]
Abby Morton:
I love that.
Reese Harper:
That’s what you’ll be thinking.
Abby Morton:
I want to eat that kind of food.
Reese Harper:
Shoutout. Folks, I need to hear from you. If you’re interested in this conversation, I’m gonna start a side hustle, ‘Reese’s email buddies.’ That’s not true, but you can email me.
Abby Morton:
Don’t do that.
Reese Harper:
I want to have friends to talk about all these great food, meals. Just great food, but…
Abby Morton:
He’s starting another blog that is all about the fun things that he eats.
Reese Harper:
Board’s got me locked down right now in a non-compete. I can’t talk about food.
Abby Morton:
Oh, dang it. You know what? [laughter] No, starting a blog, it’s actually a great transition into something else I wanted to talk about today. Look at that transition.
Reese Harper:
That’s a perfect transition. Was that planned?
Abby Morton:
I’m pretty good at that.
Reese Harper:
My goodness. Alright.
Abby Morton:
So as you know, we’re talking about different marketing activities that advisors can do and trying to give them some tips and tricks to help them be more successful in all the different types of activities. You’d think we’d have to get a marketing degree to become a financial advisor, because there’s so much involved, right?
Reese Harper:
Yes.
Abby Morton:
So today, we want to talk about one of my least favorite things to actually do. But I know you are very good at it.
Reese Harper:
I wouldn’t say good…
Abby Morton:
Writing…
Reese Harper:
But I do it a lot, yes.
Abby Morton:
Writing, blogging, writing papers. So let’s talk about that. What are initial thoughts?
Reese Harper:
Let’s define, “I’m good at this.” Very few people read what I write. We’ll put it that way. [chuckle] Now I don’t know what that says about America or me, or just the general state of affairs, but our intellectual rigor is in decline, folks. The last holdout is the written word and…
Abby Morton:
Is anyone even reading…
Reese Harper:
No, man. I mean…
Abby Morton:
Blogs and news articles anymore?
Reese Harper:
I can’t even get my kids to text me a coherent sentence, let alone get them to read an article when ChatGPT can digest it. So this is a different world we’re going into. However, there’s great news of… And I believe strong encouragement for why you should continue to lean into your writing skills, whether it’s taking a course or improving your short copy skills. I’d like to make the case for why I think this is such a critical part of building a firm still.
Abby Morton:
Should everyone write at least at some level?
Reese Harper:
Well, everyone has to write. As a financial advisor, you have to write. Most of what you’re doing every day is email. Your email construction, the way that you write email, the tone you bring… Let’s just start with email and say, wow. This is your first impression. It’s your last impression, most recent impression. It’s your… There’s a lot going on in an email. And I feel like financial advisors could improve a lot in the way they approach their objectives with email. And probably the most experience any of us will have or have are gonna be writing emails to clients back and forth.
Abby Morton:
Definitely.
Reese Harper:
And that… Just a really important job. I’ll give you…
Abby Morton:
I didn’t even think about that aspect. I was thinking higher level, like writing articles and newsletters and blogging. But I think you make a really good point that even your day-to-day emails with your clients is important to do that and do it well, right?
Reese Harper:
Yeah, because if you do… I have a really strong belief that the work we do with our current clients is the most important work for growth, to grow our business, it actually matters a ton that we nail the work that we’re doing with our clients right now. You guys are probably familiar with the thing, Net Promoter Score, where every company says, “On a scale of one to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company to your friends?” And you wanna have that be a nine or a 10 almost every time. And every time you’re doing an email interaction to service a client’s request, you’re having a chance to leave them at a nine or a 10. And ideally, I know that most of you here, you’re probably doing a great job. And so they are leaving those interactions with really high feelings of positive praise for you. And that’s actually the moment where you want to have your call-to-action to them to get those referrals, to give you a testimonial, thanks to the new SEC guidelines.
Reese Harper:
Make sure and follow them, folks. I am not your compliance director. [chuckle] But you’ve got a chance to write that in every email, in your footer, having a call-to-action, adding a PS, deliver a ton of value. You’ve probably emailed two or three times to resolve an issue or make something happen. “Hey, do you know anyone who I could do a free financial assessment for? I would love to provide them with an assessment. Here’s an example of one I just did for someone. If you could forward this along to a friend, I would really appreciate it.” Just make this generous offer as often as you can, and do it in your… I think learning how to write in a way that leaves them feeling positive is what I’m trying to emphasize here. In your emails, you always want to think about the emotion of your email more than just the content. There’s context and there’s content. The context is how you’re feeling, what energy you’re bringing to the composition of the email. If you’re angry, if you’re frustrated, if you’re rushed and hurried, they will feel that from your email. If you’re trying to add value and you really are trying to leave them feeling positive and optimistic and feeling excited about their future, they will feel that. From the sign out on your email, instead of like, “Hey… ” I remember like 10 years ago, I had a CPA who I love dearly write me an email that ended with “Warmest regards.”
Reese Harper:
I was like, “Woah, that’s a bit warm.” I was like… I don’t know, it felt a little unusual. He’s the nicest person, he always wrote that to end his email, and it made me realize, this person is a safe person to email. I always end up… I don’t feel stupid when I email this person. I always feel like… Left feeling great, and that it wasn’t an imposition and they’re grateful to hear from me. And so I just would encourage people to think about writing in terms of the context, the way you feel when you’re composing email. Make sure that that’s the emotion you want to leave with people. Sometimes you do want them to feel like maybe you’re being direct or maybe you’re correcting something. But I think overwhelmingly, you want that feeling to be positive, and then it’s a great way to grow because you just gotta use those opportunities to get the calls to action that you want.
Abby Morton:
Great.
Reese Harper:
Even in service. I don’t have a problem doing that in services. You don’t have to just reach out to people only to get… In a marketing context, to get growth to happen. So, anyway.
Abby Morton:
Totally. Something I really have admired about you over the years working together is how you always want to try to improve and get better at your skills by asking for external help. And I think one specific thing is in terms of your writing. You enjoy writing, but I think you’re often… I think you’re a little critical of yourself, so you’re always looking for help to get better. Do you have a story or an example of where you’ve wanted to improve, especially in terms of your writing? And so how do you find that help? If you’re struggling, what are maybe some things that you’ve done that you could suggest to others to do as well?
Reese Harper:
Well, I’ve always felt self-conscious about my writing, just from starting. I’m very particular. I’m a perfectionist.
Abby Morton:
It’s scary to put yourself out there and hit submit.
Reese Harper:
Yeah, and writing is a very precise medium. Podcasting is much more loose and fluid and people don’t expect you to be like… If you’re doing podcasting right, you’re not reading from a script, as we said in previous episodes, and you’re really just talking at your normal cadence and tone and having a good time. That’s when podcasts are at their best. When writing is at its best, it’s actually when it’s gone through a really, really, really shitty first draft, where it’s like super garbage and you didn’t hold back emotionally when you were drafting. You dumped it all under the page. You said everything that was in your heart, everything in your mind, everything you’re feeling, and you knew it was safe because you weren’t gonna share it with anyone. You just dumped it all out there. And the only way you could really get the best nuggets are when you know no one is gonna necessarily see what you just wrote.
Abby Morton:
Interesting. I like that. I never thought about it in that aspect.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. Just like, this first thing, no one’s gonna see it. No one’s gonna read it, and you don’t have to share it. But your goal is to get the emotional dump just all the way out so you’re like, “I said it. There’s nothing I didn’t say.” But the best writing has to go through several processes. And for me, I was not aware of these steps when I started. I hired someone from Canada. Her name is James Chartrand. She runs a blog called MenwithPens. It was a place I spent a thousand bucks to do my first writing course, and she made me go through 25 examples and get individual feedback. It was the best value of core… I don’t think I could do anything for a thousand dollars anymore. That was such a good deal ’cause she personally, inside of an old WordPress template, gave me feedback on all of my examples. She would say, “Do this,” and then we would write, and then she’d give us feedback.
Reese Harper:
So writing courses to me are really excellent. If you’re interested in a writing course, email me. I’ll try to get you pointed in the right direction. Reese@getelements.com, just tell me that you’re interested in a course, I’ll point you in the right direction. But I think that if you think of writing in these three phases, drafting, and then think of the content structural edit is like the second thing. And this is why people don’t do writing ’cause there’s too many steps. But if you don’t do these, that’s okay. It’ll still work okay. But there’s a big difference in the quality of copy that you’re gonna have when you go through these steps. And so you have that first experience of bloating the… We’ll call it an SFD onto the page. And that’s the acronym for Shitty First Draft.
Abby Morton:
I’m like, SFD, okay, got it.
Reese Harper:
So you got the SFD, then you have your new hat you gotta put on. Don’t mix these at the same time. You’re now coming a day later after it’s sat.
Abby Morton:
You always gotta let it sit, I’ve heard…
Reese Harper:
Gotta let it sit for a day.
Abby Morton:
From a resident copywriting expert, a lot happens after you sleep on it.
Reese Harper:
Yes, yes. Come back the second day and look at that first day, and decide how embarrassed you are at yourself. [laughter] ‘Cause it might be fine. This is where the struggle is for me, is how harsh am I to… ‘Cause in my best self, my best first draft self, I put a lot out there that I shouldn’t probably say ’cause I was being the most open, the most vulnerable.
Abby Morton:
But don’t people want that?
Reese Harper:
Yes, they do. The best writing is the most open, the most vulnerable, the most sharing of your weaknesses, not self-aggrandizing, not telling them how amazing you are, not telling them they should all listen to you because you’ve got it all figured out. You’re just trying to be the most accessible, simple, helpful person, and you’re sharing everything you can. The next day, you’re putting on your editor hat, structurally, not down at the granular level. You’re kind of looking… This is my process and not everyone’s gonna follow it, okay? So keep in mind, this isn’t the academic process for writing. This is just my process.
Abby Morton:
Reese Harper’s writing process.
Reese Harper:
And it might not work for you, but I’ve read other people’s writing processes. They’re not that far off from this. But the second draft for me is like, can I make a quick outline of what just happened here, and does it make sense? Like, can I just do five bullets of an outline or six bullets of an outline? So you’re reading it and you’re saying it should be this shape, and you’re trying to guess if you’re missing anything really critical. You’re still not fixing it all. There’s a risk of going back and fixing it all and reordering it all and moving it around and changing it because it’ll lose the original ethos, like your tone of your fluidity and where you were going. You lose it, ’cause it’s… You didn’t say the words in the order… You said the words in the order they’re in for a reason. It was the most natural human processing you could do. If you’re in the zone, it just kind of flowed out and you didn’t overthink yourself. You didn’t worry about if you sounded dumb or used the wrong words. It just was conversational. So your second draft, what you’re trying to just identify is that you’re missing any main clues to the point of this whole thing. Like a better story, a more clear story, adding a couple details you didn’t have. But you’re not going back and chopping it all up. The third step is, someone, maybe you or maybe someone else that’s coming through and saying, “Okay, this needs to be tightened up now,” and I’m gonna…
Abby Morton:
Going on too long about that one.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. I’m gonna… Or I’m gonna try not to alter the original voice of the person because we gotta honor that where Abby was when she wrote this, a lot of people are behind her in terms of their development. And whatever Abby was on the day that she wrote this article, someone else was not her, and before her, and premature to where Abby’s understanding of that was. So the writing, what it’s really doing is you’re documenting your level of competence on the day that you wrote it, hoping that people before where you’re at enjoy watching your naivete at the moment that you wrote it down. Because every day that passes, you’re a smarter you and you’re a more competent you. And you’re like… Your one-week-ahead self is always smarter than your week-ago self. And so you’re always looking at your writing going like, “My gosh, I’m just not good enough. I’m not smart enough.” ‘Cause one day later, a week later, you always have way more information than you did when you drafted it.
Abby Morton:
Yeah, that’s right.
Reese Harper:
So you just kind of gotta let these things go out, knowing that your goal is to just accurately reflect where you were at that point in time when you wrote the piece, and then just let go. ‘Cause you know that other people are gonna benefit from it. And you don’t always have to be putting out your best work every day. Everything you publish doesn’t have to reflect where you’re at now. You can kind of let go of where you were, and just be like, “That was the one-week-ago me, or the two-week-ago me, or the one-month-ago me.” And it’s still fine for someone. And that kind of letting go, to me, was the only time when I was finally able to just write and forget about that I was dumb, and did not judge myself anymore, and just say, “It’s gonna help someone.” And if I can just keep getting this out there and keep going, it’ll be better than the person that just hides everything in a personal journal. So, that’s some of the thoughts. I would think about writing in three blocks. Why it’s applicable to financial advisors? Two tips. I mean, even if it’s forming the foundation just for your business strategy, that’s enough, right? You don’t have to write for the public to consume it. You can write for internal memos, you can write to clients, you can write to motivate team, to share ideas with team, to get your team to where they’re on the same page. Writing is a much more effective way of getting everyone aligned than a meeting, because…
Abby Morton:
Well, that’s something I know me and you are learning right now in our leadership team, our COO, shoutout to Wade here, he always says to me, “Writing is thinking.”
Reese Harper:
Totally.
Abby Morton:
“Writing is processing, Abby. And so the more that you can write down all of your thoughts to have others digest it, even just internally, the more we’re all gonna be more up to speed on where you are on that topic.” I know you’ve also been taking this, right? We would have these hour-long meetings and everyone’s like, “What did Reese just say for an hour?” We really wanna do what that thing is that Reese says, but Reese wasn’t…
Reese Harper:
Yeah, but we can’t quite make sense of it, ’cause he’s…
Abby Morton:
We’re like a little confused.
Reese Harper:
Yeah, exactly.
Abby Morton:
But then this idea of Reese takes his time to brain dump all of his thoughts, allows you to even digest it and like, “Oh, that’s not what I meant,” and tweak it and change it, so then we all can get better up to speed on what the thing really is, right?
Reese Harper:
Yeah.
Abby Morton:
It wasn’t X, Y, or Z, it was maybe over here at A, right?
Reese Harper:
Yes. Well, and to be fair, my problems as a communicator might not be everyone’s problem. I really benefit from writing a lot to shape my ideas. It helps me, and I think it helps our team.
Abby Morton:
I think anyone. I don’t even think it bad communication. I think it’s just an easy way for everyone to be on the same page…
Reese Harper:
Exactly.
Abby Morton:
And a great way for whoever’s writing that thing down to be able to get their thoughts out on paper and to see it on the screen.
Reese Harper:
And it’s a great way for you to solicit criticism, if you wanna call it that, or constructive feedback, disagreement, dissension. You want to…
Abby Morton:
Which are all good things which should happen in businesses.
Reese Harper:
Which are all great things. I’m hoping that’s what happens when I share something, is like, Matt disagrees, Wade disagrees, you disagree, Carl disagrees. I want disagreement more than I want… I’m looking for areas of disagreement so that I can decide where I might be needing to reshape some of my thinking.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Well, Wade said the other day, “Abby, can you write up a proposal for us to just rip it all apart and to come out with something completely different at the end of the meeting?” That’s how you go into writing sometimes, is like, I’m writing this down to know it’s gonna be picked apart and torn apart and reconstructed, and not… [laughter] It has to be okay, but it’s hard as the person doing it, right?
Reese Harper:
It is, yeah.
Abby Morton:
To be vulnerable, like allow your thing to be ripped to shreds.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. It’s a little bit harder when it’s a personal piece about the perils of parenting, which I published on Saturday or Friday. When you’re putting out a piece about your own weaknesses as a human, that’s a little more biographical or autobiographical or whatever that would be. It’s a bit more scary than a team memo, but they’re both still vulnerable. I feel like anytime someone writes something and then it’s edited, there’s a worry. I found that with ChatGPT-4 and even GPT-3, we can use audio transcriptions a lot better than we used to be able to use them.
Abby Morton:
Totally [0:21:45.6] ____.
Reese Harper:
So that’s gonna change verbal and audio processing a ton. And I don’t think… I think original thought and original dreaming, original brainstorming, human beings are gonna have big advantages over computers in terms of solving the idea creation, idea generation, idea starting point. But technology like GPT-4 can really help you simplify and clarify or maybe even create outlines from your transcripts. And I think that’s gonna be a big help from where I’ve… I’ve had to learn a lot of things about writing that I don’t know are as applicable going forward. This technology is just gonna be really transformative for copywriting.
Abby Morton:
Think of ways you can use it in so many different aspects. Totally.
Reese Harper:
But I just wanted to say three bullets here to take away. One, you need to be able to understand short-form copy in order to do effective social media. Social media is short form, it’s a totally different style. You have to have gone through the long form writing process to be able to get to the little punchy ideas that really are effective in social media. So I think writing really does… Learning to write helps your social media a ton. You’d be surprised at how the best one-liners or the best zingers or the best headlines, they usually come from really long pieces of drawn out copy that, at the end of the day, there’s only one sentence worth keeping. That’s where some of the best ideas come from, that you’ll see from people like Adam Grant that’s a really popular Wharton professor and Instagram poster. I could give you a list of 10 people, but their process is long-form copy that results in a social post.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Okay. So long-form copy helps you social posting, what other quick? Two more tips.
Reese Harper:
We said internal media, internal memos and communications are essential. We want that internal… Socializing ideas among your team before you implement them is critical. So share your ideas in long-form copy. Worst case scenario, hit the dictation button in the bottom right-hand corner of your iPhone, top left if you’re an Android user, and dictate. And then just dictate that, throw it into ChatGPT and just say, “Create a thousand-word summary of this for me,” ’cause you might feel a little embarrassed, or “Create an outline for me,” or just give them the dictation like I do. Say, “Look, I know this is a little bit hare-brained, but it’s a dictation and I don’t have time to edit it. I trust you guys to read through the lines.” That’s great too. So, internal memos and communication. Finally, I do think there is a really… I’m still a big believer in books and long-form articles for generating audience. I think that the readers are always gonna be a part of the economy.
Reese Harper:
There’s people that just get their information from reading, and if you can put enough written material sequentially in front of them, they’ll self convert, similar to how a podcast does. So books are not dead and long-form copy are not dead. They act like a podcast in that people can get a lot of deep understanding from you. They can go really deep. And I love that about them. The last tip I would give is just, establish a daily writing practice. And don’t overthink what it is that you wanna write about. Just sit down and write. And if you’re like, “Well, this is out in left field, I’m supposed to be doing this for work,” don’t worry about it.
Abby Morton:
Sometimes you just gotta get the ideas out, right?
Reese Harper:
Yeah. Sometimes it’s just like, can you establish a daily writing practice to get your ideas out? Yesterday, I wrote… And even though I have like 50 to-dos for work, that people… Some people want me to write things for different… For either my RA or for Elements, all I wanted to talk about yesterday was hot air balloons.
Abby Morton:
[chuckle] Really?
Reese Harper:
So I just wrote about hot air balloons. Now, I didn’t publish it yet, but in order to fulfill my daily commitment to writing, that was all I really had energy to write about.
Abby Morton:
Have you found as you’ve done this daily commitment, it’s making you a better writer…
Reese Harper:
No.
Abby Morton:
In the work aspects you need to?
Reese Harper:
No, it’s not. It’s not helping.
Abby Morton:
Why don’t you say yes and be a little encouraging for everyone?
Reese Harper:
Just kidding. [laughter] That would be bad if that was my answer. [laughter] But it is better, yes. I don’t think you can get better without a more regular writing practice. So, that’s probably the point. If you don’t write something where it’s your own idea… Can’t just be like a memo answer to someone. Write something down that is your idea once a day, and that…
Abby Morton:
The thing I need to do myself.
Reese Harper:
That’s something you’re thinking. And dictate it if you don’t wanna type it, and put it in an audio file. But just get the words out as close to what’s in your heart as possible. And don’t overthink ’cause no one has to listen to it. This can be private, you don’t have to share it. But every day, the practice will help you become a better writer.
Abby Morton:
Alright. I like it. This whole episode went a completely different direction than I thought.
Reese Harper:
Oh, good. I hope it’s good.
Abby Morton:
You’re always keeping us on our toes.
Reese Harper:
Okay. [laughter]
Abby Morton:
But honestly, I think there’s some great tips and takeaways from this, improving your own internal team as well as how you can help your clients in terms of writing.
Reese Harper:
I would really recommend learning something I didn’t learn early enough. There’s a time for long extended form, and it actually has a place, and it’s fun. And that’s in articles and books and even in podcasts. And there’s a time for brevity and clarity. And I think the hardest skill for any of us is learning how to be brief and clear.
Abby Morton:
Totally, yeah. Twitter.
Reese Harper:
And taking down all of…
Abby Morton:
It’s making all of us do that, right?
Reese Harper:
It’s so hard. Yeah, Twitter’s a good example. That’s why I love that as a social network. I’m just like, “Thank you.” So many constraints to improve the efficacy of communication. The problem is, sometimes, short stuff isn’t that insightful. So, give and take, but at least to give you the chance. If you can’t be brief and insightful, it’s unlikely that you’re gonna be able to be long-winded and insightful. So there’s a college book that a lot of universities teach from. It was written by a guy named Joseph Williams, 15 years ago. And at that time, if you got an old copy, we’re talking like… It’s been through 15 editions. But it’s got 10 lessons to teach you how to be more brief and more clear. It used to be called Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Now, it’s just called Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. But same author, Joseph Williams, it’s a paperback. Go back… I can’t recommend anything before… The only one I’ve read was, I think, version nine. It’s in the 12th edition now. So you got 9th edition to 12th edition you can pick from…
Abby Morton:
Go find.
Reese Harper:
That I think is still valuable. But it’s just exercises, little exercises to take… Sort of improve your clarity. It’ll make you break down things and really understand how you’re communicating. And I think that if you could say it in a four-sentence paragraph and have it be really clear and let style not be so much the factor, don’t think about writing in terms of style initially. Just think about it in terms of clarity. Then, you can start to break down all these bad habits that we’ve gotten into over 20 years of… There’s been a lot of social media.
Abby Morton:
The teachers wanting you to write the 10, 30-page paper, right?
Reese Harper:
I know, dude.
Abby Morton:
Now it’s like, write me the one-page paper that makes sense.
Reese Harper:
Yeah, it’s great. So anyway, I hope everyone enjoys picking up some writing if you haven’t done it in a while.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. Thanks, Reese.
Reese Harper:
Yeah. Carry on.
[music]
Abby Morton:
Next time on Elementality.
Carl Richards:
I think of all the social media platforms, they could all be valuable, I think of their real main purpose is to get people to… The real, main purpose is to give value. And my favorite phrase of this is like, “If you love this… If you like this, you would love my email.” So we’re posting things on LinkedIn and we’re saying… And it’s valuable. It’s not just like click bait. It’s not linked to gated content. It’s literally like, “Here’s a valuable thing.” It’s just snippet though, ’cause that’s the nature of those platforms.
Abby Morton:
“Here’s a little bit… Here’s a video,” or “Here’s something I wrote,” or…
Carl Richards:
And if all you do is view that, you’re gonna think I’m valuable. I respected the permission you gave me, I respected your attention, I honored it. And if you want more, if you like this, you would love the weekly email I send out.
Abby Morton:
Right.
Abby Morton:
To find out more about Elements, go to getelements.com/demo. Elementality’s executive producers are Reese Harper and Carl Richards. Elementality is produced by Tad Henderson and directed by Abby Morton. Have a good one.