I woke up very early this morning while it was still dark. I have some personal stuff on my mind, maybe that’s why.
Rather than rolling around in bed or sitting down in front of the computer, I got dressed and I walked down to the beach. And on my way back, I saw…
1. A blind jogger? It was a couple, a man and a woman, jogging towards me. They were jogging very close to each other, almost hip-to-hip. As they got near, I realized they were holding a short length of rope between them. The man had a sun hat on, pulled down over his eyes. He was more speed-walking than jogging, and he seemed intently focused on the rope.
2. Two Dutch guys stumbling home. One was tall, very drunk, and constantly talking. The other was short, a little less drunk, and trying to get his bearings on which way to go. And then, the tall, talkative one aggressively stomped his foot on the ground and scared a bunch of pigeons which flew at my head.
3. Another couple, dressed all in black. As they passed me, the man looked at me. And perhaps because I also wear all black, he smiled and nodded.
Ben Settle once shared a metaphor which has stuck in my head:
The cookie jar of ideas. It represents all the valuable knowledge in your industry.
As you get going in your industry, you take, take, take from the cookie jar for a long time. Eventually it’s time to add something back in.
But how do you do it? How do you create new cookies out of thin air? How do you come up with new insights for others to use? Do you have to be a genius or to have supernatural inspiration?
I’m sure that would help. But if you’re short on genius or inspiration, you can do what I do:
Simply describe what you see.
If it catches your eye, actually take notes and spell out what’s going on.
Do it over and over.
And once you have a bunch of detailed and interesting observations, then put your head in your hands, and stare at your observations for a while. Out of thin air, a cookie will suddenly appear.
And now for something entirely unrelated:
I would like to remind you of my consulting offer, and specifically my Email Marketing Audit.
I could try to tie this offer up to my cookie jar message above. I could try to tell you something like, “This observe-and-abstract method is how I have gained the many email marketing insights yadda yadda…”
But the fact is, one thing I genuinely have learned by observing successful email marketers is that it’s often better not to tie up your content with your sales at all… rather than to do it in a ham-handed or cheese-fisted way.
So no, this promotional add-on has nothing to do with the cookie jar.
Instead, if you want more info on my Email Marketing Audit, for no other reason than because you think it might benefit you and your business, you can find that here: