Earlier today, I was staring in disbelief at my laptop.
It had just finished rebooting, when I realized I had lost a bunch of important files.
The text editor I use, which normally saves all sessions when it’s being shut down, malfunctioned for some reason. And after my laptop restarted, I found the text editor didn’t save about 10 pages’ worth of notes, todos, and ideas, which I had been accumulating over the space of many months.
I wasn’t angry or even surprised when this happened.
But I did feel strangely lightheaded and disoriented.
The question is, why would I have such a reaction?
Well, maybe my laptop experience today is a good illustration of what philosopher Andy Clark calls the “extended mind.”
In Clark’s view, our mind is not just in our heads.
It is also distributed in our laptops, our smart phones, and pieces of paper we use for notes. And if that’s true, then I had a part of my mind amputated today. No wonder I felt light-headed.
But here’s the thing:
If you believe Andy Clark, then it’s not just gadgets and pencils and paper that extend our minds.
It’s also the regular interactions we have with other people.
That’s one reason why it can be so painful to have a romantic breakup, or to lose a close friend or family member. Literally, a part of your own mind has been lobotomized.
Which is kind of sad in these real-life situations…
But we’re not here to mope. Instead, we’re here to talk about marketing and sales and making money.
And if you want to do make money, then you should start getting in touch with your clients or customers regularly.
Over time, you will literally start being a part of their mind as they continue to hear from you.
And if you do a good-enough job, they will actually feel a tiny pang of pain or anxiety in case they don’t hear from you as expected.
So how do you do a good-enough job communicating with clients and customers?
I’m glad you asked, because I’ve got some opinions on this matter. And I’ll share them in my upcoming book on email marketing. Which you can get for free, if you sign up for it in time over here: