Why I won't send you emails anymore…

For the next 3 weeks… I’ll be off grid.

So today I want to talk about something a little different:

Silence as strategy.

There are a number of ways to use silence as strategy in your marketing, so here’s a few…

• By not replying immediately to questions about or interest in your work, you demonstrate power. Not in the way of dominance or manipulation. But personal power. A sense of will, purpose, priorities, and clarity of focus — reacting immediately to everything that comes your way is a sure-fire way to create problems in your life and in your business — so always choose to respond in your time, vs react on someone else’s (your clients and the world will thank you).
• When you have a powerful point to make, hit return. You can build up to a powerful concept in your writing, then state your message plainly and powerfully on it’s own separate line. Having space away from the rest of your writing gives your idea room to breathe. And sticking silence between sentences gives your reader time to feel the weight of your words.
• Taking time off publicly signals maturity, confidence, and trust in your own time — not the algorithm. In fact, I’ve had people publicly advise me to not skip posting on social media because of it’s negative impact on your reach. And to that I say, I didn’t start my own business to create something I can’t step away from for a minute. I love my work, and really enjoy doing it, but I take time off as portal, not a distraction.
• When your work revolves around creating content… everything you experience becomes fuel for your efforts in real time. But not every thought needs to be tweeted. And not every experience needs to be shared in real time. Strategic silence can work wonders for your energy, your creativity, and your relationships.
• Sometimes it’s the things you don’t do that bring the most attention to you. I wrote about this recently in The Genius of Jack and Meg White, how for them, it was often the notes they didn’t play that skyrocketed them rock n’ roll stardom. And the same goes for you. It’s almost like offline is the new online these days. If you can build a successful business without spending your entire life on the internet then that means you probably know something most people don’t.
• And then of course there’s the old adage… that distance makes the heart grow fonder. Sometimes you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, or at least on pause for 3 weeks while I take a trip to South Dakota and spend some time, away from computers and the internet, on the Rosebud Indian reservation. And that goes for you and me both. Writing these daily emails is one of the highlights of my day. Maybe it is for you too, or maybe not.

Either way, we’ll both feel one way or another about it upon my return.

Depending on when you get this, I may be leaving soon or have been gone for a while at this point but I’ll be back on the daily emails by August 11th.

Until then, happy marketing.

Your pal,

Kevin Hood