Telling Stories
I’ve taken a bit of a break from my blog, and I’m not about to apologise. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint, and I’ve blogged every month since 2008, so every now and then I take a couple of weeks off to mull things over and refresh my blogging palate.
Sometimes, when I do this, I have an adventure from which a story springs, which I’m able to share with my friends in the blogosphere when I return. That’s EXACTLY what happened this time and, my friends, it is a doozy!
Daegan Smith is a Word Nerd
I went to a marketing conference. It was the first ever UK Internet MLM Summit. The moment that made the whole event for me came from someone I did not know well at all … Daegan Smith.
Obviously I’d heard of Daegan but, somehow, I’d managed to avoid being on his list. While I knew OF him, I didn’t really know him at all. I had no expectations. Then he began to speak, and I was blown away. He was a… WORD NERD!!!
The Hero’s Journey
As the words rolled from his tongue (the man has an almost hypnotic voice), I realised that even though I was in a room with marketers, I could just as easily have been surrounded by authors and members of the writing industry.
He spoke into my word nerd heart as he described the process of putting together an email campaign in the manner of a novel. Although he didn’t use all the same terminology we bookish types use when geeking out on such matters, it was clear he was talking about everything from the fictive dream to the emotional arc. When he started into the archetypes, I nearly lost it. I’ve been writing about just this subject in my new book, How to Build an Author Platform.
I sat between two male nerds. The three of us were writing so fast that I felt sure a pen-related injury was imminent. I said, to neither of them in particular: ‘Do you think most of the people here have ANY idea how valuable this is?’ They answered ‘Nope’ in unison and continued to scribble every golden nugget.
Where Do You Find Wisdom?
If you are a writer, keep your eyes and ears open wherever you are. It may be that you are a public sector procurement specialist by day and a writer of science fiction by night. Great. Don’t be surprised, though, if The Muse doesn’t bother to show up at a Sci-Fi conventions, but hits you – instead – in the middle of a meeting on tendering legislation.
If you are a marketer, you may hear the most insightful slice of wisdom on a webinar with an industry leader. However, you might also hear it while listening to toddlers negotiating over their toys. You just never know.
Be wary of segmenting your life too much, and missing the stories that cross the bridges between the different islands on your own idiosyncratic lake of existence. All of this stuff connects in the end. We are story-telling creatures, and that’s what makes us so special.
Have you noticed this in your life? Leave me a comment and share your thoughts and experiences.
[signoff]
Rebecca,
I totally enjoyed reading about your meeting with Daegan Smith.
I’m still amazed of how your writing makes me feel as if I were standing right there when you were talking to Daegan.
It is true, you never know when an idea will hit you. It may not even mean a thing at the time but write it down; it came to you for a reason to use at some time.
Monna
Monna Ellithorpe recently posted..Internet Marketing With Smart Goals
Beautifully put. Thank you Monna. x
Rebecca Woodhead recently posted..Business Tool Box
Rebecca, this article is awesome…for a lot of reasons. First of all, you wrote it. Second of all, you’re a tremendous writer. I love reading anything you write. Next…you wrote about Daegan. Daegan is a money-making MACHINE…and he does it providing nothing but value. Incredible! Rare!! Super smart!!!
I am very guilty of segmenting my life and not connecting all the dots over the course of time…but I am doing it more and more now, and because of it, I am learning more….faster! Thanks for always making me think about what I am thinking about. You rock!
Christi Johnson recently posted..Top Ten (10) Actions That MUST Be Done When Starting A New Business
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. He is tremendously smart but also obsessed with helping people. He wanted to over-deliver all the way through the event. Always trying to give just a little more. His fiancée is wonderful too. I sat next to her on the first day. That night, I went for a meal with her, Daegan, Diane Hochman, the organisers. Great to hang out with them. Amazing night.
Rebecca Woodhead recently posted..Are You Scared of Falling?
Hi Rebecca,
I had the pleasure of hearing Daegan speak last October at the Live The Dream II event.
He is a true marketing genius.
Glad you were able to attend this great MLM event in your area.
Looking forward to reading more about the nuggets you gleaned from this event.
To your success,
Tonya
Tonya Stephens recently posted.."How To Prospect In MLM"
Thank you Tonya.
Rebecca Woodhead recently posted..The Best Subjects for Blog Posts
Daegan Smith is such a crazy marketer. I need to look into him more, I heard an interview with him recently and he’s just such a chill guy.
I love learning about word nerds, being one myself
Rasheed
Rasheed recently posted..Google Strikes Again: Penguin Slaps Us
Word nerds rule!
He is really chilled out and pretty much too cool for words.
Rebecca Woodhead recently posted..How do You Build an Author Platform?
Hi Rebecca,
We can find wisdom in many places and as you noted, sometimes when you don’t expect it. That’s one reason I like reading comments that are left on blogs. You never know who is going to share something that sparks an idea.
Thanks for sharing.
Jamella Biegel recently posted..Your Blog Tagline Matters
Jamella, that is such a good point. I actually made a video about that very thing the other day. I’ll link to it below.
Rebecca Woodhead recently posted..The Best Subjects for Blog Posts
Rebecca, I too am a word nerd, being a college English major and all, and I love Daegan’s unique style of email marketing. It is no wonder that he is as successful as he is. His stories are engaging, captivating and hypnotic at times. His emails are long, novelish, epic. I need to start implementing/imitating what he does. Juli
Juli Becker recently posted..5 Unique Ways To Build A Relationship With Your List
I know. It was a revelation to me that the kinds of emails I actually WANT to write are the ones that get the most attention. I’ve spent so long listening to people telling me to write totally different kinds of emails that it was an amazing moment when this King of Email stood in front of me and did exactly what I’m most comfortable doing. I might be about to get seriously dangerous on the email marketing front! I LOVE stories!
I envy you your word nerdishness Rebecca, although I do quite a bit of writing I do struggle with it a bit. I am married to a word nerd though so I know were you are coming from.
It is important to take a mental note of many things in our lives in order to create the stories we need to tell, in order to get our message across.
Dave
David Sharp recently posted..How I Found 7 Minute Workout
Thanks David.
Rebecca,
I loved this post and the email that brought me here again.. your story made me think of my sister who is truly a word nerd, studying English and creative writing and now churning out novels at break neck speed whilst juggling two little ones.. I don’t know how she does it! I only just find time to blog once or twice a week! I must definitely learn more about Daegan, I’ve seen his name everywhere lately.. and I can hardly believe that I left my home in Peterborough, England to move to the US just a year ago.. so missed out on the UK summit! Thank you for sharing a piece of the event so vividly!
Michelle Goddard recently posted..The Power of Good Habits
Your sister sounds great.
Daegan’s amazing. You can grab some free training from him at the bottom of the post. Keep an eye out for his emails if you grab that training, too. Reading those is a lesson in itself.
Cool story, very inspiring. Deagan seems like a cool guy.
Ethan Caine recently posted..My 90 Day Prospecting Challenge
‘Cool’ doesn’t even start to describe it. His fiancée’s pretty cool too. We sat together at the event. Lovely couple.
Hi Rebecca, Daegan is an amazing marketer. I saw him at Live the Dream II also. And, I opted in to his list, so I received a good many emails from him that demonstrated his expertise with words. The one nugget I see here is the potential for successful email marketing! Many say it doesn’t work, but Daegan is proof that it can as long as you master the words. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Val
Val Heisey recently posted..MLM Success: Use it or Lose It
Val, you are so right.
Really liked this article. I get my wisdom from reading papers and also from writing magazines, esp Writing Magazine. Have been reading it today and got a few ideas already for letters and short true-life pieces to write for magazines.
Writing Magazine, eh? That gets one of these …
Check out my column this month. I’ve written about what I call ‘Bubble and Squeak Marketing’. It’ll save you a LOT of work and time. I just adore that magazine. It saw me through some tough times as an aspiring author. I did the contests every month. I didn’t send them in, I just did them. It gave me discipline.
Hi Rebecca, I have heard so much about this guy every where, I look forward to the day I have a chance to hear him speak in person. Well I have to ask, was there a pen-related injury? I just had to Laugh, to funny. Thank for sharing and being so inspirational in you writing. I look forward to more of your insights.
Kevin
Kevin Hobbs recently posted..Don’t Let Your Home Office Kill Your Internet Marketing Business
There actually WAS a pen-related injury. The sad part is that it still hasn’t healed. Hand, arm and shoulder. Ouch. I learnt my lesson.
Hi Rebecca, Daegan is the king of never call a single leads and also solo ad master. I am sure you have learnt a lot from him in the event.
Amos recently posted..Third Party Invado International Review
Absolutely. I plan to dive into the world of solo ads and go for a swim in the next few weeks. Seems as if the water is warm right now.
Hi Rebecca,
Since this is my first visit to your blog I have to admit I’ve never read any of your other posts so I’ll have to thumb back through a few here in a bit.
I know of Daegan and followed him briefly in my earlier days online but I admit being clueless back then so what he shared was way over my head. It’s been years since I’ve caught up with him but of course he’s a very successful marketer so I can only imagine the gold nuggets he shared.
Wish I could have been a fly on the wall at that conference. I do love it when I attend events whether they are offline or online and pick up a few of those gold nuggets myself. I walk away having an aha moment and just deliriously happy.
Looks like your faithful readers are happy you’ve returned and were able to share with them what you’ve been up to.
Thanks Rebecca and enjoy your weekend.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..How To Build Relationships Through Blog Comments
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks for your lovely comment. I love the way that the internet brings us all so much closer together. I know that for some people ‘in person’ events are the only way to go but, like you, I also get so much from online events.
The one thing that you don’t get at online events is the random ‘hanging out together’ time. On the first night, 8 of us went for a meal together. It was raucous. Just hanging out with Daegan as we all shared stories and jokes over a meal was a blast. You get a feeling for the true nature of someone once their guard is down. If there’s a lack of integrity, you can pick it up. Daegan was the same when he was tipsy and tired as he was on stage. It’s tough to sum someone up after only ‘knowing them’ for a few days, but I left there with a good feeling about who he was beneath the brand.
Rebecca
Deagan Smith is 1 of the top dudes in the internet marketing game.
Also I’ve learnt things under unusual circumstances, life suprises me often.