Hi there,

This email accomplishes two things: it gives you a little insight into my process (which may or may not be helpful), and it gives you an extra day before your next action item, which is to send me the third draft of your email.

Let's start at the top

As you've probably suspected, I like managing my work in Notion.

If you use another tool, the same principles apply.

Before I put any individual emails into an automation sequence but AFTER I've created my course outline, I start out with one massive document. This is my content source of truth. It's easy to search, easy to read (we'll come back to why this matters), and it's a special, judgment-free zone.

Note: I'll write ALL of my emails in this doc before I transition them into Mailerlite.

With my "All Emails" doc ready to go, I start outlining the first email

The first thing I do is write out my key takeaways. If the reader learns nothing else, what are the three things that I 100% need them to absorb. These are the guiding light of your outline.

One idea per email, one idea per paragraph, one idea per sentence

That's a rule I try to adhere to when I start bulleting everything out. It might look something like this:

Once I've got my bullets, it's time to start drafting

The saying goes, "write drunk, edit sober" and it's got my endorsement. I write as freely as I possibly can. No looking back. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to get done. There will be plenty of time to be critical and to add polish. My goal is to just get the damn ideas onto the page in paragraph format.

When the first draft is done, I'm looking for clarity

Have I communicated my ideas in a way that will make sense to the reader?

Is context provided as to why this content is important?

Have I demonstrated relevance?

Summarized key takeaways?

Said differently: is my point clear? And better yet, have I made it concisely? Usually, I'll edit in short episodes — the content needs time to breathe in between edits.

Up next: supplementation

Once I'm confident that my point has been clearly communicated, it's time to take the content to the next level.

This is where examples, stories, metaphor — #callback to the previous two emails — comes into play. If I haven't given myself space from the content (a few hours or even a day), I have a tough time coming up with these things naturally. That is especially true of humor (which is always my final embellishment).

Auditory test: does this sound like me?

Read your writing out loud. That's a direct order. You want your content to sound like you and the only way to accomplish that is to put it to the auditory test. Read it. Edit what sounds weird. Then read it again.

The final step: continuity checks

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this course is about mastery. This particular detail definitely falls into the "extra credit" bucket, but it is hugely impactful. When I say "check for continuity", here's what I mean...

Continuity check #1: Re-read the chapter

Once you've "finished" the email, re-read the entire chapter. The goal is feel out the flow. Does the previous email glide nicely into the following? Do you pick up on any redundancies or instances that need smoothing out? You'll be surprised what you find.

Continuity check #2: Re-read the course

Once you've re-read the chapter and achieved your desired level of smoothness (on a scale of 5 o'clock shadow to dolphin), it's time to seek out OPPORTUNITY.

You've added a new email and now you can sift through the rest of the course and assess whether there are any meaningful moments to foreshadow your new content or callback to something you covered previously (you probably say my "#callback" above and cringed... it all makes sense now though, doesn't it?).

Trust me when I say that it's the little things that make an email course great.

I like to complete an email before I go to the next.

I think it's something psychological about not wanting to spend a million years working on my course outline. I like the "reward" of completing an email. And if my curriculum was done thoughtfully, my individual emails should be nicely contained within each email.

Plus, I'm gonna come back to the content a LOT in the weeks following my email launch. It's more important to get the MVP out than write a perfect EBC.

I go through my courses front-to-back several times a year

And every single time I've made changes.

Little edits, better examples, funnier stories... the more tuned in you are to your content, the better the experience will be for the student.

Like I said in Chapter 1, with EBCs we get the luxury of optimized a product (not a process), and we owe it to our students to continually optimize.

But enough about me and enough about our students! I want to see that email of yours! In the next email I'm gonna ask you to send it to me, and I hope you take me up on that.

See ya later!

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