Bolognan vibe

--> what's yours?

Every city has a certain vibe to it. Bologna is wonderfully relaxed and we’ve had a brilliant time here. Just perfect for us.

Your emails have a vibe to them too.

When I first started emailing I suspect the vibe they gave off was very much “hey, this is cool, listen to this, and this, and what about this, and this and let me tell you about this…”

Today I hope it’s more “hey, this is something I’ve found useful, maybe it’ll work for you. Let’s sit back and explore it together.”

I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other. The latter is better for me now because it’s a good reflection of what it would be like to sit down and chat with me now.

But frankly, a decade or so ago a chat with me would have been a lot more like the former. Almost overpowering enthusiasm for the newest thing I’d just discovered.

You hear a lot of advice about writing that says it should be like this or that. It must be conversational. It must be written to an 8th-grade reading level or less. It must be dramatic and capture attention.

All of it, I’m sure, is somewhat true.

But I think the best advice of all is to write with the same vibe that someone chatting to you would get.

The ideas you share in your emails deliver the value readers signed up for. But it’s the vibe you give out that makes them feel at home. That you’re someone like them. Or that you’ll challenge their thinking, or always introduce them to new things.

So if you’re thoughtful and curious in person, your emails should be too. If you’re cynical and snarky in person, your emails should be too.

After all, if someone eventually hires you because of what they’ve read in your emails, they’ll be expecting the person they hired to be the same as the person they heard from all those times in their inbox.

I suspect it’s also easier for you too. Less need to put on a “game face” when you’re writing.

My one caveat: it’s worth thinking about the vibe you would like to have in-person first. Maybe you don’t really want to be that ranty angry person all the time after all? Maybe that’s not really you.

Or maybe it is.

As long as you think about it, it’s good.

- Ian