Magic should feel like this...

👉 so should your emails

Long-time readers will remember I make an annual pilgrimage back home to the North East every year for the South Tyneside International Magic Festival.

It’s been a long time since I performed magic properly - I stopped having the time to practice when I set up my own business. But I do still love close-up magic and mentalism and head off at this time every year to meet old friends and see some world-class performers.

This year’s highlight for me was a lecture from Giancarlo Scalia.

When he performed (in the bar, where all the best magic happens) it just felt like he was chatting to you, showing you some cards or some coins. All gentle and natural…and then boom - miracles happened.

In his lecture, he explained his philosophy:

Magic should feel like it’s being done in the present - not rehearsed.

Ironically, making magic feel like it’s being done in the present takes a lot more skill and rehearsal than magic that feels rehearsed :)

And it reminded me that that’s how I prefer emails to feel.

The ones I send, and the ones I receive.

I get so many emails these days that have hyped-up “it was such a disaster then I saved the day” stories. Entire emails made of single-sentence paragraphs. Emails on mundane topics but with drama and tension squeezed into every pixel.

And they just feel so…rehearsed.

Scripted.

And - I’m not sure this makes any sense but bear with me - it feels like they’ve been “written”.

Obviously, every email is written. But I don’t want them to feel that way.

I want them to feel like you’re present with me, talking with me. Not running through your well-rehearsed, carefully crafted script.

I suspect that - like magic - that might actually take a bit more skill and a bit more practice.

But I also think you can get a good way there just by relaxing a bit. By telling your stories like you would tell a friend, not the way some writing expert has told you to write them.

Let the emotion flow into them by writing what you feel, not by forcing it in through “emotional words” you found in a colour chart or thesaurus.

Imagine me (well, not me, your ideal client) in front of you as you give them advice.

I think your emails will be much the better for it.