Surely I don't have anything interesting left to say?

👉 you do - here's why

Do you ever feel like you’ve maybe said everything you need to say in your emails? That you’re worried you’re just repeating yourself and your readers won’t be interested?

Last night Kathy reviewed one of her online courses. She’d taken it off the market last year, worried it might have got a bit out of date.

But last week someone emailed asking if they could buy it anyway as it seemed to have everything they wanted.

So Kathy re-watched all the modules. And the really interesting thing was that when she looked at it again with fresh eyes having had a break, her first comment was “wow - there’s some really good stuff in here I’d forgotten about”.

In the end it just needed a few minor tweaks and updated links.

And all of a sudden, something that had felt old and out of date to Kathy was perfect for a customer.

I think we play the same mental trick on ourselves with emails.

Because we live in our own little world and we focus intently on our emails as we’re writing them, all our ideas and content are front of mind for us.

So after a while, it seems like we’re repeating ourselves or covering old ground because we remember all our previous emails on the same topic.

But here‘s the thing: our readers don’t.

Sure, they might love our work. But it’s nowhere near as big a part of their lives as it is ours. It’s just a tiny corner of all the things they’re focusing on.

So when we look at something we’ve written and think “that’s old hat - I’ve covered that before” they’re thinking “oh, that’s interesting”.

For some of our readers, the email will be brand new and fresh. Either because they’re new to our audience or they just didn’t read the last one on the same topic.

Most of our readers will have seen something similar from us before. But it won’t be at the front of their mind all the time so covering the same topic again from a different angle will be valuable reinforcement for them. Or it may be that the way you explain it this time is exactly what they need to finally “get it”.

And, of course, some of our audience will move on. They’ve got everything they need from us. That’s just natural.

But for the vast majority, the things we think are old hat and repetitive are fresh, valuable and interesting.

So next time you’re staring at your screen in “I can’t think of anything new to write” mode, try thinking “What can I write about that’s old, but still valuable?”

Because the chances are your readers will see it as fresh too.

- Ian