And as you stand there
Your eyes brimming with tears because you just saw
That commercial
And you are wondering why you even try to maintain your composure when
Everything you feel shows on your face
And your heart is permanently attached to
Your sleeve
Let us now praise you.
You, as innocent as that tattered toy you’ll never get rid of.
You, as vulnerable as the dawn (though everyone thinks you’re as brave as high noon).
You, with the soul that’s older and deeper than the sea.
You are beautiful.
You are the one we turn to when we need a
Shoulder to cry on
A hand to hold
Or just some fervent praise to make us feel good about ourselves.
You are our biggest fan.
And while you sometimes get trapped by that voice in your head that says
You fool
You fool
You fool
Why can’t you just for once
Go for the money
Let it slide
Not take it all so personally
(Although, how else a person would take it is a bit of a mystery…)
And why can’t you learn to just
Suit up and show up and shut up?
But no.
Your feelings are how you know you’re alive.
And while the family you were born into may still call you:
Sensitive, too sensitive, waaaaaay too sensitive, weird, artsy, melodramatic, a big ol’ drama queen, psychic, unique, odd, old-fashioned, eccentric, misguided, special, tolerant of ambiguity, optimistic, viciously self-critical, expressive, inventive, pollyanna, misunderstood, different, deluded, ambitious, contrary, talkative, awake, gifted, diverse, scary, intense, playful, iconoclastic, independent, freaky, unrealistic or just plain crazy
You know better than to expect them to understand you.
And you have made your own
Family of friends and orphans and strays and
You would do anything for them
And have, come to think of it.
But you don’t keep score like that. Which is a good thing,
Because you would never come out even.
You overshare, overcompensate, overthink, overdo, overanalyze, overtalk and
Overwork – a word for which the past tense is: overwrought.
You, my beautiful love, are overwrought.
And we don’t want you any other way.
For it is you who looks every single homeless person in the eye.
You who can recall the name, birthdate and astrological sign of every person we’ve ever dated.
You, who rescues the animals,
Sings to the children,
Spots our moment of despair from across the room and rushes in, heedless, to hug and hold us when we never even knew what hit us.
But you knew.
You may not believe in psychic ability, but it does seem pretty freaking obvious to you pretty much exactly what is going on with pretty much everybody pretty much all of the time.
And you can’t believe we can’t see it, too.
And all that discernment and intuition and, yes, sensitivity, makes
Going to parties a horror show and
Getting dressed for parties even worse –
And not being invited to parties the very worst thing of all.
But remember about your need for solitude.
And remember the joy you feel when you lose yourself in your work, your art, your craft.
And remember, please, to take good care of your tender self and not watch scary movies like the evening news and not hang around negative-toxic-energy-vampire-people and remember to move your seductive body and
Lift your eyes to the sky because no one knows like you that:
All This Has Come To Pass.
And while we all wish you wouldn’t drink so much,
We understand why you do.
And we are so grateful to you.
You are so beautiful.
And we know that it is not that
You are over-sensitive,
It’s just that
The rest of us are under-sensitive.
Funny how we let ONE casual remark derail our dreams, isn’t it?
That one thing that one teacher said that one time has kept you paralyzed since middle school.
That callous remark from a casual acquaintance stopped you cold.
Even after all the smiles and support and even REQUESTS (!!!)
“Say, when are YOU going to write your book?”
“Do you have a book?”
“If you wrote a book I would totally buy it.”
just one discouraging word….
and you retreat.
You tuck your book dream back under the mattress where it continues to invade your nightly reveries.
I get it.
Book writing is:
complicated – where to start?
creatively confounding – what to write?
confusing – who would read it?
I got you.
I’m leading Figure Out Your Book In One Day on Jan. 4th for the third or fourth time, and if you show up, we will banish those clouds once and for all.
Satisfaction guaranteed.
(I mean, obviously, if it’s perfect for you, I will sell it to you – but I won’t be pitching you. I’m only interested in working with people who are a great match and are willing to invest the time and money to see real progress. Because let’s face it, your diet of free stuff and pdfs and salesy webinars is just NOT moving the needle for you, correct?)
Plus it really helps me to hear directly from you what you’re up to, so you’d be doing me a favor.
Let’s go hang out together where the the heavens are bright/with the light of the glittering stars, and where those deer and those antelope play, shall we?
Let’s talk about the easiest, most fun way to reach clients, build relationships and make more cashola, shall we?
I often get asked how to build and retain a robust client list. I let people know that there is a secret tool that we all have in our back pockets— a tool that costs nothing to use and very little expertise to learn, but can give you an incredible return on investment and help you build a thriving community.
That tool is email.
I know, I know— email? Email is boring. Email is pushy. And aren’t we all overwhelmed with too many emails nowadays anyway?
Well, email is effective. In fact, for every person on your mailing list, you can generally expect to make an extra $100 a year. That means that a thousand-person mailing list can net you $100,000! Not bad for words on a screen.
I began building my mid-six-figure business back when I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I didn’t know it was supposed to be hard. I started with a mailing list of around two or three hundred people, and wrote poems I thought people might like to hear. One day I sent a poem called “A Prayer for the Capable.” It was an ode to the type of people who show up day after day, the type of people who make the world a better place by helping.
That poem received an avalanche of response. People wrote to me saying they loved it— that they felt seen, or that they saw their loved ones in it. It was a beautiful moment of connection that showed me something I’d been missing— the key to email’s true power.
Email is a bridge-making device. Communication is two-way. It’s like the excitement you might have had as a kid when you got a letter at camp or a postcard from a traveling friend. I wonder what they’re going to say? When you write to your clients’ hearts, you give them that feeling. The key is to write your emails as if you expect everybody to write you back.
When you think of email as a conversation instead of a bombardment, you’re giving your clients a gift. It might be a moment of reflection, a moment of sweetness, a thought-provoking idea. You don’t have to be a great writer, and you don’t have to write a lot. The work lies in attracting people onto your list and feeding them a steady diet of great stuff.
Want support and a chance to practice? Head over to www.therealsambennett.com/bunny.
