What’s the deal with rules and why do you need to follow them when you’re writing emails?
Some people might say we have enough rules to follow in our daily lives, or they’ll play the, “Hey, Mr. Marketing Trad, you say we can write whatever we want” card.
On both of those points I’ll say this …
Yeah, sure, that’s true, but life is nuanced at times, and context is needed.
For starters, with the global rise of Big Tech, Big Brother, and Cancel Culture SJW warriors, we have enough people trying to dictate what we “should” be doing with our lives. Personally, I’ve had enough of that kind of control.
Now, when it comes to producing emails, or any other marketing and sales content for that matter, you should feel free to crank out as much content as humanly possible, without giving yourself carpal tunnel or setting your keyboard on fire because you’re typing so fast, but here’s the thing …
We all need rules and structure if we want to succeed, just look at the crazy routine Tom Brady stuck to in order to have such a long career.
What about Tiger Woods? Does anyone realistically believe he became the greatest golfer ever without following some kind of regimen?
Run down the list of all the superstar athletes we’ve seen in our lifetimes: Larry Bird, Michael Jordan (yes, I put Bird over Jordan), Peyton Manning, Lewis Hamilton, Derek Jeter, Cristiano Ronaldo. All these men had rules and structures in place to help them excel at the professional level …
And the world of sales ain’t any different.
We all need rules and structure if we want to succeed.
Now, the all-time gold standard for rules was set with the Ten Commandments, right?
Follow these rules, and you’ll have success in following the Lord.
God’s insight into man is on such a deep level, He knew we needed guidelines to help us stay on the right path. He also made a point to show us how serious He was by setting His commands in stone. These ten rules were non-negotiable. If someone goes in there to change things up, you’re going to know and you’re going to call it out.
The idea of the Ten Commandments now is so deeply ingrained into Western culture, people inherently love lists, and Top 10 lists in particular …
So why do I have 11 rules?
Well, a long time ago, along came This Is Spinal Tap into my life.
A lot of people are familiar with the classic scene with the amp. You can look it up on YouTube after you read this chapter.
If you haven’t heard of the movie or the scene, you can now understand why your life might feel like there’s a hole in it somewhere.
In truth, the movie came out in 1984, which was a long time ago. Plus, it’s Rated R, so I would never encourage anyone to watch the whole thing. In fact, you can go to the IMDB page for the film and find out what’s wrong with it in the parents section.
There’s nothing crass or morally repugnant with the amp scene, though, and it’s easily one of the greatest comedic moments in cinematic history.
The movie is basically a mockumentary, following around a fictional rock band named Spinal Tap on one of its tours.
As part of “documentary”, the fake director is interviewing one of the band members about some of the equipment they use on stage and they come over to some modified amplifiers that have an unusual setting that goes one level higher than your run-of-the-mill amp.
Here’s an excerpt of the dialogue from that scene:
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
That’s 100 per cent classic-comedy right there.
Getting back on point …
I’m not trying to mock or knock on the Ten Commandments, because that wouldn’t be right on any level. The reference to the Commandments is more of a historic reference point.
In general, people like lists because they make it easy to lay out ideas.
Think about it …
Good ol’ David Letterman had his Top 10.
Billboard used to have a Top 10 list of hit singles back in the day before raising the bar.
You also have news organizations all over the world doing their own version of the top stories of the year once December rolls around.
So, while everyone else seems to like grouping things in 10s, let’s go one level higher, one level louder – it’s Spinal Tap-loud. I’ll put the list in the next post.
Stay holy my friend.