How to write messages that shine in any inbox

A year ago, I began my entrepreneurial journey. I showed up every single day, did my outreaches to local businesses—everything I was supposed to do. Did it for six months straight. However, I didn’t see any results. No responses. Zero. Those who did respond said, "Cease communication." Not the most positive response, eh?

I got so frustrated with my failures that I almost quit, not twice, not thrice, but ten times. On the same day I was contemplating quitting for the tenth time, I ran into my mentor. He was sitting at a restaurant I could never afford, enjoying wine with his gyal.

I waved at him; he waved back. He stood up, approached me, and asked, “Hey, Tom. Will you show up for today's class?”

I replied, “No, sorry, Professor, I’m busy sending outreaches at that time.”

He looked curious and continued, “Alright… Have you gotten any results?”

I went completely silent. He knew something was off. “Show me what you’ve got,” he said.

I hesitated but eventually showed him my copy. Within seconds, he knew what the problem was—I wasn’t writing like a human being. I sounded like a toaster and a bathtub had a child with a microphone attached to it for sound output. “Writing like a human being is naturally appealing to other humans.” He explained to me. “Nobody likes to work with someone who writes like a hybrid of ChatGPT and a six-tentacled alien.” And he was completely correct.

There was a simple fix to all of this: read the copy out loud and reflect on whether you would say it to someone in a bar, coffee shop, mall, or restaurant. Reading it out loud helps you understand if it flows and sounds natural. Reflecting on it helps ensure you don’t sound like the Terminator.

(P.S It would be actually great if you’d sound like terminator not speak like one.)

If you read it out loud and you’re confident, I mean confident-confident you’d say that to another human being, great! Otherwise—not so great.