"What got you here won’t get you there.”
I deleted 107 subscribers from Monday Mantra last week.
“People” who signed up, got the welcome sequence, and then never opened another email.
I knew they weren't opening. I could see it in the numbers every single Monday. But I kept them anyway because — and I'm just going to admit this — a bigger list looks better to potential partners and collaborators.
When someone asks, "How big is your list?" I wanted to be able to say an impressive number.
Which is, honestly, a terrible reason to keep them.
Those 107 were never going to buy anything from us. Heck, most of them were probably bots. Yeah … I was emailing bots so I could feel more credible.
[ Honesty is the first step toward recovery. ]
***
Much like followers on social, your number of subscribers can be nothing more than a vanity metric if you aren’t careful.
A list of 100 legit humans who open every single issue, send replies, and forward them to colleagues, is worth WAY more than 1,000 unknowns.
I'm not saying you should go nuke your list this morning. But if you haven't looked at your open rates in a while, it's worth a few minutes.
You might find out your "audience" is a lot smaller than your subscriber count suggests.
Like your LinkedIn connections — When did you last look at who's actually engaging vs. who connected three years ago, sent you an awful cold pitch, and disappeared?
Your content — Are there blog posts or lead magnets floating around that no longer reflect how you work … or who you work with?
Your website — does it still say what you actually do, at the level you actually operate?
None of this takes a weekend. Most of it takes an afternoon and a willingness to let the old version of your business go.
***
Spring has a way of making clutter and junk painfully obvious. The hard part isn't seeing it. It's deciding you're done pretending it isn't there.
Yeah, my list is smaller now.
But it's also a heck of a lot more human.
***
PS — If your website is on your spring cleaning checklist, start here. Our Above the Algorithm Brand Scorecard is free and takes about five minutes.
The dirty little secret about A.I. content
Does it feel like you're doing all the right things with your content… and getting even less traction than before?
Yeah. The game changed… again.
Lou Bortone has been in the video content space longer than most people have had smartphones. And he knows better than anyone — standing out with social video is a much different battle in 2026.
So, he broke down exactly what's working right now in this free guide:
It’s not about creating more. You need to be someone people actually trust.
Email Still Wins. Here's How to Use It Better.
59% of Americans say most marketing emails offer no real value. That's not a threat, it's an opening. Get the AI-powered playbook for building email campaigns that actually convert.
Inside you'll discover:
How top brands achieve 3,600% ROI from email marketing
AI personalization techniques that drive 82% higher conversion rates
Tactics that have delivered 30% better open rates and 50% higher clickthroughs
How to build sequences for every stage of the customer journey, from welcome to re-engagement
Download your free AI-powered email marketing playbook today.
Victory Points
By: Mike Shary
My board-game-loving, copywriter extraordinaire and mentor, Dad ❤️
Shifting Stones : An abstract puzzle game for 1–5 players
Shifting Stones is a quick abstract puzzle game for one to five players where you’re trying to make the layout on the table match the patterns on cards in your hand.
In the center sits a grid of chunky double-sided stones, each showing different colors and symbols. On your turn, you choose how to use the cards in your hand.
You can score it by getting the stones to match its pattern, or you can use each card to make a single change to the grid by either flipping one stone or moving one stone a single space orthogonally.
That creates a steady little tension. Every card is either a chance to score now or a tool to reshape the board for something better.
That’s what makes the game so satisfying. You’re never doing anything huge. You’re making one small adjustment at a time, nudging the layout closer to what you need. Flip this stone. Slide that one over. Cash in a pattern. Set up the next one. A grid that looks scattered slowly becomes workable, then elegant, then suddenly full of opportunity because of the way those little choices stack together.
Branding works the same way. Most businesses don’t improve because of one giant breakthrough. They improve when the small parts start reinforcing each other. A clearer message. A stronger visual system. Better wording on a homepage. A smarter offer. A thoughtful brand strategist helps you line up those pieces so your business stops feeling random and starts feeling intentional.
If you enjoy compact games with tactile pieces and clever tradeoffs, Shifting Stones has that rare knack for feeling both relaxing and brainy, which makes it easy to get to the table and hard to put away.
Make it a great week! 🙌
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