“Serves You Right!” She Actually Has No Idea How Right.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Hey there!
Just got an unsubscribe from someone who left me a note on the way out the door. “Great! Unsubscribed! That’s what you want, isn’t it? Serves you right!”
I’m not sure if that subscriber knew just how accurate her statement was.
Hope this helps!
David
Raw YouTube Captioning
hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and today I want to talk to you about a
kind of humorous thing that happened to
me in a recent video I sent out I was I
said please unsubscribe from this list
that was the subject line but don’t do
this one lazy thing and the one lazy
thing was using the tools that Gmail and
other email providers give you where you
can easily mark something as spam as
opposed to just unsubscribing from it
because marking something as spam marks
down the people who sent it to you and
you asked to be on the list and in my
case you confirmed being on the list so
just unsubscribe don’t don’t slap me on
the way out the door that was the point
of that video okay so one of the
responses that I got back was simply
done unsubscribed and I thought that
this woman that sent the note to me was
joking so I wrote back and I said hah
love it and she wrote back and these
words were what she said she said oh do
you you love it that I unsubscribed
great serves you right
and I hadn’t thought about it I just
thought she was joking I went to my list
and sure enough she was unsubscribed and
I went back and I read her note and I
thought to myself why in the world would
she have that attitude
so I wrote her back one more time and I
said okay I can see that you’re not
joking you do know that the point of
that video was to illustrate a practice
that I wanted to kind of wave you off of
as opposed to you know asking you to
really to unsubscribe and she wrote back
and she said don’t contact me again
okay and I got to thinking about it and
I realized that the phrase serves you
right
was 100% accurate and I’ll tell you why
clearly she was having a bad day or she
didn’t want to hear from me anymore
didn’t find the things that I was giving
her useful was waiting for some
opportunity to get off the list and just
didn’t get around to it but as I said in
that email I only want people on my list
I only want people watching these videos
I only want people signing up for the
list and confirming that they want to be
on the list and continuing to be on the
list if what I give them what I give you
is useful is something that helps is
entertaining or is informative or helps
you make more money or helps you have a
better life I only want people on the
list that find what I’m doing useful and
the reverse is true as well
I don’t want anybody on the list that
doesn’t want to be on the list I don’t
want any be on the list that feels like
I’m filling up their inbox with useless
junk
I don’t want anybody on the list who
doesn’t want to hear from me I just I
don’t want that I don’t want anybody to
feel like they don’t have the power to
control their inbox
and I think that what happened here was
things worked out exactly the way I had
planned them to she unsubscribed and it
served me right it served me absolutely
right and it took me a while to
understand it because I’ll be honest
with you when I sent that video out I
checked over the light it was like maybe
a week ago or two weeks ago that I sent
it out and I checked over those days and
over those days I did get four
unsubscribes now I’m not sure whether it
was caused by me asking people to please
unsubscribe has a little bit of a joke
but I got four unsubscribes which is not
unusual I usually get between one and
two a week but I also got over 80
subscribes and that’s usually the ratio
that happens I get a lot more subscribes
than I do unsubscribe so the system
seems to be working and I kind of took a
step back and thought about how this
woman must have felt what must have made
her do what she did when she got the
video she looked at the video I don’t
even know she watched the video maybe
she just read the subject line and said
okay great well thank you for reminding
me I don’t want to be on this stupid
list anyway which is fine that’s what
you want you own and and I tell you this
only because there’s a movement to get
as many friends and connections on
LinkedIn friends on Facebook you know
people following you on Twitter
Instagram followers you know pick your
social channel and there’s this move to
get hundreds thousands millions of
followers and I would rather have people
on my list at a much lower number I’m
happy with the people that are on my
list now it’s you know these are the
people that want to hear from me I’d
rather have that then millions of people
who sign up for the list and don’t
really read or watch or act or care I
think a higher quality tribe for me is a
smaller number
that has a really high engagement and I
know that you are one of those types of
people and I really appreciate you being
on my list so question how many lists
are you on right now that if the person
said to you hey if you don’t wanna be on
the list anymore just go ahead and jump
off of it I don’t care how many are you
on but you really don’t want to be on
and how many are you on that you would
really be upset if somehow the list went
away or the the production stopped of
articles or videos or whatever it is
that you’re subscribed to um let me know
how you feel about things like this is
it just becoming way too much and why do
you stay subscribe to me why are you
watching this video I mean some of
you’ve already told me from that other
video but I’d really like to know I’d
really like to know I’m going through
the stuff that you sent from the most
recent video on hey I’m about halfway
done what have I done well what am I not
doing so well what would you like more
of what would you like less of so I
appreciate that
but I would like to know what your take
is on how many lists you’re subscribed
to and how many you really value how
many are the ones that go into your
inbox rather than shunt it off into the
promo folder or the spam folder or
whatever
anyway I’m David H Lawrence 217th as you
know I’m not encouraging you to join my
youtube channel anymore I’d love for you
to join my list and if you’re watching
this video and you’re not on the list
hopefully you’re watching interview to
go go calm go ahead and look below the
video there’s a little button you can
click on this says subscribe to the list
and we’d love to have you in a challenge
this year so you can get a video every
day through the end of the year because
my challenge is to do a new video like
this every day just know that this case
don’t don’t subscribe and then
unsubscribe a week later going why
you’re sending me way too many videos
also I would love for you to look at the
latest video we’ve done and if you want
to do that go ahead and click on that
frame there and YouTube will play it for
you I’m David H Lawrence xvii I thank
you so much for watching and I will talk
to you tomorrow.
Hi, DHLXVII. Yes, for sure I’m on too many lists (who in our day isn’t?). But yours is certainly not one I would consider leaving. Despite my being involved in one aspect or another of this business since the 1980s (I was a NYC-market FM morning-drive personality for a little while, and left that biz voluntarily), you consistently give me new things to think about, and new, useful information to consider and implement (like your file naming convention). May seem small, but as a tech/computer geek myself (my *bread trade* over the years), I’m genuinely interesting in these things, and they *are* helpful. I hope soon to semi-retire, and give up the soul-sucking money job, and do VO full-time for a while before finally retiring altogether. My only regret is that sometimes I want to respond to a Daily Tips VO, and can’t align my thoughts, or find the time or the words to do so. I do like participating.
As for the rest, I have created rules to route many email senders to a “Quarantine” folder, where I can look through them, but if I’m honest, I seldom do. Others I have configured to limit how many times they email me, and when the didn’t honor that, entirely unsubscribed.
Many thanks, again, for this service. It serves us well.
I have to admit that I’m on a couple lists that have to do with on-camera work that I’m not really engaged in. Because I was cast in something recently I feel an obligation to try and pursue on-camera work, while at the same time I wasn’t really pursuing it very strongly when I got booked. Part of me wants to go back to making on-camera a very part time thing while I focus on voice-over and starting a family with my wife, and part of me says, “Put all kinds of effort into getting on-camera work now or you’ll be missing out!” I go back and forth about it quite often. Thanks for the video David.
Every quarter or so I review my inbox to see how many useless lists I’m on and do a quick cull, by unsubscribing ;), using the unsubscribe link in the e-mail. I’m an admin-type so this works for me. You have not made it to the cull, nor are you likely to because you either: teach, entertain or inform me on something that I am very keen on learning about. Appreciate all you do!! K
I am on way too many lists. Now and then I take the time to unsubscribe from the lists that don’t seem to be adding anything to my life. For some of them, if they said “Unsubscribe now” I might actually respond by unsubscribing with a private thank-you thought for the reminder.
I am on this list because although daily emails and videos are not something I want to sign up for indefinitely, this is for a year and it has so far turned out to be worthwhile. The videos are short and to the point and I like that. You have certainly made your brand known to me (which I didn’t know before) and I might be inclined to subscribe/enroll/join some of your services in the future – so that seems to be worthwhile to you as well.
(Some of the lists don’t seem to respond to my “Unsubscribe”. After a couple of tries, they do get marked as spam and all the badness I hope that brings to them. But at that point, they asked for it.)
Humans never cease to disappoint. Now, if she would only unsubscribe from the Gene Pool. 😉
To answer your question, I usually outlast my lists; in other words they go away before I lose interest. There have been a few subscribes that are lingering, in which I no longer have interest. Those were usually friends or colleagues whom I wished to support.
As for you, David, I usually find your stuff quite valuable (you do give away a lot of milk) and intend to keep subscribing.
Hello David,
I am on more lists than I wish to be.
It seems that when I unsubscribe, the same people pop into my mail box under a different name!
Other than that, I am delighted to be on your list.
You would have to ‘unsubscribe’ me: it is the only way that you will get rid of me!
I do hope that you won’t do it, though.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
‘See’ you tomorrow via your camera!
Janice