Tarzan Kay

<tarzan@tarzankay.com>

August 13, 2024

to you

What you're reading is a copy of an email my subscribers received. This is an archive, so it's possible some links are missing or expired. If you want to stay in the loop, make sure to jump on my email list and get these delivered direct to your inbox!

Subject:

A banking error has occurred in your favour.

Emails, but better logo in dark yellow, with a paper airplane on the left. Underneath it reads "By Tarzan Kay."


Welcome to Throwback Summer 

Every Tuesday this August I’ll be republishing another hit from the last 8 years of emails. Get ready to meet four very different versions of Tarzan, some you’ll like and some you may not.

You’ll also find a breakdown of why I chose to share this email, and my reaction to it now.

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The One Where Tarzan Is Winning At Capitalism

Send Date: September 20, 2016
(9 months in business)

Know that moment when you're coming around to the GO square in Monopoly, and you just *know* you're about to take the game?

It goes like this:

You snagged Park Place on the last lap around the board, and put up a chain of hotels on Illinois and Indiana avenues. (Your little sister is already wincing every time she makes her way through the red zone.)

You roll the dice…hoping against hope…and BOOM!

Boardwalk.

The property is yours. Permission to build is yours. You're 1 move away from making Monopoly history—your opponents will be bankrupted in a single role of the dice if they land on one of your illustrious locations.

Game over.

Your moment has arrived. You jump up on the table, whooping loudly and doing your “Go, Shorty” dance.

And yet…

Somewhere deep down, there is also a deep pang of fear, itching to say its peace. Because you're on top now, and there's pretty much only one direction to go.

Sometimes in Monopoly (and in life), it's easier to be out of cash and perpetually praying for a bank error in your favour.

‘Cuz here's what…

Everything is simpler when you have nothing to lose.

a much younger Tarzan who looks young enough to get ID'd at the liquor store wears feather earring, glasses, and sports a cute asymmetrical haircut.

When you do have something to lose – clients, web traffic, an email list, whatever – it gets a whole lot more scary to pivot.

You don't want to piss people off.

You don't want to be perceived as “too expensive”.

I get that.

This week I made some huge changes in my business (with handholding from my coach Kathleen, of course), and I wanted you to be the first to know about them.

I work with a lot of coaches, so free consultations are a hot topic. I don't advise them—yet I do offer them.

Hella inauthentic, right? Walking the talk and all that?

Until now.

This week I hired an assistant (loooong time coming), put a price tag on the consultations that were eating up my week, and gave myself permission to say “buh-bye” to the former me—

—the little sister who never takes a *risk* on Boardwalk, who always bogarted properties in all the different zones, so no one would ever get all 3 and start building hotels.

See ya later, sister.

If you're anything like me, I want to get up on my soapbox and say something to you.

Boardwalk is your birthright.

You can do better than a banking error in your favour.

Life wants you to thrive.

Now please pass GO. And collect your damn $200, because you earned it.

xo,
Tarzan

line break with a paper airplane

A Note From Current Day Tarzan

I chose this email because the assistant I referred to is Sandra Booker, my #1 advisor and decision-making partner these last 7 years.

Part of me wants to shred this email and everything that’s “wrong” with it, but I was just a baby back then. I had no idea how strong and capable I was, and the ways I would have to grow to sustain this success. I was excited to be winning at Monopoly but also so scared to lose it, which, as some of you know, I eventually did.

And guess what? I’m still okay. Taking inspiration from that strong and capable human writing some of her very first newsletters.

 

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Want to eavesdrop on my Voxer account? Now you can. 
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Becca Tracey from The Uncaged Life got on Voxer with 17 entrepreneurs and asked them, “How would you grow your business if you were starting from scratch and social media didn’t exist?”

I fired back with the question, “Do I get to keep my reputation?”

Hear what happened next in her Fly On The Wall series of bite-sized interviews with business owners like me. From August 12-16 only.

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