Hey you, stop doing this!

Stop Taking Responsibility For Other People’s Inboxes—Do This Instead

Have you emailed your list this week? 

I bet they’ll be delighted to hear from you. Some of them will even skip over many other emails to read yours first. I’m sure of this. Yet my customers have all kinds of objections about emailing more consistently. They tell me things like… 

“I don’t want to annoy people.”

“There’s so much clutter in the inbox, I don’t want to pile on.”

“YOU WANT ME TO SEND HOW MANY SALES EMAILS, TARZAN??!!”

These are completely normal objections, and stern Auntie Tarzan wants to tell you something. Please hear me on this:

It’s not your responsibility to keep other people’s inboxes tidy. You wouldn’t put yourself in charge of cleaning other people’s bedrooms, would you? Do you think your favourite clothing store cares about the mountain of stretchy pants in the back of your closet? They do not! The state of other people’s inboxes is equally not your responsibility.

I’m willing to bet your feelings about cluttered inboxes have more to do with the state of your own inbox than your subscribers’ inboxes. Stop projecting. If you have clutter in your inbox, clean it out. 

→ Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read anymore
→ Turn off promotions you’re not interested in
→ Mark trash as trash, and block those senders
→ Create labels and rules so that your emails organize themselves

Got it? 

K, good. 

Furthermore, your newsletter is not “clutter.”

Stop being so hard on yourself. The people on your email list signed up to hear from you because they’re curious about what your business does and what you have to say. When people ask for emails and you don’t email them, it’s not a good look. Is this someone’s side project, or a real business? 

When you ask for consent to join your email list, it’s as much for you as for your subscribers. It’s a reminder to yourself that yes, people truly did ask for your emails—not because you bribed them with a freebie or discount code, but because they genuinely want to receive your emails. 

And if they change their mind? 

There’s a button for that, and it’s already built into your newsletter template. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!

It’s okay to take up space in the inbox, friend. People will unsubscribe, and you will survive it. Unsubscribes are not a reflection of your value as a human being. I lose at least thirty subscribers every time I send an email. Normal! I do not read their names and wonder if there’s something wrong with me or if I should quit my job and do something else with my life.

That’s a mindset that takes time to cultivate. Every time you send an email, you’re strengthening the belief that you deserve to take up space, that your ideas are worthy of attention, and that there are people in the world who are delighted to hear from you.  

So go ahead. 

Flex that muscle of worthiness. 

If you want to do it side-by-side with others, we do this in community in Email Review Club. But this isn’t a sales email, and you can do it on your own! Lots of people do. 

This is just a friendly nudge from your Auntie Tarzan. 

Have you emailed your list this week? 

I bet they’ll be delighted to hear from you. 

XOT

Tarzan Kalryzian [she/they]
Did someone forward you this email? ​Subscribe here​.
Follow me on ​LinkedIn​.