Jump to content
Learn. Practice Writing. Get Results.

The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday March 3rd, 2023)

Swipe📁  Wisdom🧠  Interesting🧐  Picture🖼 • Essay📄  Sketch✎
A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

Edition: Friday, March 3rd, 2023

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

Happy Friday! Let's start today with an example of “Lumpy Mail” which is mail with an object inside that makes you curious to open.

This came from Self Publishing School and included a metal bottle opener.

When I got the mail I could feel it had something hard in it (giggity) so it got me curious.

lumpy-mail-1.webp

When you open it there was a handy bottle opener!

lumy-mail-2.webp

"Lumpy Mail" is great because when people check their mail they often have two piles:

The 'A' Pile: Personal letters and stuff they want to open.
The 'B' Pile: Stuff you just toss in the garbage.

lumpy-mail-piles.webp

If you send mail that seems like it has something inside it...it'll more often get put in the A-Pile!

Wisdom:

This is a fun diagram showing the meaning of life for different theories and philosophies. 
I thought this was a perfect perfect combo of images + text working to educate!

Meaning-of-life.png

Interesting:

Why write lots of copy, when you can show a picture? Instead:
➡Show Don't Tell!⬅

Here's some graphics that convey wayyyy more information in a small space rather than large amounts of text.

Show Don't Tell #1.) The 12 Major Hair Types

There’s a lot of different hair types, but this chart makes classifying them very simple with examples of each:

hair-style-ad.webp

Is there something in your industry you could simply explain with a graphic like this?

 

Show Don't Tell #2.) Keep guacamole green!

This combination of images and callout text taught me something I never knew....several ways to keep avocado guacamole nice and green for longer!

advocado.jpg

 

Show Don't Tell #3.) Different types of pasta

This helpful chart instantly taught me more about pasta than I've ever know, thanks to a quick combo of images and a little text:

pasta-types.jpg

 

Show Don't Tell #4.) The hardness scale in one image

This simple graphs shows a lot of helpful data in one simple-to-read chart. I love how it relates "hardness" to everyday things we can understand like a "fingernail" or "copper coin."

I'm gonna refrain from making any jokes 😂

rock-list.webp

Awwww F it I'm gonna make one joke!!

rock-list-joke.webp

heh heh heh 😏

Picture:

Two weeks ago we went out to a 500 acre ranch for my buddy Noah's birthday and it was really fun!

We did ocean fishing, pond fishing, hunting, and lots of grilling...here's a few random pics from the trip (apologies if you don't like gun/fishing pics 😬)

Some of the guys:

noah-birthday-guys.jpg

 

Huge ranch with one main house, and 6 smaller houses:

ranch-new.jpg

 

Cowboy Neville 🤠

cowboy-nev.jpg

 

Main house had hunting lodge vibes:

main-ranch-house.jpg

 

Some guys:

some-gus-hunting.jpg

 

Hey I caught a fish in the pond!

nev-caught-a-fish.jpg

 

Skeet shooting:

skeet-shooting.jpg

 

Went fishing and found this random shack built on stilts in the middle of the ocean and climbed on it:

nev-on-shack-stilts.webp

 

We did a piñata for Noah's bday and shot it with a shotgun instead of hitting with a stick 😂

taco-pinata.jpg

 

It worked 🌮

pinata-shot.jpg

 

This pic looks so Texas 😂

noah-gun-cooler.jpg

 

So does this pic...goats + ranch + hunting truck

truck-goats-ranch.jpg

 

We went night hunting for boars using night vision stuff, never done that before and it was kinda neat:

night-vision-hunting-goggles.jpg

Lots more photos, but that's enough for now! 

Essay:

Why do Le Labo candles smell so much superior to other candles?

candles-le-labo.jpg

I've spent hundreds of dollars on these candles (FREAKIN CANDLES!!) and wanted to know why I couldn't find a cheapo knock off.

Honestly it was a difficult question to answer through Google, so I resorted to Twitter

Apparently it has something to do with certain fragrances costing thousands of dollars per ounce:

eric-twitter-answer.webp

Other factors are the type of wax used and "fragrance load."

dianna-twitter-answer.webp

As someone whose worked in copywriting/marketing, I'm often skeptical of expensive products that are expensive only because of marketing.

Skin care is a big culprit of this. This $14/bottle of CeraVe lotion is probably the same (or better) than most $100/bottle lotions:

cerave-lotion.jpg

So I'm not 100% sure why Le Labo candles smell so damn good to me, but it seems like high quality ingredients (plus a dash of fancy marketing) is the cause!

Splurge:

To combat being a lazy asshole who goofs off all day, I have been using this site called CaveDay.org. It's a place to virtually co-work over Zoom, and I've used it a ton this month!

Normally I do 1-hour work sprints, but yesterday I did a 3 hour "Work Cave" with 80 other people on the call:

work-cave.webp

Essentially it's virtual co-working, but done really well!I love to co-work, in fact I get more done in co-working sessions than an entire day being alone.

I regularly invite people over to work with me:

co-working-images.jpg

....but scheduling in-person co-working is hard, and sometimes we just chat a bunch and don't do solid work. Also it's really hard to setup co-working EVERY SINGLE DAY with friends. 

So instead I "Book a Cave" and join the Zoom call with others who are also working:

book-a-cave.webp

I'm currently writing another book, and finding long periods of focused time to write is difficult, so I've been using CaveDay a ton...as well as for my daily regular work.

Full Disclosure: I'm not part of CaveDay, it's just a product I like, and I'm using affiliate links in the description (if you join from my link I get a small cut).

I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
Sincerely, 
Neville Medhora

nev-head.webp

20 Comments


Recommended Comments

I really enjoy your newsletter every week.

I especially enjoy the visual information, and some of the other useful random bits.  

Link to comment

love the personal images 🙂 would love to go on a boys trip like that someday but its hard to get people together the older i get

Link to comment
  • Administrator

Thanks Shawn! Yeah you've definitely got to make an effort for those types of things!

Link to comment

I'm a creator with a $25k/month course. 

I'm currently drowning in the content treadmill (e.g. writing articles, social media, etc), and I need to figure out how to get leverage. 

Have you written anywhere about how you've scaled yourself and gotten leverage (e.g. first hires, how you structure your week, etc.)?

No worries if not!

Link to comment
  • Administrator

I talk about that more advanced stuff inside the course Mike! Also we could chat it about it directly on office hours 🙂 
https://copywritingcourse.com/join

That's usually not a big piece of public content as your unique problem doesn't apply to a most people.

Link to comment

One great writer said that writers should “kill their darlings” when writing. He meant that we have little phrases and expressions that we think are darling because they are “ours”.

Remember the best writers and communicators, like Neville Medhora, for example, are MUCH MORE INTERESTED in their audience than themselves.

To embrace a wider audience we avoid anything that could legitimately cause offence. I wanted to forward this email to my daughter, the puerile graphics of your “darling little joke” made this inappropriate. What a shame ! :(.

Otherwise some really good content, as always, thanks

Link to comment
  • Administrator

Sorry Allan, sometimes the jokes are crude....most of the time not but sometimes 😬

Link to comment

One great writer said that writers should “kill their darlings” when writing. He meant that we have little phrases and expressions that we think are darling because they are “ours”.

Remember the best writers and communicators, like Neville Medhora, for example, are MUCH MORE INTERESTED in their audience than themselves.

To embrace a wider audience we avoid anything that could legitimately cause offence. I wanted to forward this email to my daughter, the puerile graphics of your “darling little joke” made this inappropriate. What a shame ! :(.

Otherwise some really good content, as always, thanks

Link to comment
  • Administrator

Sorry Allan, sometimes the jokes are crude....most of the time not but sometimes 😬

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...
Guest