My stupid car broke down (and what it has to do with you)

3 min reading time

I got in the car to drive to Firestone for maintenance.

And the damned thing wouldn’t start. And Beth was gone. And I suck with cars.

I wasn’t confident with the portable charger. Which had no “juice” and, without Beth, I didn’t even know how to plug the thing in.

Ultimately, Firestone navigated through a serious of noises and photos that the battery might really be dead. Or it could be the alternator.

I would need a tow, dammit.

I was going to the gosh-darn shop! This couldn’t have waited and let me turn over the car one more time?

So here’s what happened next

And what it has to do with you. And look! A movie! Fewer words! You’re welcome!

That’s it. That’s all I have to say about that.

Last week’s experiment

Last week I tried for my highest open and click-through rates. I didn’t get there, but came close.

My winning title, “This is what I think of your boring copy!” scored an 80 (a personal best) on the analyzing tool I use.

It got a 48.8 percent open rate – among my very best – but I expected better because I depleted my circulation by 25 percent. (See “Mindaugus,” one of my favorite Journeys.)

There are too many variables at play, of course, so I’m dismissing the lower-than-anticipated open rate on seasonality as we near summer’s end in the States, where most of my readers reside.

This was the opening body copy.

I went on to say how hard it is to get even loyal readers to actually click. (On a related note, I know a number of friends who “love my Journeys” but sometimes “just open them. [I] didn’t have a chance to read it yet.”)

Anyhow, the click-through was in the top decile, and my clickers were treated to a number of silly GIFs to illustrate my point.

Lesson learned

Is there a lesson learned for you in my little experiment?

Not really? Except:

Experimenting. Good.

What gets tracked gets measured.

It’s really hard to get good click-through rates, even if you’re as wonderful as I. ????

I SEE DEAD GROUPS

The content of my final letter to the Medical Devices Group on LinkedIn, if you want to know why I am all-but-abandoning the LinkedIn group I worked so hard to cultivate.

Fast Round

Our one-year anniversary! Come September 12, you and I will have spent a year Journeying together. I feel accomplished, especially since I got hung-up around week 41. How should we celebrate?

Moving to half-time. With an average composition of three-to-four hours, I will have invested 180+ hours in Journey production, the equivalent of nearly five “normal business hour” weeks of work. I wanted to prove to myself I could make it a year, every week. With the prize in sight, I plan to write every other week instead.

I have so much work. Something has to give. (My body completely crashed on me this weekend. Like, 13-hours-of-sleep crashed.)

Guess what the average tip is for my tow truck guy?! I couldn’t believe it when he told me, but three people I asked got it right. 75 cents!

Stranded roadside, the average motorist doesn’t tip at all. Only one in ten does, and then only “five to ten bucks.”

I asked because his eyes lit up so greatly when I handed him a twenty and gave him a Coke.

I’m pretty cheap, but I remember reading somewhere if you “overtip,” it comes out to maybe an extra $200 to $300 annually. And for that, think of how many people you can delight!

Or maybe Brady told me that. I don’t remember.