Hey Folks!

Happy Friday! Right after I sent you my “fall fit” last week, KY decided to stay above 90 degrees every single day. I know fall will get here at some point. Until then, a couple things on my mind…

1. VSLs Are Back: If you ever read DotCom Secrets you’ll be familiar with the “Video Sales Letter” or VSL. It’s basically a landing page with a video at the top, and then you scroll through multiple pages of ascending or descending offers. These were really popular in the early 2010s and I’m seeing them convert really well again. On the front end, I’m seeing them capture emails at about DOUBLE what a Calendly/demo funnel would. And upsells and downsells have never stopped working. The big difference now is attention span - keep the videos under 4 minutes at each stage and give specific value at each step. I especially like it when the video is the founder or the face of the brand, not a hired presenter. The first one more recently I saw that I really liked was Matthias Barker’s at estrangement.com. Since then I’m seeing them everywhere and have built a couple myself. Funny how everything old becomes new again in marketing. Give it a shot.

2. Syrup + Salt in Espresso: I've always had to cut my espresso with half and half because of what the acidity does to my stomach. I mentioned this to my Italian friend and he told me to skip the milk and put a little maple syrup and a pinch of salt in the shot instead. About half a teaspoon of syrup, salt just enough to cover your fingertip. Salt doesn't make it salty, it kills the bitterness, so you need way less sweetener than you'd think. I haven't touched the half and half since. Delicious, and my stomach feels great.

3. Date Night Questions: As I’ve mentioned in the past, Chandler and I are pretty religious about a weekly date night. Nothing fancy, most of the time we just get ice cream and go for a walk while Everett is at youth group. (Chandler and I wrote a whole chapter of our book on how to master the date night, even with young kids and zero budget.) I’m a bit of a nerd, but I like to collect good questions or topics for us to talk about on date night, and I saw these on Instagram the other day. We talked through them last night and it sparked a really great conversation. Give them a try:
- Who’s the first person you told about liking me?
- What do I do that you’ll never get tired of?
- If we met today, what would you notice about me? (this was the best one)​
- What’s a random moment together you’ll remember forever?
- How do you feel about being with me, in 3 words?

That’s it for this week!

Best,

Blake

P.S. The Family Framework is out in 25 days! If you think you're going to buy it, I'd appreciate a pre-order. It helps our metrics on Amazon and with the publisher. Thanks!