You know people are going to ask you to do something when the sentence starts: “This is a friendly reminder to…”
I’ve received lots of these texts and emails over the years. Obviously, these sentences usually come from someone asking for a favor. Whether that’s asking you to get out and vote, buy a product, or not forget to take care of your neighbor’s dog…
But why does this reminder need to be “friendly”? I caught myself sending an email the other day to my email list of subscribers using this exact sentence without thinking. These were people that mostly signed up because they had expressed interest in buying specialty coffee from me and wanted more information when it would be available.
However, I still felt the need to make this reminder as “friendly” as possible, as if it was a negative thing for me to ask them to buy the thing they told me they were interested in.
How ridiculous!
As I wrote it, I asked myself… why am I writing these unnecessary words? Why am I being more roundabout than I need to be?
Because these extra words are unnecessary. What makes a reminder friendly or unfriendly? They’re just words in an email. A reminder is simply a reminder.
Hell, I threw out the whole phrase once I realized why I was writing it.
I realized I was scared to be too direct, scared to promote something I had for sale and ask people to actually buy it.
I decided that the shorter and more direct I was, the better. I needed to let people say yes or no for themselves. Me saying that the reminder was friendly was in no way going to bring in more sales.
It was just a waste of words without meaning. My intention was solid, as in I was promoting something I truly believe in and am looking forward to sending out for people to experience.
Little phrases like these and being a “morning person” make me think about the truth of my speech.
Trying to be a little more conscious of the language I choose on a daily basis. ?
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