The Disturbing Email that Lost a Good Client
Yesterday I told you about a good client who went radio silent on me in 2012 after sending me regular work for about three years.
And I teased you that something had happened to destroy that business relationship.
Want to know what it was?
Truth is, I didn’t know myself until 2019. I had to wait a whole 7 years to discover the answer!
Here’s what happened…
My good friend Adam ran into my ex-client in September 2019 and my name came up. Adam had heard my story, so he asked my ex-client about it.
Turns out, I had written an email my ex-client hadn’t liked. It was to sell a survival product. The email told an imaginary story of a family forced to eat their own dog due to starvation.
The whole thing struck me as kind of funny because I would have gladly written another email if he had asked. When I turned in the email, I wrote:
“Here is the advertorial for _____. NOTE: This is very different from anything you’ve sent before. Bill should probably approve this before it’s mailed.”
But Bill never replied nor ever said a word about my email. And, in fact, he continued sending me work for 7 months after that.
I went back and found that email I wrote. It is very vivid. And the fact that my ex-client remembered it clearly 8 years later speaks to the power of visceral stories.
I’ve included the entire email below (minus the product and client names).
Remember, this email never ran anywhere, so I have no idea how it would have performed.
I’m rootin’ for ya,
Ryan “sometimes I cross the line” Healy
Subject:
When Man’s Best Friend Becomes Man’s Next Dinner
Body:
Mark could hardly bear to look his dog in the eyes. He was on the verge of tears when his daughter tugged on his sleeve.
“Daddy, I’m really hungry.”
“I know you are, sweetie.”
“Daddy, why are you so sad?”
In spite of the hard living conditions they had endured the past two months, Mark’s daughter was still as sensitive and inquisitive as ever.
“I’m sad because we’re going to have to say goodbye to Max.”
“Why do we have to say goodbye to Max, Daddy? Is he going to the vet?”
“No. But we won’t see him anymore.” Mark didn’t know what else to say. But he certainly couldn’t tell his daughter the truth:
He Planned for His Family to
Eat Max for Dinner That Very Night
Of course, the idea of eating his own dog… a dog he had picked out himself 7 years ago… turned Mark’s stomach.
He went over his options again in the hopes he had overlooked some way to stay alive.
All the food in the pantry was gone. Even the leftover ketchup and taco sauce packets had been slurped down a week ago. They had combed the house for food, but could find nothing.
Other families in the neighborhood were suffering just as much. They had no food. If they did, they weren’t saying anything, and Mark would have felt embarrassed and ashamed to impose on a family that already appeared to be starving.
In desperation, Mark had laid out a mouse trap he found in the garage — a cheap $1 mouse trap — but with no bait to use, he had failed to catch anything.
And hunting? Mark had certainly thought about it. But he had no gun and no ammunition. Gun stores were sold out. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There was very little wildlife in the city other than occasional rabbits, and even those had all but disappeared.
Once again, Mark came back to the gut-wrenching decision he had to make…
Eat Max or Starve
After sending his daughter off to be with her mother, Mark reluctantly picked up a sharp kitchen knife and led Max to the back yard.
As he walked, he was reminded of the story of Abraham and Isaac. Is this how Abraham had felt as he prepared the altar on which to sacrifice Isaac?
My God, how he wished he had taken the warnings seriously!
He’d seen dire predictions prior to the food shortages, but he’d shrugged them off. Ignored them. Even made fun of “preppers.”
How stupid he’d been! He had never imagined such severe hardship in a modern and developed country like America.
He had only himself to blame.
And now, as he looked down at his dog, his loyal friend of 7 years, he couldn’t believe it had come to this.
Does the story above seem far-fetched? It’s not. History proves people will eat just about anything when they are starving — including animals and even people.
Fortunately, with the right preparation, you’ll never have to eat your dog. More details here:
[LINK]-[SIGNATURE]
P.S. Don’t voluntarily put yourself in a bad situation by shrugging off the warnings and sticking your head in the sand.
Make sure you’re 100% prepared for the food shortages that are coming.
This in-depth guide shows you how: [LINK]