My eyes shot open this morning like Jack Shepherd in the opening scene of LOST.

Instant dilation. Wide pupils.

But oddly, no fear.

Because this morning I was not terrified after just having crash landed on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean

No, no.

My eyes shot open this morning because I was excited.

Very excited.

Why: In the middle of the night last night, I woke up and wrote down what was possibly the BEST email idea I’ve ever had.

Where did this idea come from?

Over the weekend I purchased copywriter John Bejakovic’s “Most Valuable Email” training.

I took the hour or so he promised it would take to go through it, and my brain was exploding with all the awesome information he shared.

Now … I won’t tell you what’s in his training. You’ll have to buy the course for that, and it’s worth far beyond what he is charging.

I can tell you, though, that the idea that I had was sparked in my brain because of this training.

But when I woke up this morning to flesh out my daily email, my heart sank.

After grabbing a cup of water and sitting down at my desk, I fired up the notes app on my phone — where I always jot down half-baked ideas in the middle of the night — but found no new notes since at least 24 hours ago.

I searched and searched and searched.

Turns out, I never wrote anything down … and I realized I had only dreamed that I had come up with what was certain to be the best email idea ever.

Annoying too because it was such a vivid dream.

No matter, though. Because there is still a valuable lesson to share here.

Recently, a few of you have asked me “how in the world” I come up with my ideas.

Well … my strategy is staring you right in the face in this very email!

1. I have knowledge and experience from being a copywriter over the last 5 years (the baseline of this entire daily email that I send).
   

2. I connect ideas from pop culture and other media to bring “fun” into my copy (the opening scene of LOST).
   

3. I tell stories about things happening in real life or about situations I observe (I woke up in the middle of the night to write an email down, or if you remember “coffee” lady).
   

4. And I take courses and trainings regularly to grow my knowledge and spark new ideas (Like John’s course, linked above and below).

Now.

Unless you’ve spent the half-decade I have writing copy … testing ideas … working with clients … taking courses … then you won’t have the same skill set I have.

In other words, there’s no shortcut. Just being honest.

But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost, either. With time, effort, and commitment, it’s not impossible to become good (and even great) at writing email copy.

But you have to get started. And the best time to get started is always today.

If you feel like you’re ready to take the first step, then I wholeheartedly recommend John’s training.

You can take a look here: http://bejakovic.com/mve

David Patrick