Sam Elliott’s Mustache And The Power Of One Deliverable

There is no doubt that Val Kilmer’s performance in the movie Tombstone is one for the ages.  It stands the test of time, is rewatchable, and there are no weak spots.  This is a commonly held belief among cultured people who enjoy fine wine and cheese.  What most people don’t realize is that his performance was also amazing because he had to go toe to toe with one of the greatest movie icons of all time.

Am I talking about Kurt Russell?  No.  A fine actor but not in the same league of whom I speak.  Bill Paxton then?  Again, although he has great lines like “Why don’t you put her in charge.” and “I'm gonna tell Mom and Dad everything. I'm even considering makin' up some sh*t!" he falls woefully short of this thespian.  You have probably guessed it by now but I am of course talking about Sam Elliott’s mustache.

Not only is Sam Elliott’s mustache without a doubt the greatest mustache of all time, it is responsible for taking a failed psychology major from Sacramento and turning him into one of the most alpha men on the planet.  All you have to do is do an image search for the man sans mustache and then you will truly understand the power of those bristles.

The key to its longevity is that it has never strayed from its lane.  It has not tried to be a goatee, van dyke, beard or tried to connect to the sideburns.  Certainly it had the range to do so, but was smart enough to stay with what worked. 

This is a powerful lesson that can be applied to both life and business.

(If you can’t tell, I am a big fan and follow Sam Elliot’s Mustache on X/Twitter.  You can check out their account here: Sam Elliotts Mustache.  You can also give me a follow on X/Twitter as well here: Understory Bard.)

Leaving Your Writing Lane Is Expensive

In a general sense, a writing as a service business is very versatile.  You have a lot of options to choose from for deliverables you can charge for.  Some people do sales letters, others ghostwrite books, and the aliens choose to do white papers (commence internal shuddering).  For me, I have found the sweet spot to be weekly newsletters in the 1,000 to 1,250 word range.  

This kind of deliverable is long enough to where you can get the reader to do something and short enough to where you can produce it quickly without a lot of research.  It is the foundation of my business.  When I switched to it as my core offer, I hit six figures in income pretty quick. This was mostly due to the fact that there is no time spent on client acquisition when your portfolio is full because it is a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) model.

(Pro tip:  Time spent acquiring clients doesn’t actually make you any money.  Avoid it when possible.)

I don’t really do client acquisition any more.  All of my leads are inbound now, except for the rare occasion when I will put an email out to my list asking people if they want to get on the waitlist.  Although this is a great place to be, it can also be a trap.  

Case in point:  In December I had a CEO reach out to me ostensibly for my newsletter offer.  Truth be told he didn’t really know what he wanted.  However, he did have deep pockets and a lot of content needs.  I was seduced by the former, so I was blinded by the latter.

("Blinded by the latter" is not a superior song lyric to blinded by the light because when you sing it, it sounds like "blinded by the ladder" and that makes no sense.)

I ended up taking the gig and I have been doing everything from warming up an email list, to writing eBooks, to designing email campaigns.  These are all things that I can do but I don’t do them as fast as I can do flat fee newsletters.  I am also getting paid hourly.  

(Yes, it is a high rate but still a bad idea.  You can check out my thinking on this in the past Understory Dispatch Message #4 - Why Hourly Contracts Are An Abomination For Writers.)

To make matters worse, it is a consulting company that provides actuarial services.  I don't know if you know this about me but I can't whistle, math is not my favorite, and they aren't asking me to write about whistling.

I often say that I can write about anything and make it interesting.  This client is putting that to the test.  I am getting a lot of great results and feedback BUT it is a grind for me.  It is not a natural content fit so there is a lot of mental energy going to figuring out the topics and then writing about them.  

Although I am making good money, if you put all of these things together I am losing leverage.  I would be making more money with a couple of clients doing newsletters instead of this one client doing everything because I would be keeping more of my creative capital. 

Your creative capital is what allows you to build leverage in your business through trying out a bunch of different cockamamie ideas when you are coming from a position of strength.

The Less You Think, The More You Win

Decision fatigue is a real thing.  When I had nothing going on, I dismissed Steve Jobs wearing the same clothes all the time as a silly eccentric billionaire posturing.  I was, of course, wrong about this.

Anytime you have a task that is repeated week in and week out, it is critical that you set-up a routine for that task. Doing so is invaluable for consistency but more importantly it reduces the amount of mental energy you expend on the task to the lowest level possible.  On the writing side of things, frameworks serve this purpose. I have a newsletter framework that I use every single week, for every single client.  The faster I get, the more leverage I have because I am paid a flat fee.

I have always known that you have a set amount of creative points a day. Call it 100. What I did not understand was how easily those points got burned by pointless things, or by expending energy figuring out writing projects out of the newsletter lane.

When you are trying to accomplish big things, burning creative points unnecessarily slows you down.

Staying in your lane solves a portion of this problem.  I never have to think about how I am going to write a newsletter. I write it the same way every time and it gets results every time. 

Each time I have tried something different I get punished for it, like with this deep pocket CEO client.  Learn from my mistake, pick one deliverable and make it your core offer.  Build a foundation with your business so that you can then go out and create leverage while self-producing your own creative projects.  It is a life and business worth living. 

Irregular Means Irregular

If you haven’t noticed, this newsletter comes out inconsistently.  This is by design.  I get to it when I get to it.  If you want to hear from me on these topics on a much more regular basis (daily-ish), you can opt-in to my email list here: Understory Bard Email List Opt-in.

More in a bit . . . Wade, The Understory Bard

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