Yesterday I was explaining the new class to Jay, and we got to chatting about how the indie wrestling company he works with could use automagical email series to entice fans to come to their shows. As we were talking he said (as he often does), “You have to write about this!”

So, here it is, 7 specific ways you can use an automagical email series. Even though I'm sharing ideas I've recommended to other  clients and students, very few tiny creative businesses are doing this. The ones who do (and thus, provide regular, relevant, interesting content to new subscribers) stand out. They start building deeper relationships because they're the only people connecting on such a regular basis. So try it!

1. If you hold an event with a roster of people (like a wrestling show or an art retreat), create an autoresponder that introduces your readers to the performers or teachers. In each email, include an interview with one and a bit about their background. At the end of each email, invite the reader to your event or that teacher's specific class.
2.  When I consulted with a retailer-focused tech start-up, I helped them write a Pilot Program autoresponder for their first users. The emails started by walking users through the steps of getting set up (first do this, now do this) and ended with a questionnaire to collect the kind of feedback my client needed to improve the product.
3. During a one-on-one session with author Heather, we brainstormed a series for her book launch. In each email, she introduced readers to a different designer featured in the book, with an interview and pictures of their design. After the launch, she can turn this into an autoresponder, so that every new subscriber (who signs up because they're interested in the book) can have the same get-to-know-us experience.
4.  While consulting with a small dress company, I suggested they use the blog content they've already created – interviews with their customers about their fashion – and turn it into an autoresponder for new newsletters subscribers. The emails will introduce a new customer/fashion icon each week, along with a link to her favorite dress.
5.  If you sell a physical product, collect the questions you've received from customers. Answer the questions in an autoresponder. Bonus! Once you write this and put it in your autoresponder, you'll never have to rewrite it! People won't ask as often (because you're already answering it!) and when you do get asked the question, you can link to the specific message that holds the answer.
6. At a craft show, ask enthusiastic customers if you can snap their picture and include it in your newsletter. (Don't be shy! Most people are delighted to be “featured”). Ask them why they bought it or how they plan to do it and write their answers, in their exact words. Start your autoresponder with 1 or 2 from the first show, and add to it after each additional show.
7. If you wholesale, send your best retailers a few (2 or 3) questions about their shop. Which one of your products sells best? How do they display it? (Ask for pictures of it displayed.) Do their customers prefer one color? What else do they buy it with? Collect their answers, in their own words, and put it in an autoresponder for your wholesale-only email list. Now you're not only reminding your retailers to buy from you, you're giving them ideas about how to best sell your work!

Examples and ideas are well and good, but how will you apply it to your business?

To help you identify who want to write for and what you want to communicate, I created the class includes an Exploration Guide, full of suggestions and questions, so that you can write your first series, in 5 days. Get it here.

Want to know how I use autoresponders? Tomorrow I'm going to share my best sales tool. Subscribe here to make sure you get it.

There's a job available, in a town I love, that looks to be tailor-made to my experiences in the crafty-business world. I very seriously thought about applying, (even though it'd be a pay cut from what I make now, doing what I love!) so much that I wrote a friend asking for her perspective. Just writing out all the reasons I was even thinking about going back into office life led me to a big revelation. I don't want this job, I don't need any office job.
But what I do miss about job-getting and -having is the validation that comes from being hired. When you work for yourself, there's no on in “authority” to tell you if you're doing the right, wrong, or weird thing. There's no one to choose you, to pick you out of a crowd and tell you are qualified and that all your experience is worth $X.

This leaves the authority in our hands, which can be unsatisfyingly complex. There has yet to be one big moment in my business when I realize that I am right, that I am worthy, that all of my experience has led to this one definition of my role in the world. There have been lots of small moments (signing clients, the book contract, every quarter when the Starship fills up)…but nothing as obvious and life-changing as the just-right job offer can be.

I know I'm not alone in this because earlier today I emailed with a crafter who didn't get picked as a finalist in a design contest she entered. Contests are another way we ask the outside world, and someone with authority to pick us, to tell the world that our work is worthy. Other authorities we hope to get chosen by: retailers, trade shows, judges, galleries, publishers.

Are you waiting to get picked? Are you hoping for the validation of someone in authority?

Why? What will that bring you, in reality? More work, more writing, more making?

Guess what?

You can do that without anyone else's permission. You can create, write, make right now, today.

The surprising thing about leading a Starship full of creative entrepreneurs is that every week I get giant reality check. No matter what I think will work for a business, or how well I assume someone is doing during our weekly check-ins I get firsthand stories of what is working, what is not, and what everyone is struggling with. Sometimes, it seems everyone has had an amazing week full of big orders, interviews, and fat accounts. Other weeks, everyone has expensive doctor appointments, sad sales and zero retweets.

In a given week, it can be crushing (or thrilling). I want everyone to be doing well! All the time! But that's just not realistic. In every business, a little rain must fall. This is the power of regularly checking in with the same businesses – I can see the longer thread of their story. It's not just this crappy week, but the whole trajectory of how their business has transformed in the last year or more.

With that in mind, I've learned there are some things you can do in a bad week to both keep your wits about you, and soften up the hard:

• Take a break from reading how well everyone else is doing. Really, just stop reading it.

• Look for signs from reality. Is this actually, measurably awful or does it feel awful? (It's totally permitted to feel awful, just don't let it catastrophize into an unreal business emergency.) Is this problem important or urgent? Being a day late for rent is super annoying, but if you're just waiting for a client to pay her invoice, and then you'll have plenty, this is not a huge sign that you suck. Take a deep breath. You're fine.

• For a real problem, find a quick solution. I'm not a fan of quick-fixes as a long-term plan, but sometimes you need to just get your feet under you. This might be anything from a part-time gig, to a new income stream, to something you've never considered.

• If you find yourself in this situation regularly, take a day off to look clearly at your entire business model. How do you get paid? What products do you have available? How easy are they to buy? What is the customer path for each product? Is it obvious? Long?* Map it all out, in detail and find the weak spots. Then make a Next Steps list and get to work.

What do you do during a hard time in your business?

*An example: the customer path for the Starship is long – it takes at least a few months of reading my work, having conversations with me on Twitter, and getting my email lessons to feel comfortable enough to sign up for a whole year working together. Knowing this, I switched to only opening it once every 3 months and I devote myself to helping people come closer throughout those 3 months. This greatly changed my money flow, meaning I have to make other changes in my other income streams. If I didn't elucidate this for myself, I could tear everything apart trying to “fix” it.

Last week we talked about the Real Work in your business: Make Art + Connect and Beka commented that it can be boiled down even further: Make art TO connect. I couldn't agree more!

For many of us, making art is how we both connect with our inner selves, who we really are and what we really think, and how we  connect with the world. We learn to see the world, describe it, and share it with others through our Art. (Reminder: Art = what you make. From writing, to painting, to sewing, to teaching, to parenting, to practicing medicine – it's all Art.)

But for lots of us introverts*, we have to make it a point to connect. We have to work at actually doing it, even when our art requires other people (like teaching or writing). It's not a question of if you're with another person, but if you're really opening up to them, being brave and sharing who you are. For example, right now I'm writing in a coffeeshop packed with people, but I'm not connecting with any of them. When I work one-on-one with explorers, I have to practice opening up, truly listening, and being fully present during the whole hour, and in our email conversations before and after. I have to clear my mind and tune in.

Connection was my big lesson last year, and its intersection with art-making is one of my favorite areas of exploration. See, I spent years of my working life thinking, being inside my own head, and only venturing out when I needed something. It was my handmade business that first sparked my curiosity about why other people do what they do. And soon I realized that dedicating time to learning that (via real conversations) was the best thing I could do for business.

I started to explore this intersection of connection and art in my book, where we dive deep into understanding the person on the other end of the transaction: Who is she? What does she want? Why is she buying what you're selling?…after we get clear on you and your Art.  In the book (and in all of my work) I insist that you know the answers to those questions better than anyone else.  How? Your connection. Your conversations. Being open and listening in.

Here's a partial list of what learning-through-connection requires:

Presence. Are you there? Or thinking about 50 other things? (This is why it's hard to connect on Twitter – you're absorbing a firehose of information all at once, from a zillion people).

Openness. Are you waiting to say what you want to say? Are you open to being wrong?

Patience. You don't get to know anyone in one conversation. It takes many conversations, over a long period time to learn what makes someone do anything.

Curiosity. Good news – people are fascinating! Be interested in what makes them act, and you'll be endlessly absorbed.

What else is required to connect with your People?

* If you wanna learn more about the wonderfulness of introverts (and how to work with or parent an introvert), you gotta read Quiet, by Susan Cain.