I wasn’t sure if I was even going to post again prior to Christmas, but something I read changed my mind.
In my book Aligning With Your Core Values I go to great lengths to explain that values are completely subjective.
That we are all a product of our upbringing and environment as such what we value most highly is by and large an accident of birth.
That’s the reason it’s ridiculous to negatively judge other peoples values because in effect you’re telling them they were wrong to be born into that household at the time in that country.
On the flip side, it’s equally pointless judging somebody’s values positively because the same logic applies.
And anyway, the only reason we like other peoples values are because they are similar to ours, there is no objectivity involved.
Having said all that, I’m about to contradict myself and say that values such as caring, empathy, compassion and connection are always good, and poverty, misery and suffering are always bad.
I’m pretty sure we can both agree on that, right?
I read some alarming statistics yesterday that prompted this post.
- 37 million Americans rely on the charity Feeding America for food.
- Of that number,14 million are children
- In 2010 almost 5% of American households had to resort to emergency food pantries on at least one occasion
- Feed America now feed 50% more children than they did in 2006.
This isn’t the time or place for a political debate, but needless to say I think that is completely unacceptable in a country as wealthy as the United States.
Being hungry sucks. Being hungry at Christmas sucks even more.
I want to help, and I want you to help me help.
Here’s what I plan to do in the run up to Christmas Day.
Aligning With Your Core Values retails at $35, however for every copy I sell between now and Christmas I’ll donate $20 of that to Feed America.
I will also donate 100% of any of my other self development books.
In terms of clients I am rammed at the moment and even had to pull my special offer of 15% holiday discount.
However, for every new client I take on between now and 25th December I will donate 25% of my fee to Feeding America.
Just be aware I cannot start work with you prior to the new year as I’m fully booked until then.
Even if you don’t want the books or Life Coaching, you can always donate directly.
And if you can’t afford to donate that’s cool, write to your Senator and ask why are so many people in this country hungry and more to the point, what is he or she going to do about it?
NOTE: I sent this post (or one very similar) to my newsletter list yesterday. It was very much a spur of the moment emotional response to what I’d read and I used the same headline.
I’ve never sent out an e-mail that prompted so many unsubscribes and I even had two e-mails of complaint telling me the headline was inappropriate.
At first I was annoyed with myself for upsetting people, but then I thought, no, fuck ‘em!
It’s a headline on an e-mail for crying out loud.
That’s not unacceptable.
People starving whilst others throw food away and spend billions of dollars on unwanted gifts is what’s really unacceptable. Maybe if people were as vocal and keen to fire off e-mails about how that offends them, we wouldn’t be in this mess?
I’m ranting again, aren’t I?
Oh and by the way, a very happy holiday season to you and yours!
Update: I just wanted to share this with you and thank you for allowing me to make this donation!
Thank You! Your Donation Is Complete
Dear Tim,
Thank you for your donation of $100.00. We appreciate your support of Feeding America and our work to end hunger. Your gift will help provide 800 meals to feed families in need all across America.
If you have any questions or concerns about your donation, please feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
Feeding America
Rant Allowed! Yes it is completely unacceptable – good on you for bringing it to our attention! And even better for offering to donate proceeds to the charity! THAT’s the true spirit of Christmas :)
Well done you
Mx
Thanks Michelle!
Yeah, people don’t always like it when you shine a spotlight on the things they’ve been carefully avoiding thinking about. Alternate perspectives (aka verifiable facts) are a bitch :)
I thought about unsubscribing, but then I’d have no-one else left to annoy ;)
On reflection I think they thought I’d used that headline as a cunning plan to up my open rate. The reality is it never even crossed my mind and they don’t know me very well if they think that anyway.
Ironic how the post was about judging and they then rushed to judge me based on an e-mail headline.
They unsubscribed and complained about “This is Completely Unacceptable” as a headline? Wow. Tough crowd. Not even going to look to see what you’re talking about? Some people don’t have much patience for something that doesn’t make them feel warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe you should write them and just post a picture of a pretty little kitten. You can even say, “Now why don’t you shut your face?” at the bottom of it. :)
Great post, Tim. I have worked with Feeding America and they are doing an absolutely wonderful job.
Yep, here’s what one person said:
“Unless you’re trying to cause panic attacks, this was the wrong subject line to use. I’m sorry to say that I can’t trust you to send out emails that won’t cause me severely negative emotional reactions anymore, and as a result I’m unsubscribing.”
Now I really don’t want to ridicule that take because it would be unfair as I have no idea about their circumstances.
However, in this day and age if any newsletter headline from a Life Coach, other than, “I’ve kidnapped your entire family and I’m about to eat them” sends you into panic, then you probably need to take a step back and reassess.
I have no issue whatsoever with people unsubscribing, but when they feel the need to write an e-mail telling people what I’m doing is wrong, then I get a bit miffed.
I actually e-mailed both people back explaining my reasoning and that it was an emotional response, but neither responded.
I just cracked up.
I mean, I have seen my share of subject lines from experts and the likes to get their open rates high. I sort of get it. Ha, one of my favorite was “yo” and I really thought they were writing to me personally.
Some of the subject lines literally have nothing to do with the content of the email.
Their philosophy is get people to open up no matter what and let the content do the work. Hey, I have seen so many Frank Kern’s copycats it is annoying already.
That said, your subject line was legit. It really was’t acceptable to you and you wrote it that way. I understood that. I got it. And I am still on your list :).
Ha, but so funny how some thought it was a “tactic”. Oh well.
You still rock!
The funny thing is Roy, I just went and checked my open rates, and it’s at 45% whereas my main newsletter this month is over 60%.
So if it was a tactic it was a pretty crap one!
I’m surprised that the emails weren’t about something different than the headline. When you mentioned the negative response I figured they were politically motivated. So I guess in one way you missed a bullet :)
I realize you mention that it “isn’t the time for political debate” but when does that ever stop people?
And I am glad you mentioned writing to your legislature. They are elected officials, not mindreaders so the squeaky wheel gets the grease. See a problem? Get squeaky :)
Warm wishes :)
I think both people had a knee jerk reaction and wanted to respond without thinking it through. The fact that I wrote to both explaining and neither responded speaks volumes.
Wow, Tim! Amazingly neurotic of those folk who unsubscribed! I’d love to be their coach, as I love a challenge!
Merry Christmas to you as well!
Jeez I don’t know about that. Coaching somebody that reacts so quickly would be more than a challenge in my book!
And the same warm wishes to you Char.
That is not just unacceptable but mostly sad…
If you do not give a damn for the most fundamental problems of the world you are living,then what the heck are you doing around here?It is so depressing to know that some people put their wellbeing above the problems of their fellow men..
I wish I had money and power to help all these people around the world but the only thing I can offer right now is a prayer from my heart..
Merry Christmas Tim!
Merry Christmas to you too bud, and a prayer from the heart is a good start!
Tim, there are some people in life who sit around just waiting to be offended so they can feel justifiably indignant. It’s that particular sweet spot where feeling bad feels good.
There are too many fluffy cloud knitting, butterfly kissed rainbow gazers in the self development field along with an equal amount of people unable to leave the safety of their peaceful and happy places long enough to see that there may be a slightly different reality than the one they’ve created for themselves. Which of course is their prerogative but sometimes it’s good to see a different perspective and you offered exactly that, so, good on you!
Tell me about it!
BTW, http://www.fluffycloudknittingbutterflykissedrainbowgazers.com is still available, should we snag it?
“There are some people in life who sit around just waiting to be offended so they can feel justifiably indignant”
Tell me about it! But the boundaries for each individual are not always clear. A guy may find Jimmy Carr’s and Frankie Boyle’s comedy highly entertaining (as I do), but then choose to get offended at something relatively innocuous just because it’s close to their heart. People, they’re weird.
I was a little taken aback by the headline; it made me wonder if I was about to get virtually yelled at :-) But after reading the post, I couldn’t agree more. Great thinking material and very inspiring.
I don’t yell at my readers Shannon, there’s not enough of them to risk doing that ;-)
But I know what you mean. OTOH, you didn’t just look at the title of the post and make your mind up, you actually read it first before deciding, so thanks for that!
Quick update, thanks to Khalid, Luc and Stephanie for buying Aligning With Your Core Values, I will be donating $60 to Feeding America on your behalf!
That means one family will be fed for 5 weeks by http://www.feedingamerica.org
Fantastic, we hit he $!00 mark and I’ll be making the donation this afternoon!
Thanks for your support people!