Have you ever seen a nine word email?


Hello Reader,

I learned a great acronym from Col Fink recently, during a live workshop at Thought Leaders Business School. He calls these SPEAR emails:

  • Short
  • Personal
  • Expecting
  • A
  • Reply

Contrast this with LINEAR emails:

  • Long
  • Impersonal
  • Not
  • Expecting
  • A
  • Reply

When we are nervous about making sales outreach, we confuse our communications by complicating it with all sorts of reasons to respond that muddy the message. SPEAR emails get responses. LINEAR emails don't.

Have you ever heard of the 'nine word email' before?

You may have seen one of these short, concise messages in your own inbox.

Here are some examples that I have received recently:

These are SPEAR emails. Even though they could be automated, or longer than nine words, a message like this can be used on LinkedIn or Facebook Messenger or sent via SMS. These SPEAR messages are more likely to get a reply than a LINEAR message.

Deciding what to say, in advance, is the hard part.

As Mark Twain supposedly said, "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter." Distilling your call-to-action down to just nine words takes a great deal of forethought and revision.

That's why I made a template Google Doc, to make the CTA writing process easy. This short 3-minute video illustrates the importance of separating the Buying Decision from the Call-To-Action:

If you want to duplicate my template and write clear and concise CTAs for your own SPEAR emails, get the workbook here:

GenAI Training Newsletter

Generative AI improves your Productivity, Creativity, and Strategy - but only if you build the GenAI Habit. Learning how to incorporate GenAI Training into your day will help knowledge workers prepare for the future of work.

Read more from GenAI Training Newsletter

🔮 The future isn't AI-first - it's human-first with AI-powered humans. Hello Reader, A lot of people think AI is coming for their jobs. They’re wrong. AI is coming for their tasks. But the work that matters — the uniquely human work — still belongs to us. What makes us human is what makes us valuable, in a world shared with AI. Emotional intelligence, creative taste, adaptability, and ethics are uniquely human, which makes them our survival skills for the future. Taste. Judgment. Empathy....

📊 Microsoft estimates New Zealanders could save an average of 275 hours per year by using artificial intelligence. Hello Reader, If you want to learn AI F.A.S.T. then I have the class for you. Participants in my workshops have demonstrated: 📈 +45% in Confidence in using AI tools for daily tasks🛠️ +56% in ability to craft effective AI Prompts⚡ +65% in efficiency improvement on productivity🎯 +75% in AI’s impact on strategic decision-making🎨 +67% in AI’s role in work requiring creativity “This...

No alternative text description for this image

“The shape of the traditional hierarchy is going to change, especially as people become moderators of AI output.” - Dr Amanda Williamson Hello Reader, The #AotearoaAISummit hosted by the AI Forum NZ explored some really interesting conversations last week. Here are my takeaways: The emcee Megan Tapsell shared that what 5 BAs could do in 1 year can now be accomplished in 1 day. The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology announced they would provide $231 million in funding over 4 years...