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14,825%. That’s the ROI for the L.A. Lakers owners selling the team for $10 billion. They bought it for just $67 million in 1979. Don’t compare that to your 401k. It’ll be a pre-weekend downer.

Ok. Today’s Main Thing. It’s not a technical deep-dive. It’s a quick breakdown that shows you how to smack the crap out of the heavy feeling of overwhelm that 95% of marketers and biz owners feel today. 

After that gives you ways to find RELIEF, you can nibble on This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Appetizer: 2 examples of word-of-mouth marketing driving legit sales.

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The Main Thing

How to Keep Overwhelm From Beating You Down

“Do more with less.”

That’s what marketers have heard for the past year.

Sounds like a negative, right?

Flip it around, though. And it’ll be a blessing to you.

7 Years Ago

I spent the first night in my new home after a divorce.

No TV. No washer and dryer. No dishwasher. Not a stick of furniture except a bed frame and mattress. 

No trash can, either. Never purchased one until I moved two weeks ago.

Was a friendly divorce. Wife didn’t take all our material possessions. I just didn’t want much stuff in my new house. 

Especially since I figured I might move again in a couple years.

Not having much stuff helped me make do with what I had (another benefit, I’ll mention in a second).

• Used two camping chairs in the living room when needed.

• My old sleeping bag made a good dog bed for my German shepherd, Athena.

• Grocery store bags made fine “trash cans” I took to the outdoor bin daily.

Dual Use Items

I’d do stuff like use a shower curtain hook to make a “towel rack.”

Anything to give items I already owned a dual purpose.

Which also kept me out of stores, buying crap I didn’t need. 

Think about all the software and SaaS you bounce back and forth on eight hours a day.

It’s exhausting. Surely some of those tools are redundant?

The extra benefits to having dual uses for things I already owned?

One, the less stuff you have, the less cleaning and rearranging you have to do.

Two, less working. Stuff costs money. Money comes via hours worked. Buy less, and working less becomes a possibility.

Over time, I got so used to “making do,” I think I developed a dislike for nice things. For comfort.

It felt like convenience and comfort made me weak. I’d intentionally do things the hard way, just because. 

So, why the heck does that matter to you?

You’re Overwhelmed By Digital Stuff

*We consume approximately 34 gigabytes of data and information each day, equivalent to around 100,000 words read or heard daily (~The New York Times).

I’m betting you have over ten tools you have to juggle daily to do your marketing or run your business.

Then, you’re trying to keep up with people on social media that might make good connections for your business.

And you’re trying to manage too many projects at once. Not to mention side-hustles for extra cash or for a creative outlet.

It’s overwhelming. To anyone, no matter how mentally tough or organized.

So, do yourself a favor and do more with less. See below: 

• Pick two tools and never use them again

• Stop mashing four business podcasts into your head daily (give up on two)

• Don’t reinvent the wheel every time you create content (organize your best past ideas to reuse them)

*66% of marketers use 16 or more marketing solutions, creating fragmented data and operational silos (~MarTech).

Look, I feel the overwhelm, like anyone else. And I’m pretty good at being a minimalist in the physical world. It’s way harder digitally.

Takes real work to avoid hopping on every new trend. To stop signing up for every hot tool. And to stop reading every brilliant post from the 340.1 million thought-leaders in America currently😁. 

But it’s worth the effort to avoid these overwhelming digital “tentacles.” Because overwhelm is diminishing your productivity and creativity. 

Digital stuff takes up space in our heads. It’s unavoidable once you let it get close to you.

The only option is to stiff-arm that crap (say no) before it grabs you and your attention. 

See a grainy tutorial below on how to stiff-arm courtesy of Walter Payton.

You can also use this brave woman’s answer to digital overwhelm.

On that note, let’s rumble into This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up below.

Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing genius or business owner. I appreciate you reading and sharing. 

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin.

"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?" ~ Henry David Thoreau