Over the past couple of months, we’ve delved into a few different ways and reasons to make an ask—sometimes for money, sometimes for other things. Two personal favorites:
I’m constantly asking people to subscribe to this Substack. Constantly. I’m more comfortable doing it now than I was 6 months ago when I started. Below are three asks I made just in the past month and the names of the asks I used to do it.
Buckle up. It’s about to get stupid.
Last weekend when my neighbor was raking leaves and I was walking my dog
(Context: we’re friends; we drink beer; I pick up his mail when he’s out of town)
Me: Hey!Him: Hey! How’re things, bud?
Me: Doing great. I need your email to subscribe you to something.
Him: OK
I call this ask “The Chef’s Kiss.” It’s understated, yet full-bodied. Simple. Elegant. Touch of class.
Halloween night while driving Child #2 and a friend home (note: both were dressed as Minions in full yellow body paint)
(Context: friends with Scout; I once told her Predator is the perfect movie because it opens with helicopters and ends with helicopters. She agreed.)
Me (abruptly from front seat): Why aren’t you subscribed to my Substack?Her (unfazed from back seat): Because I don’t know what that is.
Me: Here’s the name of the site. You’ll love it. I complain about your friends…you’re not getting yellow paint all over that backseat are you?
Let’s call this ask “The Dealmaker.” (As in, she subscribes and I don’t freak out about the paint in the backseat of my car).
Email to a childhood friend/college roommate
(Context: Friends since 7th grade; Best man in each other’s weddings; has three delightful sisters who I haven’t seen in ages)
This is the “The Arsenio Fist Pump” of asks if I’ve ever seen it. Use it when firing people up!
I generally don’t have a problem asking people for things. But I admit that during my early days with this Substack, I was uncomfortable asking people to subscribe.
I once (over) shared my reluctance with a colleague who didn’t know she signed up for an impromptu therapy session about my anxieties. We don’t really interact all that often (she’s in one department and I’m in another), I’m probably 20 years older than her, and she helps me do my budgets correctly. She said something that still sticks with me:
So simple and yet easily forgotten: people like stuff. And I’m doing stuff. I think I can do stuff that people like. Such a basic thing but easily lost in the soup.
None of you are subscribing so I can trot out some “practice makes perfect” noise. But remembering that you’re connecting people with things they’ll (hopefully) like makes asking so much easier. It’s true for Substack and it’s true in fundraising.
Next thing you know, your neighbor’s handing over his email (no questions asked), one of your daughter’s friends signs up because it’s sorta funny, and your closest friends don’t think twice about pushing it out for you.
Whether I (or somebody else) got you here using The Chef’s Kiss, The Dealmaker, or The Arsenio Fist Pump, I’m awfully glad you’re here. Thank you for subscribing!
You: Mom I’m doing a Substack and I’m going to exploit you.
Me: ok, honey
Full disclosure: 99.9% of the things Dan has said about me have been true. I still state that I do not have a shrine to Keith Morrison, it is a homage.
So, what do you do when people decline or ignore the ask? I once asked a former pastor to subscribe and he just ignored it. Which, when you think about it, is kind of hilarious.