Where Is Your Red Line?

There’s nothing I love more than values with a backbone – as I’ve often said, if your values don’t occasionally cost you something they aren’t worth anything.

So I was gratified to read this piece by Yuval Ackerman, a Godspeed reader and one of the sharpest email marketers I’ve come across, where she outlines a situation that presents a quandary and a red line – a potential BIG new client.

Is it any wonder Yuval’s business is called “Ethical Emails”? 

I thought you would enjoy her perspective, as well as her business’s newly published manifesto, values, and impact, so I asked Yuval for permission to reprint her article.  So, here you go, with a question to consider as you read: Where's your red line when a big, fat check gets dangled?

Godspeed, friends.

Russ

My Absolute "No."

by Yuval Ackerman

About once a year, I get a serious and sizable project inquiry that makes my stomach turn.

Unfortunately #1, such inquiries come from both of my target audiences - eCommerce and B2B brands. Unfortunately #2, I’m not surprised about that. Unfortunately #3, it’s still deeply disappointing.

I’m talking about companies that grew their lists without subscribers’ permission.

Now, we’re friends here, right, Russ?

Apart from being illegal in most parts of the world, I think we can both agree that this tactic is one of the stupidest things a brand can use, no matter how you look at it.

It’s stupid because, as a consumer, everyone hates being added to a list without their permission, happy to report those senders as spam, and diss such brands publicly.

And because of that, from a business perspective, subscribing folks without their permission hurts more than their general reputation. All those spam reports will also seriously harm their email domain reputation (in a nutshell, it determines if emails will land in inboxes or not, including in inboxes of subscribers who willingly signed up!). 

In the case of both types of reputations, when damaged, they’re difficult to repair (which costs time and money).

So when these inquiries come in, I ask one critical question about their future list-growing activities: “How do you plan to grow your list from now on?”

If they know better now and want to improve and do things differently, I’m more than happy to help them move forward in the right direction - just like I wouldn’t want anyone to judge me on mistakes I’ve made when I didn’t know otherwise.

But if their response to my direct question is repeatedly evasive - that's enough of an answer.

Which leaves me with no other choice but to tell them (gently yet firmly) that I cannot and will not be able to support growing their business because of EE's uncrossable lines… And that’s when they vanish into thin air.

Let’s be very clear about something -

This isn’t me getting on my high horse and telling anyone how to run their business.

I’m also well aware of how privileged I am to be in a position to decline any projects for being misaligned with my values, when so many great businesses are barely scraping by and might have to take on such projects just to keep the lights on.

But when it comes to Ethical Emails, that’s a red line that I can’t imagine crossing. 

To me, that’s being a part of the solution in an industry that’s still so full of problems.

I’m beyond lucky in the sense that it’s so much easier to keep those boundaries when I’m surrounded by and working with businesses that actually give a damn.

Because they don't just talk about their values, they document them. They make them public. They hold themselves accountable to them. 

(And if we put our clinical “business hat” on for a second, multiple studies show that more and more folks from every generation would rather do business with and buy from brands that have a strong ethical stance - and actually act on it.)

So earlier this year, I figured it was about time I followed my clients’ footsteps.
I published a page on my website that has been long overdue - EE’s manifesto, values, and impact.

It’s one that I keep updating and evolving, because everything is very much a work in progress and will forever continue to be. 

But I keep coming back to this: 

What would you like to be known for when this is all said and done? Not just the achievements, awards, or results, but how you created them.

This manifesto - it's my boundaries, commitments, and the lines I won't cross. And it's the same standard I hold for the brands I partner with.

Because the businesses that will be remembered aren't just the profitable ones. They're the ones who stood for something - and actually lived it. 

Do you?

💬 Think About It

“Values are like fingerprints.  Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything you do.”  Elvis Presley

💥 Quick Hits

• You're fighting for your right to be a baby – Subscriber Michelle Hirons of HigherRing sent this fun YouTube clip in response to last week's post on OpenAI's benefit corporation status, saying, "They're taking all of the benefit with none of the responsibilities.”
• MSNBC rebrands to M SNOW? – Twenty million bucks 💰 on a rebrand to MSNOW sows nothing but confusion. (New York Times gift article)
• B Merry this Holiday Season – How about buying that special someone a gift at my B Corp t-shirt shop – Four models to choose from; use special code GODSPEED25 for 25% off. And they're made by fellow B Corp TS Designs – the best and most sustainable t-shirts in the world!

🎧 A Song For You

Thinking about the "cost" of values – and perhaps our fraught and fractured society – got me to thinking about a line in this Bruce Cockburn song: "But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight—Got to kick at darkness till it bleeds daylight." Oh, and I've long thought about the song title as being the absolute fever pitch of passion – anything more heightened than Lovers In A Dangerous Time?

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