Hey, hey Reader,

My mom has a long-standing family policy that can be summed up as:

If you’re standing closest, you win.

Need a lamp? A sweater? A sentimental family heirloom?
Being physically present is the only qualification.

Which brings me to this year’s Christmas drama...

For years we thought these handmade Wizard of Oz ornaments, sewn by my mom when she was pregnant with my oldest sister, were lost forever.

Then… they reappeared.

And because my sister Megan happened to be there when they were found, my mom said, “You should take them.”

When my other sister, Katie, found out....let's just say...she melted down faster than the Wicked Witch of the West.

“There are FOUR of us and FOUR ornaments. We each get one.”

Megan refused...“You don’t break up the band,” she said. Bad juju.

This got me thinking about how districts make decisions...and even how we, as humans, make them.

Decisions aren’t made on fairness but on proximity.

Who’s in the room.
Who speaks first or loudest.
Who’s easiest to hand things to.

The same proximity bias happens in email marketing.

Admins don’t buy from the best solution, per se.

They buy from the brand that stayed visible, who showed up consistently, and wasn’t hiding behind a curtain.

If you’re only emailing your list once in a blue moon, or launching when you “feel like it,” you’re leaving decisions up to chance.

You’re relying on districts to remember you instead of building a system that makes you unignorable.

Good email strategy is this:
A Yellow Brick Road of tiny touchpoints that lead people right back to your solution.

That's it for me this week. See you next Wednesday.

And as always, I'm rooting for you, Kelly

PS. No ornaments were harmed in the making of this email (& my brother took the least desirable Tin Man -his words-'to keep the peace'.)