How to write emails no worse than CEO

Original author: Andrew Torba
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CEOs think about many things, but one of the most important is their time. Whether they run a Fortune 500 company, or a startup, they have many problems - and every second matters in the global economy.

When I first started a startup, I wrote huge letters to the members of my team. All this ended with long chains of answers that took a huge amount of time from everyone. I learned to filter out the excess and concentrate on the key points that I wanted to convey.

TL; DR: Be Concise

Spending time reading conversations is unproductive. Spending time on the phone is even less productive. I have just had a few years running the company, but in total my directors and the chairman have more than 30 years of experience as CEOs or executive directors. Communicating with them taught me to change the writing style and make it compact - sometimes reduce it to letters from a single word.

Here's an example of how there is too much “water” in letters:

Hi Andrew, I just wanted to write to you and tell you about an interesting opportunity (water! Do not talk about what you are going to say. And do not say “hello”, this is not a messenger).

Nice to meet you, my name is John Smith, I'm from ABV Inc. (did we meet?) I have been following your work for a long time and I think that we can make a great deal (water! I have already spent 5 seconds on this letter, and I delete it). Our company is located in New York, and we are financed by companies a, b, c (water! It doesn’t matter - what are you wasting my time for?) We want to make X (finally). We can do it better than Facebook, because 1, 2, 3 (water! I myself will decide what will be better). Many people think that X, but personally I think that Y (water! What can you offer me, or what can I do for you?). I would like to arrange a telephone conversation with you (this is unlikely).

We write as CEO:
Andrew,

I would like to help you solve the problem of X. I deal with Y and Z advised me to contact you. Do you have the opportunity to chat this week?

And that’s it. Directly, briefly, solves my problem, and that's it.

Many more examples can be given, such as the letter in the picture below, taken from my correspondence - there are almost no words in it. You can pretend that your emails have a limit on the number of characters, as on Twitter. The more you try, the better you hone your choice of words and save many hours, because you do not have to answer long letters.

image
"$$$$" is never water when you correspond with your partner - co-founder of the company.

If the letter requires a detailed answer, arrange a call. If the call does not take more than 5-10 minutes, do it right away. If it takes more, then make an appointment for dinner.

And try to climb the communications ladder slowly. Do you really need a ten minute call, or can you fit your thoughts into a few short tweets? Make yourself think critically and effectively when you write an email or communicate somehow else. It doesn’t matter if you are now a CEO, saving your time, or unemployed, trying to attract the attention of the CEO: you will soon find that the speed of answers and the time saved will increase very quickly.

Do you think you have the makings that allow you to communicate better than the CEO? If you think that I can help you with something, send me your best CEO-style letter and see if you can get my attention: Andrew@Kuhcoon.com.

And the winner of the letters sent to me:
Andrew, it seems to me that the article about CEO emails is poorly written. Did I get your attention?

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