Email chameleon

When I was traveling full-time for 3 years, I was asked time and again:

“How do you get used to a new environment?”, followed by, “I bet it takes you a while to settle in!”

But the truth is, it never took me longer than 2 days, and I’m exaggerating.

The spiel in every place, even when I was moving between different countries in Europe, was pretty similar:

The critical things (like accommodation) were sorted in advance. My SIM card works across the continent. Nomad health insurance was practically a subscription. 

So when I got to my new temporary place of residence, this was usually the monologue in my head:

“The nearest grocery stores are here and here, great. This could potentially be a nice cafe or cowork space to work at once a week, nice. Have I joined all the Facebook groups that interest me in the city? Alright.”

In the next 48 hours, I did my best to walk around my new neighborhood as much as I could to get to know it better. And like a polite (non)tourist and human, I always arrived at a new place with a few basic words in my back pocket: hello, good morning/afternoon/night, thank you, excuse me, and please.

But knowing those words is one thing - pronouncing them like a real [insert a nationality here] is another.

I remember getting to Palermo, Sicily, in early October 2024. After getting my fridge stocked with my go-to foods for the first couple of days, I had a long walk in the late afternoon and decided to treat myself to frozen yogurt.

“Ciao, buonasera,” I greeted the young man at the store.

The guy didn’t even blink and started explaining to me in staccato Italian how the whole thing worked - you chose a size, flavor, toppings, and a sauce.

“I understood most of what you said, so let’s do a medium one,” I replied in English.

The guy seemed completely flustered. “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were Italian.”

A week ago, I met a friend for a coffee in the city. “Olá, tudo bem?” I proclaimed as I walked in. The kind waitress immediately started chatting with me in Portuguese.

“I’m still working on my Portuguese,” I apologized, and we continued the conversation in English.

It’s not random. It’s not my musical ear or the fact that most people can’t associate my looks with a particular country (though it does help - and the “guess where I’m from” is always a fun game!).

It’s the fact that I’m able to fit into every situation as if I’ve always been a part of the culture.

That's the thing I do: absorb fast and become part of the operation.

Having worked with a wide range of ESPs, I can step into almost any setup and get to work - because I've learned what it takes to make them serve our people well.

And yes, pretty early into that work, I stop saying "your subscribers" and start saying "our subscribers." When I work with you, your success is my success. Our subscribers' success is our success.

If that's the kind of working relationship you're after in the second half of 2026, here are two ways I can help:

• VIP Day - A workshop day to build your next 90 days of email strategy. We’ll start with auditing your email account and identifying the biggest opportunities, whether that’s your automations, your newsletters, your segmentation strategy, who doesn’t need to see your emails, or how to even measure your emails’ impact. You’ll walk out knowing exactly what to work on next to convert more of your subscribers in a way that feels aligned with your values (plus, you can send me any questions about the strategy and/or implementation for 30 days after your VIP Day). See more details here.

• Strategic Partnership (3 months minimum) - Ongoing strategy and full channel ownership for marketing teams that are ready to make email a consistent, measurable part of how they grow. I work with your team from start to finish: setting direction, reviewing what goes out, flagging what isn't working, and making sure your emails actually reflect your brand and what you stand for. Not just emails you're proud of - emails that drive revenue and impact, so you can keep supporting the causes that matter to you. See more details here.

As always, a percentage of every one of my services goes to a good cause of your choosing.

Want to talk specifics about what working together looks like, and which way makes the most sense for your business right now? Book some time with me to chat about it.