Ask Us ANYTHING: Subject Line Trick Nobody Knows! | Ep. 462

Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

GURU Media Hub

Growth, Education, Email, Business, Revenue, How To, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Profit, B2b, B2c

5 • 715 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Subject lines that tap into who your audience wants to be, a bathroom emergency at a Nashville hot chicken spot, and a minus-200 degree cryotherapy experiment all show up in this Ask Us Anything with Jay Schwedelson. Jay riffs on a listener's challenge to share a subject line test they probably have not tried yet, breaking down the idea of aspirational personalization that speaks a level above your current audience. Then he answers a not-so-serious question about his health that turns into a ridiculous story involving Boca Raton, Brass Monkey, and a frosty recovery chamber.

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Best Moments:

(00:16) Jay explains the Ask Us Anything format and how to send him your own work and ridiculous questions through his site.

(01:15) Hattie B's "shut the cluck up" hot chicken story ends with a bathroom line so long he swears they need 74 restrooms.

(02:15) Jamie's challenge for a subject line test they have never tried sets Jay up to go beyond basic personalization.

(03:38) Jay introduces aspirational subject lines that speak to the C level or lifestyle people want instead of the role they have now.

(05:30) He shares data from 50 million sends showing aspirational subject lines lifting open rates by roughly 24-28 percent in both B2B and consumer campaigns.

(06:30) Bill's jab about Jay's health leads to a cryotherapy adventure in Boca Raton, complete with Brass Monkey and dancing in a minus-200 degree box.

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Check out Jay’s YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay’s TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson

Check Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast from marketers.
0:05.0	We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode.
0:11.0	We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out.
0:15.0	We are back for Ask Us Anything from the Do This Not That podcast. This is our super short episode. We're getting questions all week long. We get in word questions. We get in ridiculous questions. We try to tackle one of each. If you want to submit a question, I would genuinely appreciate it because that's how we do the show. All you got to do is go to jswettelson.com. There's a button that says podcast. Another one says ask us anything.
0:38.6	Anything you want to ask us. We're down. And also you could hang out there and check stuff out.
0:43.2	Anyway, let's get into the work question first. We have a question from Jamie from Nashville, Tennessee.
0:53.1	I was just back in Nashville. I love Nashville, but I went there with people
0:57.2	who had never been there before. And when you go to Nashville, I was like, you've got to have the hot
1:01.9	chicken, which is true. So we went to this place called Hattie Bees. And if you've never been to Hattie
1:08.8	Bees, they serve. I mean, it's not like hot chicken, like it's steaming hot.
1:13.2	It's hot where it's like spicy.
1:15.7	And so, yeah, this was a serious bathroom experience because what happened was the highest level you can get of their hot chicken is shut the clock up.
1:26.4	And so that's what we got. um when you first take a bite of it
1:30.8	you're like oh this isn't that bad and then like 30 seconds later a minute later you want to
1:36.8	i mean it's over you're like oh do i have a will because my life is over and then the super fun part
1:43.6	that happened for me was and this isMI, like it was like an instant reaction and I raced to the restroom.
1:51.0	And of course at Hattie B's there is a line of for the restroom because everybody's having this a problem.
1:57.0	They need like 74 bathrooms at a place like this.
2:00.0	It is unacceptable to have like the standard amount of restrooms when you serve something called shut the clock up.
2:05.9	Speaking of shut the clock up, that's me.
2:07.8	Let's get into your question, Jamie, what do you got?
2:12.1	Jay, you love talking about subject lines.
	...

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