u/itsfabioposca

I’ve been building an email sequence inspired by Russell Brunson’s “soap opera sequence”. But the goal isn’t just to sell.

It’s to create a real connection first… that naturally leads to conversion.

So instead of pushing offers, I’m trying to:

• tell real stories
• shift perspective
• and let people self-select

I also didn’t follow the framework blindly.

I mixed:

• my own experience building an audience
• my own experience beetwen various copywriting books, copywriters and internet
• months of writing and testing
• and some structured brainstorming with ChatGPT + Claude

The structure:
Each email has a very studied headline, like:

• “I didn’t expect this” - Indirect headline + curiosity gap
• “The day I returned the money” - Story-based headline + shock element
• “What I was missing“ - Curiosity + self-reflection headline
• “I thought it was about the numbers” - False belief / pattern interrupt headline
• “I won’t talk about this again” - Scarcity + authority + almost “arrogant” headline

So they’re not “newsletter-style” headlines.
They’re more pattern interrupts + open loops.

What I’d love feedback on:

• Do these subject lines feel authentic or too “copywriting heavy”?
• Does this approach build trust… or feel manipulative?
• Is mixing storytelling + soft selling a good balance here?
• When people subscribe, they receive an automatic welcome email from my Substack straight away. That’s why the first email in my sequence is sent after two days, but I’m wondering if I should send it the next day instead, or even on the same day (although I think that might overwhelm the subscriber).

I’d really value your honest take.

Here the full emails if anyone’s interested https://docs.google.com/document/d/11q9QEGZD1aC5672efRLSuXx3fKRHvJP9-gY20XmSKWs

Thank you in advance, cheers.
Fabio