High Magick X Systems | I see & remove blocks you don't know exist, but feel - without Zoom, phone calls or being in the same room | Change Mentor for Executives & Founders who want to live with more depth & die happy

Most of the decisions you regret weren’t “bad decisions”.

They were built on values you never defined properly.

It’s why you stay in roles, relationships and versions of you that look fine on paper but wrong in your body.

You didn't just end up there - you unknowingly decided your way into them.

Because each choice you make sits on top of values that collapse the moment people, money or pressure push back.

In The Obsidian Vault, we cut through all of it so your tough decisions feel simple to make:

We'll break down: 
- What’s really happening.
- What you’re actually loyal to and why it matters.
- What it will cost to keep things as they are.

That’s how you stop making decisions you regret and build a life you don't.

You'll see clearly, decide cleanly, and live closer to what you truly value with each choice you make.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫
 -You’re smart, capable & deeply responsible, but privately exhausted
 -You’re dragging unfinished conversations, roles or relationships behind you
 -You’re standing in a life that looks fine on paper & wrong in your body
 -You’re value driven, but feel a constant gap between what you stand for vs what you tolerate.

More insights, healing or content won’t change that. This is the lever:

Language, structure and perspective that makes it harder to lie to yourself.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈 𝐚𝐦
I’ve walked parallel paths since I was 19, when I quit uni to build a 25 year career with the likes of Goldman Sachs, UBS, HSBC, Barclays and others.

I set up my first business alongside my first job, went on to build two jewellery brands, a business transformation consultancy, and a private practice working with 600+ founders and executives through High Magick.

All while navigating Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)

Tough calls come with that territory, and often arrive all at once. But that wasn’t new to me.

Aged eight, I became a carer for my disabled aunt. It was violent and turbulent.

I had a front row seat to what happens when loved ones refuse to make obvious decisions, what it costs them, and me.

It taught me something most miss:

Your best decisions are made when you can be a bystander in your own life at the right moment - then move swiftly.

That’s tough for most people.

Master it, and you solve problems before they can even exist - just like I, and 600+ executives and founders have.

Through real-life (anonymised) examples from their sessions and my own life, I explain how.

When you need to stop making decisions you regret and build a life you don't, welcome.

https://theobsidianvault.substack.com/about

Sonal Bhaskaran

What being a carer in a violent home at 8 taught me about decision-making at 45:

Clarity requires separation.

The closer you are to a situation, the more deliberate that separation must be.

We view separatiom as ‘cold’.

I know many people have thought that of me with personal decisions I've made.

But it isn't.

It’s objective curiosity.

Curiosity creates understanding.

Understanding creates distance.

Without distance, most adults react and call it ‘intuition’. 

But if you can observe chaos without entering it, you control the next move.

That distance creates clarity.

Clarity gives you choice.

And when you have choice?

You gain the kind of personal power you've needed all along.

Writer @The Obsidian Vault | Letters for smart people who are tired of making decisions they regret - and want to build a life they don’t.

Helping B Corps turn their subscribers into their biggest F.A.N.s | Ethical email marketing strategist | Pasta person | Nomad, currently: Vietnam

Your email list is a goldmine, but somehow, your subscribers aren't converting as well and as consistently as you hoped.

Most mission-driven B2B and eCommerce brands know email marketing could be a game-changer, but they're stuck copying "best practices" that treat people like walking wallets – tactics that feel completely misaligned with your brand's values.

Your team is stretched thin, stumbling through campaigns without strategic understanding. You can't confidently show stakeholders how email contributes to revenue because you're tracking opens and clicks instead of revenue attribution.

Here's what's actually possible: systematic email marketing that respects your audience while generating six-figure results. 

After helping brands generate $203K from a previously neglected list in less than two months, and increase event sales by 39.65% with one simple email strategy, the pattern is clear – 

You don't have to choose between authentic relationships and revenue.

The missing piece? 

Someone with deep email expertise who can step into your business and take strategic ownership of this channel while understanding that mission-driven brands need different approaches.

Your email marketing doesn't have to feel pushy or compromise your values. 

When you have the right strategic foundation, your existing audience can transform into a consistent source of qualified prospects who are genuinely excited for sales conversations, or repeat customers eager to use your products.

If you are ready to turn your email marketing into a revenue-generating asset that actually aligns with your mission - send me a message. I'd love to connect.

Yuval Ackerman

Email marketing can feel pretty isolating these days, especially when you're trying to do it thoughtfully.

So I'm starting a monthly call for email marketers - consultants, in-house folks, freelance strategists - who want to talk shop with people who get it.

This month, we're discussing what's worth paying attention to in 2026, what's just noise, and how to approach email marketing this year without getting sucked into every shiny new tactic that shows up in your feed.

Share what you're dealing with, hear what others are trying, and connect with peers who understand the work.

First one's January 22nd at 6pm GMT / 12pm EST. Limited to 10 people.

RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/ev5s8BvK

P.S. CMOs and CEOs at purpose-driven B2B companies - I run a different monthly roundtable for you! 

January's focus is turning that "improve email marketing" line in your 2026 plan into concrete execution, before another quarter passes and email stays in the same spot. Join my newsletter, and the invite will get to your inbox tomorrow: ethicalemails.co/subscribe

Helping marketing teams find the 6-figure revenue in their email list | Ethical email strategist & consultant for B2B and eCommerce B Corps, 1% for the Planet & mission-driven brands | International speaker | Pasta fan🍝

Every so often, I get a project inquiry that looks amazing on paper… until it absolutely doesn’t.

The brief is solid.

The budget is generous.

The potential is huge.

And then the client casually drops a line that makes my stomach turn:

“Yeah, we’ve added people to our list without permission.”

Unfortunately 1: I hear this from both eCommerce and B2B brands.

Unfortunately 2: I’m not surprised anymore.

Unfortunately 3: It’s still deeply disappointing.

Because apart from being illegal in most parts of the world, adding people to your list without their consent is one of the stupidest tactics a brand can use.

As consumers, everyone hates it. They report it as spam. They talk about it publicly. They remember who did it.

And from a business perspective:

Spam complaints tank domain reputation. Domain reputation controls deliverability. And when deliverability drops, even your happy, willing, eager subscribers stop seeing your emails.

So yes, the damage is real, expensive, and slow to fix.

Which is why, when these inquiries come in, I ask one simple question:

“How do you plan to grow your list from now on?”

If someone wants to do better, amazing. We move forward.

But if their answers are evasive, vague, or “we’ll see”… That’s all the information I need.

And that’s when I say (gently, but firmly): I’m not the right partner for you.

Not because I’m on a moral high horse. Not because I think every business can afford to say no. And not because I’m pretending to be perfect.

But because Ethical Emails has red lines I won’t cross, and consent is one of them.

To me, saying “no” to such projects and inquiries is part of being a solution in an industry with far too many problems.

And honestly, it’s easier to hold these boundaries when I’m surrounded by clients who actually give a damn.

They don’t just talk about their values, they document them. They publish them. They hold themselves accountable to them.

So last year, I followed their example and finally published EE’s long-overdue manifesto: my commitments, boundaries, and uncrossable lines.

Because the question that keeps coming back to me is:

What do you want to be known for when this is all said and done?

Not just what you achieved, but how you achieved it.

The businesses that will be remembered aren’t ones that took the fastest shortcut, but that stood for something and actually lived it.

If you’re curious about the boundaries I hold (for myself and for the brands I partner with), you can read the full manifesto here:

https://lnkd.in/gdDRG_B3

Your 2026 marketing strategy says *something* about email:

Improve conversions, get consistent with it, or finally figure out what you're doing with it.

The first monthly roundtable of the year is about that gap: the distance between the line in your marketing plan and actual execution.

One hour with fellow CEOs and founders at purpose-driven B2B companies, talking about turning email plans into work that moves the needle.

January 22nd, 4pm GMT / 11am EST. 

Only 10 spots available.

Join my email list to get an invite: ethicalemails.co/subscribe

This is the harsh truth about monthly newsletters…

Most B2Bs send one newsletter a month and call it a strategy.

But if the average person gets 121 emails a day (that’s 3,630 a month), your one lonely newsletter is fighting a LOT of inbox noise.

And if your subscriber sees your brand name only 12 times a year… the likelihood they are going to remember or recommend you is ridiculously low.

They won’t click.

And they definitely won’t buy.

People don’t think about your brand nearly as much as you think about your brand.

You might remember 10 brands that consistently show up with something relevant or valuable in your inbox.

What about sender names you don’t recognize?

You unsubscribe from their list because you don’t even remember who they are.

And no, the answer isn’t “send more emails.”

It's: “send smarter emails, more consistently.”

So if you’re serious about growing your revenue and impact with this channel, stop sending only one email a month.

Start showing up like you actually want to be remembered.

If your email strategy is “send to everyone,” you’re wasting money, momentum, and carbon.

Every email has a cost - in deliverability, in attention, and even in environmental impact.

So when my clients say, “Let’s email the whole list,” I always ask:

• Who really needs to see this?
• What’s in it for them?
• Does this email actually move your goals forward, or is it just noise?

That’s exactly what I did with my clients’ annual event promotion strategy.

When we stopped emailing everyone and started being intentional, they hit record highs:

• +39.65% more ticket sales
• +16.28% higher attendance
• Fewer emails sent. Less carbon. More impact.

Email marketing is about reaching the right people, with the right message, at the right time.

If you want to see real ROI from your emails this year, book a no-obligation disco call https://lnkd.in/gUTyunWE

The hidden cost of "sending emails to everyone"

If I were a CEO of an Email Service Provider in 2026, this is what I would’ve invested in to make my company way ahead of the competition:



Many people ask me about my favorite ESP or for a recommendation.

The truth is, this is a near-impossible question to answer.

Because none of them are perfect.

This is also why you haven’t seen me sharing any ESP-sponsored posts (although never say never, and no shade to my excellent, excellent colleagues who do that!).

In fact, I think that most ESPs are investing in all the wrong places... Either to please shareholders who have shiny object syndrome, or to make their users slightly and temporarily happier.

• Releasing more AI features, like subject line checkers and image generation tools
• Developing more pre-built email templates and automated flows
• Giving more options to communicate with subscribers via SMS

When the reality is, these are only band-aids, while a lot of ESPs don’t have super basic functionalities figured out.

(I’m looking at you, ESPs that still can’t automatically tag/segment subscribers when they click on links in emails!)

With the AI hype refusing to dwindle, competition breathing down their neck, and inbox providers making their requirements harder, ESPs' CEOs are under a lot of pressure. 

Which brings me to what I believe would be a game-changer for any ESP that takes both acquisition and retention seriously in 2026 and beyond.

I would love to see an ESP develop a native AI tool that would produce a trustworthy periodic deliverability report (not just “delivery”), and give users real recommendations on what they could improve - and how. 

Because if you can’t even reach the inboxes of your subscribers, all those bells and whistles don’t mean a damn thing.

Deliverability is something I doubled down on in 2025, and I will continue to expand my knowledge of it this year - because my clients deserve the best. And it’s a topic many good brands out there need more guidance on.

But I don’t see any ESPs taking the lead on such a thing when they’re still making their users believe that open rates are as important as 10 years ago...

I would love to be wrong, though.

What are you doubling down on with your email marketing in 2026?

After a year of hosting monthly email-marketing roundtables, a pattern emerged:

The “new challenges” people kept naming… weren’t new at all.

They were the same systemic issues, repeating across dozens of businesses, and are the most common problems that all businesses face now (and have faced for a while).

2026 will include more conversations that will give you additional perspectives, support you, and reshape the way you think about email in the best way.

Want to join these conversations this year? Sign up for my email list - only my subscribers get an invite: 

ethicalemails.co/subscribe

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The Battle

Sonal Bhaskaran

Yuval Ackerman

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Performance ScoreSonal Bhaskaran's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreYuval Ackerman's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Sonal Bhaskaran

Yuval Ackerman

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sonal Bhaskaran's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreYuval Ackerman's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSonal Bhaskaran's LinkedIn Performance