I spent last night at a World Cup watch party, watching the final between Spain and Argentina, at the apartment of some screaming Uruguayans.
Turns out, there’s no love lost between Uruguay and Argentina.
“In this apartment,” the host said as the match started, “you can hate Argentina as much as you like.”
Whenever Spain threatened to score, there was loud cheering from my hosts.
Whenever Argentina got the ball, the most common thing I heard from the people around me was “sucio” (dirty), as they shook their heads in disgust.
Spain won the match and the World Cup.
I guess it’s not sporting to kick Argentina now that they’ve lost, but statistically, they did play dirty. 5 yellow cards, 1 red card, and an Argentinian player who started a brawl after the match.
Today, the number one comment I’ve been seeing over and over about this match has been, “Before watching I didn’t even care about who won, but after watching it thank God it was Spain.”
In related news, yesterday I sent an email about a reader I kicked off my list because of a stupid message she wrote me about fellow email marketer Nick Bandy. Like I said yesterday, I don’t want people like her hanging around, and so she’s gone.
Here are some of the replies I got to that email. First, from a proud American:
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Dude. I am so proud of you for this email.
It was surgical.
– Another proud American.
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From an unimpressed Englishman:
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After your auction I briefly joined Nick’s Skool group.
I found him patronising and annoying, and left soon after (unsubbing from his list at the same time).
Would I buy anything of his or get involved in anything he was running? No
TBH I didn’t even know he was American, but I guess that makes sense now.
If the above comments mean I should be removed from your list I will leave it for you to decide.
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And from intrigued people from all around the world:
“What may be funniest of all (to me, at least) was that my immediate response to that person’s raving against Nick was, ‘I should go check out this Nick guy. He might know what he’s doing!’ 😂“
“Thank you. Subscribed to Nick.”
“Thank you, John! I signed up and joined his Skool group.”
A couple facts:
Yesterday’s email got way more spontaneous response than other emails I’ve sent… probably since the last time I kicked somebody off my list. It also got ZERO unsubscribes, which is uncommon for me.
I wasn’t selling anything in yesterday’s email other than Nick’s optin page. I imagine yesterday’s email was still good for business, long-term because — and here’s the point of today’s email:
People will pay to watch you shut somebody’s mouth.
That’s the inverse of the famous statement by professional wrestling “heel” Gorgeous George, who said, “People will pay to watch somebody shut your mouth.”
Both Gorgeous George’s version and mine are true.
Do with that knowledge what you will.
You can build an entire business out of it, and constantly seek out people you can be in conflict with and prove wrong.
Or, if you find that approach tiring or “sucio,” you can simply use the same underlying fact to justify making a public show when you enforce boundaries, as I did with my email yesterday.
All right, on to business.
Nick Bandy, the email marketer I endorsed and hyped up in yesterday’s email, signed up for my Daily Email Habit service when he launched his own email list last year. After Nick had been emailing for a year, he wrote me to say:
“DEH is the biggest ROI I’ve ever gotten on any course or product I’ve ever purchased. It’s incalculable.”
For more info on this “biggest ROI” investment: