Last Friday, I organized a mastermind call of “newsletter operators.” The topic of the call was newsletter growth.
Seven people joined. Some were complete beginners, with only a few dozen subscribers. Some were further along, with a few hundred or a few thousand subscribers. And then there was one dude, with a list of 30k subscribers.
“Zero advertising spend,” he said, and he made an “all ok” sign with his hand that also doubled as a zero.
The fact is, if you read this newsletter, there’s good chance you have heard of this guy. I certainly had heard his name before we talked on this call.
During the call, we did the usual round-robin intros, and then it was a free-for-all of questions.
At some point, the 30k guy explained his position. “I’m an unrepentant capitalist,” he said. “I write just to make money.”
He largely dominated the call. Not in a bad way. He was interested in other people’s businesses. He was giving genuine advice. Even inspiration. “You gotta decide,” he said at one point, “you wanna make money or not?”
The other attendees were nodding along, saying, “Yes yes, you’re right, thanks for the tip.” Then they clammed up.
At around the 1hr mark, the 30k guy left the call without too much ceremony. And it felt felt like a sigh of relief could be heard in the virtual Zoom room.
People relaxed. Started smiling. Speaking up again.
Now, I guess there could be a lot of stuff going on here. Maybe people were intimidated. Maybe they were just absorbing this guy’s wisdom. Or maybe…
I once heard marketing guru Dan Kennedy say something like, you have to stand for something other than just making money.
You can make money. You can make lots of money. But you have to stand for something else besides, or at least, people have to feel that way about you.
And if not?
Well, you will repel most people.
Not all. The ones who are left will be people who also only want to make money.
You can certainly sell to those people, and you can do very well. But what you will get is short-term, self-interested buyers who will switch camp as soon as they’ve gotten what they can from you.
Which ties in nicely to the topic of my Most Valuable Postcard #1.
Yesterday, I promoted my Most Valuable Postcard #2. That postcard talks about the essence of marketing and copywriting. That’s an important topic, but not the most important topic I could think of. That topic I covered I covered in MVP1.
If you’re interested in that, and if you don’t just write to make money, you can find more info here: