John Bejakovic

A hard-to-swallow fact about gold and influence

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Imagine the unlikely scenario that you are Marco Polo, the 13th-century Venetian trader. Humor me for a minute.

Say you’re Marco Polo. And you decide, against your mother’s begging and pleading, to set out and seek your fortune in a faraway, exotic land, two continents away.

You pack up your entire life’s savings — an impressive treasure chest filled with gold — and you set off on the difficult and scary journey into the unknown, over stormy seas, vast deserts, and rugged mountain passes.

Finally, you make it. You arrive to the great kingdom, China.

The next morning, you head to the marketplace.

You open up your treasure chest. You take out your gold. You proudly stack it up in front of the Chinese silk merchants.

This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for, that you worked so hard for.

You wink at the Chinese silk merchants, and you tilt your head at the gold you’ve stacked up.

But instead of the silk merchants showing surprise and delight in their faces, unrolling bales and bales of silk for you to choose from, and bickering and fighting over you, they just stand there and stare at your gold.

“What is that?” they ask.

“It’s gold,” you reply with a tinge of irritation, “the most valuable and prized form of currency!”

The Chinese just shake their heads. “Not here,” they say. “We use silver here.” And then they start to scatter, their interest drawn elsewhere.

That’s a little allegory I heard a few days ago, in an interview with John Bodi, a pickup artist.

Bodi said he uses this allegory to explain some important facts to men. The currency that trades in Man Land, the currency that many men have been accumulating their whole lives — car, career, bicep curls at the gym — is simply not the currency that they trade over there, in that exotic and distant land, where women live.

Is that true?

It doesn’t really matter. This is not a newsletter about pickup.

I wouldn’t even have shared this allegory with you, except that the day after I heard it, I was listening to a seminar by marketing guru Dan Kennedy. And Dan said the same exact thing, minus the allegory:

“A very hard to swallow thing, but I think necessary to swallow, is that these traditional credentials, this attempt to influence by resume and qualifications, or concern about the lack thereof, is completely irrelevant to influencing people.”

Dan was not talking about pickup. He was talking about writing for influence, so you can make money while running the kind of lean and profitable business you want to run.

If you have gold, says Dan, think twice about trotting it out, because it’s not what impresses your audience. And if you don’t have gold, that’s no reason not to seek your fortune as an influence merchant.

Maybe you find this hard to swallow.

All I can say is I’m not trying to change your mind. I’m just sharing an idea that might be useful to you.

It would be a shame to set off on a journey to the Kingdom of Influence, only to find you don’t have the currency they trade there.

The only bigger shame would be not to set off on the journey at all, and to deny yourself the adventures, fame, and fortune that can result, just because you mistakenly believe you need gold to trade there, and you don’t have any on hand.

“Quit teasing Bejako,” I hear you say. “Let’s say I entertain your idea for a minute, which I’m not saying I do. So what is the currency that they trade over there?”

For that, I will only point you to my Daily Email Habit service.

Each day, it gives you daily prompts or “puzzles” to help you consistently write a daily email newsletter. But these are not random, arbitrary prompts.

Instead, I choose the strategically, for the exact purpose of building up your currency of influence online.

Qualifications are not required. Neither is a resume.

And what is needed, that you already have.

In case you’d like to find out what it is, or even start building up your influence treasure chest today:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Payment plan lapsed buyer stats

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A few days ago, a reader and customer named Alexander wrote to ask:

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Hey John,

I bought your Copy Riddles on a payment plan, but I’ve just recently changed my banks, so I have new details for the charges. I believe I’m due to be charged again in about a week, so I’d like to change the details so you actually get the money you’re owed… Can you let me know how to do that?

Thanks mate!

===

“Well hot damn,” I said. This kind of email early in the morning definitely cheers me up.

Not that I’ve really had much cause to be worried.

The fact is, over the past six or so months, I have sold 100+ things on payment plan, whether of my own products or affiliate offers.

To date, I have had exactly one lapsed buyer.

The rest have all paid as agreed, updating their credit card numbers when they expire. A few particularly diligent souls, such as Alexander, even do it in advance.

Does this mean that all people everywhere have always been and will always be fundamentally good and decent?

Maybe. I don’t know enough people to be able to say one way or another.

But based on my amateur research into the human mind, I do know a few things:

– We all tend to mirror and adapt to the unspoken context or “frame” of an interaction

– Time is a factor in creating a frame of intimacy, trust, and respect

– So is frequency of contact

What drops out at the bottom of this funnel is that the longer you stay in touch with people… the more often you stay in touch with them… and the more you treat them with trust, respect, and intimacy, the more likely you are to get the same treatment in return.

One way to do this is what I personally do, and that’s to write daily emails like this one.

Which brings me to my offer, which helps you start and stick with writing emails for the long term, every day, or at least dailyish. For more information on this way to create the right frame with the people in your audience:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The BCG Recurring Income Matrix

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At the start of this year, I wrote about three themes I had set for myself. Theme #1 was more recurring income.

To help me (and maybe you) get there, I’ve come up with the BCG (Bejakovic Consulting Group) Recurring Income Matrix.

Maybe know the Growth-Share Matrix by that other “BCG,” Boston Consulting Group. (The imposters!)

Their matrix asks two questions about a product or company — low/high market share, fast/slow growth. The result are four quadrants:

3. ??? | 4. Star

1. Dog | 2. Cash Cow

I don’t want to even dignify those other BCG people by explaining what their stupid animal quadrants are about.

But I do like the matrix idea.

So I decided to create my own for recurring income. My questions about recurring income, the ones dear to my heart are:

1. Does it require personal authority to sell?

2. Does it require personal involvement to deliver?

I thought about the four yes/no combinations. And so I’d like to present to you the Bejakovic Consulting Group Recurring Income Matrix:

3. Hosting on QVC   | 4. Renting out

1. Flipping burgers    | 2. Pushing the sled

Let me explain the quadrants in order:

#1. The lower left is flipping burgers. It doesn’t require personal authority to sell, but it does require personal involvement to deliver.

In other words, this is a regular job, or at least most regular jobs, except those few regular jobs where you’re truly irreplaceable.

Flipping burgers is a steady paycheck, provided by somebody else, as long as you keep working. Fair enough. Unfortunately, due to a genetic disorder, I find myself highly allergic to any prolonged time spent in this quadrant.

#2. The lower right is pushing the sled. It requires personal authority to sell, and also requires personal involvement to deliver.

This is most recurring income plays for solopreneurs and small info publishers online. Think paid newsletters, paid memberships, coaching, etc.

I call it pushing the sled because it’s like the sled at the gym — you gotta put in a lot of effort to get it moving, and as soon as you stop, it stops.

That might sound like a raw deal. But because it requires personal authority to sell, it tends to pay better per unit of work compared to flipping burgers. (Plus, if you’re the type to enjoy discipline-and-punish activities like Crossfit, you can even convince yourself that pushing the sled has salutary effects.)

#3. The upper left is hosting on QVC. It requires personal authority to sell, but doesn’t require personal authority to deliver.

This is where you trade on your good name, your charisma, or your previous success to promote something that will pay you for a time to come.

My best example of this is George Foreman, who allowed his name to be put on a grill and who appeared in infomercials to promote the product. The result was $200M in royalties and licensing fees into George’s pocket over the years.

This might seem out of reach for mere mortals. But if you have an audience, it’s really what recommending a specific tool in a crowded category is about (eg. ​Convertkit, sign up for it because it’s what I use​). Also, I’d put recurring income like copywriting royalties into this quadrant.

#4. Finally, the upper right is the “renting out” quadrant. It doesn’t require personal authority to sell, and it doesn’t require personal involvement to deliver.

I thought of calling this the “cheating” quadrant because that’s how it can feel, at least if you’re coming at it with a perspective like mine, of selling info products via daily emails.

But really, this quadrant is familiar enough. If you have a lot of money already, it’s what rental income or stock dividends are all about. If you don’t have a lot of money yet, well, there’s ways around that that still make living in this quadrant possible. But that’s really a topic for a $5k course.

Final point:

You can move from quadrant to quadrant.

If you appear on QVC once to endorse a product, that appearance can be recorded and replayed over and over, which basically puts you into the renting out quadrant, as long as somebody else drives viewers to the recording.

If you’re pushing the sled now, you can eventually delegate or automate the delivery and move yourself into the QVC host position.

And if you’re in the flipping burgers quadrant, you can jump straight to renting out quadrant if you have the money or know-how… or you can build up your personal authority, so you can go to the #2 or #3 quadrants.

On that last note, if you would like to build up your personal authority, I have a recurring service to help you do that.

I am still creating this service by hand, day-by-day, instead of automating or delegating, putting me squarely into the #2 quadrant.

Maybe that will change in the future. But for now, I keep pushing the sled, because I tell myself it’s good for me.

In any case, if you’d like my help in building up your personal authority, so you can sell things that pay you over and over:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

I was an idiot then, but today I’m much more mature

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Two fingers on my right hand are crooked — the ring finger, and the pinkie.

They are crooked because back when I was a junior in college, I cut myself in a freak accident involving a butter knife, which I attempted to stab into the wall in a fit of rage.

(I was an idiot then, but I feel I’ve really, really matured since.)

This momentary, stupid action turned out to have major consequences.

I did serious damage to my fingers. I had to go to the ER to get the bleeding taken care of immediately.

A few days later, I had to go into a three-hour surgery to actually fix my fingers, since I’d managed to cut through the tendons.

After surgery, I had this big strange cast on my arm, which had wires and springs that were glued to my fingernails, to keep my fingers bent at exactly the right angle.

I had to walk around the university campus for months with this monstrosity catching everybody’s attention.

Inevitably, every fifteen steps or so, some college bro would stop and stare at me in wonder. “Dude… what happened to your hand?”

After the first dozen times of getting asked this question, I started to glare at the question asker with daggers in my eyes. If I said anything, I’d bark back, “I CUT MYSELF!” My friend Sam, who was my roommate at the time, would just walk alongside me and chuckle at my canned, hostile response.

But let’s get to work. You may have heard of Cunningham’s law, which says:

“The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.”

It’s not just on the Internet. It can be like that in the real world too.

Questions are supposed to be this miracle sales tool to get people to open up and share their innermost secrets. And they can be. But there are certain situations where questions don’t work, simply because they’ve been asked too many times, or because the person is too guarded.

What to do in those cases? Here’s Bejakovic’s corollary to Cunningham’s law:

“If people don’t want to answer your questions, then make an assumption or statement, regardless of how wrong.”

That’s a bit of a tip if you ever find yourself in situations, sales or otherwise, where doing the right thing normally, asking questions, gets people to glare at you or maybe bark a 3-word answer and then clam up.

Instead of asking them, “What happened to your hand,” just say, “That looks like an injury caused by a butter knife.” If you’re right, you look like a wizard. If you’re wrong, you find out the truth.

Anyways, it’s time for me to go to the gym and work out a bit, to keep my boiling rage under control. (Just kidding. Like I said, I’ve really, really matured.)

If you’d like my help writing daily emails — sometimes on strange topics, which nonetheless serve a purpose — then consider my Daily Email Habit service.

The next prompt goes out tonight at 12 midnight PST. To find out more about Daily Email Habit, or to sign up in time for that next prompt:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

What now?

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Back when I used to watch TED talks — what happened to them? — I saw one by Elizabeth Gilbert, the Eat Pray Love woman.

Gilbert’s talk came soon after she had published the book, which immediately went on to became a raging, runaway, international bestseller-to-be-made-into-a-movie-starring-Julia-Roberts.

Gilbert’s TED talk was about what now. What does she do now that she’s gotten everything she ever worked for? She seemed nervous, and she admitted to being afraid.

Weird, right?

Gilbert was probably set with money for the rest of her life. She had achieved more than 99.9% of people who ever dream of being a writer will ever achieve. She had endless amounts of praise and recognition.

And yet, what now?

This is a common thing. It happens whatever you’re after, not just with writing but whatever achievements you’re working towards, even with small goals.

Trivial though it sounds, it happens to me whenever I end up concluding a launch.

What now?

Usually I’ve been working on this thing for a while, building the actual product, preselling it, then there’s the climax of the launch promo. If it all goes well, I feel elated. For a bit. And then, what now?

I’ll tell ya.

I learned a long time ago that the answer is, now you get to work on the next thing, which is really where the satisfaction lies. As business coach Rich Schefren says, goals are there to get you excited to take action. That’s really their only purpose.

So this email is for you if you have recently completed a project or achieved a goal, and you’re wondering, “What now?”

Since I help getting people started with writing a daily email, maybe your next project could be writing, building a personal brand, or simply seeing what happens if you consistently send an email out each day into the world.

Because in my experience, the process of writing and publishing something every day is a micro-goal in itself.

It takes some work to do it. It’s satisfying to have done it. And then it starts all over again tomorrow. But again, that’s really where the satisfaction lies.

In any case, if you’d like my help with daily emailing as your new project:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

PSA: Beware the anti-launxxers

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This morning at 9am Barcelona time, I wrapped up the Prospective Profit Pricing event for Daily Email Habit.

Since I rolled out Daily Email Habit some 6 weeks ago and only sold it via regular daily emails since, this PPP event served as a kind of launch.

The event lasted for two days and four emails.

62 new people ended up signing up to Daily Email Habit as a result of those four emails.

Considering how small my list is, and the fact that I have been promoting Daily Email Habit pretty much every day for the past 6 weeks, and that I thought demand was near tapped out (there were days in the past weeks when I made 0 sales), I gotta say I’m pleased with how this turned out.

And now, public service announcement #1:

I’ve been seeing a new crop of online marketers who are positioning themselves as anti-launch.

Their spiel is no deadlines, no scarcity, no urgency — “no manipulation!” Just put your offer out there every day, and eventually everyone who is right for it will buy.

I’m not sure if this is just positioning themselves in a contrary way. Or maybe they’re catering to people who have been exhausted by massive affiliate-based PLF-style launches that have to be run every three months in order to generate any income, with a few lonely crickets chirping in the meantime.

In any case, beware their anti-launch propaganda.

It’s ironic, because those same anti-launxxers run plenty of offers with scarcity and urgency baked in — effectively launches, or email promos at least.

But what if they didn’t?

Their core message is still terrible advice if you ask me.

Launches and daily emails are like heads and tails — two sides of a gold krugerand that you can drop into your piggy bank.

Daily emails build desire for what you sell, and overcome objections. Launches, or promos, or whatever you want to call them, give people an undeniable reason to act NOW.

And as for manipulation?

I side with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who said that the only bad manipulation is manipulation that’s obvious.

The fact is, not a single person wrote me during this “launch” to complain about my manipulative deadline and manipulative disappearing bonus. If anything, I got a lot of people who wrote me to tell me they are excited to get started, and that this was the push they needed.

End of public service announcement #1.

Begin public service announcement #2:

I’d like to turn your attention to something free, new, and frankly AMA~ING.

I will write a full email about it tomorrow.

But if you are at all interested in copywriting, you MUST MUST MUST click through below.

Do you ever hear me using such over-the-top and positive language?

You don’t, because it’s almost never warranted, and in fact it usually works against you, by letting people down when they finally see your offer.

Well, not today. If you are into copywriting, you have to click through, and in fact, you have to sign up for what’s waiting for you here:

https://bejakovic.com/back-in-town

Last chance to gamble before the Daily Email Habit price increase

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Here’s a curious story about looming deadlines:

In the early days of FedEx, founder and CEO Fred Smith took the company’s last $5k and went to Vegas.

FedEx had a fuel bill of $25k. That last $5k wouldn’t be enough to cover it anyhow.

So Smith went to Vegas and played blackjack. He gambled and won $27k. That was enough to cover the fuel bill.

FedEx had survived for another week. And then it survived another week. Eventually, it turned into something big.

Now let me ask you:

Will you gamble $20 on a month of Daily Email Habit?

Will-ye or nill-ye, the price of Daily Email Habit is going up tonight, from $20/month to $30/month, at 12 midnight PST, just three hours from now.

This is the last email I will send before the fateful price increase.

As a reminder, Daily Email Habit is my service to help you start and stick with consistent daily emailing.

Here’s what that means in real terms, from virtuoso-making guitar teacher René Kerkdyk, who subscribes to Daily Email Habit:

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Just a short raving review:

I just wrote my daily email in 10 minutes going from sheer panic about what to write to a finished email building my expertise and selling my stuff. Thank you, John!

====

I have also created a members-only club, Daily Email House, for business owners and marketers who send more or less daily emails.

Until to-night at 12 midnight, Daily Email House is a free bonus in case you sign up to Daily Email Habit. After that, it will disappear as a free bonus, and rise from its ashes as a new, fiery, paid offer.

All that’s to say, maybe the sales page below is worth a look? And right now? Before the deadline sneaks up on you with its cold, sleep-inducing claws?

If you’d like my help writing your daily emails, tomorrow, and the day after, and then next week, until eventually your daily emailing turns into something big:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

“You’re pretty funny”

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A few days, I ago got an email from copywriter and business strategist Nadia Dalbani, who wrote:

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John.

I’ve read 3 of your emails in a row. I haven’t had time to read them the past few days, so I had to have a read-a-thon (a John-a-thon!).

Anyway, I’m so close to buying Daily Email Habit even though I totally read the sales page and you DID say don’t buy this if you don’t plan to *actually* have a Daily Email Habit – I only email my list once a week, so I initially left like yup, NOT for me.

But I can confirm, even reading your emails in reverse order, I am definitely more convinced to start an every single day email habit due to your pitches.

===

I remember hearing a story once about how Bill Murray and Chevy Chase got into an actual fist fight on the set of Saturday Night Live.

The two apparently hated each other. It all came to a boil one day when Murray said to Chase, “You’re pretty funny.”

Chevy Chase then started swinging.

I’ve always wondered why “pretty funny” is such an insult, at least if you think of yourself as funny. It’s much more insulting than, say, “not funny.”

(If you have any insight on this for me, write in and let me know.)

In any case, that’s a little how I felt after reading Nadia’s email.

“Pretty good email. Pretty, pretty good. Almost got me. But not quite.”

Nadia lives in London. After I read her message, I started getting ready to buy a ticket so I could fly there, confront her in person, and maybe start a fight.

Fortunately, yesterday I got a new message from Nadia, just in time:

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Alright, alright, it took, like, 3 more emails, but you got me. I’m mega excited to start Daily Email Habit 😄

===

Like I say, this is particularly fortunate, not only because it will prevent an ugly confrontation on the streets of London, but because it also backs up the very premise of Daily Email Habit.

For one thing, the emails Nadia responded to were based on prompts I sent out as part of Daily Email Habit. (I eat my own dog food most days.)

For another thing, this little case study backs up the general principle of putting out a daily email… gradually building up desire… gradually chipping away at objections… all while keeping readers interested enough that they keep opening and reading your emails.

This is really what Daily Email Habit is there to help you do.

And if you are thinking of getting started, I can only recommend you act now.

My Prospective Profit Price event is coming to a close tonight at 12pm midnight PST.

After that, the price for Daily Email Habit goes up from a modest $20/month to a wallet-busting $30/month.

Also, Daily Email House, the lively community that I’ve created for those who write more or less daily emails, will stop being a free bonus tonight at midnight.

If you have any questions, or to join now, take a look at this pretty good sales page:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

How much things cost now

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A couple days ago, I announced I’ll be increasing the price of my Daily Email Habit service from $20/month to $30/month. I got a reply to that announcement from copywriter and brand strategist Chavy Helfgott, who has subscribed to Daily Email Habit since day 1. She wrote:

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Just chiming in to say that even at $30, you will be vastly undercharging.

I honestly feel that the 40+ days of daily email prompts + knowledge gained in the community, have so far have been at least as valuable for me than the $10,000 personal business coaching I paid for a few years ago.

===

I’ll get back to those numbers in a second.

But first, let me tell you that, also a couple days ago, marketer Ross O’Lochlainn, who I guess was in Dan Ferrari’s little coaching group right before me, shared how much some things cost now.

Ross was at an in-person mastermind. A couple who was also in attendance shared the details of their business.

Their business is dream interpretation.

Their current low-ticket offer is $3k. Their premium dream interpretation offer, for a small “bleeding neck” segment of their audience, sells for $35,000 a pop. (People have bought.) The couple think they could get the price up to $75k, or maybe $100k.

Says Ross, this has now replaced his previous best story of premium offerings, which was a dude who charges $10,000 to help people do handstands.

I’m not sharing this to shake my head at the greedy Martin Shkrelis of the dream interpretation and handstand industries.

I’m sharing this to open your mind and maybe mine.

The same “stuff” can be packaged up in a different way and presented inside of a different experience to sell not for 2x, 10x, or even 40x… but even 500x, like Chavy says above.

Or 333x if you sign up tomorrow.

Because today is the last day, ever, in the history of mankind, I will be offering the Charter Member price for Daily Email Habit.

Tonight at 12pm midnight, the price goes up to $30/month.

(Apparently, there is still a lot of room for the price to increase beyond that, too.)

Also, Daily Email House, the community that Chavy refers to above, goes away as a free bonus, at the chime of midnight, just like an ordinary pumpkin that magically turns into its own beautiful paid offer.

If you would like to join Daily Email Habit before these vastly underpriced privileges disappear:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Announcing: PPP for Daily Email Habit

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As I mentioned yesterday, a reader from Brazil gave me the idea to finally increase the price of my Daily Email Habit service.

Daily Email Habit currently sells at the Charter Member price of $20/month. It will sell at that price until tomorrow, Tuesday, at 12 midnight PST.

After that, Daily Email Habit will sell for $30/month.

A sizable increase? A minimal bump?

If you ask me, it’s the wrong way to think about it. I’m calling this my Prospective Profit Price event. It’s really about what Daily Email Habit can do for you, if you simply open each day’s email and follow what it says. Specifically:

#1. Daily Email Habit can save you between 5 minutes to an agonizing hour of your day, each time you sit down to write your daily email.

The main part of Daily Email Habit is a daily “puzzle” or prompt, to get you over the hurdle of what to write about.

If you write every day, getting over that hurdle more quickly adds up — a couple of hours a month on the low end, 10 hours or more on the high.

#2. Daily Email Habit can help make your emails more effective.

The Daily Email Habit “puzzles” are not just random prompts, are not written by AI, and are not pulled out of a hat.

I design each puzzle strategically, based on my experience writing this newsletter, managing client email lists with tens of thousands of names on them, and writing something like 3,000 sales messages in my sales copywriting career.

Spend a couple minutes to come up with your own answer to the daily puzzle in Daily Email Habit, and your emails will have a better chance at making more sales today, and keeping readers around and interested for what you offer them tomorrow.

#3. And finally, if you are not writing daily emails yet, or you’re not consistent with it, then Daily Email Habit can help you start and stick with the habit.

It’s not just that it makes the process faster… or even just that it helps you get better results, so you’re more motivated to stick with it.

I’ve also purposely baked in some “consistency” elements into Daily Email Habit, such as the streak counter, to make it more likely you open up each day’s email, and actually stick with the habit of daily emailing.

And as I wrote yesterday, if you stick with daily emailing long enough, you have a real shot at the kind of money, influence, and opportunities that you cannot even imagine now.

I also have a second reason why you might want to join Daily Email Habit before tomorrow at 12 midnight PST.

As I hinted at last week, I’ve created a members-only club for business owners and marketers who write more or less daily emails.

It’s called Daily Email House. It’s quite colorful and lively inside. The members are interacting, posting ideas, asking questions, and contributing possible answers.

I’m in there as well, both to act as a kind of Jareth-like host, to make sure everybody is having a good time, and to share behind-the-scenes secrets I don’t share in this newsletter.

The House started out as a free bonus for Daily Email Habit. But it will stop being a free bonus for Daily Email Habit tomorrow. After that, I’ll spin it off into its own paid offer, which frankly will cost more than Daily Email Habit costs.

So there you go:

A courtesy notice to sign up for Daily Email Habit, if writing daily emails for the long term is something you do, or want to do.

The deadline, once again, to join Daily Email before the Charter Member disappears, and while you can get inside Daily Email House for free, is tomorrow at 12 midnight PST.

After that, the new, higher Prospective Profit Price kicks in, and Daily Email House stops being a free bonus.

If you wanna take advantage of this opportunity in time, and even to get tomorrow’s Daily Email Habit prompt before it’s gone, head on over here now:

https://bejakovic.com/deh