The one piece of influential writing which molded me above all others

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The one piece of influential writing which molded me above all others – above all the Ben Settle emails, all the Dan Kennedy books, all the Dan Lok Facebook ads — is an old issue of the Gary Halbert newsletter, titled:

The Difference Between Winners and Losers.

I read this issue in the first few weeks after I discovered copywriting, years before I actually became a freelance copywriter.

And I’ll make a dramatic claim:

I don’t know if I would have ever started as a copywriter without this Winners/Losers issue. Without the basic idea I got from it.

One thing I know for sure is that whenever I come back to the core idea from this Winners/Losers issue, big things, transformative things, often happen.

Maybe I’ve made you curious. So here’s the gist, in Gary’s own words:

Non-alcoholics can never truly understand alcoholism. Straight people can never understand what it is to be gay. Gays can’t hope to thoroughly comprehend what it is to be straight. And…

Spectators Can Never Understand
What It Is To Be A Player!

In that newsletter, Gary gave a quick, cheap, and easy exercise that anyone could do to 1000x their chances of becoming rich. It just involved putting out a classified ad and fielding all the calls that would come in.

​​Just follow the simple instructions, and ultimate success is 1000x more likely.

“But most of you are not going to follow these simple instructions,” Gary said. “I know that already from past experience.”

“I won’t be like those people,” I told Gary, who was already dead. “I will do what you tell me, and I will become a success!”

Of course, as you can probably guess, I never did follow Gary’s instructions and I never did put out the classified ad. But the idea, along with a bit of shame, stuck with me.

And that’s how I achieved what I have achieved. Because on occasion, I remember Gary’s Difference Between Winners and Losers.

And rather than saying, “Yeah that’s good advice” or “Pff I’ve heard that before,” I shut up for a minute and actually follow the step-by-step instructions that some smart and successful person has laid out for me.

Because like Gary said, knowing something intellectually is not good enough. You have to do it, apply it, experience it yourself to have a chance of becoming a player.

Perhaps keep that in mind, as I switch to an almost entirely unrelated topic:

My Copy Riddles program is now open for enrollment, until this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

“Pff I know all about that,” I hear you say. “You haven’t stopped talking about your Copy Riddles program for a century and a half.”

Well, maybe this is the moment when you finally hear me. For two reasons:

First, because Copy Riddles was actually born when I finally followed another bit of Gary’s step-by-step advice. This was advice I had known intellectually for years, but that I had never put into practice. And when I finally did put it into practice, big, transformative things happened.

And second:

B​ecause Copy Riddles is built around the idea that you gotta experience things yourself.

Spectators can never understand what it is to be a player… and copy readers can never understand what it is to be a copywriter.

​​That’s why I built and organized Copy Riddles as a series of practical exercises, simple but powerful, that you do every day to implant copywriting skills into your head — and to actually get the experience of creating effective copy.

But maybe that’s all a little vague for you.

Fortunately, I have written up a quite extensive and exclusive report, with all the details of how Copy Riddles works. In case you’re interested:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

The most powerful appeal for making the sale, according to the great Robert Collier

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I did my best to be snarky last night. I announced that Copy Riddles is now open again, and I invited criticism and trollish responses to the many promotional emails I would be sending.

What I got instead was a bunch of messages like the following, from reader and past Copy Riddles alum Nathan Eshman:

Love this course John!!! I literally use what I learned in it every day.

Is it still open for those who’ve done it in the past to join in again?

If so, can you put me on the receiving list please?

Sigh. This is not the thoughtless trolling or nasty criticism I was expecting. But you gotta work with what you got.

The background is this:

Nathan first signed up for Copy Riddles last year. He’s now taking advantage of the fact that if you join Copy Riddles once, you get lifetime membership. In other words, you can rejoin Copy Riddles for any future run for free.

This offer is open to anybody who has gone through Copy Riddles before. If that’s you, and you’d like to join for this run, just hit reply, let me know, and I will add you.

And if that’s not you, and you haven’t been through Copy Riddles yet, then I can tell you a valuable direct response lesson I first learned from the great Robert Collier, author of the Robert Collier Letter Book and that New Thought mishmash, the Secret of the Ages.

In analyzing a bunch of sales letters he had sent out, Collier found out that the most powerful appeal for making the sale is to say, “The price is going up.”

That’s also a reason to sign up for Copy Riddles now, rather than later.

Because each time I have run Copy Riddles, I’ve increased the price significantly.

It’s very possible I will do so again the next time I run this program.

But if you join now, then like Nathan, you don’t have to worry about any future higher price. You get into future runs for free, free, free.

Of course, I don’t want you to make up your mind about joining Copy Riddles based only on price.

Read the sales letter. See if this training makes sense for you. Decide if you will do what it takes to get value from it.

And if you conclude that the answer is yes, then do the simple math of comparing less with more, and use that to guide you. Here’s where to get started:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Ben Settle emergency emails in support of Copy Riddles?

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Last night, I sent out an email vaguely threatening you with a bunch of upcoming emails to promote my Copy Riddles program, which is now open for enrollment until this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

After I sent that email out, I slumped in my chair and hung my head.

“Great, now what?” I said. “Where am I gonna get all those emails? Who’s gonna write all that stuff I threatened them with?”

Beyond the one half-finished Copy Riddles email I had written during my Most Valuable Email presentation, I had nothing.

But then a desperate idea hit me. “I have that useless diploma from the Oregon School of Manifestation… why don’t I apply what they taught me?”

So I closed my eyes, put my fingers to my temples, and started to massage slowly, while sending out vibrations of easily-written emails into the universe.

YOU’VE GOT MAIL, my AOL account suddenly said.

Well, not really. I don’t use AOL. But I did get an email, just a few minutes after I wished for some easy help.

The email came from Ben Settle, and the subject line read:

“Advice to a new Agora copywriter”

This email of Ben’s is full of uncharacteristically detailed and forthcoming advice. If you’re on Ben’s list, it might be interesting to read. I will highlight just one bit, because it serves my purposes here.

A new Agora copywriter wrote in to ask Ben’s opinion on a bunch of stuff, including that bullets aren’t at all important any more.

To which Ben responded:

“Bullets still work, never stopped working, and will always work — When written correct everything ‘comes’ from the bullets, including non-bullet copy or ads where there are no bullets.”

Now I’d like to think Ben wrote this specifically at this moment, just to help me out with promoting Copy Riddles.

After all, the first basic premise behind Copy Riddles is that once you own the skill of writing bullets, you own the essence of intriguing, irresistible copywriting, no matter what format you write in.

The fundamental ideas inside Copy Riddles apply whether you are writing bullets… headlines… subject lines… body copy of sales letters and VSLs… ads… or emails.

In fact, I think Copy Riddles ideas transfer directly if you are writing sales emails, and not just in subject lines. I’ve even made the claim before that sales emails are basically the modern version of “expanded” bullets.

So that’s the first premise behind Copy Riddles.

The second premise is that you go further and faster by doing and experiencing… than by reading/listening/watching and then forgetting.

That’s why Copy Riddles is built around a unique, effective, and, I modestly think, clever mechanism. The mechanism gets those bullets lodged into your head, not just as a bunch of how-to information, but as a skill that you own.

But don’t take it from me. Since we are speaking of new Agora copywriters, a junior Agora copywriter named Harry Thomas went through Copy Riddles during the last run. And he had this to say:

“Honestly, John’s course is brilliant. While the content is bullets-centred, everything inside can be applied to other aspects of copy. Whenever I’m choosing endo subject lines or writing Taboola ads, I’ll write them out in bullet form first, then pick the best ones to use. And this might sound weird, but I can almost feel myself improving in real-time with John’s exercises.”

To get more details on my Copy Riddles exercises or to join while the joining’s good:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Copy Riddles now open for yes-men, yes-women, and others

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“I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth, even if it costs them their jobs.”
— Samuel Goldwyn

Today, I am reopening my Copy Riddles program for only the second time this year.

If you don’t know what Copy Riddles is about, you can read about it at the link at the end of this email.

Or you can just sit tight.

Because over the coming days, I will send you many emails, explaining what Copy Riddles is and why you might want to join.

I will start today, and I will only end on Sunday night at midnight PST, when the doors to the Copy Riddles theater will close again, to lock out any stragglers. The actual show will begin next Monday.

Now, in the parts of the direct response Internet that I haunt, it is customary to announce a heavy promotional campaign like this by saying something like:

“If you don’t like it, unsubscribe. Or just ignore my many emails until the storm passes. Or if you’re smart, follow along quietly, even if you have no intent to buy, because these emails make me a lot of money, and you might learn a thing or two.”

Predictably, sending out a message like this results in fewer spam complaints, a tighter bond with your list, and better behaved subscribers, who in time begin to border on yes-men, saying, “Yeah yeah, tell those people off in case they can’t appreciate effective marketing.”

But I don’t want any yes-men around me. Or yes-women.

I want everybody to tell me the truth, even if it costs them their spot on my email list.

So if any of my emails over the coming days rubs you the wrong way… or if you think I’m selling too hard, or I’m name-dropping too much, or I’m not giving sufficient value in my emails… or if the total tonnage of my promotional material just begins to annoy you by its weight… then make sure to write in and let me know.

I promise to read each suggestion and complaint, and to respond, perhaps even publicly.

So with that announcement done, let’s get this campaign started. Here’s the Copy Riddles promotional trailer, I mean, the text sales page, for your viewing and marketing pleasure:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Teach a man to fish, and he will pay you for framed photos of the lunkers you have caught

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Over the past days and months, I keep mentioning an old talk given by IM guru Jeff Walker. At one point in the talk, Jeff says something that sounds perverse:

“Teach a man to fish… and he will ask you for a fish sandwich.”

This only sounds perverse until you realize Jeff is speaking from experience.

Specifically, he’s talking about all the business owners who bought his Product Launch Formula, realized it would take too much work to implement, but also realized the value it would bring to their businesses. These many business owners came back to Jeff and said, “Can’t you just do this for me, Jeff? I’ll pay you.”

Also over the past days and months, I’ve seen a lot of discussion in my inbox about the problem of moving the free line. Giving away your best stuff for free, instead of charging for it.

And I can imagine there really is a problem. That is, if you just sit there, wishin’ and hopin’ for people to pay you for more of what you just gave them for free.

After all, who wants to pay for the same thing that they just got for free?

On the other hand, like Jeff says, people might be ready to pay for something very much like what you just gave them, only stuck in between two slices of white bread.

That’s what Jeff did, and he did it the smart way.

First, he sold his audience a fishing guide, called The Product Launch Formula. And then he sold it to them again, repositioned as a fish-sandwich-making franchise, which he called Product Launch Manager.

I also did it. But I did it in an unsmart way. I only sold my thing once, instead of three times.

Specifically, I showed people how to fish, in different ponds, rivers, and seas, and I did this for free.

Then I made a video presentation about the best fishing strategy I have personally found. I gave that away for free as well.

Then I made a framed collection of the most impressive lunkers I’ve personally caught using that strategy, and I put that up for sale.

In case my fish metaphor is running away with me, let me bring this back into the marketing plane:

I’m talking about my Most Valuable Email presentation, which I gave last Wednesday. That free presentation was based on a bunch of emails I have sent to my list over the past few years.

At the end of that presentation, I sold a swipe file of some of my best emails, which I had written using my Most Valuable Email strategy.

A surprising number of people took me up on this offer.

That’s because I turned those emails into something new and (additionally) valuable, by doing the work of collecting all those emails… by bundling them together… and by adding in relevant explanations, some red and yellow highlighting to point out the MVE strategy in action, as well as any fun or interesting context.

So there you go:

Beware moving the free line.

Or don’t. And simply make an attractive new offer.

Speaking of which:

If you registered to watch my Most Valuable Email presentation, then I sent you a recording. You have until end of day today, Pacific time, to watch it and take me up on the offer at the end.

I will be taking both down both the presentation and the offer at 12 midnight PST tonight.

​​Based on the positive responses I’ve gotten to the presentation, and the surprising number of people who took me up on the Most Valuable Email Swipes offer, I’ve decided to bundle this up as an attractive new offer and sell it down the line.

And if you didn’t register for the MVE presentation, then you will have to wait for that attractive new rerelease. Nobody gets into this particular aquarium after the doors close.

And of course, I still have to end this email today with an offer.

If you want to catch more fish, I mean, make more sales, in the ponds and streams of your email list, then I might be able to help. You can start the process by filling out the form below. Just don’t ask me for a fish sandwich. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/consulting

The Psycho rules you MUST have for a stronger business and more successful customers

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Last night, as lights dimmed around the city and the streets got quiet and a lonely owl started hooting somewhere in the distance, I settled into bed and started watching…

Psycho!

(​​The trailer.)

This was a 6-minute promo movie, made by Alfred Hitchcock, to drum up anticipation for the real Psycho movie.

The Psycho trailer features Hitchcock himself, showing off the Psycho set as if it were a real crime scene.

​​With cheery music playing, Hitchcock walks around the set, hints at the murders that happened in different rooms, and occasionally pouts and frowns at camera as if to say, “You there, in the second row, what odd thing are you doing?”

At the end of it all, Hitchcock walks into the motel, to the bathroom.

“Well they cleaned all this up now,” he says. “Big difference. You should have seen the blood. The whole place was… well, it’s too horrible to describe.”

In spite of this, Hitchcock continues his cheery tour. He points out the toilet — an important clue — and then the shower. The camera zooms in as he reaches for the shower curtain, pulls it back swiftly, and—

A screaming woman’s face flashes and the famous Psycho slasher music cuts into your ears.

The closing credits appear, and then a notice:

“PSYCHO: The picture you MUST see from the beginning… or not at all! For no one will be seated after the start.”

“What?” I asked my laptop. No one allowed in late? Is this for real?”

It turns out yes.

Hitchcock made a rule for the release of Psycho. Nobody would be allowed into the theater, any theater, anywhere around country, after the movie had started.

Studio honchos were worried that this arbitrary rule would hurt ticket sales.

But you, my dear marketing psycho, probably know better.

What do you think happened?

Did people hear they won’t be allowed in late, and decide to stay away?

Did a few people who did come late, and who got turned away, and who fumed about it… did these people sour everybody else from seeing the movie?

Of course not.

Lines formed around the block, in cities around the US, made up of people waiting to see Psycho, at the appointed time.

Of course, these people were not there only because of this “No late admission” rule.

But I’m 100% sure this rule contributed to the fact that Pyscho broke box-office records in its opening weekend, and has become such a keystone of pop culture since.

Maybe you see where I’m going with this.

People loooove draconian rules and restrictions, particularly in a take-it-or-leave it setting.

Sure, some people get turned away. Either because they know in advance they can’t make it to the theater in time, or more likely, because they dawdle.

But some people will be intrigued who wouldn’t care otherwise. And more important, many people will treat the person setting the rules with a new level of respect and deference.

Ben Settle recently wrote an email about his Psycho rule not to allow people who unsubscribe from his Email Players newsletter to re-subscribe down the line. Ben wrote:

“I’ve tested, tweaked, experimented with, and practiced this policy for nearly 10 years. And I have found, without exception, the harsher I am with this policy, the stronger my business gets with far more successful customers. On the other hand, the more lenient I am with this policy, the weaker my business gets with far more weak-minded customers. It’s such an integral part of what makes my business model work, that it’s ‘part’ of my marketing now, just like clean parks are ‘part’ of Disneyland’s customer service.”

So there you go. If you want a stronger business and more successful customers, stop allowing anyone into your theater after the lights dim.

Or stop allowing them back in, if they ever leave for a pee break.

Or come up with yer own Psycho rules. Ones that match your personality, your preferences, and your business objectives.

“Here it comes,” some oddball in the second row is saying, while rubbing his hands together. “Here come Bejako’s rules. He always likes to write about an interesting marketing and business idea, and then implement it in the same email.”

True. I do like to implement good ideas as soon as I write about them.

But another thing I like to do is to take a really important idea, and sit on it for a while, and then implement it in future emails, and throughout my business.

This particular idea, about Psycho rules, is big enough and important enough to warrant more time and space than I want to take for a single email.

But keep an eye out, if you have an eye to spare, and maybe will see me pulling back the shower curtain some time soon, and with scary slasher music suddenly playing, startling my list with one of my new Pyscho rules.

Meanwhile, if you want my advice, insights, and guidance (no copywriting) when it comes to your existing email marketing funnels, you can contact me using the form below.

No arbitrary rules or hoops to jump through — yet.

​​Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/consulting

Social justice for blockheads, the hardhearted, and the congenitally lazy

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This morning I spent a few minutes performing a routine medical procedure to get my blood pressure up. In other words, I read an article that popped up on a news aggregator, from some site I had never heard of, called Stakedy. The headline of the article ran:

“Social justice for the bald man”

The article was a quick series of arguments backed with proof. Baldness causes social stigma and pain for bald men, who spend billions of dollars trying to repair their wounded self-images. Of the top 100 most beautiful actors in the world, exactly zero are bald. Baldness is a genetically caused medical condition. For all these reasons, discrimination against the bald should not be allowed in a progressive society.

The article concluded with the following:

“Do we need laws to fine people for such discrimination? Do we need quotas for bald men on movie sets? Do we need to demonize women who won’t date a bald man for fear that she will have a bald child? What we need are some bald social justice warriors.”

As I finished the article, I both grinned and I frowned.

I grinned because I looked forward to the furious comments, both pro and con, that were sure to follow in the comments section of that news aggregator site.

I frowned because in spite of myself, I took a side. I started preparing my own serious and impassioned arguments and getting ready to enter the fight, at least in my head.

Sure enough, in the comments, there was plenty of dismantling, dismay, disappointment, and disgust.

“What’s next? Social justice for the short and for the shortsighted?” “You can’t save everyone…” “I’ve been bald since 1989 and I think…”

And then there was the top comment. It quietly said:

“Stakedy is auto-generated by AI. (It’s hard to figure out how, it’s some crazy blockchainy thing.) The fact that people don’t recognize that and try to argue the merit of the article here makes me scared.”

So what to say?

I could get back on my favorite hobby horse, and say that “good enough” AI is coming, or is in fact here.

Some people insist that copywriters and marketers will be spared if they are smart enough, if they are empathetic enough, or if they are simply willing to work hard enough. Who knows, maybe these people will be proved right.

​​Or maybe they will be proved wrong. Maybe we will all soon be campaigning for social justice for our particular stigmatized and endangered groups…

But you know, that’s just my hobby horse. And you can’t ride too far on one of those.

So instead, let me saddle up a big and serious Clydesdale for you:

Humans have these predictable, robot-like emotional buttons that can be pressed.

One button for attention.. another for affinity… a third for acquisitiveness.

These buttons are so predictable and so easy to press that now even a machine can do it.

So shouldn’t you be doing more of this pressing, in your own marketing and copy, in some smart and empathetic way?

I’ll leave that question hanging in the air.

And I’ll just say that, if you want my help performing this routine medical procedure on your audience, now, while there’s still time, before we’re both out of a job, you can contact me here:

https://bejakovic.com/consulting

It was all my fault, and always has been

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A few nights ago, I was lying in my plush bed, smoking a cigar and tossing grapes into my mouth one by one.

Life was good.

I had just sent out my email about the prestigious Dig.This.Zoom event. It was only a matter of time now.

A bit of movement in the corner of my bedroom caught my eye. It was my laptop, open to my Gmail inbox. A new email had arrived. I could just make out the subject line:

“Your form, ‘John Bejakovic consult request’, has a new response”

“Sooner than I expected,” I smirked, “but I’m not surprised.”

In that email about the Dig.This.Zoom event, I had successfully associated myself with heavyweight marketers Aaron Winter and Dan Ferrari. I ended that email with my consulting offer.

Clearly, I thought, some smart business owner, who owns a profitable niche business I would never have even dreamed about, and who reads my daily newsletter religiously, realized he could make much more money with my advice and guidance.

That business owner is now reaching out to offer to pay me in advance… if only he can get a bit of time on my calendar, and the opportunity to have my highly trained eyes locked critically on his email funnels, until I find small changes that can lead to big improvements.

I slid out of bed lazily and made my way to my laptop.

I imagined myself a few months down the line, getting an email from said business owner. The email would say:

“John I was skeptical when we first did the consult. But we made the changes you suggested. And now we’re making 11x what we were before from the same email funnel. I’m over the moon! I’m sure you don’t need yet another glowing testimonial. But if you ever want to use this publicly to let the world know how incredible you are, please go ahead. It would be an honor for me.”

“Well okay, if it would be an honor for you,” I said to my empty bedroom as I clicked the Google Forms link. “Let’s see who the lucky business owner is today. I wonder what mysterious and surprising line of work he is in.”

My ugly Google form opened up. My mouth hung open. My face sank.

There it was. My newest consulting request. The successful business owner from that surprising new niche I had been fantasizing about. The request read, in its entirety,

“I am a Nigerian direct response copywriter. I want to learn from you.”

I wasn’t sure what bothered me more. The fact that my fantasy had been popped, and that this was the polar opposite of the ideal consulting lead I was dreaming about. Or perhaps it was just the utter lack of effort involved in this “consulting request.”

“Learn from me? Learn what? How to write self-deprecating emails like this one? How to make ugly Google Forms? How to approach people in a way that shows you are serious about working with them and respectful of their time?”

I wasn’t sure how I could possibly respond to this request in a sensible way that didn’t waste more of my time. And then I realized I should just do it in a daily email to my list.

I also remembered a bit of philosophy I’ve long held near to my heart:

It’s always your fault.

That might not sound like the healthiest way to go through life. But it’s served me well.

If things ever go in the completely wrong direction, away from where I want to be, then like David Byrne, I always ask myself, “Well, how did I get here?”

Because pianos don’t just fall out of the sky and land on your head. You have to walk under them first, as they are hanging by a fraying rope. You have to stand around, spinning aimlessly from side to side, while that rope gets more and more frayed. And you have to make sure you never look up until finally the rope snaps.

So dear Nigerian direct response copywriter, if you are reading, don’t feel like I am picking on you.

It was my fault for not being sufficiently clear who my consulting offer was for, and what it was about.

If you’d like to learn from me — I assume how to write copy, but who knows — then my suggestion would be to wait another week.

That’s when I will reopen my Copy Riddles program.

​​Copy Riddles is a way to learn copywriting from me, in a very compact and affordable package. Much more affordable than the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars it would take if you want to get the equivalent knowledge from me in a series of one-on-one consults.

But perhaps you are not that Nigerian direct response copywriter looking to learn from me.

And perhaps now you have a clearer idea of my consulting offer is about. And perhaps you even think it might be smart for you, and for your business.

​​If so, fill out the ugly Google Forms form below. No need to go overboard. But give me more detail about you and your business than just saying, “I want to learn from you.”

https://bejakovic.com/consulting

Pretty girl alone in a cafe – where can I go from here?

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Just a few minutes ago, I was walking down the street, my internal radar urgently scanning for a place to sit down and get a coffee, when I saw her:

A pretty girl, sitting by herself, at a shady cafe, and pulling out a laptop.

Now in the megalopolis of Zagreb, Croatia, where I am for the next few days, the laptop in a cafe is a good tell that the girl is not a local, but is a foreigner.

And in my experience, foreign girls, sitting by themselves at a cafe in a foreign land, are sometimes ready to talk and laugh.

So I asked myself, why don’t I marry the necessary (coffee) and the pleasant (talking to this girl)?

And I sat down at the cafe, at a table right next to the girl, but at a nonconfrontationally diagonal angle.

On closer inspection, everything about the girl confirmed she was not a local. A nose ring. A tattoo of a feather on the outside of her wrist. A poofy floral-print shirt and jean shorts.

I started running through a few possible ways to open up a conversation.

The waitress came to take my order. I ordered, nonchalantly looked at the girl again, and got back to my scheming.

Another waiter came, and brought out the girl’s order, a croissant and a coffee. “Oh thank you,” the girl said in English, a big smile on her face.

My scheming intensified. I looked at her laptop, which had an interesting marble-print case.

“Maybe I could ask her about that,” I said to myself. “But first let me go to the bathroom.” I got up, went, came back.

In spite of my secret hopes, the girl was still there. She shifted in her seat and looked at me inquiringly.

I sat back down. A feeling of dread started to settle over me.

My mind ran over familiar gambits for starting a conversation with a girl. Direct compliment? Grandfatherly inquiry about her laptop case? An assumption about where she’s from? “Are you from Boston? You sound like you’re from Boston.”

But hold on. Let me switch gears for a second.

A few days ago, I got a question/comment from a reader. She was encouraging me to write about mindset, specifically the mindset it takes to take action, when action is really the only thing missing for almost certain success.

I don’t know too much about mindset. But I find it a mysterious thing.

Why is it that among two people, equally capable and filled with desire, one will take action and the other won’t?

Equally mysteriously, why will a person take action in one situation in life, but be blocked by some unseen force in another situation?

For example, I have started conversations with literally thousands of strange, unfamiliar, but attractive girls in my life.

And not only started conversations.

​​I’ve had fun interactions with many of these girls, and found many of them ready to talk and laugh. In other words, I have plenty of reference experiences telling me this can be an enjoyable affair for all parties involved.

Any yet, as I’m sure you can guess, I didn’t ask the girl today if she is from Boston. I didn’t make any connoisseur-like comment about her laptop case. And I didn’t tell her she looks very nice.

Instead, I sat there for a few minutes more, my dead, shark-like eyes staring off into empty space… I finished my coffee… I paid, I got up and I left.

So I don’t know too much about mindset. But I do know something about process. And I can tell you one procedural thing I’ve figured out, which helps me take action and get closer to success:

And that’s to never chew myself out.

This might sound counterintuitive. It goes against all the sports hero movies we’ve seen for decades, where a bitter defeat leads to a lot of agonized soul searching, and a new, desperate determination to come back and win, no matter what it takes.

And maybe that really is what it takes for you. But as for me:

I’ve noticed that chewing myself out never does me any good. Either before the big moment. Or after.

So after I got up from that cafe, after a brief moment of irritation with myself, I shrugged my shoulders.

Because I have a process of getting myself back in the groove of talking to girls. It’s a bunch of personal strategies I’ve worked out over years of similar experience, by channeling the energy I would have spent on chewing myself out… into thinking about what I could do differently the next time.

I’ll put that process into action​​ soon. Maybe as soon as I finish writing up this email.

I’m not sure if this is relevant to you in any way.

But if you find yourself blocked by mysterious forces from taking action, in areas of your business or your personal life… and what’s more, if you find yourself agonizing over that fact… then it might be worth remembering to shrug your shoulders, and to transfer your energy from chewing yourself out to something more productive.

Anyways, that’s my free tip for today.

My almost-as-free offer for today is to sign up for my email newsletter. It’s usually about copywriting and direct marketing. With occasional diversions into personal and inspirational topics, like today. If you’d like to sign up, click here and fill out the form.

Nigerians get in for free, others like me have to pay $1,200

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Today I was planning to write an email about marketer Travis Sago, and how he says that, if you have the right offer and you put it in front of the right people, you can sell for 4-figures+ just by sending a description of the offer in an ugly Word document.

And no, this is not a pitch for Ian Stanley’s hot new “Word Doc Millions” course.

Instead, the key is that bit about having the right offer (pretty important)… and the right people (hugely important).

So that was the email I wanted to write today. I thought I could illustrate it by talking about the presentation I gave last night, and the little offer I made and successfully sold at the end, without even an ugly Word doc.

But then this morning, something happened and foiled my plans completely.

I woke up. Opened up my email. And within about 6 minutes, I had PayPaled $1,200 into the unknown, for an offer I had never heard of before, and which honestly worried me a little.

There wasn’t an ugly Word doc to sell this offer either.

Instead, there was an ugly sales page, though there wasn’t really any selling done on it, not even a headline. Just a bunch of photos of random people… reverse type… and what seems to be an intentionally slapdash description of what you might get.

What’s worse, a part of the offer is that, since “Nigeria is the next hot bed of talent” for the direct response industry, Nigerians get this offer for free while everyone else has to pay.

“Is this for real?” I asked myself. “Or is this some kind of prank?” It actually made me a little anxious about the money I was sending out.

And yet I did it. It seems to be okay. I got a confirmation email, from David Deutsch no less.

So let me get back to Travis Sago and tell you about this offer:

It’s just a bunch of Zoom calls, put on by copywriter Aaron Winter.

Never heard of Aaron?

Neither had I, until a few years ago, when I joined Dan Ferrari’s coaching group.

Dan, as you might know, was the star copywriter at The Motley Fool. Then he left and started writing a bunch of controls for other financial clients, including Agora Financial.

I wrote about Dan in Commandment IV of my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters book. That commandment was based on an insight Dan extracted from the first sales letter he wrote in the health space (as far as I know), which tripled response over the control and sold out the entire supply of Green Valley’s telomere’s supplement.

So Dan is really what you might consider an A-list copywriter.

And Aaron Winter was Dan’s copy chief at The Motley Fool… and Dan’s partner (and still copy chief) at Dig.In, the marketing agency they started after they left to work for themselves.

Dan’s coaching group was the moment in my copywriting career where I went from scraping by to making good money as a copywriter. I learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from Dan. And Dan learned a lot and continues to learn a lot from Aaron.

But Aaron never had a blog, newsletter, or book. He never offered any kind of public training.

Until now.

Are you getting an idea of how this works?

The right offer… in front of the right people… and 6 minutes later, a $1,200 sale.

Well, unless you’re Nigerian. Then you get in for free.

At this point, you might expect me to link to the ugly sales page for this Aaron Winter offer. But if you really are the right prospect for this, you will have to jump through a few hoops. As a first step, I’d suggest getting on the email lists of some of the Dig.In people, such as Dan Ferrari or Ning Li.

As for me, I have to put an offer in front of you to wrap up this email.

No ugly Word doc here either. But there is an ugly Google Forms page, my consulting intake form.

If you want my advice and guidance in putting together the right offer and getting it in front of the right people, you can get started below.

Albanians get in for free. Everyone else has to pay. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/consulting