Don’t you get sick of being right all the time?

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“What do you think? I bet it’s just one guy.”

Butch Cassidy. The Sundance Kid. Their last day on Earth. ​​The two outlaws have just ridden into a Bolivian town to have a meal… and somebody starts shooting at them.

They run for cover inside a saloon.

Butch is the brains of the operation and forever the optimist. “What do you think?” he says to Sundance. “I bet it’s just one guy.”

Sundance takes off his hat and pokes it out the door. An army of guns goes off immediately. A dozen bullets whiz through the hat. Sundance stares at Butch.

“Don’t you get sick of being right all the time?”

Well? Don’t you?

Today I want to share an unpleasant but valuable truth with you. You may or may not be ready to hear it.

I first heard it from John Carlton. John says:

In order to persuade large groups of people to buy, act now, or even just begin to see your side of things… you have to see the world as it is.

Not as you wish it was. Not as you believe it should be. Not as you were told it was.

As it is. The stark, cold reality of how things actually work, and how people actually behave.

This is often scary, at first. It requires you to look behind your go-to belief systems (which you may have had since you were a kid)… to challenge authority’s version of what’s going on… and — most important — you must willingly exit the shared delusion among the majority of your fellow humans that what they say they’ll do is more important than what they actually do.

That’s not the only shared delusion among us fellow humans. There are plenty of others.

​​Such as “The One Thing”… the simple, black-and-white explanation… the leader to be obeyed or the charlatan to be mocked.

We all want to believe the world works like this. And there’s a lot of money to be made by telling people what they want to hear.

​​But like Carlton says, to make that money, it might be helpful to see the world as it is, rather than as you wish it were. Even if it means you’ll stop being right all the time.

But you know what? I’m not really talking to you. I’m talking to myself. Because check it:

A few weeks ago, I decided to unsubscribe from Ben Settle’s Email Players newsletter. I was subscribed for over 4 years. But I had my reasons to quit.

Ben is somebody I’ve learned the most from, both directly and indirectly, about this copywriting and marketing stuff. And yet, since unsubscribing from his newsletter, I notice my brain trying to make things black-and-white. To discount the things I’ve learned from him. To put them in a box of things I’ve outgrown.

My brain wants to be right. But I want to be rich.

So for your benefit as well as my own, over the next several days, I’ll tell you a few of the great things I’ve learned from Ben Settle. A few things… because there’s no “The One Thing.”

Put together, these great ideas were a central part of the success I’ve achieved so far. Perhaps they can help you too. As a sneak preview of the first of these great ideas, here’s a bit of dialogue between Butch and Sundance… right before they try to shoot their way out of the saloon, against an entire battalion of Bolivian soldiers and police:

Butch: Australia. I thought that secretly you wanted to know so I told you.

Sundance: That’s your great idea?

Butch: The latest in a long line. We get out of here alive, we go to Australia. Goodbye, Bolivia. Hello to Australia.

Superficial copywriting formulas vs. the meta level of writing copy

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I promise to pay off today’s headline long before the end of this post. But just for a second, humor me and imagine you’re high up in the mountains, far away from civilization.

The sun is starting to set behind the mountain peaks, and shadows are getting long. Cold air is streaming in from the pine forest that surrounds your camp. And maybe, just maybe, you think you heard a wolf howling in the distance.

“Time to build a fire,” you say with a little quickening of your step.

Luckily, there is plenty of kindling from the pine trees around you. All you need is a spark to get the fire going.

So you find a nice piece of flint. It’s about the size of a remote control and fits into your hand just as nicely.

Now in case you’re wondering what I’m on about, let me start paying off the headline. It’s related to a question I got a few days ago from Daniyal, who’s going through my Copy Riddles program. Daniyal wrote:

Can you talk about the meta level of bullet writing or copywriting in general?

Cause I realized that I was focusing more on the type of bullet I’m writing in the superficial sense like How to or a question or some other sort…

But going through the lesson I realized that you’re teaching us to focus more on the deeper level as in the promise bullet or the warning bullet.

It’s a good question. And my best answer to it is the above analogy of the piece of flint.

You take your piece of flint back to your camp. You gather your kindling. You kneel down, and you look at the flint in your hand. You turn it around and see many different faces and facets to it. Some dull… some shiny… some covered with a bit of dust and dirt.

You pick a facet that looks promising. And you strike it against another rock. Once, twice, three times.

But no fire. You just can’t get a spark to fly with that side of the flint.

So you look at your flint again. You bring it closer to your face. You move it further away. And you find another promising facet. Strike again.

But still no spark.

You try yet again. A third facet. It didn’t look great at first. But after you rub off some of the dirt and dust from it, you realize it might be the one. You strike it against another rock and —

Spark. Fire. Warmth and light.

And the wolves, which were gathering around your camp and starting to lick their chops… they grumblingly put away their forks and knives… and they start discussing where else to go for dinner tonight.

I guess you see what I’m saying.

Whether you’re writing bullets or any other copy, then your copywriting tricks… your “How to” formulas and “What never” templates… your power words like “secret” and “amazing” and “trick”… these are just the polishing and the rubbing and repeated striking of your flint.

It’s critical. But it’s never enough on its own.

So if you’re not getting a spark to fly, then turn your research and your source materials — your flint — around in your hand. Look at it from up close. From far away. And pick another facet to try.

Because if you don’t… well, then the hungry wolves of failure and indifference will soon sniff you out. And they’ll say, “You know what? That guy looks pretty stubborn. I have a good feeling about him. Let’s go there for dinner tonight.”

Maybe that won’t help you. Maybe it will.

But if you want some more meta-level ideas on writing copy… as well as occasional copywriting tips and tricks to help light that spark… then head over here to safety before it gets dark and the wolves come out.

Real #1 proof for 2021 and beyond

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“We write you because, with all you have heard and read ABOUT O. Henry’s stories, you have never yet SEEN them. You have never yet had the privilege we now offer you of ACTUALLY handling volumes — reading in your home some of these wonderful tales — proving to your own satisfaction the marvelous insight of the man, the depth of his understanding and sympathy.”

— Robert Collier, from a 1919 direct mail campaign that sold $1 million worth of O. Henry books

Demonstration is supposed to be the strongest form of proof. And I believe it, because Gary Bencivenga and Claude Hopkins say so.

That’s why demonstration is what I resort to most often in these emails. I don’t just tell you ABOUT a cool persuasion technique. I allow you to ACTUALLY SEE it.

But what if?

What if demonstration is not really tops?

Remember when Beats headphones came out? Headphone snobs were quick to point out that Beats headphones were mediocre in terms of sound quality. Even non-snobs could probably tell Beats headphones were nothing special. And yet Beats soon became one of the biggest headphone brands in the world, and sold for $3.2 billion to Apple a few years later.

Or remember the story of Coke vs. Pepsi? How Pepsi was winning the blind taste tests? And how Coke decided to change their formula… which led to a popular backlash… and a return from the ashes of “the real thing” — Coke — and not Pepsi, which tasted better?

Who knows. Maybe things were different in the time of Robert Collier. Maybe people really trusted their own opinions and experiences. And maybe getting people to try was the best way to to get them to buy. Maybe.

Whatever the case was back then, it’s not how it is today. Today it’s too hard to choose, and we no longer trust our own opinions all that deeply.

You probably see what I’m getting at. And you probably see what I believe is the real #1 type of proof, in 2021 and beyond.

Which brings me to a book I’d like to recommend on that topic. Two people I respect — one a successful marketer and business owner, and the other a copywriter at Agora — recently recommended it to me.

That’s why, even though I haven’t read this book yet, and maybe never will, I’m sure I’d like it. And that’s why I’d like to recommend it to you as well, and why I’m sure you’ll like it too. So here’s the deal:

If you’d like to know the title of this book, sign up to my email newsletter. (A bunch of direct response legends and young stars already do subscribe to it.) And then send me an email to introduce yourself. I’ll write back to you, and tell you the title of this valuable and wonderful book.

Horror advertorial workshop — are you a good fit?

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I used to be one of those people.
​
Shaking my head and saying, ‘My child wouldn’t dare.’

​It worked for my first daughter. Then my son came along.

​​That’s the beginning of what I call a horror advertorial. This particular horror advertorial is one I wrote a few months ago for a kids supplement company called First Day. It helped them 6x their ad spend, and go from $2k a day to $12k a day.

Today, I’ve got an offer I’d like to run by you.

It might be relevant if 1) you are a copywriter (in-house or freelancer) working with an ecommerce business or 2) if you are a marketing honcho at such a business, and you’ve got a copywriter you work with regularly.

I’ve recently gotten a lot of interest from people who want me to write a horror advertorial for them. Maybe it had something to do with my publicly claiming that these advertorials are the future of front-end funnels for ecommerce businesses.

The trouble is, I’ve got all the client work I can handle for what I can see of the future.

So I had the idea to hold a “Write Your Horror Advertorial” workshop. If you (or your copywriter) are a good fit for this, the offer should be a no-brainer:

1. You get the step-by-step process — the big picture and all the tiny details — I use to research and write up horror advertorials…

2. You get my over-your-shoulder guidance and feedback as you (or your copywriter) put this process in practice, from start to finish…

3. As a result of all this big-picturing and back-feeding, you have a polished horror advertorial by the end, ready to be put in production…

4. And it’s all at a significantly lower price than I would charge to write a horror advertorial myself, if I were still offering that service.

In other words, the offer is something like giving you a fish… and also teaching you to fish… and putting myself out of the lucrative fishing business. It might not be very smart on my end, but you can profit from my lack of foresight.

Most of the details of the “Write Your Horror Advertorial” workshop are still flexible. But the workshop will probably happen in mid-October, and it will span 4-6 training calls spread out over 10-14 days.

I’ll hold the workshop if I can get at least 5 copywriters/businesses to join… and I’ll limit the workshop to at most 10 copywriters/businesses.

At fewest 5, because I want to make it worthwhile for myself.

At most 10, because I want to make it worthwhile for you. Because the point is not just to show you how to write one of these horror advertorials… but to actually guide you as you write a production-ready piece of copy. That will take personal involvement from me, and that’s why I’ll limit the workshop to 10 people at most.

So the odds are, you are not a good fit for this offer. I admire you for reading this far.

But on the odd chance that you are a good fit, write me an email and let me know.

Also let me know who you are (copywriter, marketer, …) and what you’re selling (or what you’re thinking of promoting).

​​I want to make sure it really is a good fit. If it’s not, I’ll tell you so. Because if you join this workshop, I want you to have a healthy chance to reap big returns from a little investment into your advertorial copy.

And because I’m a direct response copywriter, let me give you a real reason to act now:

As this post goes out, I’m reaching out to about 10 contacts at businesses who might be interested in this offer. I’m not sure if any of them will be interested. But there is some possibility that the workshop will fill up, and quick.

So if you are interested, the sooner you write me… the better the chance that we can scare up some new front-end profits for you.

The Godlike “Golem Game”

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Legend says that during WWII, Nazi soldiers broke into the Old New Synagogue in Prague. The soldiers made it all the way up to the attic, where they were torn apart, limb by limb.

Silly Nazis. You don’t go into the attic of the Old New Synagogue. That’s where the remains of the Golem lie.

An even older legend explains:

Back in some ancient time, the leading rabbi of Prague created a living Golem. (Golem apparently means something like embryo or shapeless mass in Hebrew.)

The rabbi took a bunch of clay. He sculpted it so it looked like a big lump with a head and arms and legs. And he gave it life, by inserting a shem – a slip of paper with the name of God written on it — into the Golem’s mouth. The Golem sprang up and started lumbering around, doing the rabbi’s work.

Would you like to have that power? To take something big, vague, and as useless as a lump of clay… and turn it into a powerful and living thing which does your work for you?

You can do it, if you play what I call the “Golem Game.” I was reminded of it by Glenn Osborn a few weeks ago.

I’d written an email for this very newsletter with an offer of a free resource with a bunch of great old ads. To which Glenn wrote in to say:

Your response was HORRIBLE
On your “Old ad offer”
Because you did not NAME the collection of ads.

Fact is, my response wasn’t really horrible. A bunch of people wrote in to find out what the free resource was. But Glenn’s point stands. I would have done better, and probably much better, with a good name to call that bunch of ads.

And so I suggest to you the Golem Game. It goes like this:

You invent a name. To give your market a handle on a vague problem… symptom… enemy… mechanism… or opportunity they can’t fully grasp right now.

Then you take your name, you write it on a slip of paper, and you stick it in the mouth of that vague and useless lump. And you watch whether the name makes the useless lump come to life. If it does, your named and live Golem will do your work for you… carrying your prospects to the sales page and grunting “YOU BUY NOW!”

But if you didn’t write the right name on that slip of paper, well, then you try again.

After all, the Golem Game is a game, and the outcome of any individual round is uncertain.

If you don’t like those odds, then sit tight. I’ll write more about winning names in the future.

Meanwhile, I can point you to another free resource. It’s called Great Product Names for Dummies. I wrote it a few months ago. I’m a little ashamed of it because it gives away too much how-to advice. But who knows, maybe that’s exactly why you’ll like it. So if you feel like bringing things to life, here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/great-product-names-for-dummies/

Top Gun and the future of marketing

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“You know what one of the greatest scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun.”

There’s a 90s movie called Sleep With Me. I know just a single scene of it, but I know that scene well.

The scene shows a party where Quentin Tarantino (real-life Quentin Tarantino) is talking to some other guy. They are discussing Top Gun — my favorite movie of all time – and they give a new interpretation of it.

“The whole idea is subversion,” Quentin says. “You want subversion on a massive level.” That’s why Top Gun is so great.

“What is Top Gun?” Quentin asks. “You think it’s a story about a bunch of fighter pilots.” He shakes his head.

“It is a story about a man’s struggle with his own homosexuality.”

The other guy in the scene chuckles. He thinks it’s a joke.

But no. Quentin hits him with the proof…

… which won’t mean much to you if you’ve never seen Top Gun. If you’ve been deprived like that, you might want to take a 100-minute break right now to watch it (highly recommended) so the rest of this email makes sense.

You’re back already? Good to have you. So here’s what Quentin says about Top Gun:

Maverick is right on the edge.

On the one side, Iceman and his crew represent the “gay way.”

On the other side, Kelly McGillis represents heterosexuality.

But Maverick won’t have sex with Kelly. Halfway through their first date, he rides off on his motorcycle, leaving her frustrated.

So in the next scene, she dresses like a man — in a fighter pilot jacket and baseball cap — to pull Maverick back through subterfuge.

But it doesn’t work, not long term. By the end, Maverick joins Iceman and all the other fighter jocks.

They are fighting the MiGs. “They are this gay fighting force,” says Quentin. And then the movie ends with the climactic exchange between Maverick and Iceman, which Quentin caricatures only slightly:

Iceman: You can ride my tail any time.

Maverick: You can ride mine.

Do I hear you groaning? Maybe you think this whole scene is just tasteless 90s humor. Maybe you’re right. But get this:

I first heard about this scene some 20 years ago. It gave me a kind of thrill, and completely changed the way I see Top Gun. That’s why I often share this scene with other people. And many of them get a kick out of it too, and they remember it and they pass it on also.

So you think there’s something there?

I think so. At least that’s my takeaway for you — a check you can cash:

You might have heard that stories are powerful in marketing. And it’s true.

But like I’ve written recently, people might consume your story-based marketing… and still not want to buy your stuff. It takes a lot more than just fancy storytelling.

Because after your story, your prospect might feel like you tricked him into your pitch…

Or maybe he made up his mind long ago he won’t respond to any advertising, not even if it’s subtle…

Or he might have this stubborn belief, that even though your story tells him differently, your product can’t help him, not really, not him.

So I’d like to suggest that the future of marketing is going to be something like that Quentin Tarantino scene above.

Maybe you’re curious about the details of what I have in mind.

That’s classified. I could tell you… but then I’d have to kill you.

But it might be something I share in my top-secret newsletter. And soon. If you’d like to sign up for that, click here and fill out the form.

The parable of the idea sower

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Today I’d like to tell you about one of the two main engines behind my ability to produce. This engine is very simple, but it’s very powerful. And I believe you can get great use out of it if you also choose to use it.

But hold on.

Will you really hear me if I tell you straight up?

Perhaps. But I want better odds than that. So let me first tell you the ancient parable of the sower.

The sower went a-sowing. He threw down some seeds. A few fell by the wayside. A few fell on shallow ground. A few fell among thorns.

All of these seeds were wasted.

But a few seeds fell on good soil. And the upshot was a good harvest. The sower had an ROI of 3,000%-6,000%. And he said, “You know what? I might do this again tomorrow.”

Maybe you recognize this parable. And maybe you even know one interpretation of it.

But today I want to give you another interpretation. It might be new to you.

Because ideas you come up with — possible solutions to a problem — are like these seeds. A few ideas fall by the wayside because they are just nonsense and irrelevant. A few ideas take root in shallow ground — they are too predictable and unimaginative. A few ideas end up choked with thorns, because they are impractical.

But a few ideas land right where they should. And the ROI is tremendous.

Yesterday, a member of my Copy Riddles program wrote in. He said he could only come up with two bullets where I had suggested writing three. I told him that the solution to his problem might be to write 6 bullets or 9, instead of aiming for 3.

Because if you can’t get an idea to land right where it should, it’s not because your aim is not good enough. It’s because you’re not throwing enough seeds out. Throw more seeds out, regularly, and you won’t have to worry about your aim.

That’s what I’ve been doing for a few years already. 10 ideas. Every day. About something — personal, business, or fanciful. And I do it while working too. 10 subject lines. 10 hooks. 10 ways to illustrate a point that you should generate more ideas, including wasted ones.

By the way, this is something else you might recognize. I originally got this “10 ideas” idea from James Altucher. He’s also the one who had the smart insight that if you can’t come up with 10 ideas, you should come up with 20. Because you’re obviously limiting yourself too much in your thinking.

James has a little challenge for you. He promises to turn you into an idea machine. He’s also got a lot of how-to advice that might help you in this quest. You can find all of that on the following page, which has been worth tens of thousands of dollars to me, and might be worth more to you — if you only do what it says, starting today.

But before you go — do you want more ideas like this? Then sign up to my email newsletter. And then off you go, to become an idea machine:

https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-for-becoming-an-idea-machine/

The urgent opportunity of the “reverse testimonial”

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“I’d like to tell you about a huge opportunity with no downside.” If that sentence got your heart pumping, then take a breath and calm down. And then listen to what I have to tell you, because it’s very much related:

A while back, I read a book called Biz Op. It’s a confessional by a guy named Bruce Easley. Back in the 1970s and 80s, Easley ran business opportunity scams.

I’m not much for scamming people and I don’t suggest you do it either. But it’s undeniable that opportunity marketing works like magic. I’ve seen it first hand a few times when I applied opportunity marketing ideas in this very newsletter.

So all I’m suggesting today is that you occasionally take a look at opportunity marketers like Easley, and see how some of these ideas could be used in what you’re doing. I’ll get you started with an innovative idea I call the reverse testimonial.

You can find an example at the link below. It’s a page taken from a bizopp pamphlet that was one of Easley’s standards. He sent out the pamphlet to all people responding to his classified ads. And you can bet each page, including the reverse testimonial page, has been heavily tested, and heavily proven by results.

So take a look at the link below. You’ll see just how reverse testimonials work, and how you might profitably integrate them in your marketing too.

Or don’t take a look. After all, maybe you’ve got a legitimate reason not to do it right now. Like this zen-monk reader who wrote me in response to an earlier email:

“I’ll take a look later. I only get a few emails in my inbox each day, and I make sure to reread all of them several times before I let them slip away. So there’s no fear I won’t get to this soon.”

Or this second reader, who’s working in a field unrelated to marketing, and who wrote:

“I don’t need this idea right now. But I will come back to it when I will need it. In my experience, links on the internet are eternal. It’s never happened to me that I tried to open a page and got a 404 error.”

Or like this very successful and stretched reader, who once dashed away the following message:

“You don’t understand how busy I am. Sure, clicking on this link would take only a half second, and looking over the page only 3-4 seconds more. But if I kept doing that all day long, it might really add up to a few extra minutes of learning. And who’s got time for that?”

If, like these readers, you’ve got a legit reason not to click below, forget I said anything. On the other hand… huge opportunity… no downside. All you gotta do is click here:

https://bejakovic.com/reverse-testimonial

2-year-old copywriter wants a deadline extension

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I’ve got an inspirational or perhaps sobering message for you today.

To tell you about it, let me first say that last week’s Copy Riddles launch was fantastic. Beyond all my expectations. It’s now time for people who signed up to see how I deliver on the promises in the sales letter.

But there’s one person who won’t see any of that. He wrote me about 3 hours before the deadline to say:

1. He only found my list two days earlier, so he doesn’t trust me.

2. He’s willing to give Copy Riddles a try since there’s a money-back guarantee.

3. He has read Gary Bencivenga’s Marketing Bullets. So unless he finds something new in Copy Riddles in the first few weeks, he will ask for a refund.

4. He’s been getting ready to start working as a copywriter for two years. If Copy Riddles gets him his first client, he will want to become an affiliate. Otherwise, again, refund.

5. Right now he only has cash on hand. He needs to go to the bank to deposit it. But his kids are asleep at home, plus the car is in the shop, and it’s near midnight anyhow. So he would like to sign up tomorrow, 12 hours after the deadline.

This reminded me of a girl I went on a date with once.

As soon as we sat down at the bar, she informed me that most guys are terrible — her last date put his hand on her knee. But she has a good feeling about me.

Then she launched into her education history (very smart)… work history (very successful)… current job (very important, yet underpaid).

She finished up her sales pitch by saying she is a great cook. In fact her father (she still lived at home) much preferred her cooking to her mother’s cooking.

She crossed her legs and she sighed. “I really feel like we have a connection,” she said with a smile. “When do you think we can meet again?”

On that date, as today, I glanced at the clock on the wall and calculated how many seconds separated me from safety.

Fortunately, the seconds today passed quickly enough. I closed down the Copy Riddles cart in time — at the exact time I said I would. I wrote back to the 2-year-old copywriter above. “The offer is now closed,” I said, “and it wouldn’t have been a good fit anyhow.”

So let me get to the sobering/inspiring thing I promised you:

Not long ago, I examined the things in life where I’ve succeeded. This includes copywriting.

“What were the common elements?” I asked myself.

There were three. I wrote about number one a while ago. I’ll tell you about number two today. It was this:

I had no other options. Maybe not in reality… but in my head.

And so it’s clear, this doesn’t mean I was shouting SPARTAAA as I charged off into battle. Or that I gritted my teeth and set fire to the boat that could take me home. Or that I staked my future first-born child on a lotto ticket… because “I’m all in.”

No, none of that.

Instead, all I had each time was a subtle and quiet voice, somewhere in the back of my head. I wasn’t even aware of this voice at the time. It whispered that the only possible way is forward. That I should focus my energy in looking for ways to succeed, rather than bracing myself against failure.

I’m not sure if this “forward only” voice is the only way to get what you want.

But I do know that every time I had the opposite of this voice in my head… like the guy above has about copywriting right now… every time like that, the end was always failure. A waste of time. A waste of money. A waste of emotional energy. It would have been better to recognize that early on and go do something else.

So that’s the sobering message. The inspirational message is this:

If you’ve got this subtle and quiet “forward only” voice whispering to you, or if you’ve got the self-discipline to cultivate it, then as Shakespeare said, the world’s yer erster.

There might be setbacks and humiliations and difficulties ahead. But you will succeed. At least that’s how it’s been for me, every time this blessed voice landed on me.

And on that note, I want to tell you about a book I won’t be offering much longer.

It’s my how-I-made-it-as-a-freelancer-on-Upwork book. I wrote it two years ago. It’s up on Amazon for a grand total of something like $5. And it’s got my best advice for the early years of being a copywriter, whether you’re on Upwork or not. Sometimes I still reread it, to remind myself of valuable client lessons I’d learned and since forgotten.

And like I said, I won’t keep this book available much longer. One reason is that the how-to info inside is underpriced by a couple of factors of magnitude. I’ve got other reasons too, and maybe you can guess them.

So to wrap up:

The book won’t go away today or tomorrow. But if you want to get it, I suggest you get it now.

Because if it’s gone, then no amount of “I was cooking spaghetti in the kitchen and so I couldn’t hear the deadline” excuses will work.

But if you’re working on that “forward only” voice, I guess I don’t need to tell you that. So let me just point you where to go for more information:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book

Deadline in the air tonight

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“You know the song by Phil Collins, ‘In the Air of the Night’
About that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drownin’
But didn’t, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?”
– Eminem, Stan

I just found out that Phil Collins’s famous hit In The Air Tonight is not about a drowning that Phil witnessed. I thought it was for years, apparently like Eminem and millions of other people. But no. It turns out to be just an urban legend. Says Phil:

“So what makes it even more comical is when I hear these stories which started many years ago, particularly in America, of someone come up to me and say, ‘Did you really see someone drowning?’ I said, ‘No, wrong.’ And then every time I go back to America the story gets Chinese whispers, it gets more and more elaborate. It’s so frustrating, ’cause this is one song out of all the songs probably that I’ve ever written that I really don’t know what it’s about, you know?”

I know, Phil. It’s gotta be frustrating. Still, it’s a hell of a story… and maybe you should have kept quiet about the bland real origin of the song.

But whatever. Phil can’t hear me. Maybe you can. So let me admit why I bring all this up:

In The Air Tonight has been playing in my head all evening long. In part, because it’s getting late. In part, because I don’t want to be accused, like that mysterious person in Phil’s song, of standing by and not lending a hand to a drowning man.

So here’s me, making a last effort to help you out:

The deadline to enroll in my Copy Riddles program is nearing. The cart will close in a few hours, at midnight PST.

Maybe you couldn’t care less and you’re just fine, right where you are. But if you have any interest in enrolling in Copy Riddles, consider this a lifebuoy I’m throwing you. To grab it and use it while there’s still time:

https://bejakovic.com/cr