If you’re struggling to sell continuity…

by

This morning, I got a DM on Skool from a business owner in Australia, who wrote:

===

Hey John, I saw you promoting Ronin, how’s the signups going on your side? I’ve sent a couple of emails but only 50 odd clicks which is pretty low. I’m finding it a challenge to convey the real value of what Travis teaches without sounding like a scammy hypester!

===

The background is that the past few days, I’ve been promoting Travis Sago’s Royalty Ronin membership program. It’s a membership I’m personally signed up to, as is the business owner from Australia above who wrote me this morning.

So far, I’ve sent 4 emails to promote Ronin. I’ve had a few hundred people click through, but I have only had a handful of people sign up for the free trial.

I’m not bothered by that result.

Travis’s community is after all built around Travis, and selling my audience into a paid community built around a person they don’t really know is a tough ask.

Plus, Royalty Ronin is very expensive, and I figure people are wary of signing up for a $300/month subscription, even if they get a week’s free trial to make up their minds.

I keep cheerfully promoting the free trial of Royalty Ronin because 1) every day, I’m still getting more people to opt in, and 2) even if a few folks decide to stay signed up past the trial, it’s going to be long-term good for me and good for them.

That said, I thought it was actually a curious choice from Travis Sago to start selling Royalty Ronin as a per-month subscription (something he only started now, as far as I know).

That’s because I remember one training of his, and the question of continuity programs came up. Travis explicitly shared his philosophy, which was “Don’t sell continuity.”

That doesn’t mean you can’t get paid recurring month-to-month. It simply means how you price and position your existing offer (yes, the one you’re selling via continuity) in the audience’s mind.

Travis had a small, counterintuitive twist for making recurring sales, which gets you a bunch of money up front as well as more people to pay you month-to-month than if you just offer a monthly subscription.

If you yourself have a continuity program that’s not making as many sales as you like, this info could be gold for you. Or it might be something you choose to ignore, the way Travis seems to be doing now, for reasons of his own.

In any case, if you’re already signed up for a trial of Royalty Ronin, you can find this recurring-income-without-continuity tweak inside the “$1k a Day in 1 Hour a Day” training in the Ronin course area.

And in case you haven’t already signed up for trial of Ronin, but you would like to see what it’s about, and whether it’s worth your time and attention, then here’s more info on the membership from Travis himself:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

P.S. If you’ve already signed up for trial of Royalty Ronin via my link above, forward me Travis’s welcome email, the one with “Vroom” in the subject line. I have a small but growing bundle of bonuses that’s waiting for you as a way of saying thanks for taking me up on my recommendation.

Inspire readers to take action using what you’ve already got

by

A bit of background:

I once had a copywriting client who was a real estate investing guru in Australia.

The guy was dyslexic or illiterate, I don’t know which. Whenever he wrote me an email to communicate something about the project to be done, the email was borderline illegible, with weird grammar mistakes, terrible spelling, and just a general aura of “this was written by a not very precocious four-year-old.”

And yet, the REI guru was an incredible speaker.

In front of crowds of hundreds, he was fluent and dramatic. He hypnotized his audience and moved them to change their lives and get that financial freedom they had been lusting after, which meant working with him and paying him thousands of dollars for his REI knowledge. He had thousands of customers and clients.

That’s the background.

The story starts when I got one of those misspelled and misgrammared emails from that REI guru. This was about 2–3 years into my copywriting freelance career.

He wanted me to rewrite a sales letter. He thought the previous copywriter had made it too factual and bland, and he wanted me to make it more “inspiring.”

Now I’m a factual and bland person by nature, and because of that, I was 100% certain I could not inspire, hype up, or goose anybody, in print or in words.

So I wrote the REI guru an email, perfectly proofread and 100% grammatically correct, to say I appreciate the offer, but that inspirational copy is really not my strong suit, and therefore I will have to turn the job down.

The end? Almost.

I was ready to live out the rest of my life as a bland and uninspiring entity.

But I happened to listen to a podcast back in 2019 by a certain marketer, a guy I had never heard of before.

This guy was making about $3M a year, taking a cheap and widely available resource — copywriters like me — and turning that resource into a “back-end agency,” where he’d help existing businesses promote their existing offers in new ways via email marketing.

Now here’s the point of this email, the takeaway to the long story and background above:

This very successful marketer said that if you can inspire people, the world is really yours. And here’s the crucial part — he said that there are 1,001 ways to inspire people.

He then gave just one example: “Show people that they already have the resources needed to succeed.” He gave a few examples, I think something to do with mommy bloggers, and how their experience running a family and household would translate into the online business world.

This blew my mind.

For one thing, I had always thought of inspirational copy as the equivalent of a Tony Robbins event — lots of hand clapping and yelling and jumping up and down.

For another, I hadn’t ever occurred to me that a logical argument — “Let me show you how you already have the resources you need to succeed” — could be inspiring.

This changed everything.

Because after this simple realization, I started keeping track of copy that I personally found inspiring.

And now that I had the realization that there might be a structure to it, I started looking out for what it was that had inspired me.

After identifying such inspiration structures, I started using them in my own copy.

The first few times, it came a little ham-handedly, but then more naturally and unselfconsciously.

Today, I also find that inspirational copy is some of the most effective copy that I write — both for getting sales today and for keeping people reading tomorrow.

I’ve even baked it into my public image a bit — people will often reply to my emails to tell me how they loved or were inspired by a particular story I shared.

All that’s to say, you too can inspire, even if you are as bland and factual by nature as I am.

The fact is, there’s a structure to inspiration, just as there is a structure to desire. And now that you know that, you can look out for that structure, and copy it and mimic it, and make it your own.

By the way, the marketer who first turned me on to the structure behind inspiration, the guy in that podcast who was making $3M a year running a back-end agency, was Travis Sago.

I’ve been promoting Travis’s Royalty Ronin community for the past few days, because I myself have been inside this community for more than a year now, and have renewed my subscription for an extra year just a few weeks ago.

And even though I am promoting Royalty Ronin as an affiliate now, I actually promoted it last year as well, for free, simply because I think it’s of genuine interest to you, in case you find my own emails interesting and valuable.

Travis is now running a 7-day free trial for Royalty Ronin, which gives you full access to both the community and to several of his biggest and most expensive courses (including BEAMER, the one on running a back-end agency).

If you’d like to try out Ronin risk-free for a week, take a look here:

​https://bejakovic.com/ronin​

P.S. If you’ve signed up for RR before, I’ve just added a new bonus into your Ronin bonus bundle in the members-only area of my site. This new bonus is a presentation I gave last year inside Brian Kurtz’s Titans XL mastermind, all about various inspiration structures I’ve identified over the years, along with examples from my own copy and from the copy of several copywriters I admire.

And if you haven’t gotten access to the Ronin bonus bundle but you’ve taken me up on the Ronin trial, forward me your confirmation email from Travis, the one with “Vroom” in the subject line. I’ll get you access to the Ronin bundle with the inspiration training above and a few other goodies as a way of saying thanks that you took me up on my recommendation.

The joy and food-poisoning risk of exploring and experimenting

by

I’m in Rome for a few days. My dad and his wife were coming for a trip here and asked if I would like to tag along. I said yes.

We arrived yesterday. And after visiting four churches, three fountains, and one set of famous stairs, it was time to sit down and eat something.

“Where will we eat?” I’d asked my dad’s wife before we arrived. They had been here a few times before, and I figured they might have favorite places.

“Oh, we’ll just sit down somewhere,” she said. “All the food is great there.” Right as she said that, thunder started rumbling off on the horizon.

So yesterday, we just sat down somewhere. The first course of pasta came. It looked unimpressive and yet had an off smell.

I ate it – I was very hungry. “This must be some unique ingredient they use in Rome,” I said to myself, as I tried to ignore the unpleasantness of it.

But by the time the second course came, it was undeniable. The meat was tough, the potatoes were in a state between undercooked and raw, and the two pieces of seafood were communicating in various ways that they had been bought a week or more ago, and caught who knows when.

I put my knife and fork down, figuring that it’s best to lose this single battle rather than the entire Rome campaign.

My bit of wisdom for you today is that there can be joy in exploring and experimenting, and occasionally discovering something really great and new.

In fact, that’s how I like to live much of my life. And that’s why I can say with a lot of confidence that exploring and experimenting does largely result in failure, and occasionally will lead to food poisoning.

The other option is to get recommendations, to follow in somebody’s tracks who’s been there before, whose experience and integrity you trust.

I’m no longer just talking about restaurants in Rome. I’m talking about other things in life as well, such as for example, the topic of this newsletter, which is effective communication, marketing, and online business.

And with that, I would like to remind you of Travis Sago’s Royalty Ronin free trial offer, which I’m recommending as an affiliate these days.

Travis is somebody I personally have learned a ton from, whose experience and integrity I trust. The man has made tens of millions of dollars selling his own offers, in various niches. Plus he’s worked as a kind of JV marketing partner for a bunch of other online businesses, and made tens of millions of dollars for their businesses too.

Now, Travis has built a community of like-minded marketers and business owners around him. Plus, he’s sharing a lot of wisdom that he’s collected over the years, in the form of various high-ticket courses, which he makes available as free bonuses in this community.

And like I said, Travis is now offering a week’s free trial to this, so you can look inside, and discover something really great and new, without risking anything, including food poisoning.

If you’re curious to find out more about Royalty Ronin, or even take Travis up on his risk-free 7-day offer, take a look here:

​https://bejakovic.com/ronin​

P.S. If you already signed up for a trial of Royalty Ronin via my link above, then send me the confirmation email you got from Travis, the one with “Vroom” in the subject line.

In turn, I’ll send you my Heart of Hearts training, about how to discover what the people in your market really want, so you can better know what to offer them and how to present it, as a way of saying thanks for taking me up on my recommendation.

Why I shouldn’t be allowed near a toaster

by

A couple days ago, I started promoting a free trial of a Skool group as an affiliate… or so I thought.

At first, I figured Skool doesn’t let me see who had signed up via my affiliate link, since it’s a free-trial offer.

It turns out Skool is happy to show me this information. The problem was that I didn’t use the affiliate link when linking to this offer. Instead, I used the bare link.

Strike one.

A few days before that, I wrote an email and scheduled it for my usual sending time between 8 and 9 o’clock.

Except it only turned out the next morning, after several dedicated readers wrote to ask me where my email is, that I realized I had scheduled my email for the wrong day, and for “am” instead of the usual “pm.”

Strike two.

A few days before that, I did a list swap with Jason Resnick.

I gave Jason a link for the lead magnet I was offering… and then a day later, I airheadedly used the same URL, as a redirect on my site, to link to Jason’s landing page from my own email.

If that URL chicanery doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry. It takes a special kind of genius to understand.

The end result of all that genius was that a bunch of Jason’s readers, who clicked on the link in Jason’s email in order to get my lead magnet, were redirected to Jason’s optin page instead.

That meant that not only did I miss out on a bunch of new subscribers, but I created a hassle and a headache for my JV partner.

Strike three.

The honest-to-woodheadedness truth is that I really should not be allowed anywhere near a computer, smart TV, or toaster.

Because if there’s a chance to harebrain some setting, to forget to push some button or to push the wrong button that shouldn’t be pushed, and to cause the toast to burn as a result, then I am sure to find that button.

And yet, I keep living. In fact, I keep living quite well. Which brings me to an idea I’d like to share with you.

That idea is the Casino of Life.

Unlike in a normal casino, when you play inside the Casino of Life, you don’t need to have a winning hand to win.

Because in the Casino of Life, you can walk around all the tables, see which hands other people have, and you can bet on their hands. And not only that.

In the Casino of Life, if you yourself happen to have just one good card, for example, the Ace of Copy, or the Queen of Traffic, or maybe the King of Offers, you can find somebody who is missing just your trump card to form a royal flush, and to win a bunch of gold doubloons, which you can then split.

The Casino of Life is a reframe I got a long while ago from Internet marketer Travis Sago.

Not very coincidentally, the Skool group I am promoting as an affiliate is Travis’s Royalty Ronin, which I myself happily pay for, and have done for the past year.

In fact, the reason I screwed up the affiliate link in the first place was that I promoted Royalty Ronin some time last year, for free, before Travis had an affiliate program for it. I simply thought Royalty Ronin would be interesting and valuable for people on my list.

I still think so.

Because Royalty Ronin isn’t just about getting access to a bunch of Travis’s unique and powerful marketing ideas (including via a suite of Travis’s $3k-$6k courses, which come as bonuses for Royalty Ronin).

It’s also about steady exposure to Travis’s brain-shifting insights and inspiration, like the Casino of Life idea, which have made all the difference for me at the right moments.

Plus, Royalty Ronin is also about joining a community of 500+ motivated, skilled, and yet imperfect people, all of whom are holding unique hands, some of them very powerful, and some missing exactly the card you may be holding.

I’m not much of a networker. I haven’t been taking much advantage of the community aspect of Royalty Ronin. Altogether I’ve connected with fewer than 5 people there.

Even so, just one connections I made in Ronin last year, with media buyer Travis Speegle, paid for yearly subscription for Royalty Ronin for the next few years.

I bet that in the next year, I will make at least one more connection which will pay for a few more years.

Like I said, Travis is now offering a week’s free trial to Royalty Ronin.

If you’d like to check out this unique casino, see who else is inside, or even form a connection or two that can pay for many years of being a member, maybe in just the next week:

​​https://bejakovic.com/ronin​ (yes, the link has been fixed)

P.S. If you already signed up for a trial of Royalty Ronin via the link above, even though it wasn’t my affiliate link until now, then send me the confirmation email you got from Travis, the one with “Vroom” in the subject line.

I’ll honor my end of the deal, and send you my Heart of Hearts training, about how to discover what the people in your market really want, so you can better know what to offer them and how to present it, as a way of saying thanks for taking me up on my recommendation.

Why discounting fails to drive sales, even when it’s by a lot

by

A while back, I talked to a business coach, somebody who has a lot of experience with online marketing.

She told me about how she launched a new membership… how she offered a launch discount… how she even ended up increasing the discount over what she had initially planned.

Result:

One person ended up signing up.

Does this mean this new membership offer clearly sucks, since only one person bought even at a double-discounted launch price?

I told this business coach something that took me too long to internalize:

Discounting only works if people already value the thing you’re selling at the full price you’re selling it for.

In short, 20% off nothing is still nothing. So is 50% off.

The long term fix for this is your ongoing presence in your audience’s minds… trust and credibility built up by days and weeks and months of advertising yourself… sharing case studies of people who bought your offers and got value from them… and repeatedly driving home the fact that your offers sell for the price you are claiming for them, and that they’re worth every penny and in fact much more.

That’s how you convince people that, say, your membership is actually worth $300, and is even a steal at that price.

Good news:

There’s also a short-term fix. You can sell your offer at full price, and have people buy it, even if they don’t yet value the thing you’re selling at the price you’re selling it for.

This short-term fix is an obvious idea, but again, it took me too long to really internalize.

It finally clicked for me last year, via a little-known resource I was turned onto by marketer Travis Sago.

Travis is a very clever and very creative guy when it comes to Internet marketing… but he’s also a very thorough student of marketing and copywriting classics.

One of the things I have gotten via first stalking Travis online, and eventually paying him a lot of money for his marketing education and ideas, is simply exposure to really great, simple, often very old marketing ideas, which have made me much more money than the large sums I have paid Travis.

Speaking of which:

Yesterday, I started promoting Travis’s Royalty Ronin community as an affiliate.

I paid Travis $3k over the past year for access to Royalty Ronin and for a suite of his courses, which he makes available for members of Royalty Ronin.

I also recently renewed my membership to Royalty Ronin, ahead of schedule, for another year, in one lump sum payment of $1k.

Good news, part 2:

If you like, you can now get inside Royalty Ronin for a little less than the $3k I paid over the past year… and less even than the $1k I paid in a lump sum a few weeks ago to renew.

Specifically, you can get inside Royalty Ronin for free, because Travis has started offering a 7-day free trial.

Like I wrote/said yesterday, there aren’t many affiliate offers I’m wiling to promote. That’s because most are simply not good enough… because most aren’t a good fit for my audience… because I’m simply not enthusiastic about most of them.

On the other hand, I’m 110% enthusiastic to promote Travis’s Royalty Ronin, and all the multi-thousand dollar courses that come as bonuses, because I’ve so thoroughly benefited from them, and because I continue to benefit from them.

If you’d like to test out, look around, and even profit from Royalty Ronin, for free, for a week, you can do so here:

​https://bejakovic.com/ronin​

P.S. If you already signed up for a trial of Royalty Ronin via my affiliate link above, send me an email to let me know. Skool doesn’t let me see who has signed up, so the only way I know is if you write me.

And if you do write me to let me know, I’ll send you a recording of my Heart of Hearts training, about how to discover what the people in your market really want, so you can better know what to offer them and how to present it.

I previously planned to sell Heart of Hearts for $300, along with a few bonuses. I even had a few people pay me $300 for it, before I changed my mind, pulled the offer, and refunded their money. (I simply didn’t have time or desire to create the promised bonuses.)

Good news, part 3, is that Heart of Hearts is yours free, because you’ve taken me up on this trial of Royalty Ronin.

Plus, as an extra bonus when you write me, I’ll tie up this email, and I’ll tell you the short-term fix I mentioned above, for getting people to buy your offer at the full price even if they don’t value it yet. I’ll even tell you the little known resource, which I was clued into via Travis Sago, that finally made this click in my own head.

Magic Cave of Money-Making Opportunities

by

I have a new offer for you today.

It’s an affiliate offer, which I’m calling the Magic Cave of Money-Making Opportunities, because it’s been that for me over the past year.

I’ll have more to say about this offer over the coming days.

For now, I’ve recorded a video to try to tempt you into giving it a whirl.

If you’re curious, take a look here:

Magic Cave of Money-Making Opportunities

How to handle phone interviews with prospective clients

by

Earlier today, while chipping away at my upcoming book, I remembered an important client-getting lesson from my days of getting on calls with prospective clients.

From 2015-2019 or so, I worked with dozens of copywriting clients, mainly via Upwork.

To get those dozens of clients, I had to get on hundreds of sales calls or job interviews, depending on how you look at it.

A typical call would go like this:

The prospective client and I would get on Zoom — or maybe it was Skype then — and we’d exchange some pleasantries.

Then the potential client would say, “Ok John, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your background?”

I’d take a deep breath. And then I’d launch in, telling the client all about the projects I’ve worked on… the results I’d gotten for previous clients… my methodology and philosophy of writing sales copy. Plus if I had the opportunity to do so, I’d slip in a few hints about being smart and reliable and easy to work with.

When I thought I’d covered all the most important and impressive stuff about myself, with my face a little red and my lungs empty of air, I’d finally pause to see if the client had any other questions I could answer.

I used this strategy for a long time.

It was a very instinctive and natural thing for me to do. It probably went back to elementary school days, and being quizzed and tested by the teacher to see if I knew the right answer.

And yes, this approach did work on occasion — if I delivered a great pitch and all the stars lined up.

The typical response would be something like, “Sounds great, John. We really like what we hear. We’re still talking to a few freelancers but you’re definitely at the top of the list. We’ll get back to you in a few days once we make the decision.”

Sometimes that meant I got the job. More often, it meant I didn’t.

Fortunately, I soon discovered a much better response to “Tell me a little bit about your background.”

I don’t have concrete stats to back it up, but I estimate this much better response doubled my closing rate, meaning that for every three or four sales calls I had to get on, I closed two new clients, instead of just one.

Plus, this new way of responding made the whole sales call dramatically easier to do.

Perhaps you know what my new response was, either because you know enough about sales, or because you’ve heard me talk about this before.

But in case you don’t know, and you’d like to know, then I have an offer for you.

This offer is only good for the next 24 hours or so, until tomorrow, Thursday Mar 20, at 12 midnight PST.

The offer is a guide I’ve written about the mysterious, unfamiliar, and sometimes dangerous business side of copywriting, the side of managing clients and making a name for yourself.

This guide is called Copy Zone.

I’ve only made Copy Zone available a few times in the past, and only for a day or so, like today.

On page 94 of Copy Zone, you can find the strategy I started using on sales calls with prospective clients instead of trying to wow them with my credentials.

On the other 175 pages of Copy Zone, you can find my best advice on how to make a good living as a copywriter, all the way from getting started, even if you have no clients and no experience, to becoming seen as an A-list copywriter, if that’s your ambition.

Warning:

Copy Zone sell for $197 right now.

That’s very expensive, considering it’s just a PDF of 175 pages.

All I can say to defend that very expensive $197 is this:

If I could go back 10 years, and talk to myself in the first days when I had the idea to start working as freelance copywriter, then this would be the most condensed and practical info to shortcut those first few days, few months, and few years of working. It would also be my best advice about moving forward, as far forward as your ambition will drive you.

I believe this information would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars to me over the years, or maybe more.

Maybe it can be the same for you.

In any case, if you are a copywriter or you want to become one, then just one small copywriting job, which you win thanks to the ideas inside Copy Zone, could completely cover your $197 investment, and then some.

Of course, it’s your decision. But the clock is ticking. If you’d like to grab a copy of Copy Zone before it goes back into the cave again:

Copy Zone

How to make your 1:1 coaching an easy yes

by

A couple days ago, business coach Steph Benedetto posted the following in my Daily Email House community:

===

I’ve written 110 emails by now and the journey has been nothing short of amazing with many hidden benefits that really belong on the sales page. 😍

I expected to get increased clarity about my message, and was surprised right away about just how much clarity it gave me.

I figured there would be increased reader engagement, but I had no idea the depth of connection it would create.

But here are some of the benefits I didn’t see coming:

– New offers appear that I never planned to write. Somehow they appear out of thin air!

– Building out my sales letter with testimonials and a double guarantee — without sitting down to “work on my sales letter.”

– Love letters and comments from readers.

– My business is evolving with new events and services as I type them.

– My personal growth journey is documented in these emails; it gives me a place to articulate insights and take them deeper through sharing.

– Two people inquiring about my new 1 Year Being Unstoppable Mentorship with the disclaimer “it’s not affordable.” I didn’t see that coming!

[Steph then goes to share as proof a bunch of love letters she got from her readers and customers, and then concludes with…]

It really is building up desire to work with me. When I reach out to people who are engaging to explore 1:1 coaching with me, they’re an easy yes.

Daily emails have helped me see the value of me being me and sharing it, with all my quirks and flaws.

This is some life-changing shit, my friends. If you write the emails, the magic will happen. ✨

===

I’ve long been crowing and croaking about the many benefits of writing daily emails. Steph does a great job recapping these many benefits, and she even lists a couple benefits I myself haven’t experienced yet. But there’s something else I want to highlight in this particular email.

I followed up with Steph to ask what exactly she does to “reach out to people who are engaging to explore 1:1 coaching with me.”

She replied:

===

I invite people to a conversations on most days, not just from email comments. It’s the way most of my clients happen. If a reader is responding to me and I know them, it’s easy to invite them to connect. The context will vary. If I don’t know them yet, I might invite them to a chat about their question or comment.

===

In my experience, this is a pwerful 2-step playbook that a lot of people could profitably use, particularly those selling high-ticket coaching, products, or services.

I could run on about this and share my own experiences applying Stephs daily email + one-on-one reach-out system. But the fact is, I’m at the airport as I write this, waiting for my smiling plane to board, which really and truly leaves me with just enough time to say the following:

Reaching out to your best prospects one-on-one is a very underused tool.

But it’s only likely to be practical and profitable once you’ve laid the ground work of building relationship, stirring desire, and changing minds, which is what daily emailing is all about.

If you’re not writing daily emails yet, or even if you are, but not very consistently, then I can help you either start the habit, or stick with it and be consistent. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

“The best joke in the world”

by

“Thanks very much. I just wanted to recommend a documentary to everyone, and then I’m gonna go.”

That’s the beginning of a six-minute comedy routine that standup comic Gary Gulman delivered on the Conan O’Brien show back in 2016.

That routine has since been called the “best joke in the world,” “beyond ballsy,” and “perfectly written.” That’s coming from other comedians.

The public liked Gulman’s routine too. The recording of it has racked up millions of views over the years across various platforms.

Gulman says this six-minute routine has became the biggest thing he’s ever done. At the end of his live standup comedy sets, he sometimes asks for requests. Inevitably, people ask for this joke.

Gulman’s joke is about a documentary on the men and one woman who were responsible for abbreviating all state names down to two letters.

I won’t try to retell the joke here. I will tell you that even if it’s one six-minute joke, it gets a laugh every 10-15 seconds. Even that opener, about just recommending a documentary and then going, gets the audience laughing.

Now here’s something extra I wanted to share with you:

In an interview, Gulman was asked about this “state abbreviations” routine. How long did it take him to write?

The answer is pretty shocking.

Gulman said he first wrote down the joke in 1994, about 6 months after he started doing standup. The Conan O’Brien spot was in 2016.

In other words, 20+ years passed before Gulman’s “state abbreviations” joke was ready for prime time, and not just because Gulman was polishing it.

“The entire world had to change,” says Gulman, “in order for me to convince people that there was a documentary about something as unusual as abbreviating the states.”

I’m not encouraging you to sit on your hands for 20 years because “the time for your idea” hasn’t come yet.

Gulman was very active from 1994 to 2015. He built out an entire career in the meantime… became a star among comedians… and managed to get on Conan and Letterman and wherever else.

All I’m really suggesting is the value of being both productive AND patient. Of putting lots of ideas out there… and of having the sense that some of those are promising but not quite good enough yet, and simply waiting while something else clicks, or conditions change just enough, or a new wrapper comes that you can wrap your solid but unpolished lump of coal in.

I realize my message today probably sounds wooly and not practical, so I won’t try to sell you anything on the back of it.

Like I said, I just wanted to recommend a comedy clip, and then I’m gonna go. Here it is:

Wisdom and perspective shift from 2,000 years ago

by

A few days ago, I finished reading a book I had started back on December 8, 2021.

All in all, it took me 1,185 days to finish this book.

In part, that’s because I was reading other stuff during that time as well.

In part, it’s also because this book comes in four volumes, each of which is about 500 pages long. Put together, the four volumes could kill you if they fell out of a third-story window and landed on your head as you strolled on the sidewalk below.

The book in question is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. It’s a bunch of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, told, as per the title, in parallel, comparing and contrasting the lives of two similar men from two different times and places.

I read Parallel Lives because I like to get a shift in perspective. And one of the best ways to get a shift in perspective is to get away from current Amazon bestsellers, and go read something written 2,000 years ago.

I took hundreds of notes of interesting bits and pieces while reading Plutarch.

I went through them all after I finished, and I pulled out just 7 which I want to share with you today, because they relate to influence or simply because they are inspiring or funny. Here goes:

#1. No beginnings should be considered too small to be capable of quickly becoming great by uninterrupted endurance and having no obstacle to their growth by reason of being despised. [speaking about the rise of Julius Caesar in Caesar’s youth]

#2. “Indulgence is for slaves, but labor for princes.” [supposedly spoken by Alexander the Great]

#3. The most fundamental law is that which makes men in need of help follow him who can save them.

#4. He seemed to think victory over the enemy was merely a subordinate incident in the great work of disciplining his fellow-citizens. [about Aemilius Paulus, a Roman general who kept driving the Romans into various major wars]

#5. “The husband of an heiress should approach her at least thrice in each month. For even if no children are born, still this is a mark of respect to a good wife, and puts an end to many misunderstandings, preventing their leading to an actual quarrel.” [said by Solon, the Athenian lawgiver and philosopher, famous for his wisdom]

#6. It is a strange and unworthy feeling that prompts a man not to claim that to which he has a right, for fear that he may one day lose it; for by the same reasoning he might refuse wealth, reputation, or wisdom, for fear of losing them hereafter.

#7. With all the necessary acts of life, Lykurgus mingled some ceremony, which might enkindle virtue or discourage vice. [about Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver who instituted Spartan society as we know it]

I think this last bit is particularly interesting. In fact, it’s why I’m writing today’s email.

I find reading to be one of the necessary acts of life, at least if you want to write for influence.

Since it is necessary, I might as well mingle some ceremony with it, such as marking momentous occasions like finishing a 3-year book-reading project.

Of course, it’s not only endings that can be celebrated with ceremony, but beginnings too.

Which is one reason why I’m making such a ceremony of announcing my upcoming book, full title:

10 Commandments of Con Men, Pick Up Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Professional Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

My goal is to finish and publish this book by March 24… or some time after that?

In any case, I will be writing about this book and how it’s progressing, plus what I’m thinking about doing to make it a success when it comes out.

If you are interested in the topic of this book, and you’re thinking you might wanna get a copy when it comes out, click below. I’m planning some launch bonuses and I will be dripping them out early to people on this pre-launch list:

​​Click here to get on the bonus-dripping pre-launch list for my new 10 Commandments book​​​