Inadequate performance

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Yesterday, my friend Sam wrote me that he had downloaded the presidential debates so he could watch the bloodshed.

This morning, my friend Peter forwarded me a New York Times editorial that’s calling for Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race after his “inadequate performance in the debate.”

And then this afternoon, I met my friend Olga, who spent much of the day in bed, and who said the only thing she has done today is to watch the presidential debate.

Olga told me her impressions of the debate. And then she said, “Maybe the debate’s something you could write about in your newsletter.”

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, the following will not be any kind of shock:

I am completely out of the loop. Permanently. Always.

I didn’t even know there was a presidential debate until friends started chattering to me about it via text and in real life.

I most definitely have not watched it.

And as for writing about the top news of the day in this newsletter… as I told Olga, I would never do that.

Well, obviously I’ve broken that vow with this email. But I didn’t know how else to get the following point across.

My theory is that you gotta pay the piper somewhere.

If you decide to talk about the immediately available stuff, the stuff that hundreds of millions of people are talking about right now on TV, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Reddit, among your friends and family, then you gotta try really really hard to have something unique and clever and hot-takey to say.

And even if you try really hard, and even if you expose yourself to looking like a tryhard, odds are good that most days you will fail to say something that hasn’t already been said, better, by a hundred other people, just a few minutes ahead of you.

That to me is an inadequate performance.

On the other hand, if you choose to spend your time and effort reading and watching less available stuff, stuff that’s not being talked about today, or yesterday, or last week, then you have a green, untrammeled field to play in.

For example:

Did you know that the problem of bloody, hateful, two-party elections was solved 2,500 years ago?

Two opposed tribes lived together inside one city’s walls.

They were highly suspicious of each other.

​​Each had a strong us vs. them mentality.

The city was ruled by a king from one tribe, who favored his own and harmed those from the other tribe.

​​Then the king died, or more correctly, he was made to disappear after he showed signs of serious cognitive decline.

How to choose a new king without devolving into civil war?

It didn’t look promising.

Each of the two parties was horrified by the leader of the other side.

Each party absolutely refused to accept the other side’s leader as the new king.

Tensions were rising. Weapons were starting to jangle.

​​So what to do?

Simple. It was the old, “you cut, I choose.”

Specifically, it was decided that the Romans, the party that had just lost its king, would choose a new king from the other tribe, the Sabines. The Sabines could not veto or influence the Romans’ choice.

The Romans chose a quiet, reserved man from the Sabine tribe, named Numa Pompilius.

At first, Numa refused to take command of the city. He liked his quiet life. But after being persuaded that Rome would devolve into civil war without him, he agreed to become king.

Numa reigned for 43 years in peace and prosperity. He founded some of Rome’s most important institutions, such as the pontifex maximus, the 12 month calendar, and the cult of the Vestal Virgins.

Two thousand years later, a clever politician, Niccolo Machiavelli, said Rome owed a greater debt to its second king, Numa, then it did to its first king, Romulus.

Good Lord this has turned into a long email.

​​Don’t write emails like this. Or do. It’s up to you.

If you do choose to write emails like this, I have something that might help. It’s my Insight Exposed course, about my notetaking, journaling, and media-consumption process.

I don’t normally sell this course, for reasons of my own.

But since I’ve already broken one law today, I might as well break two?

If you want Insight Exposed, the order form is below. I will close it down in exactly 24 hours, tomorrow, Sunday, at 8:31pm.

And if you have questions or doubts if this course is right for you, write me before you buy.

​​Here’s how to read stuff others are not reading, and make it useful for your marketing and your life:

https://bejakovic.com/ie/

3 women come to my rescue

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Yesterday, I wrote about a female reader who accused me, along with the rest of the 4 billion males on this planet, of being sexist.

I did my best — it wasn’t much — to defend myself against the accusation.

But when you’ve been charged with a serious thought crime, what you really want is some good third-party witnesses to corroborate your own defense.

Fortunately, I got a few responses from women to my email yesterday. I won’t name names here — that’s against thought court protocol — but here’s what they wrote.

​​First, from a PhD scientist and business owner:

===

Bwahahahaha I noticed all 5 were men and thought – oh my, some woman is gonna write in and whine about this…

Couldn’t see that one coming *cough*

Watcha gonna do?

===

Second, from a fundraising copywriter for NGOs:

===

I’m a woman and I almost lost an eyeball when rolling my eyes as I was reading allaboutme’s comment.

It’s the saddest, most annoying, most passe rebuke to resort to when you’ve got nothing else to throw at a man.

It’s plain lazy.

Thanks for the good work, John.

===

Third, from an MD and science fiction author:

===

Pretty impressed by the link at the end. I was a bit suspicious about the sexism, but it really helps that you clarify that everyone who entered the contest was a man. More chicks should step up, I guess! XD

===

errr… yeah. About that. I actually also got one reply yesterday, which just said:

===

Hey John,

Just read your email and I wanted to let know I am a woman (and from India).

===

Uh-oh.

This reply came in a thread of one of the Most Valuable Email contest submissions I got last week — the contest that triggered this entire sexism affair.

​​Only men ended up as winners of the contest because — so I thought — only men ended up submitting any entries.

Except apparently not.

It turns out I did get at least one submission for the MVE contest from a woman. But I didn’t recognize her as such because of her Indian name/nickname. That means two things:

1) My defense in my sexism trial has suddenly been dealt a serious, possibly fatal blow, and…

2) I might now be charged with racism to boot, or at the very least, with involuntary cultural obtuseness.

My life just got a lot more complicated.

Clearly, my slapdash self-defense won’t be enough to handle this any more.

I’ll have to call in some serious help.

The help of a master communicator.

​​Someone who hasn’t lost a legal argument in over 40 years, while fighting in dozens of big criminal and civil cases.

Perhaps you know who I mean.

Perhaps you don’t.

If so, I’m willing to tell you. But be warned. This person is too male, too pale, and too stale.

Maybe he can still teach you something though.

If you’re interested:

https://bejakovic.com/criminal

allaboutme: “Men are sexist, and it shows!”

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Last Thursday, I revealed the 5 winners of my Most Valuable Email contest. Then on Friday, I got an email from a female reader, who happens to have “allaboutme” as part of her email address. She wrote:

===

All males.
Gotta say I saw that coming from a mile away.
Been monitoring all-male offerings for a few months and it’s the same.
Men are sexist, and it shows!

===

It’s true. All 5 MVE contest winners were men.

That’s inevitable, because of the dozens of entries I got for this contest, all came from men.

I don’t know why that is.

A good number of women read my emails. A good number reply to my emails. A good number have bought MVE from me.

And yet, no woman decided to enter this contest, for reasons that are beyond my limited understanding.

But let’s get back to allaboutme.

I don’t know about you, but to me, saying “Men are sexist, and it shows!” sounds… kinda sexist?

At least if by “sexist” you mean “discriminating on the basis of sex”… and if by “discriminating” you mean “holding negative, dismissive attitudes about a group of people as a whole.”

If you ask me, allaboutme’s message is a perfect example of the universal law:

Whatever people seem to be talking about, they are really talking about themselves.

“Yeah yeah but — what about you Bejako?” I hear you saying. “What does it say if you are here, telling me how people are always talking about themselves? Aren’t you just talking about yourself?”

You’re a clever cow, aren’t you.

But you’re right. I am in fact talking about myself.

We all make snap generalizations, and we use them to wallpaper the walls of our mind. It’s a normal part of human life and simply how the human brain works.

But sometimes these snap generalizations have an ugly pattern on them, or an ugly color scheme.

So we end up sitting inside our mind, surrounded by all this wallpaper we’ve pasted on, suffering from the ugliness, and thinking how life is unfair. And it shows!

Is there anything to be done?

For the longest time, I thought no. Not really.

Because I’d tried thinking myself right. I’d tried meditating. I’d tried NLP. I’d tried telling myself, “Just create your own reality!”

None of it worked.

But something has been working. For a few months now. Every day.

If you’re curious, I’ll tell you what it is. But brace yourself. Or maybe just keep an open mind. And take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/allaboutme

Last call for Water Into Wine

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Tomorrow evening, at 8pm CET, I’ll put on the Water Into Wine workshop with a few people.

This is the last email I will send about this workshop. I’ll take the remaining time to talk to people who’ve expressed interest and any who might still do so.

One thing I’ve heard in these conversations is that people default to a few set ways of positioning their offers.

Sometimes those default, set ways work.

​​Other times they don’t, or they fatigue after a while.

​​But people are stuck with their existing positioning ideas, and cannot see new opportunities.

This reminded me of the most popular TED talk of all time, by Sir Ken Robinson, a British expert on education.

Robinson used to live in Snitterfield, England, the birthplace of John Shakespeare, the father of William Shakespeare. Says Robinson:

===

Are you struck by a new thought? I was. You don’t think of Shakespeare having a father, do you?

Because you don’t think of Shakespeare being a child, do you?

Shakespeare being seven?

I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he?

[the crowd laughs]

How annoying would that be?

[more laughter]

===

Robinson’s point in that TED talk was that we all have loads of creativity, but we have it beaten out of us in school.

Well, maybe not beaten out of us, just beaten into hiding.

So yes, you had ample creativity once, and you probably have ample creativity still.

​​And creativity is one option for repositioning your offers like I’ll be describing during tomorrow’s workshop.

But creativity is not required.

I’ve gruesomely dissected this method of repositioning to take the creativity out, and to make this a step-by-step process you can follow.

It will still require testing and some work, but it won’t require superhuman creativity — just the right knowledge of magic, and that’s what I’ll give you.

Assuming that is, that you’re on the workshop call tomorrow.

Again, this is the last email I will send about it.

If you’re interested, the only way to get in is to first write me an email and express interest.

It might make sense to hit reply right now, so we can talk and see if this workshop is a good fit for you.

How copywriters can reposition so business owners chase them

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This morning, I woke up to a bunch of emails as usual. Two stood out.

One was from a business owner I had reached out to, cold, a couple weeks ago.

After that first cold email, we exchanged a few more emails.

And then this past Sunday, we got on a call and talked about working together.

On that call, I listened to him as he told me the details of his business right now and his plans for the future.

His business has doubled each year for the past four years. He would like to double it yet again. I would like to help him.

​​But as I told him on the call, there’s a roadblock in our way. Once he clears that, we could work together.

In the email in my inbox this morning, the business owner was giving me an update on that roadblock (it’s getting cleared, but slowly). He also said he’s just anted up extra money to get the roadblock cleared faster.

In case it’s not obvious what I’m getting at, it seems to me that this business owner is more eager to work with me than I am to work with him. And I’m eager to work with him — that’s why I cold emailed him in the first place.

The second email that stood out in my inbox this morning came from a copywriter. She was inquiring about my Water Into Wine workshop, happening this Thursday. She asked:

===

Do you think it will work for someone like me who provides copywriting services?

I can apply what you teach in this workshop to my clients, but I wonder if it will also help my positioning as a copywriter. What are your thoughts?

===

My very careful answer to this copywriter is “100% yes.”

As I wrote yesterday, during the Water Into Wine workshop, I will cover one specific repositioning formula. I’ll show how this formula can be used in three separate ways:

1. To give clear, “Oh I get it” positioning to an offer that’s currently vague or unclear

2. To give unique, attractive positioning to a product or service which is not unique or not attractive (yes, sometimes you’re stuck with those)

3. To open up new markets for an offer, where the selling might be easier and where the money might come in bigger, heavier bags

I’ll have examples of how smart marketers have used this repositioning formula in niches like bizopp, finance, weight loss, copywriting, baseball, and of course, dentistry.

I’ll also have examples of how this formula can be used to sell offers of different formats, including courses, coaching, certifications, tickets to live events, and done-for-you services.

One example I’ll include will be of repositioning copywriting services.

​​In fact, it will be an example using me and the business owner above. This repositioning formula, applied in way #3 above, is exactly what I used when I cold emailed him.

So yes, it’s possible to use this formula to reposition copywriting services.

The only question is whether you will want to apply what I tell you.

Well, that, plus whether you will actually be there on the workshop so you can hear me tell it.

The workshop is happening this Thursday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. It will also be recorded in case you cannot make it live.

The price to get in is $197.

I’m limiting the number of spots to 20.

Some have already been claimed, more will be claimed today.

I don’t have forward facing payment link for this. I want to first talk to everyone who’s interested, and make sure this workshop is a fit.

So the only way to get in is to first write me an email and express interest.

One way or another, the workshop is nearing. If you’re interested, it might make sense to hit reply right now, so we can talk and see if this workshop is a good fit for you.

Disaster recovery

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This morning I tried to walk to the beach. The police stopped me.

They said something in Catalan. I couldn’t understand. I got the gist though.

“Disaster recovery. Off limits.”

On my way to the beach, I had to walk through broken glass, charred pieces of wood and cardboard, and many shards of explosive. The air still smelled of smoke.

Hundreds of city employees in yellow vests were already on the scene. Several large, specialized tractors were brought in to decontaminate the area.

A few groups of shell-shocked survivors stood here and there, swaying mindlessly to some Latin music that I couldn’t identify.

All this was the consequence of la nit de Sant Joan, aka Saint John’s Eve. It happened last night.

Sant Joan is a holiday to mark the start of summer. In Barcelona, it’s celebrated with bonfires on the beach, big parties, and billions of kilograms of various explosives in the form of firecrackers and fireworks.

I only witnessed this from my couch last night. I was trying to read, but the warzone outside made it impossible.

Missiles whistled through the air. Deep explosions rumbled and echoed through my living room. A rat-tat-tat of what sounded like semiautomatic weapons went off regularly.

And it kept going all the damn night.

Instead of my usual 11pm-on-the-dot bedtime, I guess I fell asleep after 3am, when the explosions started to die down. Of course, I still woke up as I always do around 7am.

All that’s to say, my brain isn’t working so good right now.

But lucky for me, I got a reader question I can answer in today’s email to take the load off.

Paul, an in-house copywriter at a supplement brand, expressed interest in my upcoming Water Into Wine workshop. We exchanged a few emails, and then Paul posed me the following riddle:

===

Thanks John.

​Yes, it’s very helpful and I think it’s a good fit 🙂
​​
By the way, I don’t know how much interest there is for this workshop. But maybe it might be useful for you to send to your list some quick “bullets” about the benefits of attending this workshop?

===

Hm. Benefits. I’ve heard of those.

The fact is, I’ve been purposefully keeping much about this workshop vague. But I can share the following.

During the Water Into Wine workshop, I will to cover one specific repositioning formula. I’ll show how this formula can be used in three separate ways:

1. To give clear, “Oh I get it” positioning to an offer that’s currently vague or unclear

2. To give unique, attractive positioning to a product or service which is not unique or not attractive (yes, sometimes you’re stuck with those)

3. To open up new markets for an offer, where the selling might be easier and where the money might come in bigger, heavier bags

I’ll have examples of how smart marketers have used this repositioning formula in niches like bizopp, finance, weight loss, copywriting, baseball, and of course, dentistry.

​​I’ll also have examples of how this formula can be used to sell offers of different formats, including courses, coaching, certifications, tickets to live events, and done-for-you services.

That said, it will take some thinking to apply this repositioning formula to your specific situation.

If that don’t turn you off, here are more details about this training:

===

This Thursday, June 27th, I will host a little workshop with a few people.

I’m calling it the Water Into Wine workshop.

It will be all about a specific technique for repackaging and repositioning your offers so they sell better.

If you currently have an offer that’s not selling, this technique can start selling that offer for you.

On the other hand, if you have an offer that’s selling already, this technique can sell your offer more easily and for more money.

The ticket to join the Wine Into Water workshop is $197.

The workshop will happen live on Zoom, next Thursday, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. It will also be recorded. So if you cannot attend live, you can still get your hands on this info and apply it to your own offers as soon as next Friday.

I’m not sure whether there will be a ton of demand for this workshop. In any case, I’ll cap the number of folks who sign up to 20 maximum.

Are you interested in joining us?

If so, just reply to this email.

I won’t have a public-facing sales page for this offer, and replying is the only way to get more info or get in.

Of course, if you reply to this email to express interest, it doesn’t oblige you in any way. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have and help you decide if this workshop is or isn’t right for you.

Competition riding your tail?

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Something you might not know about me is that I am not a fighter pilot.

​​Not even close.

​​I don’t even like flying as a passenger on a commercial plane.

But still, I have fantasies of how cool it must be to be a fighter pilot, based on movies like Top Gun and The Right Stuff.

Many of those fantasies were ruined for me today while I listened to an interview with an actual fighter pilot, one who flies a modern F-18.

He tried to repeatedly make it clear:

Flying a modern fighter jet is less about seat-of-the-pants flying skill and more about integrating a huge flow of information from all the panels and monitors and sensors.

But the podcaster who conducted this interview didn’t want to hear any of this.

Like me, the interviewer grew up on movies and video games. So he asked questions about the Red Baron and about Maverick from Top Gun.

The fighter pilot dutifully answered. And then, he tried to once again explain the complexities of how things really work today.

The interviewer glossed over these explanations. He kept circling back to what he really wanted to believe. At one point he got impatient. He asked:

“I know you said this doesn’t happen any more in aerial combat, so this might be a silly question. But what if an enemy plane gets on your tail? How would you shake him?”

The fighter pilot smiled sadly.

“It depends on which plane was behind me,” he said. “The F-18 has a very short turning radius. I might be able to evade him by making a quicker turn. But if it’s the same plane like mine, he could mimic every move that I do.”

The interviewer paused for a moment. “So you’d be fucked?”

“Yep,” the fighter pilot said. “I’d be fucked.”

One thing I’ve learned, from years of watching Top Gun, is that landing a fighter jet on an tiny aircraft carrier runway is the trickiest thing a fighter pilot has to do.

Another thing I’ve learned, from years of writing daily emails, is that landing a story about fighter jets on an dry marketing takeaway is the trickiest thing a daily email pilot has to do.

But I’m fearless, so let me try it now:

You know that thing above, about having the enemy plane on your tail? You might liken that to your competition. Hear me out.

Maybe you’re blessed to have an advantage that allows you to evade or overtake the competition — your shorter turning radius, your “USP.”

But maybe you don’t have anything like that.

Maybe your fighter jet is much like the one that the other guy or gal has.

What then?

Unlike the fighter pilot, you have some options. But I can tell you one thing that’s unlikely to work.

And it’s to dive into the complexity. To explain to your market how your offer actually works. To point at all the panels and the sensors, and to explain what they do and why that’s important.

Just like with the interviewer above, that kind of information will only make your market impatient and will likely be ignored.

So what to do instead?

That’s what I’ll be talking about during my upcoming Wine Into Water workshop, next Thursday evening.

For more information on that, here are the details from an earlier email:

===

Next Thursday, June 27th, I will host a little workshop with a few people.

I’m calling it the Water Into Wine workshop.

It will be all about a specific technique for repackaging and repositioning your offers so they sell better.

If you currently have an offer that’s not selling, this technique can start selling that offer for you.

On the other hand, if you have an offer that’s selling already, this technique can sell your offer more easily and for more money.

The ticket to join the Wine Into Water workshop is $197.

The workshop will happen live on Zoom, next Thursday, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. It will also be recorded. So if you cannot attend live, you can still get your hands on this info and apply it to your own offers as soon as next Friday.

I’m not sure whether there will be a ton of demand for this workshop. In any case, I’ll cap the number of folks who sign up to 20 maximum.

Are you interested in joining us?

If so, just reply to this email.

I won’t have a public-facing sales page for this offer, and replying is the only way to get more info or get in.

Of course, if you reply to this email to express interest, it doesn’t oblige you in any way. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have and help you decide if this workshop is or isn’t right for you.

2 words to 8 figures

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Two years ago, I worked for a short while with a business owner who was simultaneously running three 8-figure direct response businesses.

He first started a Google ads agency getting leads for local bidnises. That grew to 8 figures a year.

Then he created a course teaching others how to start their own Google ads lead-gen agencies. That grew to 8 figures a year.

Then he started a publishing business, finding other good bidnis opportunities and marketing them using what he had learned with his own course. And I guess you can guess how big that grew.

All this was eye opening to me at the time.

This guy was reading the same books I was reading, He was talking the same language. He was using the same copywriting and marketing tricks and techniques. And yet, the results for him were three 8-figure business.

The fact is, I have no interest in running three 8-figure businesses.

Still, this made me realize the power of the knowledge I’m hoarding in my head and sharing in these emails. It also made me think I should think a little bigger.

Anyways, I wanna share one valuable thing with you that I learned during a call with this bidnis owner.

He marketed his course (bidnis #2 above) via YouTube ads. One of those ads got over 100M views.

As you can imagine, the ad made the usual promises of stacks of cash in your bank vault… never again having a boss… and walking barefoot on the beach in soft light.

But what about the actual deliverables?

Did the ad talk about those in any way? Did it describe the business opportunity to make people feel this was a real and achievable promise?

It did.

It did so using two words only.

Those two words were not “lead gen” or “ad agency” or “local business,” or anything like that.

Instead, the ad used two words that were completely unexpected. And yet, those two words sold the course and made the promise feel real and achievable in a way that none of those obvious phrases could have done.

You might know the business owner I’m referring to.

You might have seen his YouTube ads — in fact, odds of it are good, considering the reach his ads have had.

You might therefore know the two words I’m dancing around above.

But if you don’t know, or you just want to make 100% sure, or you simply want to hear me go into this topic in more detail, then you might like my upcoming Water Into Wine workshop.

During this workshop, I will tell you a magic formula for describing your offers in a way that makes them feel real and achievable.

This isn’t anything new.

Smart marketers, particularly direct marketers, have been doing this for 100+ years.

But I’ve helped my clients, when I had clients, do this for their own offers. I’ve also done it for some of my more successful offers.

And if you’d like to know how you too can do it, then here’s a bit more info on the Water Into Wine workshop:

===

Next Thursday, June 27th, I will host a little workshop with a few people.

I’m calling it the Water Into Wine workshop.

It will be all about a specific technique for repackaging and repositioning your offers so they sell better.

If you currently have an offer that’s not selling, this technique can start selling that offer for you.

On the other hand, if you have an offer that’s selling already, this technique can sell your offer more easily and for more money.

The ticket to join the Wine Into Water workshop is $197.

The workshop will happen live on Zoom, next Thursday, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. It will also be recorded. So if you cannot attend live, you can still get your hands on this info and apply it to your own offers as soon as next Friday.

I’m not sure whether there will be a ton of demand for this workshop. In any case, I’ll cap the number of folks who sign up to 20 maximum.

Are you interested in joining us?

If so, just reply to this email.

I won’t have a public-facing sales page for this offer, and replying is the only way to get more info or get in.

Of course, if you reply to this email to express interest, it doesn’t oblige you in any way. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have and help you decide if this workshop is or isn’t right for you.

RSVP: Water Into Wine workshop

by

Next Thursday, June 27th, I will host a little workshop with a few people.

I’m calling it the Water Into Wine workshop.

It will be all about a specific technique for repackaging and repositioning your offers so they sell better.

If you currently have an offer that’s not selling, this technique can start selling that offer for you.

On the other hand, if you have an offer that’s selling already, this technique can sell your offer more easily and for more money.

The ticket to join the Wine Into Water workshop is $197.

The workshop will happen live on Zoom, next Thursday, at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. It will also be recorded. So if you cannot attend live, you can still get your hands on this info and apply it to your own offers as soon as next Friday.

I’m not sure whether there will be a ton of demand for this workshop. In any case, I’ll cap the number of folks who sign up to 20 maximum. ​​

Are you interested in joining us?

If so, just reply to this email.

I won’t have a public-facing sales page for this offer, and replying is the only way to get more info or get in.

Of course, if you reply to this email to express interest, it doesn’t oblige you in any way. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have and help you decide if this workshop is or isn’t right for you.

Revealed: MVE contest winners

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Yesterday, I concluded my first-ever prize-giveaway contest. The prizes totaled $1,088. The condition to enter was to submit 50-150 words about any email I’ve written using my Most Valuable Email trick.

My goal for this contest was to find out whether the MVE trick makes my emails more sticky and effective, and also how my readers are using the MVE trick for their own benefit.

Only one problem:

Now that the contest’s over, I don’t really want to reveal which Most Valuable Emails the winners picked.

There’s value in keeping the mystery around what the MVE trick is. And if I gave five distinct examples of Most Valuable Emails, odds are good that the trick would be easy to spot.

But a deal’s a deal. So I’m announcing the contest winners, the prizes they got, and my reasoning for why they won:

#1 Gold medal

The first prize of $250 goes to Shakoor Chowdhury, a marketer and copywriter from Mississauga, Ontario.

Shakoor picked a Most Valuable Email I wrote over the past week, the same email I referenced yesterday, which drew lots of positive responses from other readers also.

But the real reason Shakoor gets first prize is because he also wrote me to say:

===

John, this is by far my favorite of your programs and really kickstarted my email marketing.

When I bought this course I was very inconsistent, but you gave me direction and I started writing daily and grew a list of 470 subscribers in less than a month of implementing.

===

This is the #1 winning entry, because it matches the #1 reason I find Most Valuable Emails so valuable. And that’s that that Most Valuable Emails make it interesting for me personally to stick with daily emailing day after day. And it seems for Shakoor also.

#2 Silver medal

The second prize of $200 goes to Tom Grundy, a high-powered London banker who also happens to write excellent emails about self development.

Tom picked three of my old Most Valuable Emails as his favorites, going back to 2021. But the real reason Tom won a prize is that he also applied the MVE trick in one of his LinkedIn posts. And the result, in Tom’s words:

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I thought I’d share the attached LinkedIn post I made a while ago. Great thing about this post was that people replied with their own “MVE style” replies and it turned into a fun thread.

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Like I keep saying, the MVE trick makes your emails engaging and fun for your audience. Same goes for your LinkedIn posts, if that’s your bag.

#3 Bronze medal

Finally, three third prizes — three $197 tickets to my upcoming Water Into Wine workshop — go to:

1. Carlo Gargiulo, an Italian copywriter working in-house at Metodo Merenda.

Besides working in-house, Carlo also writes his own email newsletter. He’s been selling his own services and coaching for years to his list. But recently, Carlo made his first-ever affiliate sales to his list, via an idea I shared in the MVE swipe file.

Point being, the MVE training has value beyond simply teaching you the MVE trick.

2. Alex Ko, senior copywriter at KooBits in Singapore.

Alex won because he picked a Most Valuable Email I wrote more than a year ago, and he pointed out how this email still has an impact on my business every day.

In other words, Alex rightly highlighted that writing Most Valuable Emails is not just about sales or engagement. Instead, it can actually transform you and your business in time.

3. Jeffrey Thomas, a DR copywriter from St. Paul, Minnesota, who works in-house at Marketing Profs.

Jeffrey has previously written me to say nice things about Most Valuable Emails I’ve written. But he won this time because he applied the MVE trick himself — to the description of a live presentation he’ll be giving at a major conference this November.

So there you go. The MVE contest winners, and the reasons why they won.

If you’re one of the winners above, I’ll be in touch about how to get you your prize.

And if you’re not one of the winners above, you now have 5 good dimensionalizations of what the MVE program can do. Not just for me, but for other marketers, copywriters, and even one business owner, in a range of situations, applications, and formats.

If you already have my Most Valuable Email program, this might encourage you to revisit it, apply the trick yourself, and benefit.

And if you don’t have my MVE program, I can only assume it’s because you found the prize contest cheesy and crass. Because you’re above such flat-out manipulation. Because you don’t want your name to be used to sell stuff online.

I can completely understand. I feel the same way about many marketing stunts.

That said, maybe this email has given you some new arguments for why you can benefit from discovering the Most Valuable Email trick and inserting it into your marketing. If you’d like to get started now:

https://bejakovic.com/mve