Good manipulation vs. bad manipulation

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Let me introduce you to one of Hollywood’s top creators:

A man who has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globes.

A man who’s worth about $90 million.

A man whose words, stories, and ideas have been consumed, willingly, eagerly, by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

You may know his name. It’s Aaron Sorkin. He’s the creator of shows like The West Wing and Newsroom, and the screenwriter behind movies like A Few Good Men and The Social Network.

Sorkin was asked once about the difference between language that convinces and language that manipulates. He replied:

===​​

There’s no difference. It’s only when manipulation is obvious, then it’s bad manipulation.

​​What I do is every bit as manipulative as some magician doing a magic trick.

​​If I can wave this red silk handkerchief enough in my right hand, I can do whatever I want with my left hand and you’re not going to see it.

​​When you’re writing fiction, everything is manipulation. I’m setting up the situation specifically so that you’ll laugh at this point or cry at this point or be nervous at this point.

​​If you can see how I’m sawing the lady in half, then it’s bad manipulation. If you can’t see how I did that, then it’s good.

===

​​Maybe you don’t agree with Sorkin. And you don’t have to. I’m not trying to convince you, or manipulate you, into accepting this idea.

I’m just sharing this idea because of an occasional objection I’ve gotten to my Copy Riddles program. Specifically, the objection has to do with the following bullet I tease on the sales page:

“The sneaky 7-word phrase Gary Bencivenga used to get away with making extreme promises. Gary Bencivenga was famous for providing proof in his copy… but this has nothing to do with proof. It’s pure A-list sleight-of-hand.”

A few people have written me over the years, saying they like the sound of Copy Riddles, think it might be for them, but worry that program is somehow teaching them techniques of manipulation.

Which is absolutely true.

Like Sorkin says, when you write copy, everything is manipulation.

You create an emotional experience, and guide people along to your desired goal.

If you want to go Dale Carnegie, you call that influence. If you want to go Robert Greene, you call it seduction. If you want to go Aaron Sorkin, you call it manipulation.

Now about manipulation, the good vs. the bad:

One thing that Copy Riddles does show you is the good kind of manipulation. Meaning, manipulation that’s not obvious.

Because direct response copywriting doesn’t have to be AMAZING or filled with SECRETS that THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW. Yes, that stuff can work. But it’s not required, and in many places, it’s not even helpful.

The good news is, direct response copywriting can also be subtle, under the radar, and not obvious.

​​And as evidence of that, take Gary Bencivenga, the copywriter I mentioned above. Gary wrote copy that most copywriting newbies would say is weak — because it didn’t read like most direct response. And yet, Gary’s words sold millions of dollars of helpful, quality products.

Maybe you’d like to learn how to do the same. If so, maybe take a look at the following page:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

How to deliver a racist rant

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Before we dive into the racism, I’d like to remind you of my Copy Riddles program.

​​Somebody once told me that Copy Riddles is expensive, considering it just teaches you one niche copywriting skill.

I have to agree. But I also have more to say about it at the end of this email.

For now, let me tell you about the late great Patrice O’Neal.

As you might know, Patrice was black — a fact that will be relevant in just a moment.

Patrice was also the favorite comedian of a huge number of top comedians of the past few decades. Bill Burr, Norm Macdonald, Andrew Schulz — those are a just a few top comedians I found after a two-minute Google search, who all said there was nobody as funny as Patrice.

I’m using that to set up a contrast to the following. Because racist rants aren’t funny, are they?

Maybe they are. Or maybe they can be.

Take for example, Patrice’s HBO special, One Night Stand. It aired in 2005.

Patrice opens up without any of the usual, “Good to be back, how are you guys doing” fluff. Instead, he launches straight into his material. He says:

“So how many people are getting sick of the Hindu obstacle course at the airport?”

The audience laughs uncomfortably. They’re sensing this might not be stuff they should be laughing at, and they’re wondering where Patrice is leading them.

In fact, the audience is right to be wary.

Patrice is about to launch into a 5-minute racist comedy rant, mocking and imitating Indian people who work at airport security and who run convenience stores.

“I don’t mind foreigners,” says Patrice at one point, “but don’t be FROM your country.” And after he finishes mocking Indian accents, Patrice moves on to Mexicans.

This is the kind of stuff that wouldn’t fly for white comedians since the days of Don Rickles in the late 60s and early 70s.

And in fact, it wouldn’t fly for Patrice either, not in 2005. Except for one thing.

In between saying “How many people are tired of the Hindu obstacle course” and launching into his racist impressions, Patrice delivers one miraculous, life-saving line.

​​It goes like this:

“So how many people are tired of the Hindu obstacle course at airport? [He pauses while a few nervous laughs acknowledge the inappropriateness of this statement. Then he continues] I mean… I’m a racist, but it’s getting…”

… and here Patrice continues into the rest of his set, with the audience suddenly loose and laughing, and ready to laugh more at the rest of his jokes, racist though they are.

My point is not that you should be racist.

My point is also not that you should laugh along with racists, or condone racist behavior.

My point is simply how much you can get away with, if you correctly anticipate your audience’s objection, and call that objection out ahead of time. Even if you don’t do anything else but call it out.

Now back to my Copy Riddles course.

It’s true that Copy Riddles is expensive. It’s also true it only teaches you one copywriting skill, and a niche one at that.

On the other hand, experts in the field, like Ben Settle, John Carlton, and Gary Halbert, have all said that this one niche skill is what all copywriting comes down to.

All these guys have made millions of dollars from copywriting, and some have specifically credited millions in earnings just to this one skill.

When you look at it that way, maybe Copy Riddles isn’t so expensive after all.

Of course, it’s going to depend on your situation, and what you’re looking to do.

If you’d like to find out more about Copy Riddles, and see if it could be a fit in your quest to write more effectively, and even make good money in the process, then take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Successful cold outreach that teases secrets

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In my email yesterday, I featured a failed cold outreach message that some dude sent me. I asked readers how they might improve this failed message.

I got a bunch of responses, commentary, and reworked cold pitches. Among them was the following reworked pitch, from a copywriter named Paul:

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Hi John,

I read your book about A-List copywriters and I found it very interesting. Actually, I am also a writer and I had an idea that I’m sure will push your results through the roof. It’s a very interesting concept, especially for your type of business.

I feel like we could do a partnership with me providing extra value to your business and you telling about your experience in direct response.

Let me know if this could interest you, we can schedule a call in the week to talk about it.

===

Like I wrote to Paul, his reworked cold email was an improvement over the original.

Because of this, I might at least respond to this email to acknowledge it.

Or I might not. Because I feel I’m being baited by this promise of a “very interesting concept.” ​​It’s a bait I can well refuse, especially considering the risk of biting down on it — wasting my time and having to meet God-knows-who on a Zoom call.

One thing’s for sure. I definitely wouldn’t agree to get on a call based on just this email.

And yet…

A very similar cold outreach message has worked in the past.

In fact, a very similar cold pitch opened up doors, got a meeting, and launched a million-dollar, A-list copywriting career.

The pitch was very similar to the one above. But it was also different, in one critical regard.

I’m not sure the if the critical difference will be obvious to you.

But if you are looking to do cold outreach that actually gets a response, it might be worth trying to figure out the difference between the cold outreach message above, and the one on the following page.

In case you are curious:

Click here to schedule a call with me (no, just kidding, click here to see the successful cold outreach message)

How to write a better cold outreach message

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Today, I got an email from somebody I don’t know with the subject line, “Need an intern?” I opened it. It read:

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Hi John,

I think I originally came across you via a Google search after reading Peter Tzemis’s blog. I like your writing style, and I was curious if you need anyone to help you with anything? I want to get hands on experience with direct response.

I currently write on [link to guy’s personal musings Substack]. Let me know if this is of any interest to you.

===

I heard marketer Sean D’Souza say a smart thing once.

If you have a problem in your business, says Sean, don’t work on fixing it. Instead, work on fixing somebody else’s business.

Somehow, we’re all blinded by our own unique circumstances. It makes it hard to see the right thing to do.

It’s much easier when looking at other people’s circumstances. Figure out how to help others, and you figure out how to help yourself.

I’m telling you this because maybe you would like to connect with people you don’t know.

Maybe you’re looking for clients, or for an opportunity to get your message out, or you’re just trying to build your network.

Cold email can open lots of doors. But maybe it’s not opening doors for you right now.

So here’s your chance.

Figure out how you might fix the approach of the guy who wrote me above.

I can tell you I didn’t take him up on him on his intern offer.

​​In fact, I didn’t even respond to his email, and I make a habit of responding to almost everyone who writes me.

What could he have done differently?

Think about it, and maybe you can help yourself. And if you like, write in with your best idea, and I can tell you my opinion on whether it would have made a difference or no.

People like you better when you taste something awful

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Opening scene:

Private investigator Lew Harper lies awake in bed. He stares at the ceiling.

His alarm goes off. He knocks it with his fist to turn it off.

Harper gets out of bed, pushes the still-on TV out of the way, and pulls up the blinds on the windows.

It becomes clear that Harper’s bedroom is actually Harper’s office. He isn’t sleeping there because he was working late, but because he doesn’t have a proper apartment.

Harper goes to the fridge, gets an ice pack. He walks over to the sink, dumps the ice in, and fills it up with water. He puts his head in the ice-filled sink and holds it there.

Finally, Harper goes to make coffee.

He folds a coffee filter. He folds it again. He gets ready to put coffee into the filter but — the coffee can is empty.

Harper hangs his head in defeat.

Then he thinks for a minute. He doesn’t like what he’s thinking. But what to do?

He goes over to the trash can and opens it.

There’s yesterday’s coffee filter with yesterday’s coffee, looking up at him.

Should he? Shouldn’t he?

He does.

Harper takes yesterday’s coffee out the trash. He makes a new coffee with it. He takes a sip.

And, in a moment that launched a giant Hollywood career, Harper shudders from how bad the coffee tastes.

So now, let me ask you, how do you feel?

Let me change how you feel for a moment, by sharing with you a really repulsive negotiation lesson. It comes from negotiation coach Jim Camp, who said:

“The wise negotiator knows that only one person in a negotiation can feel okay, and that person is the adversary.”

I’ve read this lesson 100 times. I accept it on an intellectual level. But I still find it impossible to accept emotionally, and that’s why I say it’s so repulsive.

Camp advised his coaching clients to make their negotiation adversaries feel okay. To make them feel smart, important, respected.

“Fine,” you might say, “that’s pretty obvious.”

That’s what I said too.

But the part that’s not obvious is that Camp says that okayness is a positional good. If you have it, then I can’t have it. And vice versa.

That’s the part I still can’t accept.

Whether or not Camp’s 100% right, the truth remains, if I make myself a little unokay, you will feel more okay.

And as proof of that, let me finish up the Harper story.

Harper was the first screenplay ever written by my favorite screenwriter, William Goldman.

The movie went on to be a big success. It launched Goldman’s career in Hollywood. It led Goldman to dozens more movies, a couple Academy Awards, and even a few million dollars.

None of it would have happened had Harper been a flop. But Harper was a success from that opening scene. Goldman wrote about the reaction of people who saw Harper when it launched:

===

Whenever anyone talked about Harper to me in the weeks that followed, that was the moment they they remembered — drinking that horrible stuff. And the laugh that went along with it, that was a laugh of affection.

What that coffee moment really turned out to be was an invitation that the audience gladly accepted: They liked Lew Harper.

From that moment forward, the script was on rails.

===

In entirely unrelated news:

Yesterday, I asked readers what todo items are waiting for them that they are dreading. I got a number of people responding with dreadful todo items.

In situations like this, whenever I get a number of good responses, I always like to repeat the offer. There’s sure to be people who didn’t see it the first time or who got pulled away before having a chance to respond.

So here goes:

What’s one thing on your todo list for today that you’re dreading?

It can be big or small. Important or trivial. The only thing that counts is that you’re not looking forward to doing it.

Let me know. Maybe I can figure out or find a solution to help you get rid of this troubling todo item. Thanks in advance.

Confidence kills

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This morning, I saw a chocolate Labrador run up to a couple at a streetside cafe.

The couple — a man and a woman — were sitting in the sun and having coffee and sandwiches.

At first, I thought the dog knew the couple. He frolicked around them, wagged his tail excitedly, and let them pet him.

But it turned out no. This was their first-ever meeting.

The dog’s owner came up, leash in hand, apologizing to the couple, and tried to collect the dog.

The lab evaded the owner. He ran to the other side of the table. And then he put his entire head on the actual table, right next to the sandwich the woman was eating.

The woman started to laugh. She wagged her finger and in a mock-educational tone, she told the dog, “La confianza mata!” Confidence, as in trust of others, kills. I’m not 100% sure, but I think she slipped the dog a little piece of jamón from her sandwich as the owner yanked the beast away.

Maybe there’s a persuasion lesson in there?

Maybe. Let’s see.

Dogs trust strangers instinctively.

Humans don’t.

“Confidence kills!” That’s what we tell ourselves, our kids, and even those same dogs, though we can’t beat it out of them.

This lack of confidence is a problem, particularly if you want strangers to trust you and to do as you want.

Solution:

Do as the dog did.

Trust people first. Even if they are complete strangers.

This is what master persuaders, the ones who have persuaded thousands or even millions of strangers, have found to work the best. In the words of one such master persuader, Claude Hopkins:

“Ask a person to take a chance on you, and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on him, and he might slip you a piece of jamón.”

And now, can I ask for your help?

The fact is, I don’t have any offer to promote today. Maybe even tomorrow.

So if you’re okay with it, can I ask you a rather personal question? Here goes:

What’s one thing on your todo list for today that you’re dreading?

It can be big or small. Important or trivial. The only thing that counts is that you’re not looking forward to doing it. ​​

Let me know. Maybe I can figure out or find a solution to help you get rid of this troubling todo item. Thanks in advance.

Celebrity-ashtray-of-the-month club

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I was doing some research yesterday. I wanted to find an old ad. Instead, I found the Bone of the Month Club.

Throughout the 90s, the Bone of the Month Club was advertised with dozens of placements in US magazines and newspapers.

​​For a yearly membership of $79.95, you or your dog could get a dog treat or toy delivered in the mail, every month.

This got me curious. What other of-the-month-clubs were out there?

Two minutes of research dug up the usual suspects: book, movie, gadget.

But two more minutes dug up real headscratchers:

Potato-of-the-month club (new variety of potato each month)… crossword-puzzles-of-the-month club (gotta catch ’em all)… and a monthly “BoneBox,” which, unlike the Bone of the Month Club, actually delivers mystery animal bones to your door each month.

Right now, I’m also reading about Julien’s, an auction house for the stuff of celebrities, dead and living.

Julien’s auctioned off everything from a lamp made from a taxidermied armadillo and given by Gene Simmons to Cher (price: $4,000) to the Fender guitar Kurt Cobain played in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video (price: $4,000,000).

It turns out there’s a booming market for such celebrity stuff. And often, the more personal, intimate, sticky, slimy, smelly the celebrity item, the more people will pay for it.

​​Hence my idea for the celebrity-ashtray-of-the-month club.

You might think I’m joking. You’d only be partly right.

There’s a bigger marketing and business point here. I think it applies to everyone who wants to be successful and to do so with minimum stress and work.

I’ll make you a deal right now:

Write in and tell me what you collect. It can be anything. No judgment. From small to big, from formal collecting (stamps, sneakers, silver coins) to informal collecting (copywriting courses, pickup lines, or countries you’ve visited).

In turn, I’ll write you back. And I’ll tell you the bigger point behind my email, and how you can use it to create a longer-lasting, more cash-spewing business.

Sizzling tracks at the gay nudist beach of death

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Yesterday, I was walking on the train tracks. It’s how you get to Dead Man’s Beach.

It turns out Dead Man’s Beach is a nudist beach. In fact, it turns out it’s a gay nudist beach.

I didn’t know any of this yesterday. I showed up, pretty straight, in my usual city slicker outfit of blue jeans and converse.

I looked down from the cliff that leads to the beach at all the nudity and gayness. There wasn’t very much of either — just two couples and a couple naked dogs.

But back to the train tracks.

In order to get to Dead Man’s Beach, you have to cross the train tracks, because the train runs right along the sea.

Also, in order to get from one part of Dead Man’s Beach to the other, you actually have to walk on the train tracks for a stretch.

Problem:

Every couple of minutes, a speeding train from Barcelona appears out of nowhere and zooms by on the tracks. This is not how Dead Man’s Beach got its name, but the trains really could be deadly.

Solution:

You can actually hear the train coming a good minute before it appears out of nowhere. Not because it’s ringing a bell or hooting a horn or loudly chugging along, but because the train tracks vibrate.

Even when the train is a mile away, the tracks start to give off a sizzling sound that warns you it’s time to move to the side.

Can you hear it now? You should be able to.

Because until tonight, Saturday, at 12 midnight PST, I have a special, free bonus if you buy my Simple Money Emails course.

The bonus is the “lite” version of Matt Giaro’s $397 course Subscribers From Scratch. It will show you how Matt grew his email list, with high-quality subscribers who paid for themselves, via little newsletter ads.

Right now, the deadline is speeding along, and it will come bursting out of its dark tunnel soon.

When that happens, you won’t be able to get Matt’s course any more — not for free in any case.

I won’t be sending any more emails before tonight. But you still have time.

The tracks are sizzling. It’s a warning. You can probably hear it. It’s giving you a chance to get the jump on the deadline. If you’d like to do it right now, before it’s too late:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

You are most probably a cat person

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Yesterday at 3:55pm, I stacked two books under my laptop for a more flattering camera angle, did one final check of my hair, and fired up Zoom.

I was doing a call with Kieran Drew for people who bought his High Impact Writing course.

​​This part of Kieran’s birthday bash series, where he interviewed five people who make their living by writing, including 8-figure course creator Olly Richards, email marketer Chris Orzechowski, and A-list copywriter David Deutsch. And me. ​​

The conversation with Kieran ran for more than an hour. I really enjoyed it.

I will tell you one bit that came up early, and kept coming up in various guises, because it’s probably relevant to you.

Kieran said how social media, in spite of the success it’s given him, drives him crazy.

​​I said how I, in spite of managing my little email business without the help of social media, get pangs of envy when I see how well Kieran’s doing thanks to Twitter and LinkedIn.

And so it goes.

I know agency owners who want to become high-ticket coaches. High-ticket coaches who want to become course creators. Course creators who want to start up an agency.

Legendary curmudgeon Dan Kennedy once summed it up by saying, “People are like cats. They always want to be in the other room.”

At this point, you might expect me to get all preachy and say, ​​”You gotta be happy with whatchu got… you gotta keep your nose down and persist at what you’re doing… you gotta stop yourself from getting distracted by the greenness of your neighbors lawn…”

But like another famous curmudgeon, William Shakespeare, once said, “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

There’s nothing inherently bad about the fact we’re always looking for new opportunities, improvements, or simply a change from what we already have.

It’s just a part of life.

And rather than saying that’s not how it should be, it makes more sense, to me at least, to accept it adjust to it. To be aware of the drive to go into the other room, to be selective about when you respond to that drive, and to realize that the same drive will most probably crop up even in that other room.

And if you want, you can start practicing that right now.

Because until tomorrow, Saturday, at 12 midnight PST, I have a special, free, other-room bonus if you buy my Simple Money Emails course.

The bonus is the “lite” version of Matt Giaro’s $397 course Subscribers From Scratch. It will show you how Matt grew his email list, with high-quality subscribers who paid for themselves, via little newsletter ads.

I’ve tried this strategy myself in the past, and it worked great for me. I got hundreds of new subscribers, and most often they paid for themselves on day zero.

So if you are sick of social media as a means of growing your list, or if you never wanted to get on social media to start with, then Matt’s course can show you a real alternative.

That said, this newsletter ad approach has its own downsides as well.

Like all other means of growing your list, it will require some work to set up.

Like all other means of growing your list, it will require some work to keep going.

And unlike many other means of growing your list, say Facebook ads or even social media, newsletter ads won’t ever get you tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

But if you want to get a few dozen or a few hundred new subscribers at a time, and you want to get subscribers who actually read your stuff and buy your offers, then newsletter ads can be a good option.

And Matt’s course will show you how to do it.

Again, you get it as a free bonus if you get Simple Money Emails by the deadline, tomorrow, Saturday, at 12 midnight PST. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/​​

P.S. ​​If you bought Simple Money Emails previously, this offer applies to you as well. So does the deadline.

​​You should have gotten an email from me with instructions on how to claim Matt’s Subscribers From Scratch Lite. If you didn’t get the email, then write me and I will sort it out.

The course I wish I had created

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Just a few moments ago, I sent an email to marketer Matt Giaro, telling him he’s free to use the following line and to attribute it to me:

“You took the information I gave you and ran with it much further than I did, and developed a complete system for it and got repeatable results from it, unlike me. I wish I had done what you did, but now that you’ve done it, there’s no need for me to do it on my own and duplicate the work.”

The background:

Some time last fall, Matt contacted me.

​​He saw that, earlier in the year, I had run a $300 classified ad in Josh Spector’s newsletter. He was thinking about doing the same, and he wanted to know my experiences.

So we did a quick little one-hour paid consult.

I told Matt how I ran a few successful newsletter ads (Josh Spector, Daniel Throssell), where I got hundreds of new subscribers who paid for themselves, usually on day zero.

I also told him about the unsuccessful newsletter ads I ran, which just cost me money and probably sender reputation (I’m looking at you, Udimi).

And that was that. Matt said thanks, and we went our separate ways.

Until this March. That’s when I saw that Matt was launching a new course, called Subscribers From Scratch. It was all about how he was getting high-quality newsletter subscribers by running little ads in other newsletters.

The fact is:

The way I was running newsletter ads required a good deal of work. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do every month, much less every week or two.

And since I have plenty of other shiny gewgaws to distract me, I never bothered to figure out how to run newsletter ads repeatably and to still get good results.

But Matt did figure it out.

He took what I told him and ran with it. He developed his own system that allowed him to get a few dozen or a few hundred subscribers each time he ran a newsletter ad.

But much more importantly, he figured out how to get quality subscribers, subscribers who ended up paying for the ad, often in a matter of days.

So like I said to Matt, his Subscribers From Scratch is the course I wish I had created.

I wish I had taken the trouble to figure out a repeatable, scalable system for running newsletter ads. I wish I had packaged it up and sold it.

But I didn’t. And now that he’s done it, I won’t have to.

Right about now, you might expect me to plop in an affiliate link for Matt’s Subscribers From Scratch.

That won’t happen.

Subscribers From Scratch normally sells for $397. But I got Matt to agree to give away a “lite” version of it — all the training and how-to information, minus the bonuses and templates — for free.

Well, for free if you’ve already bought my Simple Money Emails course. Or if you buy it before this Saturday, June 1, at 12 midnight PST.

If you’ve already bought Simple Money Emails, you should have gotten an email from me already with the instructions on how to claim Subscribers From Scratch Lite.

And if you haven’t yet bought it, but you want to learn how to write effective daily emails that make sales, and get Matt’s Subscribers From Scratch Lite for free, and learn how to get readers who actually buy from the emails you write, then here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/sme