Business Ideas

Paperback

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A long-time reader named Jordan writes in reponse to my announcement yesterday, about the ebook version of my new 10 Commandments book being live on Amazon:

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I’ll wait for the paperback to be ready, I’ve found digital copies more likely to go unread (since like courses, the digital backlog always seems bigger and more step requiring than physical ones)

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I’m telling you this because:

1. There might be something to what Jordan says.

I know direct marketing legends like Dan Kennedy bang the drum about the value of physical content arriving in the mail, both for the excitement of actually getting something real delivered, and for the fact it will hang around the house and be visible and be more likely to be consumed, shared, and remembered.

2. Because the Amazon elves have finally woken up and done their job, so the paperback version of my book is now up and live.

If you like the sight of a book lying on your desk, or you want a reference you can reach for without relying on anything digital, or you simply enjoy the feel of some paper and ink in your hands:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments​

#1 New Release

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I launched my new 10 Commandments book last night. So far, the book has turned into the #1 New Release in the Business Communication Skills category on Amazon, and is only a couple spots behind Cialdini’s Influence among the bestsellers in the same category.

Speaking of, one of the people I asked for feedback on the book before I published it was Rob Marsh, founder of the Copywriter Club and co-host of the world’s #1 copywriting podcast. As Rob was reading through my new 10 Commandments book, he wrote me to say:

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Hey John… I haven’t finished yet, but so far I like what I’m reading.

Your teaching style is subtle, yet effective.

And what you share is spot on. It will help a lot of readers be more persuasive.

Any way… hoping to finish this week.

I will definitely share with my audience.

Also happy to give you a “blurb” if you think it would help.

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I was happy with what Rob had already written and I didn’t ask for more. But Rob’s a generous guy, and when he finished the book, he sent me the following Cialdini-scented blurb:

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In addition to Cialdini’s well known 6 principles of influence (urgency, scarcity, consistency and so on), it’s time to add Bejakovic’s 10 commandments of persuasion. This book will make you a better writer and a better sales person. But more than that, you can use John’s commandments to be more persuasive, more engaging and more interesting in everything you do.

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Would you like to be more persuasive, engaging, and interesting? Or to sell more? Or to write better?

I don’t know. Hmm…

On the odd chance that you answer yes, you can find a copy of my new book waiting patiently for you here:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments​

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

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So it’s ready.

My new book has now been published, under a title that rolls right off the tongue:

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

I’ve been working on this sucker for two years. I’m happy to say it’s finally done.

If you’d like to grab your own copy so you can read it, you can do so at the link below.

And if you’re not sure, well, I’ll promoting this in the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years.

I’ll be using all my skill writing intriguing copy and my experience coming up with sexy bonuses to get you to finally break down and get a copy.

One thing’s for sure — if you sign up now, you will get any bonuses I offer in the future, plus you might learn something sooner rather than later, and you might even enjoy the process — God knows I worked hard to make this book interesting and fun.

In case you’re ready:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

P.S. As of right now, Amazon has made the Kindle version of the book available, but the paperback is still “IN REVIEW.” If you do have your mind set on the paperback, I’m afraid there’s nothing to do but wait.

And if you were one of my early beta-readers, I’ll send you a paperback copy as promised, as soon as it becomes available. Of course, if you want to read the book sooner, there’s always the Kindle version also…

Somebody has beat me to the 10 Commandments of Con Men

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As you might know, I have been working, toiling, grabulating for the past two years on my new book, full title:

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

I had a minor heart attack earlier when I discovered that somebody has already beat me to the core concept. An Austrian con man named Victor Lustig, who lived and scammed in the early 20th century and who apparently sold the Eiffel Tower twice (!), apparently kept a list of 10 Commandments of Con Men. Here’s old Victor’s list:

1. Be a patient listener

2. Never look bored

3. Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them

4. Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones

5. Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other person shows a strong interest

6. Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown

7. Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually)

8. Never boast – just let your importance be quietly obvious

9. Never be untidy

10. Never get drunk

Are you impressed? Yes? No?

All I can tell you is that, after I read Lustig’s 10 Commandments, I personally took a big sigh of relief. I found his 10 Commandments rather dull and uninspiring, and fortunately, I found that there’s zero overlap (well, minus the hinting at sex talk) between his commandments and the 10 Commandments I have in my new book.

Most importantly, I was reminded once again that the value is almost never in the ideas (ie. commandments) themselves, but in how those ideas are presented, illustrated, and made to shine.

That’s why it took me so long to complete my book. And complete it I did.

I can tell you that, following two years of ups and downs, missed deadlines, and a few dozen readers writing me messages to the effect of “done is better than perfect,” I am proud and a little nervous to announce that my book will finally be published.

When?

Tomorrow.

Why not today?

Well, maybe Lustig was on to something. Don’t pry into my personal circumstances (I’ll tell you all eventually). Meanwhile, I have nothing to promote to you today — but I will tomorrow.

Do not create a course and do not build an audience

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Yesterday, a friend texted me with a screenshot of an Instagram account of a duo of “Instagram & social media experts.”

“Do you know them?” my friend asked. “They create a course on how to create digital courses and sell them.”

I groaned and replied that I had never heard of these particular experts.

My friend was not happy with that response. She called me up right away. She explained how she was just on a webinar for this course and how it sounds like a good deal. It’s not so expensive (only 500 GBP), plus they really walk you through the whole thing, plus you can license their course and resell it.

“And they live in Bali!” my friend said, like it’s a proof element, rather than a red flag.

Fortunately, my friend lives in London and knows a million and one successful, accomplished, and rich people.

“There’s this nutritionist I know,” she said. “She has a lot of work but it’s all one-on-one. She actually asked me if I wanted to be her business partner, and do something online. Maybe I could create a course with her teaching what she knows?”

Finally a bit of sense in this conversation.

I’m gonna tell you what I told my friend, my best advice for how to launch an info biz for someone like her.

I’ll tell you this because it equally applies to someone like me or maybe you, if you are already somewhat established in a niche but thinking of doing something entirely new. Here’s what I told my friend:

1. If you really want to do this, then partner with the nutritionist woman. She’s the expert and she already has clients. That means she has knowledge and case studies. She can deliver the actual information and service. You can focus on the marketing and business stuff.

2. Do not create a course. A course takes between 6 weeks and 6 years to complete, and if you’re just getting started, odds are that it will be on the 6 years side.

3. Instead, create a live training based on information the nutritionist’s clients are already paying for. A live training is a very forgiving format to deliver information, and it has high perceived value. You can do it next week since the woman already knows the material, and you can run it with minimal infrastructure (Zoom and a clean t-shirt will do, pants not required). Plus, you can charge a good amount right out the gate because of the live, personalized feel.

4. Do not build an audience. An audience takes between 6 weeks and 6 years to build, and if you’re just getting started, odds are that it will be on the 6 years side.

5. Instead, reach out to people you know more or less personally, and ask them if they want to sign up to your training. (Like I said, my friend knows a lot of people socially in London, and from previous places she’s lived, jobs she’s worked at, schools she’s attended. Plus the nutritionist has her past clients list and her entire professional network. If, by a bit of social media posting and a few texts and DMs, they cannot get 10 women to sign up for their training, then the problem is with the training, and no amount of audience will fix that.)

6. Once you run that live training, you can run it again, each month, and for more money. Or you can polish it up and turn it into a course, except now it’s more likely to take 6 weeks than 6 years to complete.

I normally wouldn’t plop down a bowl of steaming how-to porridge right in front of you like this. It’s not good manners.

But this is a big weekend for me. I have a book to publish, an optin funnel to create (I bought a newsletter ad that’s due to run tomorrow, unrelated to the book), a lead magnet to write for that funnel, a gym to go to, and forced socializing to do (ahem, read the new book for that).

That also means I have nothing to promote to you today.

I prefer to build up your eagerness for my new book which will be published… imminently. I’ll have more information on that soon.

But if you absolutely need something to do with the energy that’s built up by reading this email, then go and implement the plan I’ve listed above.

Or if you already have a working business and you don’t want to get distracted, then forward my email to a competitor with a note that says, “Thought you might like this.” Maybe they will get distracted and go build a new info product business and move to Bali and stop competing with you. And if that happens, you can thank me by buying a copy of my new book.

Platform is magic

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I went for a walk this morning and as I was dodging the puddles from last night’s rain, I listened to a podcast, a conversation between James Schramko and Dean Jackson.

In case those names are not familiar to you, both belong to Internet marketers who have been in the business a combined 50+ years.

Both James and Dean have made many millions of dollars for themselves and many more for their clients and customers.

Whatever. The point is simply that, in the little corner of the Internet where I live, these guys are influential and established and respected. I’ve known about each for many years, and I’ve been paying attention to both intensely over the past year.

This morning, while listening to the podcast, James Schramko talked about changes he had made to his business following the advice of his friend, a guy named Kory Basaraba.

That caught my attention and maybe made me step into a puddle.

The fact is, I’ve known Kory for years. A few years ago, back when I was still doing freelance copywriting stuff, I even worked with him.

Through this experience, I know Kory is smart, successful, and established. But on hearing his name being mentioned on a podcast, by two people I follow, I felt some sort of electric jolt.

I don’t know how wide of a reach this Schramko/Dean podcast episode might get. Maybe a few thousand people, maybe tens of thousands? In any case it’s not Joe Rogan.

It doesn’t matter. My opinion of Kory, while it was positive before, suddenly jumped. He got the warm bright glow of a star in my eyes.

Of course, I’m a hardened cynic and a bit of a wizard when it comes to knowing influence spells. So I quickly shook my head to clear my mind from this strange persuasion.

But I wanted to share this story with you, such as it is, for a bit of motivation.

I don’t understand what it is about having a platform. Maybe I’ll figure it out one day.

Right now, my best answer is that having a platform is simply magic.

A few hundred or a few thousand people around the world listen to you. It’s not a tremendous amount of reach or power. But it doesn’t matter.

The very fact of having a platform, of speaking to a group of people, gives you status and authority and charisma, and even the power to transfer that to others, simply by mentioning their name. That’s magic.

The motivating part is that, if you haven’t done so already, you can do this same thing for yourself.

Nobody’s stopping you from starting a podcast, or writing an email newsletter, today.

Like I said, you don’t need a tremendous overall audience to have a tremendous influence on the people who do listen or read to what you have to say. I can vouch for that from personal experience, having been both on top of the platform at certain times, and in the audience, looking up, at other times.

I know nothing about podcasting. But I know something about newsletters. Such as for example, that the more often you send emails, the greater your influence over the people in your audience.

And with that in mind, let me point you to a service that can help make it easier to send something every day, so you can work your magic quickly:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Солярис

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Last night, I went to the movies. By myself. At 10pm, which is pretty much my bedtime.

First came one trailer — some Iraq war thriller with Matt Damon as a solider yelling at other soldiers and lots of explosions and jets swooping in and rapid-fire editing between more yelling and explosions and gunfire.

Then came another trailer — a horror movie about vampires in the deep south, with bloody mouths and fangs and a vampire banging his head on the door of a wood cabin, asking to be let in, while the non-vampires inside cower and transfer their fear to the audience.

And then, after about six total minutes of this adrenaline-pumping overstimulation, the screen got dark. A Bach piece on organ started playing and a barebones title card showed the name of the movie:

Солярис

… or Solaris, if you can’t read that. A three-hour-long science fiction movie from 1972. In Russian, which I don’t speak. With Spanish subtitles, which I can barely read before they disappear. The movie opens up with a five-minute sequence of a man walking next to a lake, without any dialogue.

I’ve seen Solaris twice before, years ago. A few days ago, I finished reading the science fiction novel on which it’s based. When I saw it was playing at the local old-timey movie theater, I decided I would violate my usual bedtime and go see it again, and on the big screen.

I’m not trying to sell you on Solaris. All I really want to highlight is the contrast that was so obvious between those new Hollywood trailers and the start of the 1972 Russian movie. It reminded me of something I read in William Goldman’s Adventures In The Screen Trade:

“In narrative writing of any sort, you must eventually seduce your audience. But seduce doesn’t mean rape.”

Goldman was writing in a different era. He was contrasting movie writing to TV writing.

At the beginning of a movie, Goldman said, you have some time. You can seduce. Things are different in TV land — you gotta be aggressive, right in the first few seconds. Otherwise the viewer will simply change the channel.

Things have changed since Goldman wrote the above. Today, all Hollywood movies have become like TV. That doesn’t eliminate the fact that different formats allow you to do different things, and that not every movie needs to start with a heart-pounding sequence of bloody vampires banging their heads on the door.

The bigger point is, just because you know a trick, this doesn’t require you to use it at every damn opportunity. Holding back can in fact can make the show better.

A year ago, I read a book titled Magic And Showmanship, about… magic and showmanship. The author of that book, a magician named Henning Nelms, kept coming back to a principle he called conservation.

Conservation is keeping from overselling what you’ve got, and from making yourself out to be more skilled or powerful than absolutely necessary for the effect in question.

It’s a lesson that can apply to a lot of showmanship, including showmanship in print.

Anyways, I suspect nobody will take me up on a recommendation to read Nelms’s Magic And Showmanship, but recommend it I will. In order to sell it to you, I can only say that last year, I was even thinking of taking the ideas from this book and turning them into a full-blown course or training about running email promos, because I found the ideas so transferable.

In case you’re a curious type, or in case you simply want new ideas for running email promos:

https://bejakovic.com/nelms

Indecent proposal

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Last week, I wrote an email with the subject line “Operation Mincemeat.” At the end of that email, I asked readers if they have an audience to which they could promote my new 10 Commandments book.

I also said I don’t know what I can do in turn for those who promote me, but that I am happy to entertain all kinds of offers.

I got a lot of readers replying to say they would be happy to promote me to their lists. I appreciate everyone who wrote in.

Some people said they would do it without asking anything in turn, simply because I’m such a swell guy.

Others made me various decent and indecent proposals. Here’s one I got from James Carran, who writes several newsletters about the craft and business of writing:

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How about later in the year when I get a chance to polish them up, you take a gander at my course library and see if there’s one you’d like to promote as an affiliate? I just want to redesign them all and update them first…

With the proviso that you’d only promote anything if you thought it was genuinely helpful for your people and something you’d want to promote anyway. If not, I’ll take no offence.

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I’m bringing this up because James’s proposal is one that I wish more people would make me, all the time, whether or not they agree to promote my new book.

So let me explicitly make you my own proposal, which you may deem indecent, but which you probably won’t, because I’m really fishing here so I can pay off the subject line:

If you have a course, and you would love to have me promote your course to my audience, then write in and let me know.

A few points that will make it more likely for me to take you seriously:

1. Your course is amazing and previous customers love it

2. Your course is based on a new mechanism for an old promise (hat tip to Justin Goff for that idea — whatever happened to him)

3. Your course sells for at least $197, or you’d be okay raising the price to that level

If you have a course that matches these three criteria, or at least two out of three and you can compensate for the third with your own enthusiasm and force of personality, then write in and let me know.

I’m not promising anything. But I am always short of good offers to promote, and if you have an amazing course that I can get behind, then you’d be doing me a favor.

Fundamental theorem of sustainable, stress-free businesses

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I studied computer science in college. A very few lessons have stuck with me. For example, I still remember the “Fundamental theorem of software engineering,” which says:

“All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection.”

In computer science, that means something like, take a step away from the core problem, look at things from a higher level of abstraction, and everything will sort itself out.

Along the same lines, I would like to propose to you the fundamental theorem of stress-free, sustainable businesses, which says:

“All problems in your business can be solved by another level of indirection.”

Would an example help?

Think of the 1848 California Gold Rush.

The zeroth level of that was to take a sieve and sit by the side of the American River, sifting thousands of pounds of silt every day and maybe finding a few nuggets of gold.

As you probably know, that’s not how the real money was made.

The real money was made in selling sieves and pots and shovels to miners, not in shoveling for gold. California’s first millionaire was a man named Samuel Brannan, who opened a big store during the Gold Rush. A first level of indirection.

But you can do still better. Because if your business is selling shovels to miners, then you might be out of business when a gold rush passes. Plus, gold miners are a rowdy, desperate bunch, and selling to them means you might get pulled into a brawl or hit over the head with one of your own shovels.

That’s where the fundamental theorem comes in.

You can introduce another layer of indirection, a second level.

You can get out of the shovel-selling business, and you get into the shovel-distributing business, or the store-construction business, or the info product business targeting owners of big stores, men like Samuel Brannan, a kind of customer with greater staying power and ability to pay than the miners he sells to.

And if it turns out that you don’t like the selling to the Samuel Brannans of the world, you know what to do. Third level, fourth level, fifth level of indirection, and everything will sort itself out.

Somebody recently asked me if I have a course or a training on choosing a niche.

I don’t. I don’t imagine I will ever create one. The above is my bit of advice to help you choosing a niche.

But I do know somebody who has a lot of experience with online businesses, and who has great advice about criteria for choosing a new niche.

That person is Travis Sago. Travis has an entire training called “Niche Factors That Never Fail.”

Travis’s courses, including Passive Cash Flow Mojo, the one that contains that niches training, all sell for thousands of dollars each.

But through some glitch in the matrix, you can currently get access to all of Travis’s courses by being a part of Travis’s Royalty Ronin community. That community is not cheap either, but it’s a fraction of the price of just one of Travis’s high-ticket courses.

I can recommend Royalty Ronin, because I myself am a member.

But you don’t have to decide anything now. Because you can get a free trial to Ronin for 7 days. If you’d like to find out more about this trial offer:

http://bejakovic.com/ronin

Announcing: 1% Writer

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Today I’d like to clue you in on a new offer called 1% Writer.

It’s not my offer.

I’m not even an affiliate.

It’s Kieran Drew’s new offer to go along with his upcoming birthday.

I asked Kieran recently if he’d be one of the people to read my new 10 Commandments book and give me feedback. He turned me down because he was busy putting this new course together.

But Kieran made me a deal, which was that he’d promote my new 10 Commandments book to his audience when I do publish it.

In turn, I said I’d gladly promote his 1% Writer to my audience.

The thing is, I haven’t seen, read, or profited from 1% Writer myself. (It’s a live cohort course, delivered by email, which will kick off next week, May 8.)

I’m still happy to promote 1% Writer to you, for the following two reasons:

Reason #1 is Kieran himself.

In case you don’t know the guy, he has a huge audience (something like 250,000 people across various platforms), and he’s made a huge amount of money in a few years’ time by selling stuff to that audience (north of $1.2 million).

Kieran’s done it all with nothing but his little typing fingers.

Clearly, he knows a thing, two, or maybe even three about how to succeed online by just writing.

What’s more, he’s directly coached a bunch of other people who have gone from zero to hero in that space, so he knows how to pass his knowledge on to others.

I’ll also say I read Kieran’s newsletter myself, when I’ve largely started to ignore most of the other people I used to follow online.

Add it all up and the sum is that I know, respect, and endorse Kieran for what he does in general.

Reason #2 I’m happy to promote 1% Writer is that it costs a whopping $33, or $1 a day. (The course lasts for 33 days, since Kieran is turning 33, and apparently there’s a mathematical connection between the two facts.)

What do you get for $33?

Says Kieran, this course has his best advice, compressed down into 33 lessons, about how to grow your audience, build authority, and turn your ideas into income.

He also says it’s the highest value-to-dollar ratio product he’s made.

I’ve happily promoted Kieran’s high-ticket courses in the past, and I’ve seen the thought and care and value he’s put into those offers.

If he says 1% Writer is the highest value-to-dollar product he’s made, I believe him. That takes nothing away from his high-ticket offers, but it does make 1% Writer an attractive offer, and one to consider seriously.

Of course, you make the final decision. To help you do that, you can find out the full details about 1% Writer, including that May 7 deadline, on the page below:

​https://1pw.kierandrew.com/