Networking

I’ll be in London next week, maybe you’d like to join me

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I’ll tell you about London in just a sec, but first, here’s an important question:

What’s your mental image of how the year looks like?

Is it a line, a calendar, a circle?

And if it’s a circle (the way it is for me), then where do the months go? Is summer on top or winter? Do the months flow clockwise or counterclockwise?

Two weeks ago I did a podcast episode with Rob Marsh and Kira Hug of The Copywriter Club.

Podcast episode over, Kira said as a throwaway, “I know it’s a long shot, but since you’re in Barcelona, we have an event in London at the end of this month. And in case you’d like to present something…”

I got excited and immediately said yes.

I gave them a couple of possible presentation ideas, and we agreed my presentation would be on the topic of insight, specifically about one repeatable, powerful way to create feeling of insight in readers.

I thought about that yesterday because I came across an article titled, “This is what the year really looks like.” It reported on a survey that basically asked the questions I asked you up top.

Some 75k people participated in the survey voluntarily… hundreds of thousands read and shared the resulting article online… and the article keeps going viral, on its own, every few years, even though it was originally published in 2018.

Why? How?

My claim is that it’s because the questions and the article manages to stir up the feeling of insight. So that’s what I will be talking about in London next week.

Now a disclaimer:

I am a terrible self-promoter, and am at best a very shoddy businessman, at least as far as this newsletter is concerned.

I did that podcast episode. I agreed with Rob and Kira to go to their event in London and present. But I didn’t ask to promote the event to my list — because… who knows why.

And then, only two days ago, Rob wrote me to say they have a few seats left over, and I could promote it to my list if I like.

The fact is, I do NOT like the idea of promoting this London event to my list. Because it’s now too close to the date, and that exposes me as being a bit incompetent.

But that’s not really a great reason to keep you out of this event in case you would like to attend, and are actually close enough geographically to be able to get to London by next Wednesday.

In case you’re interested, you can find the full details below, including the dates, times, prices, and my handsome mugshot photo:

https://bejakovic.com/tcclondon

Why I’m happy to give up more than half my profit by promoting Daniel Throssell’s sale

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Yesterday, I gave a little breakdown of the structure of my Copy Riddles sales letter, and then advised people to get on Daniel Throssell’s list, and buy Copy Riddles via Daniel’s affiliate link.

​​Reader Jakub Červenka, who runs an info publishing business in the men’s sexual health niche (something I used to write for in my freelance days), asks a logical question:

===

John,

since you are sharing so much about the structure and the thought process behind your pages (thank you!) could you, perhaps in one of your next emails, explain why are you pushing people so much to buy through Mr Boycotted (😉) efforts?

I understand that you value your readers and relationships you so carefully build, but the second part is – this is still business, no?

And in my opinion, making more money is better than making less money…

So, telling your list about the sale once, twice… great, they have been told, if they didn’t buy, their mistake, you told them. And reminded them.

But why are you giving up half of your profit (I am guessing) by constantly promoting Daniel’s sale?

I know even with commission you pay him you take home more than from your original price, but still…

The obvious answer to me would be some kind of promo of his offers in the future, but it doesn’t seem to be the case from what I think of Daniel’s business model so I am curious and probably many more of your readers are too.

===

The numbers are actually less favorable than Jakub says.

I’m actually making slightly less for each sale of Copy Riddles via Daniel’s promo than I did the last time I sold this course myself. That’s due to the $200 discount I am offering Daniel’s readers… plus the affiliate commission I’m paying to Daniel.

That said, I continue to happily send my own readers to buy through Daniel’s list for following three reasons:

Reason #1. I agreed with Daniel to make this $200 discount exclusive to his list. At the same time, I want to make sure that anyone on my list who might actually want Copy Riddles buys at this same discount.

​​If that means nagging on and on about getting on Daniel’s list, and possibly losing money over a full-price sale that might come in the future, so be it.

The ultimate goal, like Jakub says, is valuing my readers. I want to make it an absolute certainty in my readers’ minds that I’m playing square with them and treating them right.

It’s only business, but the way I choose to play it, which is for the long term.

Reason #2. Daniel has been good to me over the years, He promoted me to his 5k-person list back when I had a list of fewer than 300 readers, and on several subsequent occasions. He has spoken well of me, driven subscribers my way, and helped me make sales.

And now, he’s hyping me up to his own list, which he values equally as much as I value mine, and he’s sending new buyers my way for a very expensive course. It’s simple gratitude to pay that back in an earnest way.

But if you need a more mercenary explanation, then consider…

Reason #3. Top copywriter Chris Haddad, who also runs an 8-figure Clickbank business, once said, “Your job is to make your affiliates money.”

Why make your affiliates money? Because it’s your job. Because it’s how you get paid this month, and next month, and the month after that.

I don’t know whether Daniel and I will ever do another JV promo in the future. Maybe we never will. But maybe we will collaborate in some less formal, more indirect way.

Or maybe I will have other JV partners and affiliates. Whatever the case, it can’t hurt to let it be known that, just like with my readers, I treat my partners squarely and work to help them make money.

So that’s my thought process on continuing to send people to Daniel’s list, even after I could squint and say, I’ve done enough.

That said, I won’t send you to Daniel’s list now. It’s simply too late.

The special discount I promised Daniel ends at noon PST today, less than an hour from now. As far as I know, Daniel won’t send more emails before now and then.

If you’re not on Daniel’s list, then I assume you weren’t interested in Copy Riddles right now. That’s okay. I’ll work to get you interested in the future.

But if you are on Daniel’s list, and you would like to get Copy Riddles before the $200 discount disappears, then rummage through your inbox right now… find Daniel’s most recent email… and follow the instructions at the end of it. If you’re serious about owning copywriting skills at a high level, it will be well worth it.

Do you have a wonderful product that’s underpriced or underappreciated?

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Last month, I promoted Steve Raju’s ClientRaker training. It was grand. I got a buncha new buyers for Steve, and in the days following Steve’s first live call, I got a buncha happy subscribers writing in to thank me for turning them on to such a valuable training.

Eventually, the ClientRaker chatter died down. But then this past Monday, long-time reader Kevin Wood wrote me to say:

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It’s about a month later, but I’ve only been through 2 of the Client Raker calls. So far it’s one of the most mind-blowing trainings I’ve been through. Beyond the technical steps of using ChatGPT, the mindset shift has been the biggest thing so far. Like how much positioning matters, the types of industries to target, why not go after whale clients. A lot of these thoughts have never entered my mind before, so it’s super inspiring in that way.

Also, learning how to use ChatGPT the “Steve Raju” way makes me feel dumb in a good way. Like, there’s no way I would have figured or even thought of the approaches he takes. And this is after going through other AI courses and trying out a few different AI writing tools. It’s shifted how I use ChatGPT in general, not applying his client methods yet.

Anyways, it’s the best money I’ve spent on a course this year and that’s without applying it for clients yet, or finishing the course. So, thanks.

===

Like I wrote at end of the ClientRaker promo…

I would promote something like Steve’s ClientRaker every week if I could. But there are not a lot of ClientRakers and not a lot of Steve Rajus hidden out there.

Not a lot… but there might be some.

Steve and I started talking back in June, when I sussed out interest in a training about charging higher prices for your offer.

Turns out Steve didn’t need my help with that, beyond me telling him that what he’s offering definitely sounds more valuable than what he’s charging for it.

But if something has worked once, it’s worth going back to again. So since I connected with Steve in this way, let me try it now with you:

If you’re selling something wonderful — a course, a training, even your services — that you feel is underpriced, then write in and let me know.

Or if you have a great offer that not a lot of people know about, write in and let me know that as well.

I’m not promising anything specific in return, except an open ear and maybe some encouragement that yes, indeed, you should charge more starting today, or yes, indeed, you should take obvious steps to get more people exposed to your great offer.

But who knows, maybe it will turn into something more. Maybe we can work together directly in some way. Or maybe I can help you indirectly in some way. But it won’t happen unless we first talk.

It’s up to you, and to your decision to reply to this email, preferably right now.

“Too many single moms” in my Facebook DMs

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Due to some client work I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been forced to go back into the cobweb-laced haunted house that is my Facebook account.

Each time I tip-toe my way along the creaky floorboards there, I see dozens of new friend requests pasted on the walls, all from people I don’t know from Adam’s off ox.

Occasionally, I go on binges of approving those friend requests.

Last week, I logged in and saw a message from a guy with an Italian name, whose friend request I must have approved some time earlier. My new friend wrote:

“Thanks for accepting my request man, I appreciate that! I noticed you’re into personal development. I have a quick question if you don’t mind.”

Personal development? I replied to say, sure. And I went about my day.

Since I don’t have any notifications enabled anywhere, I forgot all about it until I logged in to Facebook a few days later. And there was my friend’s quick question:

“Are you currently using online dating apps?”

That escalated quickly. ​​With just 7 words, this Italian stallion was quickly nearing “unwelcome pest” territory.

​​I replied with a professional and elegant “no.”

I thought that would be the end of it. But I was wrong. The next time I logged in, a follow-up was waiting for me:

“Too many single moms or not matching with the type of women you truly desire?”

At this point, like a hot 24-year-old girl who has lost interest in a boring Tinder chat, I stopped replying. But I did check his profile. It turns out he sells some kind of service to get you matching with the type of women you truly desire.

This got me wondering. Even if this guy’s presumptuous marketing approach is successful in hooking somebody, who is he gonna get?

A long-term, devoted customer or client?

Or somebody who will ghost him at the very first turn in the road?

My guess is the second.

That’s not a game I ever want to play, and not one I advise to you either.

A sale is never just a sale, and a client is never just a client.

My advice is to think actively about the relationships you build, the long-term potential of those relationships, or if you like, the lifetime value. That’s really my biggest and most valuable conclusion after having worked with hundreds of clients, many of who paid me $100, a few of who paid me $100k or more.

And on that note:

Until this Wednesday, I am promoting Steve Raju’s ClientRaker training.

ClientRaker is all about finding high-quality, long-term, devoted clients. Without sliding into anybody’s DMs, without embarrassing yourself, and without offending or annoying people who are no prospects of yours to begin with.

In case you’re interested:

https://bejakovic.com/clientraker

If you want more clients or if your current clients are morons, scammers, or just plain cheap

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I have an offer for you today. If you want new clients, more clients, or better clients, then my suggestion is to get this offer. I endorse it fully, 100%, horns-to-hoof.

If I were still looking for copywriting clients, I would be busy applying the info inside this offer right now, instead of being here telling you about it.

You can buy this offer at my affiliate link at the end of this email. But first, read on for the background, and why I endorse this offer from alpha to omega:

Last month I exchanged some emails with Steve Raju. Steve is a copywriter and a direct response marketer. I knew from before that he’d been one of the coaches inside Stefan Georgi’s Copy Accelerator thing.

Steve wrote me that he had recently put on a training about how to get clients — using AI.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh great. Another AI course to heave onto the dogpile.”

A bit later, Steve and I got on a call. He was telling me about how he uses AI to figure out his prospects’ problems and to develop his messaging in a quick and foolproof way.

Fine. I figure that with a bit of work, with or without AI, I could do the same. But fine.

And then, in a kind of “Of course everybody knows this bit” manner, Steve told me how he actually uses all this AI-generated stuff.

Over the next few minutes, as my jaw gradually made its way further and further down towards the floor, Steve outlined how he how goes on LinkedIn… clicks here… clicks there… uses one little trick to find the exact right prospects who are currently in heat… a second little trick to wave his bloody, species-specific bait in front of them… a third little trick to make sure the prospects amble into his trap… and a fourth little trick to make sure the trap springs on them in such a way that they willingly reach out to him — yes, they come to him — and ask if maybe he can help them.

Steve felt all this LinkedIn trickery was obvious, and was just an add-on to the sexy AI stuff.

But to me, this “real world” stuff was magic, and his way of connecting with the right clients on LinkedIn was something I would never figure out myself.

I also suspect it was this which really gave Steve the results he has had with his system.

Consider the following:

Steve fired all his copywriting and marketing clients this past January, pretty much just because he wanted to.

He then took a two-month vacation back home to the UK (he lives in Vancouver normally).

UK vacation over, he got back to Vancouver, scratched his chin a bit, and said, “Well, now what?”

He then started applying the system he told me about, and within a couple weeks, he had lined up calls with the likes of:

* The global innovation lead for a pharma giant that takes in $40 billion per year

* The world’s no. 1 company for performing complex clinical trials

* The United Nations subject matter expert on A.I.

Steve’s current thing is repositioning himself as an AI expert to these kinds of whale, mammoth, brontosaurus clients. Huge, slow beasts. That might sound intimidating to you, or like the kind of thing you might not even want.

I’ve watched Steve’s training in full now. It’s fantastic.

And I can assure you that even if you are not interested in capturing $40 billion pharma whales as your new clients, you can also use Steve’s method to position or reposition yourself in such a way that you catch $120 million ecommerce marlins… or $80 million SaaS tunas… or simply lean and fast $20 million info-publishing bonefish.

The first live training of Steve’s course, which is called Clientraker — James Bond reference — will happen next Wednesday, July 19.

Between then and now, I will write more about Steve’s course, and nudge you, sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully, towards Steve’s sales page.

If you are currently hungry for client work… or nervous because your current clients might leave you tomorrow and you have zero idea how you might replace them… or if you are flush with client work — but at least a few of those clients are morons, scammers, or just plain cheap… then I strongly advise you to get Steve’s training, watch it live as he delivers it it, and implement it the minute he stops talking.

Or don’t. But others will.

In case you’re convinced already and you want to sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/clientraker

1 mosquito summer lover ~ 3-4 books

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Yesterday, I was at the gym in my home town of Zagreb, Croatia — and for a brief moment, I was amused.

The gym is the daily break in my monk-like life, where I make a bit of contact with the outside world and find out what’s going on.

And so it was yesterday. The radio was blasting. In between the parade of 80s hits — Duran Duran, Guns N’ Roses — a newswoman came on the radio with the following announcement:

“NEWSFLASH: The city of Zagreb will be importing 100,000 mosquitos this summer. From Italy. All males. And all sterile.”

Apparently this is the best idea the local authorities have to control the rampant mosquito population in this crowded, marshy city.

And it’s not such a crazy idea:

The males mate several times throughout the season. The females mate only once. If a female happens to mate with a sterile male, she will still lay her evil mosquito eggs, but those won’t develop into buzzing, bloodsucking, sleep-destroying future monsters. Checkmate, mosquito bitches.

I remember a similar story some twenty years ago, after Neil Strauss published his book The Game.

The Game brought the secret world of pick up artists out of dark and sticky Internet bulletin boards and exposed it to the light of the mainstream.

I remember the outrage that many women expressed upon finding out that there’s a population of men who are gaming the signals of social status and sexual attractiveness.

And who can blame these women?

If you invest in something, and invest big, you want to make sure that investment will be fertile.

That applies to mates, human and mosquito… to business partners… to clients… to employers… to employees… and to teachers your learn from.

Maybe you see where I’m going with this.

I personally believe books are the best teachers in the world. Unfortunately, as James Altucher once calculated, we each have at most 1,000 books left to us for the rest of our lives.

Some of us, like me, read very slowly, and our number is significantly less than 1,000. That translates to 3-4 books each summer.

So you better make sure that each of those 3-4 interactions counts, and each of those learning opportunities is fertile, rather than sterile.

Which brings me to my Insights & More Book Club. The doors are currently open. They will close tomorrow at 12 midnight PST.

The promise of the Insights & More Book Club is top-quality books, filled with surprising ideas. As for all the other details, well, you will have to sign up to my daily email newsletter to find those out. You can do so here.

Curious quirk at a copywriting conference

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“So what do you do?” she asked me.

“Nothing much,” I said.

The cheerful English woman laughed. “But seriously, what do you do?”

I shrugged. “I write. Like everybody else here.”

Her eyes got wide. “But I don’t write anything!”

Last night, I spent a bizarre two hours, standing around with a glass of sparkling water and a plate of little croissants in my hands, talking to anybody who passed within arms reach of me.

I would start a conversation by saying, “Hello, I’m John.” And then I would try to keep that conversation going as long as I could without saying anything about copywriting, marketing, or sales funnels.

Inevitably though, everybody I talked to revealed they are a copywriter within a minute or two.

“I write for a supplement company.” “Oh I work for the Motley Fool.” “I’m in the prepper niche.”

It’s not surprising the restaurant was filled with copywriters. After all, it’s a copywriting and direct marketing conference I am attending.

When I asked people why they are here, many of them said it’s because A-list copywriter Parris Lampropoulos is giving a talk. Indeed, there was Parris, working the room and chatting with everyone. He had on a colorful shirt. “It’s a Robert Graham,” Parris said. “I put his kids through college.”

At some point, I realized there were two tablefuls of people that had not gotten up during the whole night. I hadn’t talked to anybody from either table. So I went over to one, and asked if I could join.

“Sure,” said the cheerful English woman.

We talked for a while about her Staffordshire bull terriers (9 of ’em!) and about the best years of her life (moving around in a camper van).

And then she asked me what I do. I tried to dodge the question. But eventually, I had to reveal that I too write. She said she doesn’t.

That was my first clue to a curious fact, which became revealed as the night went on.

For some reason, all the copywriters were standing around the bar and buffet. All the business owners were seated at the two tables, and they weren’t budging.

Maybe the copywriters are hungry, and the business owners are not?

Or maybe it was just a quirk of last night?

In any case, if you ever do attend a copywriting conference, and you’re a hungry copywriter looking for work — not my current situation, thank God — then keep this possible quirk in mind. And gravitate to the tables where nobody seems willing to budge.

It’s 8:07am as I write this. In another 10 minutes, the conference is supposed to start. I will be there exactly on time, because I’m hoping for coffee.

Which means it’s time for me to go. ​​

Meanwhile, if you want to read something that I learned from the great Parris Lampropoulos — perhaps the best thing I’ve learned from him — you can find that in Commandment II of my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters. The book is hiding on Amazon, unwilling to budge from its spot. But if you’re willing to go to it:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

The royal way to grow a list

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Yesterday, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camila went for a drive to Bolton Town Hall in London. Birds chirped, armed guards looked on tensely, and crowds of well-wishers and paparazzi pushed around the fences, trying to catch a geek of the aged couple.

Nothing really remarkable there. It’s just another pebble in the mountain of news coverage about the British royal family over the past year.

The news coverage continues, because people look at the royals as a symbol of something ancient, enduring, quintessentially British.

That’s kind of amazing if you think about it.

Charles III is the fourth English monarch from the house of Windsor, which is only 105 years old. Before that, it was called the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in reference to its original German domains. The name was changed during World War I. The image of a bunch of goose-stepping Germans running the UK was too threatening.

How did the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha get to rule the UK? Well, they replaced another German house that ruled the UK, the House of Hanover.

The history of Europe, and really of the world, has seen this pattern over and over. Conquerors and adventurers, foreign princes and stranger kings, appear from somewhere far away and take control of a large and well-trained population.

I read about this in David Wengrow and David Graeber’s Dawn of Everything. The two D’s say the key is that a population has been well-trained and disciplined to obey rule. Who rules doesn’t matter very much at all.

You might be starting to feel a little uncomfortable, and worry that I’m about to preach anarchy, or talk about political revolution.

Quite the opposite. I’m preaching monarchy, and talking about long-term business stability.

Via your list. Specifically, via growing your list with the best prospects, the kind who will buy and read and do what you tell them to do.

I listened to a Dan Kennedy seminar yesterday. Dan said how his best customers were always the martial arts guys — because they had been trained and selected over years to be disciplined.

I remember when pick-up coach RSD Tyler did a list swap with the dreamy fitness coach Eliott Hulse. Eliott said how the buyers he got from the RSD list were fantastic customers, because Tyler’s whole message was self-improvement and taking responsibility and putting in the work.

I’ve even experienced this same phenomenon myself. Back in 2021, I did a list swap with Daniel Throssell. I couldn’t believe how many sales I got from new subscribers who came from Daniel’s list. And that’s with a hidden sales page I had at the time, and without pitching anything myself. It was simply because Daniel has trained and prepared his audience so well.

So there you go. If you want the best leads and future customers, do it the royal way.

Find a market — or an audience — that’s already been disciplined.

It sure beats the hard work of taking an unruly mass, devising new laws, and trying to beat those laws in over the course of generations.

Ok, so much for monarchy.

Now, let’s talk old-time religion. Specifically, my 10 Commandments book. To find out more about that, or maybe even to spend $5 and get some valuable discipline in return, go here:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Free course on advertorials

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A couple days ago, I got an email with the subject line, “Your Future Mentee.” I sighed, hung my head, and clicked to open the email. It read:

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I am a 25 year old entrepreneur who dropped out of medical school to pursue my dream of starting a business in the e-commerce industry.

I have been dropshipping for the past 2.5 years and have done over half a million in revenue so far. I recently came across “advertorials” and it instantly grabbed my attention.

After a bunch of research on Youtube I realized I could barely find technical videos showing exactly how to create advertorials for e-commerce/dropshipping stores.

Through browsing many videos on Youtube, I came across an interview you did on the “Chase Diamond Email Marketing” channel and the information you provided in the short 18 minutes helped me a ton.

I am extremely eager to start testing products on Facebook through advertorials and I was hoping you could guide me through the process a bit. I promise to not take too much of your time.

Please let me know if you have any availability for a brief zoom call so I can further introduce myself. I can also gladly communicate through email if that is easier for you.

Looking forward to your reply!

===

Oh boy. Where to start? How about a free course on advertorials:

Between 2018 and 2021, I wrote dozens of five-page advertorials. These advertorials sold tens of millions of dollars of random ecomm products to cold Facebook and YouTube traffic. Supplements, shoe insoles, portable smoothie blenders.

After I got in the groove, it took me about a week to write each advertorial. A week might seem like a long time to write five pages, but four days of that went to research.

Research is something that apparently nobody else is willing to do.

In fact, in that Chase Dimond podcast episode, I mocked other advertorials that were running and not making sales. I know they weren’t making sales because my clients and I tested them. They weren’t making sales because were so clearly unbelievable — because the copywriter pulled them out of his head instead of doing research.

And so the first lesson of my free advertorial course is to thoroughly research anybody you are attempting to sell.

That lesson might seem obvious to you. But it certainly wasn’t obvious to my would-be future mentee.

For example, had my future mentee wanted to have a good chance to persuade me to become his mentor, he could have done some research on me first.

He could have searched on my website and read a few of the 1,400+ earlier emails I have written.

He could have found out I sell courses, and not for cheap, and I am therefore not likely to give away specific how-to information for free.

He could have found out I also offer a coaching program, and I don’t mentor new people unless they meet very specific criteria, and pay me a good deal of money to boot.

He could have found out that I have a sizeable and growing email list, that my days are eaten up by writing my daily emails, by creating new offers, by responding to paying customers, by delivering paid coaching, on top of my other projects, which I hint at from time to time.

In other words, with adequate research, this guy could have figured out that I am a terrible prospect for a “future mentee” whose big selling point is that he promises not to take too much of my time.

You might think I’m picking on a poor guy who is asking for help. That’s not my intent. I’m just trying to illustrate the shallowness of the persuasion that most people, including marketers, engage in by default.

And if you want a suitcase to float on as the Titanic sinks and all the other mice struggle in the cold water around you… then as the first step, do more work, and in particular, do more research than others are doing.

At this point, you might be worried that this is the end of my free course in advertorials.

But wait. There’s more.

Had my future mentee done a tiny bit more research, he would have come across my Copy Riddles program.

He would have found I currently offer a free bonus to go with Copy Riddles. That bonus is called Storytelling for Sales. It’s based on my experience writing all those advertorials.

Storytelling for Sales not a long training, and it is not an A-Z of ecommerce advertorial writing.

But along with Step 1: Research™, this Step 2: Storytelling for Sales covers 95% of what made my advertorials so effective, and of how I spent my time writing them.

Like I said, Storytelling for Sales is currently a free bonus for Copy Riddles.

But I will take it down at the end of this week, along with the other free bonus, Copywriting Portfolio Secrets. My plan is to flesh these bonuses out and turn them into paid upsells for Copy Riddles.

Don’t buy Copy Riddles just for the Storytelling for Sales free bonus.

But if you decide you want to get Copy Riddles, you have until Saturday Jan 21 at 12 midnight PST to get Storytelling for Sales and Copywriting Portfolio Secrets as free bonuses.

After then, Copy Riddles will remain available, but the free bonuses will disappear.

To get the whole package:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

60% of the time, flattery works every time… but what about the other 40%?

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Last night, as I sometimes do, I started reading a book. The opening scene was very instructive, and I want to share it with you:

Myriel, a lowly French priest with a shadowy past, is waiting in the lobby of a great cardinal.

​​The time is 1804, and Napoleon has just been crowned emperor.

As the priest is waiting, Napoleon himself suddenly enters and starts to cross the lobby.

The priest stares at Napoleon. ​​Napoleon, a little peeved at being stared at, snaps and asks the priest what he’s on about. The priest responds:

“Sire, you are looking at a good man, and I am looking at a great man. Each of us can profit by it.”

That evening, Napoleon asks the cardinal what the priest’s name is. A few days later, to everyone’s surprise, the lowly priest is promoted to bishop.

Now as you probably know, flattery will get you everywhere. In fact studies show that 60% of the time, flattery works every time.

But what about those missing 40%?

Why is it that sometimes you stand up on your tippy-toes, look adoringly at a person you admire, shout at them how great you think they are… and they just frown, mutter an uncomfortable thanks, and hurry out the room?

Well, in my opinion, what’s missing in those cases is the other part of the lowly priest’s message above.

​​In many situations, it’s not enough to flatter the other person as being great. You also have to paint yourself as somebody good, somebody deserving.

Most people enjoy being flattered. But many people don’t like displays of servility.

So if you claim, or even better show, that you are somebody worthwhile, this does two things.

One, it keeps you from looking servile.

Two, it makes the flattery more meaningful — since it’s coming from somebody good and deserving.

That’s my bit of advice to you if you ever want to connect with people, particularly those who might be somehow higher up or further along than you are.

And now, on to something entirely unrelated:

Yesterday I wrote about my “cash buyers’ list”. That’s a term I got from the real estate investing industry. But to get on my own cash buyers’ list, you don’t need any real estate, you don’t need any cash, and you don’t need to buy anything.

That’s not to say I’m promiscuous about adding people to my cash buyer’s list. In fact, I am very very selective about who I allow onto this list.

If you didn’t read my email yesterday, and you’re curious what I’m on about, you can read more below, including how and why you might want to get onto my cash buyers’ list:

https://bejakovic.com/an-email-business-worth-0-52-billion-yes-billion/​​