Business Ideas

“Coaching crickets” so loud you cannot hear the quiet “maybe”

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Before bed this past week, I’ve been reading a book about direct marketing. A couple nights ago, I read the following:

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You need to identify all the categories of solutions available to your prospect. Make a list of their pros and cons. Your job is then to close all the doors to buying other solutions by identifying all the ways your solution is better than all those other solutions.

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“WOW,” I said out loud. “This is GREAT advice! I should totally do this with my newsletter and with the offers I make!”

Then I shrank back a bit, and looked around my bedroom to make sure nobody had heard me.

I realized what I’d read is perfectly normal, commonplace advice about any kind of selling.

In fact, back when I used to write lots of advertorials and sales pages for clients, this kind of “dismissing alternatives” was a major part of my research process, which took probably 60% of the entire time I devoted to any copy project.

And yet…

A different part of the brain is involved when you’re solving a problem for other people than when you’re solving a problem for yourself. At least that’s how I explain to myself why I never think to apply things I knew to do so well for clients to my own newsletter and my own offers.

I once heard marketer Sean D’Souza say:

“If you wanna solve your problems, go and solve somebody else’s problems.”

That’s one reason why I recently started offering 1:1 coaching.

Of course, there are other good reasons too.

For one, doing 1:1 coaching gets me talking to the most motivated and proactive people in my audience, which makes me feel much better about what I’m doing in the world, and the impact my ideas and work can have.

For two, 1:1 coaching is market research. It exposes me to my audience’s problems, objections, and desires in a way that I never woulda thought up.

For three is that thing Sean D’Souza says. I’ve realized that my best advice to others is really advice I myself should be following as well, but that, for mysterious neurological reasons, I could never give to myself directly.

I just gave you three good reasons why you too should consider offering coaching, if you’re not doing it already.

Only one problem:

Like I wrote a couple days ago, “coaching” is actually a terrible offer.

The only way “coaching” sells is if you have built so much status or bond with your audience that they are basically buying YOU, in spite of that vague and unattractive “coaching” offer you made.

(That’s why I can kinda sorta get away with it.)

But what if you don’t have the same level of status and bond with your list yet?

From what I’ve heard among people on my list and inside Daily Email House, it’s a real problem. As one House member put it:

“I have thrown coaching to my list before, but the crickets were so loud I couldn’t hear the quiet ‘maybe.'”

A couple days ago, I talked about a new and 100% different offer you can make instead of “coaching.”

It’s a transmutation of “coaching” into something else, which sells better, is easier to deliver, and still gets you all the benefits I listed above.

Could this be something you’re interested in?

If so, hit reply and let me know.

Yes, I am selling something here ultimately. And if you hit reply and express the smallest bit of interest, my crack team of D2D salesmen will immediately descend on your front lawn, set up camp, and start a round-the-clock door knocking campaign…

No, none of that.

If you do reply and express interest, I will simply reply back, in order to find out a bit more about you, so I can see if this “alternative to coaching” could be useful to you.

If I think it can be, I will give you the full details.

If you like the sound of it, you can take me up on what I’m selling.

If it’s not a fit for any reason, you can tell me no. You won’t hurt my feelings, or sour this relationship we’ve got going on.

Does that sounds like something you can bear?

Then ask yourself whether a different, easier-to-sell offer instead of coaching could be valuable to you. If it could, hit reply and tell me so.

Become an investigative reporter with high-level salesmanship skills

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A bit of Bejako background:

I went to high school in a rich suburb of Baltimore, Maryland (we weren’t rich, but ok).

All the other kids in my class were ambitious and smart (one girl’s dad later won the Nobel Prize in chemistry). They worked hard their entire high school days. They ended up going to schools like Princeton and Stanford, and became lawyers and doctors and architects.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Bejako had zero drive to go to college, and had no idea what kind of work he might ever want to do.

His best guess — the only option that kind of turned him on – was the idea of moving down to Annapolis, Maryland’s small, quaint, maritime capital, and becoming a reporter on some local newspaper that covered state politics.

Fast-forward to the present, and switch back to the first person:

While I never became a small-town reporter, the same lack of ambition and non-entrepreneurial nature I had in high school has stuck with me throughout life, now into middle age.

I am really not motivated by money, try as I have to change that. I’ve also never thought of myself as an entrepreneur or online business owner. And yet, that’s kind of what I’m doing now, and what’s more, I’m not really qualified to do anything else.

I’m telling you all this because a couple nights ago, I was reading a book about direct marketing. It said the following:

“Understanding your ultimate prospect has nothing to do with creativity. It requires relentless, investigative salesmanship. You need to become an investigative reporter with high-level salesmanship skills.”

“Hm,” I said to my pillow. “An investigative reporter on the salesmanship beat? That’s something I can imagine myself doing.”

And in fact, the very next day, I told myself to treat what I’m doing as investigative reporter. I started collecting data about offers I had made, successful or unsuccessful. I came up with theories about why things turned out as they did. I started trying to write up a story that makes sense that fits the data to the theory.

It’s been fun and it’s getting me to do things I should have been doing all along.

My point is not that you specifically should start treating your business as an investigative reporter.

My point is that, if “value-creating entrepreneur” or “small business owner” doesn’t really feel like a suit that fits you, there lots of other suits you can put on, including ones that you like the look of. And it will still be you inside the suit.

You gotta do certain things to see success if you have an email list and want to make money with it. Selling is one of them. Understanding your audience is another. Creating new offers is still another. But there are lots of ways to get yourself to do those things, including things that align with your own natural motivations and ambitions.

Or in the words of Internet marketer Rich Schefren, “Put your business goals of your self-development goals.” It’s much more likely you will see success if you work with your own psychology, rather than trying to change it.

So much for Monday Morning Mindset.

For some specific strategies on how to take your existing skills and interests and turn them into money, enough to pay for a house:

https://bejakovic.com/house

If nobody is taking you up on your coaching offer

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In the words of Bob Marley:

Sun is shining. The weather is sweet.

Make you want to launch a new offer that has some heat.

To the rescue. Here I am.

Over the past few months, I’ve heard a frustration from a number of readers who offer coaching. Here is a sample:

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I can’t get people to buy from my emails.

I have good engagement ( I think. I get a good amount of replies, and even more when I ask questions.)

I THINK my copy must be at least halfway decent because I have a self liquidating front end funnel on Facebook. Good take rate on upsells. People seem to like the products.

But I barely make any sales from daily emails.

Maybe 4 or 5 a month on a list of about 700.

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I followed up with this reader to ask what offers exactly he is making to his list. It turned out two kinds:

1. The upsells from his front end offer, and

2. Coaching

Like my reader says above, there’s a good take rate on his upsells when he sells his front-end offer. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing that most of the sales he does make on the back end come from people taking him up on those upsells as well.

Which leaves coaching…

… which nobody wants.

Now here’s my pet theory:

For the past couple of years, we were in this moment. Perhaps it was covid, or perhaps the fact that everything moved online. But everyone became a coach. And magically, coaching was selling, because… it was the moment.

But my long-running suspicion has been it will eventually get harder to sell coaching. Which is precisely what I’ve been seeing from readers like the reader above, who are offering coaching and seeing a response rate of a little over 0.

And now, I don’t mean to pry, but I do have a question for you.

Do you have the same problem? Do you offer coaching? And nobody’s buying?

To the rescue. Here I am.

I have a possible fix for you, which I’m calling the New “Wanna Get High?” Offer for coaches (a nod to Bob Marley above).

In case you’re interested, hit reply and tell me a bit about what you do, and who you do it for. In turn, I’ll tell you more about my New “Wanna Get High?” Offer, and you can then decide if it’s right for you.

The “magazine model” for your paid membership or continuity offer

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A couple days ago marked the 1-year anniversary that my Daily Email Habit service has been going out, day after day after day, to members all around the world.

Following that announcement, a new subscriber to Daily Email Habit wrote in and asked:

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Wow. Happy Bday to your DEH!

I am curious to see the first seven. Any chance to send them to me?

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My response was some icy staring across the Internet, a bit of finger tapping on my desk, followed finally by a cold hard NO.

Like I’ve been telling people since I launched Daily Email Habit:

I don’t send out previous puzzles to new subscribers. The idea is Daily Email Habit works like a magazine subscription — you get the issues that go out from the time you subscribed, and not before. It’s a way to encourage people to sign up now rather than later.

After hearing my cold hard no, the DEH subscriber above replied to say:

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I know. I was just curious to see how it started. I respect your answer. It sounds fair and smart.

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I’m a-telling you this because this week, I launched a new 1:1 coaching program.

On Tuesday, I got on the first call with one of the coaching clients who already signed up. Let’s call her Ms. X.

Ms. X runs a paid membership and wants to increase the number of paying subscribers and reduce churn.

But like lots of other people who run memberships, she has so far been promising new subscribers access to everything inside her membership, including all the stuff that happened before they subscribed.

But what’s the incentive to join today… when joining tomorrow will give you everything you get if you join today, plus some more stuff… plus you get to hold on to your money for an extra 24 hours?

Not much incentive.

Fortunately, Ms. X already came to that conclusion before she even got on this coaching call with me.

At this point, her bottleneck is technical. Her membership software makes it hard to restrict/allow access to different members like this.

My Yoda-like suggestion was, “Many simple option you fail to see.”

I suggested some low-tech ways to deliver content that’s only available to current members. Ways that make it easy to test out this idea for impact. If this magazine model makes a difference, as it most likely will, then Ms. X can worry about the long-term tech later.

A magazine model is something to think about if you too are running or are thinking of launching a paid membership, or really any kind of continuity offer.

Not only will treating your membership like a magazine give people a legit reason to sign up today rather than tomorrow… but it will give them a reason to stay signed up instead of churning (thinking they can always come back later and get everything they missed in the meantime)…

… and if your subscribers are anything like my subscribers, when you introduce and stick to this “magazine” rule, you might hear them say, “I respect your answer. It sounds fair and smart.”

In other news, I have already signed up a few coaching students since launching this coaching program a few days ago. I am also looking for a few more.

The coaching I’m offering is specifically about list monetization, or as I say, about using your email list to pay for a house.

The coaching is 1:1, and runs for a year.

It’s also reasonably low-cost, because accountability and whip-cracking are not a part of it.

In order for me to be useful to you at all with this coaching program, I need to see you have some runway already.

In case you’re interested, hit reply and tell me a bit about your situation with your list.

Specifically, I’m interested in things like how many people you have on your list… how many new people you’re getting in an average week… what kinds of offers you’ve made so far… and how that’s gone for you.

“The Bible of persuasion” (was $1,997, now $0.99)

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Boy I got something hot for you.

Super hot.

It sells for $1,997 right now… is worth millions if you apply it thoroughly… but you can get it today for $0.99.

Thanks to Daily Email House member Anthony La Tour, I got clued into an amazing fact earlier this morning. In Anthony’s words:

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So recently, I’ve been getting things ready for a road trip from Oregon to California tomorrow for Thanksgiving with my wife and the kids (wish me luck… this is their first time). As I was scrolling around Audible for something to pass the time on the road, I came across two new “audiobooks” from Dan Kennedy:

Mind Hijacking & Magnetic Story Selling

These are NOT audiobooks. They are recordings from the seminars he gave. In the case of Magnetic Story Selling (which is HIGHLY useful for writing emails), multiple seminars.

Magnetic Story Selling is currently being offered at $1,997 just for the physical book. The price of the seminar ticket alone for Mind Hijacking was over $7,000.

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For the purposes of this email, I just wanna focus on that Magnetic Story Selling book (print version) that Anthony mentions.

I checked, and sure enough, it’s selling for $1,997 online right now.

Also included as bonuses are several Dan Kennedy seminars, including one called Influential Writing.

I first heard about that training some five years ago from Internet Marketer Rich Schefren, who said it was one of Dan Kennedy’s two best trainings.

I got my hands on it after that (don’t ask how).

I’ve since gone through Influential Writing many, many times.

It’s on my phone and I used to listen to it while walking on the beach. It’s shaped my ideas about writing an email newsletter more than just about anything else has, outside Ben Settle’s initial advice to get started and to make your emails “infotaining.”

And now, if what Anthony says is right, you can get the recording of the Influential Writing seminar as part of the Magnetic Story Selling audiobook… not for the ~10k that it cost initial attendees… nor for the $1,997 that it costs as part of the “multimedia book” being sold on Russell Brunson’s site… but for $33 on Audible, or for $0.99 if you sign up to an Audible subscription.

I wish I had known about this last week, because I would have definitely included it inside my Black Friday Bundle Collector’s Edition of amazing and secret deals. As it is, it’s too late, and too good for me not to share.

If you want to influence people via the written word, then Influential Writing is, as one of the testimonials says, “the Bible of persuasion.” Nothing else comes close. And if you wanna get this audiobook version, which apparently includes it:

https://bejakovic.com/mss

Is this a stupid idea?

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I had an idea. I wonder if it’s a ridiculous or stupid idea, or if there is in fact any interest in it.

Maybe you can tell me:

Would you be interested in doing unlimited 1:1 coaching with me, get on as many calls as you want, for the next year…

… with the goal of losing 30lbs and fitting into your old jeans?

No, just kidding.

I’m thinking yearlong, unlimited 1:1 coaching with me, so you can turn your emails into money, and monetize your list, and ultimately use it to pay for a house.

There would be some caveats to how this coaching would work, and I would want to see you already have some runway to build on.

To make up for it, the price would be ridiculously or possibly stupidly low.

So can you tell me, what do you think of this idea?

If you think it’s stupid, this is your chance to write in and laugh at me.

If on the other hand you’re intrigued or even excited by the possibility of having me coach you 1:1 so you can turn your emails into money, then write in and tell me so, and maybe we will end up working together.

Sex and copywriting?

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I got a question or two from a reader yesterday:

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I am looking to help people have a better sex life! I don’t have as much experience helping people with this issue as I would like. Curious if this copyrighting work will be useful for me due to the sex topic nature?

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I wasn’t 100% sure what this reader was asking — it sounded like there were two questions there:

QUESTION 1: “Is copywriting relevant if you sell ‘teach you a better sex’?”

The stock answer is that the brain is the biggest sex organ in the human body.

If you wanna take control of the brain, whether of your partner or your coaching client, then sweet, seductive words, including written words, are the way to do it.

And that’s why:

Back when I had copywriting clients, I actually wrote a good deal of copy for businesses in the sex and relationships niche on ClickBank, including sexy daily emails and sexy sales letters.

I also know of a coach on my list who has a high-ticket coaching program to make women’s sex lives better. She writes sexy daily emails.

I also know a coach on my list who has a high-ticket coaching program to make men’s sex lives better. The last I heard, he was also writing sexy daily emails, and was spending a lot of time fussing over his sexy Facebook ad copy and his sexy sales page copy.

So sex and copywriting?

Yes, sex and copywriting.

QUESTION 2. “What if I’m a coach but I don’t have a lot of experience?”

In that case, my best advice is to make a truly irresistible offer to prospects. Specifically, I’m thinking of an offer I will cleverly code name “Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer.”

The Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer is so irresistible it works even if you have little experience. The deal is simply too good for people to pass up, even if they aren’t 100% sold on you yet.

The Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer has worked to make sales for thousands of coaches, even those with little experience or credibility, across niches ranging across spiritual, business, relationships, and health. (Maybe even sex???)

But the real benefits of the Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer are:

1) The nice and quick income it provides, which translates good money even for an established coach,

2) An opportunity to upsell people into still nicer income,

3) Rapport and bonding and work with your clients and prospects, which in time overcomes that sticky problem of “I don’t have that much experience.”

This probably sounds fuzzy to you, and it is, because I don’t want to give away too much. I’m teasing this Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer, as part of my ongoing promotion of the Black Friday Bundle.

I wrote about that bundle yesterday.

11 offer creators, including moi, are bundling their offers, totaling $13 million in value (approximately), but selling for only $299.

I figure the real benefit of such a bundle is the thrill of buying a bunch of stuff, which has established real-world value, at a steep discount.

And since I figure that thrill of buying at a discount is the real benefit, rather than piling on free bonuses, which give no satisfaction, I am giving you four opportunities to buy more stuff, with established real world value, at a thrilling discount.

Yesterday’s opportunity:

1. “$25 Classified Ads.” A behind-closed doors opportunity to get in front of about 20,000 relevant prospects… advertise and test out your offers… get clients and partners… and grow your list… for what works out to $25 a pop.

Today’s opportunity:

2. Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer. A course that lays out how to make the Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer I teased above.

This course costs $997. That might not sound like any kind of a bargain, but if you consider that this Truly Irresistible Coaching Offer you make itself sells for $997, and is truly irresistible, then even one client, and this course will pay for itself.

Two clients, you will double your money.

Three clients, you will triple your money.

Four clients, I could keep going, but I suspect you see the pattern. And the pattern is that this is basically buying money at a discount.

Tomorrow and Sunday:

3 + 4. I will have more great deals to tease you with.

Of course, if you buy today, I will also tell you the other deals as I tease them out to the rest of my list.

In any case, if you wanna buy the Black Friday Bundle and get a great deal, and then have the opportunity to buy more stuff and get even more great deals:

https://bejakovic.com/greatdeals

If you move your tail for clients, but they don’t appreciate it enough

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Yesterday, because I am thorough in my research, I was watching old TV commercials from the 1970s, including one for the long-gone Continental Airlines.

It featured a bouncy jingle that’s still playing in my head:

We live to make you happy

We’re out to make you pleased

You’re flying Continental

Your flight will be a breeze

We’ll hop to make you happy

We’ll skip to prove it’s true

On Continental Airlines

We MOVE OUR TAIL FOR YOU…

… and then the refrain comes in, with a cross-section of all Continental employees — pilots, stewardesses, luggage handlers, admin personal, even the chefs who prepare the delectable meals — bleating “WE MOVE OUR TAIL FOR YOUUUU” over and over.

I looked it up, and back in 60s and 70s Continental really moved their tail to make their customers happy —  larger, cushier seats, full meals (the commercial shows a chef preparing a giant salad), and complimentary drinks (alcoholic and soft), as well as additional perks like amenity kits, pillows, and blankets, all for free, all at no extra cost.

Today, of course, that’s unimaginable. So many of the things that airlines offered for free back in the 60s and 70s are now available and then some on a flight – but you gotta pay:

– checked baggage

– meals

– alcoholic drinks

– seat selection

– pillows and blankets

Continental Airlines no longer exists, at least under its own name (it was gradually absorbed into United). I guess Continental’s customers didn’t sufficiently appreciate all the tail moving to make this a viable long-term strategy.

Maybe there’s a lesson there? Maybe? In any case, I will share my idea, and you can decide if it could possibly be useful:

You can charge for what you offer for free now, or for what everybody else offers for free.

This doesn’t mean offering worse customer service, or turning yourself into the RyanAir of your industry.

But the fact is, “FREE” is a norm — whether it’s checked baggage or “free strategy sessions” or simple “let’s talk and see if we can benefit each other calls.”

Maybe that norm is one that’s working out for you. But if not, it’s one you can change, because norms are not rules of nature, but simply habitual ways of doing things.

I’m gonna write a new book one day, expanding on this idea.

For now though, I’ll just point you to my latest book, the “10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup artists, Magicians, etc.” This book is not free, but I really did move my tail to make it both fun and valuable for you. If you haven’t read it yet:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Don’t count on people remembering you

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Cautionary tale:

A few days ago, a dude joined my Daily Email House group. The description in his Skool bio sold that he had recently sold a media company and that he is now building a newsletter business.

I got curious. I wanted to look him up, and find more about this media company and newsletter business.

But the dude’s name is very common. I won’t say it here, but it’s on the commonness level of “Ben Johnson.”

In other words, it’s hopeless to find this guy online with a quick search, and there’s no link in his Skool profile. I shrugged, and had I not needed a topic for today’s email, I would have forgotten all about him.

Yesterday, I talked about how to make a long-term bet on list growth, which is to pick a platform you believe in, and then invest either your time or your money into it.

But there’s quick and cheap stuff you can do also.

Putting a link to your optin page in all your online profiles one of ’em. This probably won’t get you thousands of subscribers. But it might get you a few, and you never know who might be hiding among those few (me, for example).

There’s a bigger point here, which is not to count on other people to do the work of remembering you and seeking you out.

That’s one of the main benefits of an email list.

An email list gives you a chance to be the one who gets in touch with others, when it suits you, as often as it suits you, rather than hoping and waiting for them to think of you.

Of course, if you have more than one channel to reliably get in touch with people on your own terms, even better. which is one of the reasons I have set up my Daily Email House group.

Daily Email House is another way for me to connect and bond more deeply with readers. As you can imagine, I have to give people value and even fun in order to make it worth their while to get and stay inside the group.

If you would like to make this deal with me yourself:

https://bejakovic.com/house

Credit card companies hate this one weird trick

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I listened to an NPR podcast a few days ago that discussed “buy now pay later” plans.

Basically, it’s what I did last year when I offered a 10-part payment plan my Copy Riddles program:

1. The course normally costs $997.

2. for a few days only, I offered a 10-part payment plan: $97 today, and 9 more monthly payments of $100, adding up to exactly $997.

I ended up making a nice number of sales of Copy Riddles that way, and payments trickled in, without fail, throughout this year.

The podcast I listened to says “buy now pay later” has spread to all parts of the economy in past few years because of a new breed of companies that provide this kind of financing as a service.

Unlike credit card companies, these “buy now pay later” companies offer payment deals that add up to exactly the same price or something very close to it.

Because this is all happening in place of regular credit card payments, it has cost credit card companies billions of dollars in lost processing fees and interest payments.

Of course, credit card companies hate this, and are battling these new startups that threaten to eat their lunch.

But even if credit card companies end up successful in driving these “buy now pay later” companies out of business, there’s nothing preventing you from offering such a payment plan yourself.

The whole reason this new system has appeared is that customers love it, and end up buying way more than they would otherwise.

“Yes but,” you say as you look up from your glasses, pen in hand, eyebrows arched, “is that a good thing?”

The NPR podcast clearly tried to give this “buy now pay later” thing a sinister, manipulative tint.

They started out the episode by featuring a dumb and out-of-control 20-year-old girl, who ended up buying a bunch of overpriced bikinis, designer tights, and sneakers using these plans, because it all felt effectively free, until the payments started arriving in a pack.

All I can say is that the two times I ran “buy now pay later” plans, I saw that a bunch of people who bought were people who are successful and who I assume have enough money.

I further assume they bought because the payment plan made it psychologically easier to get something they already wanted, and not because it tricked them into buying something they couldn’t afford.

In other words, maybe “getting people to buy from you more easily” and “keeping dumb and out-of-control people from buying from you” are two distinct topics, rather than a single concern.

And now, entirely unrelated to today’s clickbait subject line:

I’d like to remind you of my Daily Email House group, where the mission is “Use your email list to pay for a house.”

I’m planning some exciting things for that community soon. In the meantime, I keep sharing stuff in there related to list growth and list monetization for free, including some stuff that I should really be selling. If you’d like to join us inside Daily Email House:

https://bejakovic.com/house