Business Ideas

How to make your 1:1 coaching an easy yes

by

A couple days ago, business coach Steph Benedetto posted the following in my Daily Email House community:

===

I’ve written 110 emails by now and the journey has been nothing short of amazing with many hidden benefits that really belong on the sales page. 😍

I expected to get increased clarity about my message, and was surprised right away about just how much clarity it gave me.

I figured there would be increased reader engagement, but I had no idea the depth of connection it would create.

But here are some of the benefits I didn’t see coming:

– New offers appear that I never planned to write. Somehow they appear out of thin air!

– Building out my sales letter with testimonials and a double guarantee — without sitting down to “work on my sales letter.”

– Love letters and comments from readers.

– My business is evolving with new events and services as I type them.

– My personal growth journey is documented in these emails; it gives me a place to articulate insights and take them deeper through sharing.

– Two people inquiring about my new 1 Year Being Unstoppable Mentorship with the disclaimer “it’s not affordable.” I didn’t see that coming!

[Steph then goes to share as proof a bunch of love letters she got from her readers and customers, and then concludes with…]

It really is building up desire to work with me. When I reach out to people who are engaging to explore 1:1 coaching with me, they’re an easy yes.

Daily emails have helped me see the value of me being me and sharing it, with all my quirks and flaws.

This is some life-changing shit, my friends. If you write the emails, the magic will happen. ✨

===

I’ve long been crowing and croaking about the many benefits of writing daily emails. Steph does a great job recapping these many benefits, and she even lists a couple benefits I myself haven’t experienced yet. But there’s something else I want to highlight in this particular email.

I followed up with Steph to ask what exactly she does to “reach out to people who are engaging to explore 1:1 coaching with me.”

She replied:

===

I invite people to a conversations on most days, not just from email comments. It’s the way most of my clients happen. If a reader is responding to me and I know them, it’s easy to invite them to connect. The context will vary. If I don’t know them yet, I might invite them to a chat about their question or comment.

===

In my experience, this is a pwerful 2-step playbook that a lot of people could profitably use, particularly those selling high-ticket coaching, products, or services.

I could run on about this and share my own experiences applying Stephs daily email + one-on-one reach-out system. But the fact is, I’m at the airport as I write this, waiting for my smiling plane to board, which really and truly leaves me with just enough time to say the following:

Reaching out to your best prospects one-on-one is a very underused tool.

But it’s only likely to be practical and profitable once you’ve laid the ground work of building relationship, stirring desire, and changing minds, which is what daily emailing is all about.

If you’re not writing daily emails yet, or even if you are, but not very consistently, then I can help you either start the habit, or stick with it and be consistent. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The foolish goal for my new 10 Commandments book

by

Last month, I set myself the goal to finish and publish my new 10 Commandments book by March 24, 2025. For reference, the full title of my new book is:

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

The goal to publish this book by March 25 is foolish in many ways. I’ve been working on this book, about the common elements I’ve seen among a bunch of influence disciplines, for a couple years now without getting it done.

I’ve already set myself a deadline on a few occasions — November 31 last year, then December 31 — without success.

Worst of all, the current state of the book is really a salad of notes, aborted chapters, and half-formed ideas.

Since I made my resolution last month, about 10 days have passed. I can’t really say I’m not on schedule, since I didn’t set a schedule when I set the goal. But it certainly doesn’t feel like I’m on schedule.

So today, I did formally set a schedule for what I need to do over next 19 days in order to finish and publish this book by the 24th. I’ve also decided to publicly announce this via this email, and perhaps use the threat of public failure and resulting shame as motivation to get this book done.

And there is a chance it will get done.

I made it sound impossible above, but that’s the copywriter in me.

The fact is, I have done all the research. I have made various outlines and now have one I’m set on.

I have already written a huge chunks of the content, in the form of emails which I was sending to a small group of “book beta-testers” back in November, as well as occasional other emails to this main list.

Plus I’m not really intending this book to be a massive encyclopedia, but in line with my original 10 Commandments book, which was sg like 12k words total.

So it might get done? It might not? We will see.

Meanwhile, I will be writing about this book and how it’s progressing, plus what I’m thinking about doing to make it a success when it comes.

And on that note, if you are interested in the topic of this book, and you’re thinking you might wanna get a copy when it comes out, click below. I’m planning some launch bonuses and I will be dripping them out to people on this pre-launch list:

Click here to sign up to the bonus-dripping pre-launch list for my new 10 Commandments book

A daily email newsletter I read and recommend

by

Today, I’d like to get you to sign up to Jason Resnick’s daily email newsletter.

6 months ago, I had never heard of Jason. That says less about him (successful and well connected) than it does about me (hermit and a half).

The way I did eventually hear about Jason was that I got on a call with one of my own customers, Chris Howes.

Chris runs Creative Strings Academy, a paid online membership of hundreds of musicians, and he has an email newsletter with over 10,000 people on it.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have more customers like Chris,” I said to myself.

So I asked Chris to get on a call. I wanted to find out more about who he is, how his business works, what his problems are. Maybe this could help me create new offers to attract more customers like him.

Chris agreed to get on a call with me. But he told me straight up, “If you’re trying to recruit me as a coaching or consulting client, I’m already working with someone.”

That someone turned out to be Jason Resnick.

And so, out of my hermit cave, at a safe distance, I signed up to Jason’s daily email newsletter and started stalking Jason online. It turned out that:

1. Like me, Jason teaches email marketing, but he focuses on the many -ation parts of email marketing I know precious little about, like automation, and optimization, and segmentation

2. Jason’s audience is made up of online business owners with profitable businesses (along with Chris, I recognized a few other common customers and clients among the testimonials on Jason’s site)

3. Jason writes daily emails in which he shares actual email marketing tips, based on his own business as well as his work with coaching clients (as opposed to focusing on magic or golden retrievers or New Yorker cartoons, the way I tend to do)

My stalking and lurking went on for 6 months. That whole time, it was on my todo list to write to Jason to get introduced. Of course I never did.

And then, a couple weeks ago, as part of a “JV Outreach Challenge” I ran inside my Daily Email House community, I finally replied to one of Jason’s emails.

I told Jason some of the story above.

I pointed out that there’s an overlap between his audience and my audience, and that he and I seem to focus on complementary parts of the email space.

I asked if he might be down to do a cross-promotion, where we would each introduce our audience to the other’s newsletter.

Jason agreed.

And so here we are.

I’d like to recommend to you sign up to Jason’s daily email newsletter, the same way that I’m signed up.

Jason is offering a lead magnet when you sign up, a 13-point landing page checklist.

Jason’s checklist is free, it’s short, and from what I can tell, having myself never A/B tested a landing page, it’s full of good points.

So sign up to Jason’s newsletter to get the free checklist.

Or really, sign up because what Jason writes about and what I write about are complementary… because you can learn something valuable from his experience and his work with successful business owners… and because you will get to see daily emails done in a different way than you may be used to.

If you run an online business, or if you do email marketing in any way, I suggest you take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/jason

Reader warns me against being a Negative Nancy

by

A long-time reader replies to my email yesterday:

===

Hey John

First – as I stated in a couple of my previous replies to your emails – I love reading yours. (I am subscribed only to two daily newsletters and one is yours)

It gives that chill vibes and interesting reading type of feelings.

And since, I like reading your emails and planning to do so as long as you write, wanted to share with you that today’s email brought a feeling of negativity (it could be me only though).

No intention to judge, just sharing the impact of your email left on me.

===

I’m not 100% sure what this reader meant to convey. If I’m reading into it, I guess he meant that negativity is negative, and negative things are negative. “Don’t be a Negative Nancy,” that kind of thing.

And yes:

It’s good idea to keep your emails light and positive. And yet…

It’s a better idea to change things up from time to time, to keep people from dismissing you by thinking they know what you’ll say next. And then…

It’s a best idea to be congruent, and to never sound like you’re trying to cover up your real thoughts or feelings, or come across as half-heartedly spinning scat into sucrose.

More on the this sensitive topic:

A few days ago, I got an unusual new subscriber to my Daily Email Habit service. I won’t name him here, because I’m not sure he wants me to.

I will say that, unlike most people signed up to DEH, this new customer is not running a typical coaching/course-selling/service-provider business.

Instead, he is a fiction author. He’s looking to sell his more of his own fiction books, and to build a tighter bond with his existing audience.

We exchanged a couple emails, and in one of them, this fiction author wrote about the unique part of writing daily emails to a fiction-reading list:

===

It’s a different beast to problem-solving markets as it disproportionately leans more on personal stories, personality, etc., which is difficult when you’ve got no pain points to leverage. Still, it has been fun to stretch myself.

===

True. People don’t really read fiction because they are looking for how-to solutions to their specific problems.

That said, people who read fiction do have problems in their lives – as we all do.

My bit of advice to the fiction author was to talk about his own problems. Not in a way of seeking pity or even asking for solutions, but simply as a means of allowing his audience to identify with him.

It took me a long while to realize the following point, because I’m a bit dense:

But the real point of telling a personal story isn’t to brag or be an exhibitionist or even to entertain.

Rather, it’s to allow other people to identify with you, to put themselves in your position in your story, and to say to themselves, “Yeah, that makes sense,” or “Yeah, that’s happened to me,” or “Yeah, that’s how I felt also.”

And so if you ever find yourself asking:

“Is this a good personal story? Should I include this bit? Is it relevant? Is it interesting? Am I just including it for the sake of ego? Is it irrelevant to the story but somehow important on another level?”

… then keep in mind that your personal story isn’t really about you, but is really about allowing your reader to have a certain kind of experience, thanks to you.

Anyways, all that’s to say:

1. Daily emails don’t always gotta be blinding sunshine and positivity

2. In fact there’s a good reason for regularly sharing frustrations and personal problems

3. Sometimes you can cram more than one point into an email

By the way, my email yesterday, which was deemed negative by at least one reader, was negative on purpose, because it was written as my answer to yesterday’s Daily Email Habit puzzle.

Yesterday’s DEH puzzle has now vanished, along with February 2025, never to be repeated.

But another new puzzle will come out tomorrow, fresh for March 2, 2025.

And if you want to use this upcoming puzzle to help you sell more of your own stuff, including even fiction books… and to build a tighter bond with your existing audience… then you may, or you may not, like my Daily Email Habit service. Only one way to find out:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

I’m not letting people resubscribe to Daily Email Habit any more

by

In reply to my email yesterday, a now ex-subscriber to my Daily Email Habit service wrote in to say:

===

Hello! Which is your paid email? This one or daily email habit? The emails have been all great, and great tips, but I don’t want to get charged $30 per month (doing taxes and realizing how many subscriptions I have 😬). I’d like to unsubscribed for the paid one and not the other.

===

First, a disclaimer:

I appreciate all customers. I appreciate the trust they put in me, the interest they have in what I offer, and the money they choose to give me.

But I gotta say this particular customer’s reply made me frown. She didn’t even know which is my personal free newsletter, and which is the paid service?

I must be doing something wrong.

I’ve also had a few Charter Members unsub from Daily Email Habit over the past month, following a very successful quasi-launch I did back in January, and say things like, “I gotta save the $20/month right now, but I will be back soon!”

Again, clearly I’m doing something wrong, because I’m not getting these people to take what they signed up for seriously, to consume it, to get value from it.

I’ve already done what I know to do to make the actual Daily Email Habit service both easy to get started with, and addicting to keep going with.

I might in the future put up some kinds of restrictions on people signing up, to make sure they are actually committed.

But right now, starting today, as this email goes out, I’ve decided to institute a new policy:

I’m not letting people resubscribe to Daily Email Habit after they unsubscribe.

It’s a policy I got from Ben Settle, who uses the same for his paid print newsletter.

This policy worked on me when I signed up to Ben’s newsletter. It made me sign up much later, only when I told myself I was really ready, and it made me take the content that Ben was sharing much more seriously.

And yes, this policy also made me stay signed up to Ben’s newsletter longer than I might have, after I’d had enough.

In part it was the threat of not being able to resubscribe… and in part it was Ben’s dismissive and shaming attitude to people who do unsubscribe.

I’m trying to soften that effect here as far as possible. I have no interest in shaming anyone, or continuing to take money from people who are not getting value from what I offer.

Quite the opposite.

I want dedicated people to sign up to Daily Email Habit, to use the service and to benefit from it, and to get much more from it than what they pay me.

That’s why I invite you to take what time you need to decide if you’re ready to start your own daily email habit, and put in consistent daily work to build up your own authority… a relationship with a list who trusts you and wants to hear from you… and a business that really can run on the back of an email a day, if you so choose.

If after all this, you do sign up to my Daily Email Habit service, and you still find it’s not working for you, of you’re not using it in spite of your best intentions and my best efforts to help you, then no problem.

Again, I appreciate your interest and your trust.

But as of today, anybody who unsubs from Daily Email Habit won’t be able to resubscribe.

I expect I will have to write subsequent emails about this to really get my point across. Still, I’ve updated the Daily Email Habit sales page to clearly state the new reality.

In any case, if you’d like to get the full info on Daily Email Habit, WHICH IS A PAID SUBSCRIPTION OFFER, DISTINCT FROM THIS PARTICULAR DAILY EMAIL NEWSLETTER YOU ARE READING NOW, then you can get that at the following page.

Read through it. Take what time you need to decide if you’re really ready to get started. And then, take a bit more time before you make any rash decisions like signing up. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

A free tip to minimize unsubscribes

by

A few days ago, Maliha Mannan, who writes dailyish emails over at The Side Blogger, posted something interesting inside my little Daily Email House community.

Apparently, Maliha was trying a HARO-like service – HARO, which stands for Help A Reporter Out, basically being a service where industry experts can provide answers and quotes for reporters, in exchange for attribution or a link.

On a whim, Maliha decided to ask for a marketing specialist’s thoughts on daily email newsletters. She put her request out into the ether, and like a lightning bolt, an answer crashed upon her:

===

Hi, this is C S Sultan, an experienced marketer for over 14 years and doing email marketing for over 5 years now.

As per our data, the highest you should send in a week are 2 emails. But the best would be to send only 1. Then moment we send more that 2, the unsubscribe rate goes up by 70%.

Our email list consists of marketers, content creators, bloggers, and small-to-medium businesses.

Even so, the highest response we get is when we send a single email every week at a fix time and day (for us, usually that’s Tuesday 8AM EST for one segment, and Thursday 8AM EST for another segment).

===

So there you go. An excellent tip to keep your unsubscribe rates really low. Though I imagine if C S Sultan only emailed his list every month, or maybe not at all, he might do even better with the unsubscribes.

Of course, there are other possible goals in the world than minimizing unsubscribes. For example, maximizing opens, clickthroughs, sales, or better yet, lifetime sales.

Or, something more wooly but still important, such as maximizing the quality of people who are buying from you… maximizing the results you get for customers or clients or even readers who don’t buy from you… or maximizing your own sensation of the influence and respect you get in your niche, and the satisfaction with which you run your business and life.

For all those, here’s another free tip:

Email daily.

Yes, people will unsubscribe. But people will read also, and way more than if you just email once a week or once an ice age.

And more people will buy, more will recommend you, more will look to you for entertainment, guidance, or simply the habit that they’ve formed of taking a few minutes each day (gasp!) to consume something fun or thoughtful you’ve put out into the world. Plus you might even grow to like the process. I know I’ve gotten there.

Like Maliha wrote, maybe C S Sultan should sign up for my Daily Email Habit service. I doubt that he will.

But maybe you are not playing to lose, but are playing to win. In that case, Daily Email Habit might be a fit for you. For more info, before the next puzzle has come and gone:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The Bejakovic principle

by

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure ought and six, result misery.”

I recently finished reading David Copperfield, a book written some 175 years ago by Charles Dickens.

I read David Copperfield based on the strength of that quote, which is spoken by a character named Wilkins Micawber, and has become popularly known as the Micawber principle.

The Micawber principle pretty much sums up my own attitude to money, try as I have to care more about getting rich for the sake of getting rich.

But today’s email is not about money. Rather, it’s about influence.

Dickens introduces Wilkins Micawber by saying the man had “no more hair upon his head (which was a large one, and very shining) than there is upon an egg.”

Micawber’s clothes were shabby, but he carried a “jaunty sort of a stick” and a quizzing-glass (something like a monocle) on the outside of his coat. (“For ornament, I afterwards found,” Dickens adds, “as he seldom looked through it, and couldn’t see anything when he did.”)

As becomes clear throughout the book, Mr. Micawber loves pompous language… swings between despair and perfect cheerfulness in the span of a meal… and is always in debt, and is always running away from his lenders. Hence the Micawber principle, which Micawber advises others to live by, but cannot follow himself.

But let me get to the point of this email:

I hadn’t realized this before, but Charles Dickens is famous for his characters. In fact, he might be the most famous novelist of all times, in all languages, when it comes to distinct, memorable characters.

Besides Mr. Micawber, there’s Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, the Artful Dodger — dozens and dozens of famous characters, many of who have passed into popular culture and even the English language.

So what?

So I’m telling ya, read Dickens for character… and then apply the lessons to yourself.

As Dan Kennedy said once, the basis for influence is invention.

Specifically, Dan said that people who write for great influence — he was talking about people who write for business purposes, as he does — turn themselves into personas, into fictional characters.

And by the way, Dan adds:

“The good copywriters are frustrated fiction writers and read fiction.”

So read Dickens. Or read some other fiction, which is built around distinct, memorable characters.

And then, add a quizzing glass to your outfit, even if you seldom look through it and cannot see anything when you do… and even if it’s only there in your writing, and not in reality.

Now here’s the Bejakovic principle:

“Twenty four hours, one email written and sent out, result happiness. Twenty four hours, no emails written or sent out, result misery.”

Only difference is, unlike Mr. Micawber, I manage to live by my own principle. And if you’d like my help in achieving lasting happiness, and maybe in turning yourself into a fictional character in your emails:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

It can’t go on for long like this

by

I once took a class on “health economics,” which is just what it sounds like.

One thing that’s stuck with me from those lectures is how back in the 1980s, the best and brightest political scientists in the West had no clue that the Soviet Union was about to collapse.

The only guy who was confidently predicting the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union was some low-profile economist who was looking at the rates of alcoholism and alcohol-related deaths in the USSR.

I don’t remember the exact numbers, but they were sky-high. A major part of the Soviet working-age population was either chronically drunk, sick from drinking, or dying from drinking.

It couldn’t go on for long like this, that economist predicted. And sure enough, it didn’t.

I thought of this a couple days ago while forcing myself to read an article about the U.S. Army’s recruiting shortfalls.

The U.S. Army’s recruiting woes are not a topic that I am personally interested in, but I’m glad I read the article. Among many other interesting things, it taught me the following:

“According to a Pentagon study, more than three-quarters of Americans between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four are ineligible, because they are over-weight, unable to pass the aptitude test, afflicted by physical or mental-health issues, or disqualified by such factors as a criminal record.”

I wanted to get a baseline.

A bit of perplexitying told me that during World War II, “nearly half” of men were deemed ineligible to serve in the army… during the Vietnam war, that had risen to “more than half” (though many eligible men were exempted for being in college)… by 2017, the number of ineligible men and women, ages 17 to 24, had reached 71%. In the most recent study, in 2022, that number had gone up to 77%.

In other words, in the span of about 50 years, the share of the “ineligible” has gone up by more than 50%… and the share of U.S. citizens, in the prime of life, who are not significantly compromised by health, mental, or behavioral issues, is now barely 1 in 5.

I don’t know what the future of the U.S. is. But the trend certainly isn’t good. It can’t go on for long like this.

Now that I’ve dug a six-foot-deep hole for myself so far in this email, let’s see if I can clamber out.

One idea I’ve personally found very inspiring over the years comes from Dan Kennedy.

I only know this idea as it was retold by Ben Settle in one of Ben’s emails. In fact, it was this email that got me to sign up to Ben’s paid newsletter.

The idea is the “myth of security.” Because, says Dan, there is no such thing as security. Not really, not if you look close.

There’s no security in the money or investments you already have in the bank… in the job that you have now… in the business that you might own… in the current method you have of getting customers or clients… even in your personal relationships, your community, or even your nation (or your nation’s army).

All of that can disappear, from today to tomorrow, or from this year to next year. It’s happened before, and it can happen again.

The only security you have? According to Dan, it’s only in your ‘ability to produce.’ In a few more of Dan’s words:

“… you had better sustain a very, very serious commitment to maintaining, improving, enhancing and strengthening your own ‘ability to produce’, because, in truth, it is all you’ve got and all you will ever have. Anything and everything else you see around you, you acquire and accumulate, you invest in, you trust in, can disappear in the blink of an eye.”

Another valuable idea I’ve learned, this from “Sovereign Man” Simon Black, is that of a Plan B. A Plan B is a plan that works in case things go bad… and that also works and brings in value even if things stay as they are.

Dan Kennedy’s idea of a very serious commitment to your “ability to produce” falls into this Plan B category.

I don’t know what you can produce.

I’ve personally decided to focus on producing effective communication — on putting together words that can motivate, influence, and guide others, and getting better at doing that, day after day.

I figure if nothing ever changes, and things stay exactly as they are, those will be very valuable skills to have.

On the other hand, if things change drastically tomorrow, those will still be valuable skills to have — and they may prove to be the only things that still have value.

If you’d like my help and guidance in developing your own ability to produce, starting today, so you can be prepared for tomorrow:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

My top 7 marketing books

by

I heard once that reading lists make for great lead magnets.

Is that true? I don’t know.

But it got me to put together a recommended reading list of my own.

I started with a goal of 10 books — but though I’ve read many more than 10, I couldn’t honestly recommend 10. That’s a good thing for you — less reading to do.

So here are my top 7 marketing books, for you to enjoy, learn, and profit from:

1. The Robert Collier Letter Book, by Robert Collier

This book has it all — wagons of coal, silk stockings, genies in the lamp, free pens, rattlesnakes, dinosaurs. If you only ever read one book about direct marketing, this is my number-one recommendation.

2. Positioning, by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Tons of other good marketing advice beyond, “Get yourself into a niche of one.”

3. My Life In Advertising, by Claude C. Hopkins

All the wisdom in Hopkins’s vaunted Scientific Advertising, but presented with stories and detail that make it go down more easy.

4. The Adweek Copywriting Book, by Joe Sugarman

Very accessible, usable, and current, even if you never write a full-page magazine ad selling a calculator or UV-blocking sunglasses.

5. Influence, by Robert Cialdini

I wish I had written this book. What more can I say?

6. Start With No, by Jim Camp

You may have seen this negotiation book recommended before by online marketers. It happens a lot. What is it about Camp’s negotiation strategies that could be useful to sales and marketing online?

7. Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath

I read this book only once but it’s stuck. That’s because the authors know what they’re talking about, and because they apply it to their own writing.

Like I said, I’ve heard that reading lists make for great lead magnets.

Do they also make for effective email copy? I don’t know.

But I’m willing to test it out.

If you haven’t already clicked away to Amazon to get one of the books above, maybe you will click below to the sales page for my Daily Email Habit service. It sometimes forces even me to write emails I would never write otherwise. Here’s the link if you’d like to find out more about it:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Bob the mole gets kicked out my garden for the 4th time

by

I got an exciting reply to my email yesterday:

===

Hi!

Thank you for the offer. May I please have a copy of What’s Grown My List Over The Years, Vol. 1-6?

Bob

===

I rubbed my palms and grinned at this. “Here we go!”

Bob is not a new subscriber to my Daily Email Habit, which was the condition I had set and clearly stated for giving away, as a free bonus, a guide I’ve created, “What’s Grown My List Over The Years, Vol. 1-6.”

Instead, Bob is both a new and an old reader of this newsletter, who has never bought anything from me, and who I keep unsubscribing from my list, year after year.

Bob first signed up to my list back in 2020. He used to reply to my emails from time to time in a slightly self-entitled tone that always left me feeling put off, though I couldn’t quite place why.

Then in 2021, he replied to one of my emails accusing me of lying. At that point I unsubscribed him, wrote a nice email about it, and then forgot all about Bob.

Fast-forward to 2023. Bob found his way onto my list again. Within a few days, he again sent me a message that had something slyly aggressive and accusing about it.

I unsubscribed him for the second time without even replying, and I wrote a nice email about it.

Then it happened again a few months later in 2023. Same deal.

Finally, Bob resubscribed to my list this past Monday. I was waiting and wondering how long it would take him to reply to one of my emails in some sort of self-entitled, mildly irritating way. It didn’t take long. And so here we are, with me writing a new email about Bob, after I’ve unsubscribed him for the 4th time.

Marketing to an audience is often compared to gardening. The usual biblical analogies apply — you have to prepare the soil, plant the right seeds, tend to them, and be patient.

If you do all those, then those seeds multiply thirtyfold or sixtyfold or even hundredfold. Not only do you get richer as a result, but you get the pleasure of seeing your garden grow and thrive from season to season, and your good work turn meaningful.

Of course, from time to time blights come along, big and small. Sometimes a mole pops up in your garden, and demands a carrot or a beet, for no good reason other than that it wants one, and quick.

My personal policy in that case is to pick up the mole, thank it for tilling and aerating my soil for me, and then place it outside the walls of my garden, so it can come back next season and do its good work again.

But enough mole analogies.

Because the deadline do get “What’s Grown My List Over The Years, Vol. 1-6” is tonight at 12 midnight PST.

This guide sums up 6 list-growing techniques, which I’ve jokingly called “magic list-growing secrets Big Email doesn’t want you to know.” (I’m telling you now, they’re no secrets at all. It’s a joke, so don’t write in and accuse me of lying.)

Instead, these 6 techniques all take time, money, or effort (pick any two). But if you can get a bit of any two of money, time, or effort, and if you apply them steadily, then people start finding you — like Bob the mole keeps finding me, year after year.

If you’d like to try out Daily Email Habit for a month and get “What’s Grown My List Over The Years, Vol. 1-6” as a free bonus, the deadline is nigh:

https://bejakovic.com/deh