Business Ideas

Perfect neighbor positioning

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My mom sighed. “His stupid dog died.”

There was a pause on the line. Then I broke out laughing.

I’m not sure what did it. I love dogs. I don’t want any of them to suffer or die.

Maybe it was the contrast between my mom’s choice of words and the emotion in her voice.

Or maybe it was that she thought the dead dog was worth mentioning at all. Because this dog and its owner are not anybody my mom or I know. Or have ever known. Or will ever know.

Instead, the dog owner is the host of some health podcast. My mom listens to this podcast with devotion. Whenever I call her, she gives me summaries of the most recent episodes — even though I’m not curious. And now the host’s bulldog died, and he devoted entire episode to that. My mom had to share this with me also.

You probably know the marketing idea of KLT — know, like, and trust. It works.

Because our brains can’t distinguish messages going to thousands of people, ourselves included… from one-on-one communication we used to have not so long ago, talking to our neighbors over the fence or with our friends over a coffee.

So KLT says you can position yourself as the perfect neighbor. Chipper, encouraging, and helpful. Sharing some gossip… telling a funny personal story… enthusing about a good deal you just got on six pounds of chicken breast at the grocery store across town.

Do this, and people will listen to you.

And if every so often, you also show up in tears because your dog died… people will even bond with you. They’ll feel you’ve crossed the threshold. You won’t be just a good neighbor to them. You’ll become a friend.

Maybe you think this sounds mercenary.

I don’t dispute it. And I don’t have a problem with it.

Still, don’t expect to get more emails from me featuring my podcast-loving, health-obsessed, dog-skeptical mom.

Because while perfect neighbor positioning definitely works… it’s not the only archetype you can fulfill in your prospects’ lives.

Think a little about the people who influence you every day. And you’ll soon see it’s true.

Or if that’s more thinking than you feel like right now, then sign up to my email newsletter. I regularly write about positioning there. And not only that.

I also sometimes practice what I preach. So if you ever find yourself thinking, “This Bejakovic guy is not very likable… so why I do I keep listening to him?”… well, there might be some positioning secret to it, which you’ll be able to grasp and use.

Prancing Pony wizard characteristic

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In the opening six hours of the Lord of the Rings, the wizard Gandalf finally realizes what those hobbits have in their house.

It’s the One Ring… the focus of all evil in the world. And right now, nine grim and bloody ghost riders are galloping to collect it.

So Gandalf rushes to Frodo the hobbit’s house. He tells Frodo to get himself and the ring out of there now.

Frodo is bewildered. “But where shall I go?”

“Go to the village of Bree,” Gandalf tells him. “I will meet you… at the Inn of the Prancing Pony.”

I recently wrote about Dan Kennedy’s main practical idea for wealth attraction. “Be the wizard, and beware other wizards.”

I’m a literal type so I started watching the LOTR to see what exactly it means to be a wizard in the popular mind. The above scene caught my eye.

Because Gandalf doesn’t say, “Where shall you go? Gee, I don’t know, Frodo… what do you think is best?”

Gandalf also doesn’t say, “Head to Bree. There must be some inns there. Book a room in one of them. I think they use the same money as here. I will try to find you sooner or later.”

Gandalf doesn’t even say, “Go to the Inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree. Because it’s not too far from here… and it’s on the way to where the ring needs to go anyhow… plus they make this really wonderful mutton sandwich, I think you will love it.”

Nope. Instead Gandalf gives clear, certain, and yet cryptic guidance.

Clear. Because if people are paying the wizard big bucks, they want to be told exactly what to do.

Certain. Because there’s nothing worse than doubt. Doubt is not a burden many people are willing to carry — and that’s why they seek out the wizard.

And cryptic. Why the Inn of the Prancing Pony… and not next door, at the Inn of the Gamboling Goat? We’ll never know. Gandalf gives us no fumbling explanation. Which allows us to think there must be a good reason… even if we are not privy to it. He’s the wizard, after all.

Of course, LOTR is a movie.

Plus I don’t think Dan Kennedy is as literal-minded as I am. I don’t think he was really talking about putting on a grey pointed hat… or trying to impress clients by growing out your beard and eyebrows.

Still, there is something in the unconscious mind that responds to wizard cues like in the scene above. And often, these cues pop up most clearly in pop culture like LOTR.

So if you work with clients, here’s where to go:

Give your clients clear guidance. Take away their doubts before they even have them. Resist your urge to explain yourself. And when you finish… I will meet you… at the Inn of the Wealthy Wombat.

Tending the penguins

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On September 27, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off on a daring, last-of-its-kind conquering of Antarctica.

But his ship got stuck in ice. The popular explorer and his intrepid men faced the prospect of a cold, slow, lonely death. They cabled a desperate plea back to England, asking for help.

Their message made it up to the First Lord of the Admiralty, a guy by the name of Winston Churchill. Churchill was in the middle of dealing with what would later be called World War I. And he wrote in response:

“When all the sick and wounded have been tended, when all their impoverished & broken hearted homes have been restored, when every hospital is gorged with money, & every charitable subscription is closed, then & not till then wd. I concern myself with these penguins.”

Yesterday I promised to share with you one final great lesson I learned from Ben Settle. So let me get right to it:

Have standards for your business, and stick to ’em.

Like Churchill above, do the things you say matter to you. And leave the tending of the penguins for only after, if ever.

“That’s your great lesson?” you say.

Yeah. Hear me out.

I don’t know why having standards and sticking to them works so well. Maybe there’s some magic in it, and if you do it, the universe gives you more of what you focus on.

Or maybe it’s less magical. Maybe it’s just that we all secretly like strongmen. Maybe we are still kids in adult bodies. And whenever somebody assumes the right to start setting rules and boundaries… we start looking to them as an authority to be obeyed and respected.

Whatever the case, I believe that having your own standards and sticking to ’em – whether for yourself… your offers… your marketing… your business partners… your business practices… and yes, even for your customers — is the way to not only become successful… but to become successful on your own terms.

It’s how Ben was able to defy industry norms and not only survive but thrive. It’s how he could send multiple ugly-looking emails a day… offer no refunds… charge hundreds of dollars for a paperback book… while living his “10 minute workday” and making something close to $1 million a year, working by himself.

And a similar opportunity is there for you, too. You can also create a successful business that suits exactly you, if you take it upon yourself to turn the penguins away. Even if they are cold, hungry, desperate, intrepid, and popular. And even if the decision to do so might not win you any friends or make you any money in the short term.

But before you start rubbing your hands together, let me make clear that standards are not the only thing you need to succeed.

You can sit in your darkened room, having standards and sticking to them until you’re blue in the face.

Nobody will care.

You still need the fundamentals. Like attractive offers. And good copy. And a responsive list. Mix those fundamentals with some strict standards, and then you get the success you want, how you want it.

What’s that? You want some more? Well here’s one final point:

You probably know plenty of good resources to teach you the first two fundamentals above. And you might even know a good resource to teach you the last.

But I’d like to tell you about a resource which shows you how to create a responsive list beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I became aware of this resource only recently, and completely unexpectedly. And I’ll share it in an email to my newsletter next week. If you’d like to read that when it comes out, you can sign up here.

The king’s evil

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“‘Tis called the ‘evil:’
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do.”

For centuries, English and French kings used to claim they had a divine gift. They had the “king’s touch,” which could heal disease on contact.

Mostly, these monarchs specialized in healing one disease — a nasty condition called scrofula. This was a tumor-like lump on the neck, along with ruptured skin there.

Scrofula even became known as the “king’s evil.” If you had the evil, you could push your way towards the king… get touched… and with almost miraculous certainty, be healed. In this way, the “king’s touch” gave the monarchs a special authority and position, separate from the money and power they controlled.

“Yeah yeah,” I hear you saying. “Enough with the history lesson. Tell me how I can make money.”

All right. So continuing with my recent series, here’s a great way to make money, one I first heard from Ben Settle:

Charge premium prices. $97/month for a 16-page print newsletter… $499/month for access to an insiders’ community… $986 for a paperback book.

There are good practical reasons for this premium price strategy. Ben explains it by saying he’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies.

Sure, both might add up to $1.

But it takes a lot less work to pick up four quarters than a hundred pennies… plus the quarters are likely to have changed hands less often and therefore be cleaner… plus they are easier to carry than a clunky jar full of copper.

So there’s that.

But there’s another, more powerful reason to charge premium prices.

It goes back to the king’s touch… and the king’s evil. Because scrofula rarely resulted in death, and it usually disappeared on its own. That was the explanation for the kings’ divine gift.

And in a similar way, along with a few other things Ben does, premium prices select a special part of your market.

They select the part that was most likely to succeed anyhow. That was most likely to succeed with your guidance… or with somebody else’s guidance… or without guidance at all, just with some extra time.

And just to be clear — I’m not trying to take away anything from the stuff Ben teaches. There are many profitable ideas inside his paid products. Many I’ve personally used and made money from.

But if you take the extra step, like Ben does, to get those ideas into the hands of people who will most likely succeed, sooner or later, one way or another… well, once they do succeed, you can credibly claim to have the divine gift. The king’s touch. A special authority and positioning, separate from your marketing or the quality of products you sell.

But you say you want more scrofulous business and marketing ideas.

Well I’m not surprised. But I am quite sleepy. So if you do want more, sign up to my email newsletter, and I’ll have a new marketing idea ready for you tomorrow.

Burning down the temple

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On July 21, 356 BC, a Greek man by the name of Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

The temple, which was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, burned to the ground.

Herostratus was captured. Under torture, he admitted that he had set fire to the temple in an attempt to immortalize his name. The torturing continued. Herostratus died. And he didn’t just lose his life.

His name. The thing he had cared more for than his own body. It was at risk of oblivion.

Because the rulers of Ephesus passed a “Damnatio memoriae” law. They wanted to erase all memory of Herostratus’s name, and discourage others from following his example. The punishment for breaking the law was death.

But it didn’t work. You can’t keep a good arsonist down.

And so today, 25 centuries later, we still know of Herostratus and what he did. Had he never burned down the temple, he might have lived a more pleasant and natural life. But who would ever know him, or that he had lived?

Yesterday I promised to tell you about a few great ideas I’ve learned from Ben Settle. Well here’s one:

Go inside the temple. Walk up to the altar. And start a fire.

You know, I’m not really being literal when I say that. I’m just telling you to identify the sacred precepts in your industry… turn them upside on their head… and burn them down. A few examples from Ben’s emails:

* Why the customer is always wrong

* If someone asks you about your refund guarantee, don’t waste time answering. Simply delete them from your list

* Insanity is NOT doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

Back in the days before I was fully sucked into Ben’s world, it was these kinds of statements that drew me in. Shock, controversy, dissonance.

If you burn down the temple, then like Ben Settle or Herostratus, you will be hated by many people. And you may come into conflict with established authorities. But your name will be known.

Do I hear you crying out?

“Waaah! But I don’t want to be no-no-notorius!”

Sigh. All right. So let me spell it out, in case you’re not ready to burn anything down yet.

The point, as Rich Schefren likes to say, is that different is better than better.

People have a hard time figuring out who’s really good… and who’s just ok good… and who’s not very good at all. But they have an easy time recognizing who’s different.

​​And that’s all you need to get attention. You don’t have to burn the temple down. You just have to be different. You have to be the Australia to somebody’s Bolivia — which might not make sense to you, unless you read my post yesterday.

But wait. If you thought you were off the hook, and that you wouldn’t have to court controversy and infamy… there’s more.

Because there are other reasons to burn the temple down, which go beyond simply getting attention.

Burning down the temple can be at the core of your business.

It can allow you to have long-term success that nobody else is having… regardless of how much cheap attention you or they are getting.

Do you see what I mean yet? You probably do. But I have a few more of these great ideas I got from Ben Settle in mind. And if you like, I might share this particular one in a future email. If you’d like to read then when it comes out, sing up for my newsletter here.

Don’t you get sick of being right all the time?

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“What do you think? I bet it’s just one guy.”

Butch Cassidy. The Sundance Kid. Their last day on Earth. ​​The two outlaws have just ridden into a Bolivian town to have a meal… and somebody starts shooting at them.

They run for cover inside a saloon.

Butch is the brains of the operation and forever the optimist. “What do you think?” he says to Sundance. “I bet it’s just one guy.”

Sundance takes off his hat and pokes it out the door. An army of guns goes off immediately. A dozen bullets whiz through the hat. Sundance stares at Butch.

“Don’t you get sick of being right all the time?”

Well? Don’t you?

Today I want to share an unpleasant but valuable truth with you. You may or may not be ready to hear it.

I first heard it from John Carlton. John says:

In order to persuade large groups of people to buy, act now, or even just begin to see your side of things… you have to see the world as it is.

Not as you wish it was. Not as you believe it should be. Not as you were told it was.

As it is. The stark, cold reality of how things actually work, and how people actually behave.

This is often scary, at first. It requires you to look behind your go-to belief systems (which you may have had since you were a kid)… to challenge authority’s version of what’s going on… and — most important — you must willingly exit the shared delusion among the majority of your fellow humans that what they say they’ll do is more important than what they actually do.

That’s not the only shared delusion among us fellow humans. There are plenty of others.

​​Such as “The One Thing”… the simple, black-and-white explanation… the leader to be obeyed or the charlatan to be mocked.

We all want to believe the world works like this. And there’s a lot of money to be made by telling people what they want to hear.

​​But like Carlton says, to make that money, it might be helpful to see the world as it is, rather than as you wish it were. Even if it means you’ll stop being right all the time.

But you know what? I’m not really talking to you. I’m talking to myself. Because check it:

A few weeks ago, I decided to unsubscribe from Ben Settle’s Email Players newsletter. I was subscribed for over 4 years. But I had my reasons to quit.

Ben is somebody I’ve learned the most from, both directly and indirectly, about this copywriting and marketing stuff. And yet, since unsubscribing from his newsletter, I notice my brain trying to make things black-and-white. To discount the things I’ve learned from him. To put them in a box of things I’ve outgrown.

My brain wants to be right. But I want to be rich.

So for your benefit as well as my own, over the next several days, I’ll tell you a few of the great things I’ve learned from Ben Settle. A few things… because there’s no “The One Thing.”

Put together, these great ideas were a central part of the success I’ve achieved so far. Perhaps they can help you too. As a sneak preview of the first of these great ideas, here’s a bit of dialogue between Butch and Sundance… right before they try to shoot their way out of the saloon, against an entire battalion of Bolivian soldiers and police:

Butch: Australia. I thought that secretly you wanted to know so I told you.

Sundance: That’s your great idea?

Butch: The latest in a long line. We get out of here alive, we go to Australia. Goodbye, Bolivia. Hello to Australia.

The business-changing magic of prepaying up

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Here’s a wealth attraction story from Dan Kennedy, which might benefit you whether you’re a pro or just starting out in business:

Dan used to work as a business and marketing advisor to lots of chiropractors. And one thing he always tried to implement is prepay.

In other words, get a prospect in the door… sell them a $10k package of treatments that last an entire month… and charge them up front for it.

“You could take a chiropractor who’s barely keeping the lights on and take him to $40,000 a month like this,” Dan said with a snap of the fingers. “Because he only needs four new patients.”

So that’s one thing to mull over if you’re established in business already. And here’s a second thing, which can benefit you even if you’re as new as a child:

Dan said that if the chiropractor was really good at the prepay sales pitch, he could close three out of four leads.

If the chiropractor was ok at the sales pitch, he could close two out of four.

And if the chiropractor was bad at the sales pitch… he could close one out of four.

So take that and conclude from it what you will.

​​What? You want to know what my conclusion was? Gah, all right:

I take from this story that it doesn’t matter if your inner game sucks. It doesn’t matter if you are raw and unskilled. Because if you have the willingness and bare capacity to follow a system, however awkwardly, you can see results. Not the best results possible… but results nonetheless.

And now let me remind you that enrollment for my Copy Riddles program closes tonight at midnight PST.

So if you’d like a last-minute reminder of what this program is about… or if you’d like to prepay for two months of intense copywriting treatments while I’m still taking on new patients… then here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

More pie: How to sometimes get what you want, even if you can’t afford it

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Before he became a master copywriter, back when he was still a young man, marketing legend Claude Hopkins tried to get a better paying job.

And he tried to do it by talking about his poverty.

No dice. The boss wasn’t moved. He thought struggle and poverty were good for a young man.

So Hopkins admitted his true ambition.

He wanted to eat more pie. There was a boarding house that served pie every night, but he couldn’t afford to live there.

Turns out, the boss loved pie. He couldn’t bear the idea of a man being denied pie. What’s life without pie.

So he hired Hopkins, at a better salary, and even invited the young man to his home — to eat pie, of course.

I mention this because over the past week, a few people have written me to get free access to Copy Riddles. They cited their poverty and bad circumstances.

I turned them away. You can probably guess my reasons:

1. I like to get paid, and even people who are in bad circumstances can often pull together the money for things they really really want.

2. Letting in people for free because isn’t very cool to people who pay.

3. There’s a lot of truth to the idea that, unless you pay for something, you don’t value it.

You’ve probably heard all these arguments before. The only extra thing I can add is to suggest that, if there’s something you really really want, and you absolutely 100% can’t afford it, then talk about your lust for pie — or whatever your true ambition is — rather than about your poverty. It might open more doors.

That however, is not an invitation to write to me about your love of pie. It won’t get you an invite to my house for dinner, and it won’t get you into Copy Riddles for free.

In fact, nothing will get you into Copy Riddles for free, at least for this next round, which kicks off on Monday. But enrollment ends even sooner, tomorrow, Sunday night, at midnight PST.

So if you’d like to join and you can afford to do so… or even if you can’t afford it, but you can somehow scrape together the money because it’s really really important to you… then here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

Self-serving horror advertorial funnel

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I’m not a natural when it comes to marketing of business. So I have to methodically and consciously do those things that might be obvious to others. As an example of what I mean, here’s a story that Dan Kennedy told about a coaching client who no longer liked Dan’s advice:

This coaching client followed all of Dan’s marketing advice.

​​As a result, the client became booked months ahead of time… he had a steady pipeline of new work… and he couldn’t handle any more business than he already had.

“In other words,” Dan once said in front of a crowded room, “this guy didn’t have a marketing problem any more. He had a capacity problem. So what do you think I told him to do? That’s right! I told him to raise his prices. Drive away some of his current clients. Create a vacuum. Then he would have a marketing problem again, and that’s one I know how to solve!”

Like I said, Dan’s coaching client didn’t like this advice. Maybe it wasn’t what he was hoping for. Or maybe it seemed self-serving.

At least that’s the lesson I got from it:

If you’re in business, then the advice you dole out should be self-serving. In other words, don’t offer advice on problems that you cannot fix.

Obvious, right?​​

For example, maybe your problem is that you don’t have enough front-end sales. So if you like, let me offer a bit of advice.

Write what I call a horror advertorial. This is a first-person story that looks and reads like a blog post… full of misery, drama, and suspense… which ties into your offer.

Run Facebook ads, whether text ads or video ads, to your horror advertorial.

Link the advertorial to an offer page that gives all features and benefits of your offer.

And that’s it. Do this process reasonably well, and you will get more front-end sales than you can handle.

For example, the main clients I worked with for over two years used this model over and over. At the high point, they were doing 2,000 front-end sales a day, just by cloning this same funnel for different offers.

More recently, I helped a supplement company with a squeaky-clean image implement this same horror advertorial funnel. As a result, they went from $2k a day in profitable ad spend… to $12k a day.

What’s that?

You don’t like this advice? You don’t think it will work for you? It seems self-serving?

I can understand. But it’s all I got.

On the other hand, if more front-end sales is something you lust after… and the horror advertorial funnel sounds like something you could profit from… well, then that’s a problem I know how to solve. As a first step, sign up for my email newsletter. And then we can talk.

The very first ad to do sex in advertising

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Albert Lasker, known as “the father of modern advertising,” called it one of the greatest and most important ads ever.

Partly, because it looked and sounded classy.

Partly, because it drove up sales.

But most of all, because it was the first ad to feature sex appeal.

I’m talking about the Woodbury’s Soap ad, which you can find below, if you are the curious type.

For me, it’s hard to get aroused by the sex in this ad. Yes, because I grew up with the Internet. But also, because the sex appeal in this ad was mainly targeted at women, and women and I have differing tastes.

Still, I get aroused by this ad for another reason:

The Woodbury’s ad is an example of a class of ads from the early 20th century, which were not really direct response ads the way we know them today… but which still featured a direct response offer.

For example, the Woodbury’s ad features an offer to write in and get a print of the beautiful painting in the ad, without the company logo or the ad copy. Oh, and you get a sample of the soap too, all for just 10¢ worth of coins or stamps.

The thing that’s interesting is that making this sale isn’t really the point of the ad. After all, this ad continued to run for many years after, without the direct response offer.

My guess is that the direct response mechanism initially served to tell J. Walter Thompson, the marketing agency behind this ad, how effective this ad was in terms of capturing readership, interest, and brand recognition.

Which I think is something you can use today as well.

As I’ve written before, we are entering an age where brand advertising and direct marketing blend. Not just for soap companies. For your own personal brand as well.

And if you do some brand awareness work… whether that’s a podcast appearance… or a livestream… or even a daily email in which you don’t have a product to sell…

It can make sense to put in an offer. Not the real thing you’re selling. Something else.

It can be free. It can also be quick and easy, without any back-end setup. And yet, it can help you gauge how effective your spiel was… and how valuable the channel in which you delivered it.

For example:

If you write me an email, I will direct you to a cool resource for learning more about classic ads like the Woodbury’s ad. These ads all hold great ideas that you can apply to your marketing today. And you can get them in a resource that’s available for free, online — and that I’ve never heard anybody talk about.

Like I said, just write me an email, and I’ll tell you what this resource is.

Oh, and here’s a sample of the Woodbury’s ad, all for just 0¢ worth of coins or stamps: