Positioning

The legend of my upstairs neighbor

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One of my upstairs neighbors is a middle-aged, rather large golden retriever, whose name I’ve never learned.

I hear him frequently trundling across the apartment above mine, his unmanicured golden retriever claws clack-clacking on the hardwood floor.

He he as a passion for barking, often late at night, as I’m falling asleep (warding off robbers who might have climbed up to the 10th floor), or early in the morning, before I’ve really woken up (I guess to announce he is awake and ready to pee).

One time I was sitting on my balcony when a gigantic, disgusting clump of yellow golden retriever hair wafted down from the balcony above and landed at my feet.

For a few moments, I sat there staring at it, considering what to do. Eventually I just decided to just pick it up and throw it in the trash, and never speak of it again (until now).

I’ve run into this golden retriever several times in the elevator. He’s always completely ignored me. He’s never bothered to sniff my hand. There was not the slightest tail waggle. He never even looked up at me — the elevator doors were more interesting.

All that’s to say, my entire experience with this golden retriever has been negative. At no point has this dog ever done anything nice for me or towards me.

And yet, I still have sympathy for this stupid dog, and I keep hoping I’ll run into him whenever I take the elevator.

In part, this is because I’m a sucker for dogs. But in bigger part, it’s that golden retrievers have such a reputation about them — playful, loving, comfortable with and interested in all strangers.

I bring all this up because a couple days ago, I was listening to Dan Kennedy’s Influential Writing seminar.

One of the things that Dan talked about was legend.

He gave the examples of Wyatt Earp (who prolly had little skill with a gun, but developed a reputation as the fastest gun in the West) and Harry Houdini (who created such mystique around his acts that grizzled ex-president Teddy Roosevelt once asked Houdini if the stage illusions were real magic).

The value of such a legend, says Dan, is that it precedes you. Once it’s there, it doesn’t matter much what you do or don’t do. People will still perceive you and think of you through the prism of that legend.

So if you want things to get easier for you in the future, before you even arrive to where you’re going, it makes sense to think about legend, one that precedes you like the smell of galleys preceded them.

And now, I have to go. I have a flight in a couple hours, and I still have to pack and get to the airport.

On my way to the airport, I’ll take the elevator to get to the lobby of my building… and I’m hoping against hope I’ll run into the golden retriever, even though he’s never done anything for me, and maybe this time I’ll get to pet him.

In entirely related news, if you’d like my help starting and sticking with writing daily emails like this one, which get people reading and buying today, and spreading your legend tomorrow, then take a look here:

​https://bejakovic.com/deh​

Contrast positioning for your high-priced offers

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A couple years ago, I read a screenplay by William Goldman for a pirate movie that never got made.

It was very instructive.

The screenplay opens up with a big gruff sailor on board an 18th-century trading vessel. The big gruff sailor is a strong and normally brave man.

But right now, the sailor appears unsure of himself. That’s because he sees a deserted, aimless ship on the horizon.

Could it be pirates?

“It might have been the plague,” the sailor mutters. “Sudden plague could have taken them all.” He looks away from the deserted ship nervously, and looks to his captain.

The captain, on the other hand, says nothing.

Unlike the big gruff sailor, the captain is not scared of ghost ships, and he’s not scared of whatever evil secrets they hide, pirates included.

The captain keeps his eyes trained on the deserted, nearing hulk, ready for whatever it may bring.

And then there’s the switch.

Because on board of the deserted ship that’s getting closer and closer, a figure appears.

The figure is large. It’s black. And it seems to be… on fire?

The figure starts to growl in an inhuman voice that carries over the waves:

“Death or surrender… surrender or die… the Devil bids you choose…”

The normally calm and collected captain, who is so much braver and cooler than the big, gruff sailor, turns pale. He turns and immediately signals to have the white flag hoisted.

Because the captain knows.

That’s not just any pirate ship that’s nearing.

And that’s not just any pirate.

That’s Blackbeard.

I’m telling you this because Goldman’s storytelling strategy applies as well if you sell online. It’s good for building up the main character of a movie… or for building up value for your high-priced offers.

In a few more words:

If you want to make Blackbeard — or your offer — sound important, unique, immense, you can jump straight in, and pile on the adjectives, promises, and threats.

That’s what a lot of business owners do.

At best, it works if you grit your teeth and keep piling on the adjectives, promises, and threats, and if you don’t charge all that much.

At worst, it doesn’t work at all, even when you start dropping the price.

A much better strategy is to do what Goldman did above.

Build up one thing, such as the big gruff sailor… use that to build up a second thing, such as the cool collected captain… and then finally use all that built-up power and contrast to immediately communicate the importance, uniqueness, and immensity of your third thing, say, Blackbeard.

That’s my perceived value tip for you for today, at least if you sell stuff online.

My offer for you today is my important, unique, and immense Daily Email Habit service. It can be useful and hard-working on board your own trading vessel. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The client-catching benefits of having your own offers

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I got a testimonial to crow about and then a possibly valuable lesson for ya.

First the testimonial. Says Brett Freeman, a copywriter out of the UK who recently signed up for my Daily Email Habit service:

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Fourth day in DEH. Turned the Elvis bullet into an email. Got a sale to my £170 course.

So I’d say the investment has paid for itself 🙂

===

Pretty nice! I’m happy to feature Brett’s little case study, and put it up on the sales page. But of course, it’s really up to Brett’s previous work, with just a bit of extra catalyst that I added via Daily Email Habit.

I talked to Brett a while back (gasp, on Zoom, one to one, just because I wanted to hear who he is and what he’s up to.)

He told me he’s a copywriter, primarily working with fitness brands. He has a PT background himself, and he launched a few offers for fitness folks. (I’m guessing that’s where the £170 sale came from.)

Which leads me to the possibly valuable lesson I wanna give ya.

I once watched an hour-long YouTube video of a guy making cold calls to rustle up leads.

He was selling sales training to local business owners.

The very first call on the video was pretty impressive.

Within a couple minutes, the sales trainer cold-called a local business owner… introduced himself… had a bit of a chat about the business owner’s problems… and then scheduled a time to come into the local business owner’s office and have a proper meeting — with the clear and stated goal of selling something if it works out.

The thing that stuck out to me was how the cold caller introduced himself and opened the conversation, right after the line connected.

He didn’t say, “Hey Bill, I’m a salesman with an offer that might be a good fit for your business.”

He also didn’t say, “Hey Bill, WHO DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CORNER to help you get the most out of your sales team, with NO RISK to you?”

Instead, he said, “Hey Bill, I’m a business owner here in Towson as well. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of me?”

The online, non-cold-calling version of that is exactly what Brett is doing.

Having your own list and your own offers allows you to genuinely say, “I’m also a business owner” — because you are.

All that’s to say, if you’re a client-chasing copywriter and you don’t have some kind of an offer, you’re missing out on positioning that can help you get exactly what you’re after. The magical thing is you don’t even have to make any sales of your offer for it to still have a positive effect. The sooner you start working on this, the easier your life will get.

And if you are a copywriter like Brett, who is smartly selling your own offers to your own list, however small, then I can only end by inviting you to check out my Daily Email Habit service.

Brett signed up for it, even though he knows how to write emails, as insurance.

If you’d like something similar, or for more info on Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

… we are the children

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I’ve been waiting all year for this.

Well, specifically, I’ve been waiting since April last year.

That’s when I made a note in my journal that I should write an email about the song We Are The World.

Today is January 28, the day that We Are The World was originally recorded, back in 1986. That makes today a particularly good day to talk about it.

You’ve probably heard We Are The World. Maybe you were even around when it came out.

Basically, We Are The World was a bunch of the biggest U.S. pop stars of the time, singing a simple, heartwarming/sappy, highly repetitive song to raise funds for famine relief.

Each of the pop stars sang just a line or two of the total song — a basic melody, over a background of generic pop instrumentation.

But even if you don’t watch the video, it’s remarkable how quickly you can recognize who’s singing, just by the tone of their voices, within a second or two:

Cindy Lauper — shrill and colorful

Ray Charles — smooth and swinging

Stevie Wonder — clearly from another dimension

Michael Jackson — childish and vulnerable

Bruce Springsteen — muscular and tormented

Bob Dylan — nasal and intellectual

Do you think it’s an accident that the world’s biggest pop stars, then and now, are recognizable by the tone of their voice within about a second and a half?

The last one on my list above, Bob Dylan, is a particularly good example.

Early in his career, Dylan had a much more conventional, clear, melodic way of singing.

At some point, he figured out that exaggerating his natural tendencies, or even inventing a completely new voice, gave him distinctness, memorability, immediate recognizability. The critics, who panned him for it, be damned.

Do you think there might be a valuable opportunity for you there as well? At least if you have a presence online, or want to have a presence online?

If you do, here’s a tip based on what I’ve found to be true:

You don’t have to “decide” on your unique and distinct tone and voice today. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do so.

But you can experiment with it from day to day. Introduce little quirks… make little tweaks… or go whole hog and make a big change and see if it sticks.

Do this regularly, and pretty soon, you will settle into something that both feels natural to you, and which is unique and distinct enough to win you attention even in today’s crowded marketplace.

And that’s my soft segue into my offer today, which is the same offer I’ve been promoting for a while now:

Daily Email Habit.

Daily Email Habit helps you start and stick with consistently writing daily emails so you can make sales, influence readers, and yes, even develop your own unique voice in time.

You don’t NEED Daily Email Habit to write daily emails.

But it can save you time and headache, and make it more likely you will stick with the process long-term. If that’s something you think could be valuable to you, then—

There comes a time…

When we heed a certain call…

Ok, I won’t get all sappy on you and start singing about the children. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

How much things cost now

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A couple days ago, I announced I’ll be increasing the price of my Daily Email Habit service from $20/month to $30/month. I got a reply to that announcement from copywriter and brand strategist Chavy Helfgott, who has subscribed to Daily Email Habit since day 1. She wrote:

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Just chiming in to say that even at $30, you will be vastly undercharging.

I honestly feel that the 40+ days of daily email prompts + knowledge gained in the community, have so far have been at least as valuable for me than the $10,000 personal business coaching I paid for a few years ago.

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I’ll get back to those numbers in a second.

But first, let me tell you that, also a couple days ago, marketer Ross O’Lochlainn, who I guess was in Dan Ferrari’s little coaching group right before me, shared how much some things cost now.

Ross was at an in-person mastermind. A couple who was also in attendance shared the details of their business.

Their business is dream interpretation.

Their current low-ticket offer is $3k. Their premium dream interpretation offer, for a small “bleeding neck” segment of their audience, sells for $35,000 a pop. (People have bought.) The couple think they could get the price up to $75k, or maybe $100k.

Says Ross, this has now replaced his previous best story of premium offerings, which was a dude who charges $10,000 to help people do handstands.

I’m not sharing this to shake my head at the greedy Martin Shkrelis of the dream interpretation and handstand industries.

I’m sharing this to open your mind and maybe mine.

The same “stuff” can be packaged up in a different way and presented inside of a different experience to sell not for 2x, 10x, or even 40x… but even 500x, like Chavy says above.

Or 333x if you sign up tomorrow.

Because today is the last day, ever, in the history of mankind, I will be offering the Charter Member price for Daily Email Habit.

Tonight at 12pm midnight, the price goes up to $30/month.

(Apparently, there is still a lot of room for the price to increase beyond that, too.)

Also, Daily Email House, the community that Chavy refers to above, goes away as a free bonus, at the chime of midnight, just like an ordinary pumpkin that magically turns into its own beautiful paid offer.

If you would like to join Daily Email Habit before these vastly underpriced privileges disappear:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Some leaked news that ties into what I’m selling

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I’m writing this opening sentence in a ham-handed attempt to intrigue you, so you read on. And I’m announcing that fact because it relates to the following leaked media news:

Netflix execs have started telling their screenwriters to announce what the character is doing. Here’s an example, from Netflix’s #1 hit movie, Irish Wish, starring Lindsey Lohan:

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“We spent a day together,” Lohan tells her lover, James. “I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.”

“Fine,” says James. “That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.”

===

Billy Wilder it’s not.

So why are Netflix execs mandating this? Why are they breaking the basic rules of good writing? Why do they want to make screenplays intentionally heavy and plodding, repeating what’s already happened, stating the obvious, telling instead of showing?

There’s a good reason. It’s because people are watching Netflix shows in the background.

I’ve seen this first-hand. My ex-girlfriend used to “watch” Netflix shows while cooking. She’d have the headphones in and move around the kitchen, her phone propped up somewhere in the corner of the counter. She’d glance over at it only occasionally, if she was not chopping carrots or peeking inside the fridge at the moment.

If you write emails to connect with your audience, what does this mean for you?

You might think it means you have to get with the times. To make your writing shorter, punchier, more comic book-like. After all, attention spans are dropping! People are distracted! Content is superabundant! Gotta hook ’em in with memes, emojis, and ellipses!

And yet, I’ve consciously gone in the other direction with this newsletter. This ugly Times New Roman font, big blocky paragraphs, stories that require careful parsing to make sense.

I’ve done it all to encourage people to sit and actually read, instead of skimming my emails while they chop carrots. And I’ve done just fine, even well, by taking this approach.

Point being:

Netflix has 282 million subscribers worldwide. That’s a gargantuan number. But even that is only 3.45% of the world’s population.

Today, you can do things the way that you want, the way that pleases you. If you are persistent and unapologetic about it, and if you deliver value as part of what you do, you will find enough people who resonate with your way of doing things, even if the mainstream is going in the exact opposite direction.

And now I’m going to transition to the sales pitch in this email. Because my opening sentence today is not the only place where I ham-handedly announce things that I’m going to do.

I also do it daily inside my Daily Email Habit service. I do it so you can do it too, for your own audience, in your own tone and voice, and so you can stay consistent in connecting with your audience. For more info on Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The “Challenge Playbook” for building a name for yourself

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Yesterday, I promised to tell you about a guy who became the most famous entertainer of his age via a series of challenges, dares, and contests.

A reader wrote in to guess who it might be. Is it Mr. Beast?

No.

I don’t know Mr. Beast from any other Mr. YouTube Star.

But I am sure the playbook I’m about to show you still works today, and maybe is what Mr. Beast used to get attention and success.

Let me get to our story. It takes place on November 22nd, many, many years ago.

A small, muscular man walked into the Gloucester, Massachusetts police station. And he asked to be chained up. In fact, he asked to be put into the most secure handcuffs the police had.

The man wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t dangerous. He hadn’t committed a crime.

Instead, this was a publicity stunt. His claim was that the police couldn’t hold him.

And sure enough, after the police cuffed him, the man got out of the cuffs, in just a few seconds’ time.

That man’s name?

Mr. Bea— no just kidding.

You’ve probably guessed it already. That man’s name was Harry Houdini.

Houdini was the biggest entertainer of his age. Even today, almost 100 years after his death, Houdini is still the famousest magician who ever lived. Most people, even if they know nothing about magic or Houdini’s stunts, at least know his name.

That time in Gloucester (the year was 1896) was the first time Houdini escaped from cuffs in a police station. But the scheme behind it was one he had used before and would use later, many times.

Houdini would challenge rivals to escape his handcuffs, and offer to pay them if they succeeded (they never could).

He’d put out ads in the newspaper, inviting strangers to come to his shows and get on stage, to cuff and chain and tie him as they pleased, and see if they could contain him (they never could).

He’d put himself in impossible situations — in a strait jacket, upside down, locked in a glass cage filled to the top with water, to see if maybe death could catch him (death did win out in the end, in 1926, via a burst appendix).

Many of Houdini’s stunts were very difficult and demanding to perform. Others were genuinely dangerous. But many were just show — planned, orchestrated, dependent on magician’s tricks to make them look daring and impossible.

The reality didn’t matter. The perception did. And the perception was that Houdini could get out of anything, escape any situation, no matter how desperate. He had demonstrated the fact dozens of times throughout his career. Incontestably. That’s why he went to the police station.

This email is getting long, and it’s about to get longer. Well, at least a bit longer.

Because I don’t want to just tell you about Harry Houdini and his “Challenge Playbook” of building a name for himself. I want you to think about how you could apply Houdini’s playbook to what you do.

After I read about Houdini, I thought about this question myself. I thought about challenges, dares, stunts for myself. Something that seemed risky, unlikely to succeed, costing me significantly if it failed.

I came up with ideas like this:

* Pay $1k for a 40-word classified ad — and make my money back on day 0

* Pay $2k and spend a week to attend a live event, totaling about $4k in real cost — and make that money back before the event is done

* Pay $10k to buy a newsletter in a niche where my good name counts for nothing, where I have no experience, and no particular affinity — and make a 100% return on my money within 3 months

… et cetera. The key is that the outcome be a yes/no achievement, an incontestable result, and something with a touch of risk and glamour — at least glamour as it is in the dollar-denominated online marketing space.

And of course, for any of this to make sense, I’d have to announce my challenge in public… draw out the uncertainty and high-stakes for as long as possible… and make a show out of my desperate and unlikely success, if it did happen.

Maybe my ideas gave you some ideas of your own.

If you do end up creating a daring stunt or challenge in your industry, let me know about it. I’d like to come and watch, and maybe I can even bring some friends to help build buzz in the audience.

But on to the sales end of this email:

You might wonder whether an email like the above is actually useful for selling.

The fact is, I don’t know.

I wrote the above because I felt like writing it, without much thinking about actually tying it into an offer.

That’s a privilege that I allow myself to indulge in sometimes, much like chocolate.

But it’s not something I encourage others to do. I encourage others to write deliberate emails, with deliberate goals — to make sales, to change beliefs in their prospects’ minds, to curate and condition their audience.

That’s what underlies the prompts I put inside my Daily Email Habit service. And in case you’re wondering, my email today and my email yesterday were not based on my own prompts.

But two days was enough of a holiday for me, so tomorrow I’ll get back to writing emails based on the Daily Email Habit prompt.

If you’d like to join me, sign up here before tomorrow’s prompt goes out at 12 midnight PST tonight:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Glamourous and profitable #1 ranking in an impossible category

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In 1987, Hatton Gardens Hotel in Upton Saint Leonards won the inaugural Loo Of The Year award.

The Loo Of The Year is awarded each year to the best public toilet in the UK, based on criteria such as adequate flushing frequency, urinal privacy, overall cleanliness, lighting, lack of vandalism, and, best of all, a “wow factor.”

The Loo Of The Year awards were set up in 1987 by the communications director of a washroom service company.

That first year, only 50 guests attended, and awards were given in only two categories, hotels and restaurants.

There are now 63 categories, and over 300 guests attended the prestigious event and dinner last year.

Yesterday, I talked about the transformative effect that winning the race at Le Mans had on Jaguar, the car brand. To my mind, there are three key elements in something like winning a top-tier car race:

1. A ranking with a clear number 1

2. An incontestable result, a matter of performance, not popularity or opinion

3. An element of glamour

But even if you cannot get all three, two out of three can still be great for business.

Awards and arbitrary “Top 100” listings only offer #1 and #3, ranking + glamour. The results are definitely a matter of popularity or opinion, but so what?

I wrote an email back in 2019 about the impact that the World’s 50 Best Restaurants listing had on the restaurant and tourism industry.

As one extreme example, a Copenhagen restaurant named Noma already had 2 Michelin stars. Even so, they were struggling to fill tables.

After Noma randomly and unexpectedly came in at the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, 100,000 people tried to book a table there in one day. Suddenly, generating business was no longer an issue.

As for Hatton Gardens Hotel:

At the next year’s event ceremony, in 1988, the manager of the Hatton Gardens said visits to his hotel had doubled since winning Loo Of The Year.

Such is the power of a #1 ranking + glamour, above and beyond a certification… or a gold star… or a label. (And yes, even toilets can apparently have glamour — at least glamour enough to double business.)

So create an award for your industry, or create rankings.

Or better yet, pay somebody else to create them, and to announce you the winner.

Put on a tuxedo or an evening gown, get your photo taken in front of one of those step-and-repeat banners, and watch what happens to your business.

And if you detest awards show, and if paying some rando to create a Top 50 ranking and put you at #1 turns you off, don’t worry.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how to have success with only elements 2+3 off the list above.

Can you guess what example I’ll use?

I’ll give you a hint. It’s a man who built a massive, enduring career, out of nothing, to become the most famous entertainer of his age. And he did it with a series of incontestable challenges, dares, and contests, all of which featured an element of glamour.

While you ponder that, let me remind you that my Daily Email Habit has been voted #1 among the World’s Best 100 Email Prompt Services by a distinguished panel of email marketers, all of whom happen to subscribe to Daily Email Habit.

Here’s what one of the distinguished panelists, Australian copywriter Allan Johnson, had to say in casting his vote:

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This is a very useful service. I have always struggled to commit to daily writing (emails or not) and protecting the streak is now a priority, so thanks.

===

If you’d like to find out what makes Daily Email Habit #1:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

What’s next for Jaguar?

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A few weeks ago, Jaguar the car brand ran a new advertising campaign. It was so bad that it had everybody on the Internet talking about Jaguar for a few days.

That sneaky result is not what this email is about. Instead, I want to tell you about something more interesting, and much more value, at least if you sell your own products or services.

I recently watched an old BBC clip, from 1968, titled, “What’s next for Jaguar?”

Jaguar had just come out with a new model then. “Every inch a Jaguar,” said the journalist as he explained all the new features and design choices.

But in the more leisurely pace of 1960s TV, this segment also talked about the history of Jaguar as a company.

It explained how Jaguar had become such an established brand that people would immediately recognize Jaguar design elements, even if the car had no name plate on the back or little cat figurine on the hood.

So let me tell you how Jaguar done it, and trust me, it’s worthwhile reading:

Jaguar was started by two racing enthusiasts. At first, they made sidecars for motorbikes. They then started making race cars.

And they were great at it. Their cars, first called SS, for Swallow Sidecar Company, had both great performance and half the price tag of comparable alternatives like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

The SS branding was dropped after World War II due to sounding a little Nazi-like, and the company took the name of its main model, Jaguar.

But there was still a problem. Like I said, Jaguar cars had great performance and were cheap. What’s not to love?

Well, the CHEAP. Jaguar suffered from being seen as “budget luxury.” Maybe something like a Mazda Miata today. Yes, a Miata is kind of a sports car… but it ain’t no Porsche.

Let me pause for a moment to say, with all delicacy, that maybe something similar applies to you. Maybe you offer a great service or product, at a really great price.

The market should love it. They should be grateful to you. They should line up at your door.

But they don’t. It’s counterintuitive and stupid. But it’s reality.

So maybe you try to increase prices. But people won’t pay more, or pay anything at all, because they don’t know WHY they should.

What then? Back to Jaguar.

How did Jaguar transform? How did they go from the Miata of the 1930s, to a premium brand in the 1960s, coveted by boys and businessmen alike, driven by celebs like Steve McQueen, Tony Curtis, and Frank Sinatra?

Simple. And I’ll tell you. But first I want you to promise you’ll hold your breath for a moment, instead of immediately blurting out, “Oh but how can that possibly be useful to me!”

Ready? Breathe in, and hold it:

Jaguar’s rebranding trick was to win a series of races in the 1950s, culminating with the biggest race of them all, Le Mans.

Jaguar won Le Mans five times in the 1950s. In 1957, Jaguar took five of the first six places, against competition like Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz and Maserati.

Jaguar got out of racing after that. It was too expensive to maintain a team. But the brand was established, and it’s stuck with us for 70+ years since, until perhaps this new advertising campaign.

“Poof!” you finally burst out with an exhale. “I knew it! How can that possibly be useful to me!”

True. If maintaining a racing division was too expensive for Jaguar to keep doing, it’s probably too expensive for you and your business.

Still, if you think a bit, there might be things you can do, in your own industry, to create the same effect. There might be competitions, contests, or other entirely different things you can do. Because to me, winning races like Le Mans gave Jaguar three things at the core:

1. A ranking with a clear number 1

2. An incontestable result, a matter of performance, not popularity or opinion

3. An element of glamour

Like I said, if you think, search, or scheme a bit, you might be able to find opportunities that will give you all three of these. For example, in the world of direct-response copywriting, this is what “winning the control” did for a freelance copywriter.

Even one or two such results can establish your brand for years or decades to come.

But even if you cannot find a way to get all three elements above for your product or service, you might be able to get two out of three. And that can still be supremely valuable.

To prove it, I’ll give you three examples, over my next three emails, of dominant businesses built on top of having just two out of the three elements above.

For today though, let me remind you of my Daily Email Habit service. It has nothing to do with today’s email. Except of course it does, because I wrote it based on today’s Daily Email Habit prompt. For more information about this service, and to get the prompt that’s coming tomorrow:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Swan song for famous forecaster

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Today’s top headline in the New York Post:

“Renowned election guru Nate Silver reveals latest forecast for presidential election”

That’s news to me because I remember Nate Silver as a famously failed forecaster.

Silver confidently predicted the 2016 election for H. Clinton. After Trump won that election, Nate Silver waffled and said the data was right but his own weakness got in the way. The implied promise was, “I’ll be right next time.” People around the Internet shrugged and said, “That’s good enough.”

I think there are lotsa lessons to be learned from the ongoing career of famed forecaster Nate Silver. I will draw just one for you today, one I read in Lawrence Bernstein’s newsletter a few days ago:

“Rule #1 of Financial Copywriting 101: It’s better to be wrong than wishy-washy.”

This applies to any copy, not just financial.

So I’d like to make a confident prediction of my own. We won’t be hearing from Nate Silver again, at least not in front page stories for big publications like the New York Post, and not around major future contests like the 2028 presidential election.

Because Silver seems to have lost his nerve, possibly after the last Trump election he had to call. While people dearly want him to make confident predictions, he’s hedging his bets now. From the NY Post article (emphasis mine):

“Renowned election guru Nate Silver called the race for the White House a “PURE TOSS-UP” Sunday as he gave ex-President Donald Trump a SLIGHT EDGE over Vice President Kamala Harris in his latest forecast.”

Who’s got any use for wishy-washy forecasts like “pure toss-up?” My prediction is that the media will find a new Zoltar, one who is willing to confidently say what will happen and cheerfully be wrong.

Another prediction:

Tom Grundy’s Subtraction Method training will happen this Wednesday at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST.

Tom will talk about how to think less pedantically, how to be okay without clinging to the latest mental-model-of-the-month, and how to do better in life as a result — emotionally and maybe even practically.

Tom’s training is free for you because you are a subscriber of my newsletter.

If you’d like to sign up for it before the polls close:

https://bejakovic.com/subtraction