The next step

A couple days ago, I heard a very smart marketer share a story from the trenches:

Back in the day, during the ClickBank wars, this marketer used to do webinars to promote offers from other offer owners.

The owner of one such offer told this marketer, “My upsells are sucking. Don’t be mad if you promote and nobody buys the upsells.”

The very smart marketer said, “We’ll fix that.”

He spent most of the webinar talking, not about the offer on sale, but about why folks need the upsells that will be available if they buy the front-end offer.

In a way, he flipped the script, or reversed the normal order of selling. He talked past the actual thing on sale, and focused entirely on the step after.

Result:

60% upsell take, and though it wasn’t mentioned when I heard the story, I imagine higher front-end conversions also.

In case you’re tempted to file this away in your mental folder of “interesting but useless factoids about webinar selling”:

This isn’t about just upsells, and it’s certainly not just about webinars.

As the very smart marketer put it:

“Any step that you know is coming, you want to presell or preframe that first.”

In entirely unrelated news, let me tell you about my own plans for the rest of this month.

This February, starting February 3, I will be going for a ride. I will also be taking a few folks along with me. You have the opportunity to come with.

The destination is a $1k+ offer, which you can sell 3-5 copies of per month, and which you can deliver in 5-6 hours total to start and then faster and faster each time you sell it.

You don’t need a lot in case you want to go for this ride with me.

I’ll provide the car (well, minivan), the route planning, the music, and maybe some snacks and drinks along the way.

What you will need:

A pair of sunglasses (to look cool), a small but dedicated audience, and knowledge or experience you can pass on to people.

(If you’ve previously thought of or tried selling “coaching” or “mentoring” to your audience, you are most likely ready to go, even if nobody took you up on your offer. We’ll fix that.)

For the rest of this month, I’ll be talking about this ride, and seeing who would like to come with me. I already have people who have expressed interest in various ways, and I will be starting with them.

Meanwhile, you might be interested in my Daily Email Habit service.

It makes it easier to email daily, which is key to being able to sell 3-5 copies of a $1k+ offer even with a small audience. For more info:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

How to get me to pay you $500 in 90 seconds flat

Today I was on Facebook — don’t ask why — and I saw a post from a dude whose email list I’ve been on for the past two years.

The dude was announcing that he’s shutting down his info publishing business and that he’s making all his courses available in one heavily discounted bundle, which will presumably go away some time soon.

About 90 seconds later, I had entered in my credit card details and paid the dude $500 for this heavily discounted bundle.

Point being:

Discounting works great — IF people already value what you’re selling at the full value.

The dude above has been emailing for years, practically every day.

I didn’t read all his emails, but I read a good number.

He has been building up the case for buying his various courses.

He made the case over and over for the value of knowledge inside… he showed results that people who were applying this knowledge were getting… he kept digging and prodding into soft spots in my flesh, making me suspect that I’m missing out on something really important.

I grew to believe what the dude was saying, and I grew to want what he was selling.

My “no thank you” defenses were good enough to resist his sales pitches while I thought I still had time, while the offer was basically “Get started today OR tomorrow OR the day after if tomorrow doesn’t work.”

But once this became a last-chance matter, and once there was also a significant discount over what these courses had been selling for previously, I saw myself involved in an instant, almost involuntary action to pay the guy $500.

So discounting can work great.

As can launches, promos, and special offers.

But none of them will work unless people in your audience have grown to want the thing you have, and have grown to value it above and beyond the offer you will be making on it.

How do you get people to that point?

Well, I told you above.

Email every day, or practically every day. Make the case, over and over, for people buying what you’re selling. Tease, provide proof, and dismiss alternatives.

Do this over and over, and then, when you make a special deal and you give a deadline for it — you don’t have to close down your entire business, or bundle all your stuff for $500 — people will buy, instantly.

And on that note, let me remind you:

The price for my Daily Email Habit service is going up this Thursday at 12 midnight PST, from a modest $30/month to the Martin Shkreli-like $50/month.

Daily Email Habit helps you start and stick with consistent daily emailing, so you can gradually move people to wanting what you have to sell, and so you can get them to value it at the price you sell it for.

If you wanna get started today, and start moving people to where you want them to go, before the price goes up:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The bluebird who paid a $10k bill plus travel expenses

Recently, I had the idea to take a bunch of my previous emails on the topic of pricing and positioning, and to write a book titled “Charge More,” or something like that.

The basic idea being, charge more for what you offer.

But like “Just Do It,” “Charge More” is one of those bits of good advice that people nod their heads to in agreement, but rarely actually follow.

So rather than just repeating “Charge More” for 150 pages to no effect, I figured I would take a bunch of emails I’ve written, with distinctions and stories, to both inspire people to raise their prices, and to give them tips on how to do so in various situations.

And now that I’ve given you that intro, it seems a good time to share a story by sales trainer Dave Sandler, which I read in Sandler’s book You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar. The story goes like this:

Sandler once gave a talk at a business convention, outlining his own homebrewed system for raising salesmen’s self-esteem.

Next day, Sandler flew back from the convention to his home in Baltimore.

At the time, all of Sandler’s business was local to Baltimore. He wasn’t expecting anything to come from the convention.

But the next morning, Sandler got a call from an excited business owner from Indiana, halfway around the country.

The business owner was there at convention. He said he took Sandler’s ideas back to his salespeople. He was flabbergasted at the initial results. He wanted Sandler to come out immediately and give his salespeople the full training.

While this guy talking, Sandler thought to himself, “Well! here’s a bluebird.” It’s like the guy had just flown in through an open window and landed on Sandler’s desk.

At the time, Sandler’s fee for a 2-day seminar in Baltimore was $2,500 dollars (this was in the early 1970s). He was simply waiting for the excited business owner to exhaust himself with talking, and then he’d ask for $2,500 plus travel expenses.

But the business owner kept talking, all about how much money he had spent on traditional sales training… and how happy he had been to hear Sandler speak on this topic, because Sandler was right, and others didn’t get it…

“I do have to spend the night at a hotel and away from home to teach this seminar,” Sandler thought. “Better ask for another $500 and make it an even $3k. I’ll do it once the guy stops talking.”

… but the business owner still kept on, all about the books and tapes and trainings he had purchased for his sales staff, and how none of it had worked… and how much it’s been hurting his business… and how it’s been driving him up the wall and he didn’t know what to do until now…

“I do also have to get on a plane for this,” Sandler thought. “Plus I’ll have to give up some selling time. I’ll tell him the price is $3,500, as soon as he slows down.”

… but the biz owner kept talking and talking, venting and venting, revealing and revealing. Sandler says it felt like the guy talked for an hour, even though it was probably only a few minutes.

Finally the business owner talked himself out. “By the way,” he said, “how much is this going to cost me?”

“$10,000,” Sandler said, “plus travel expenses.”

“Well that’s no problem,” the business owner replied. “How soon can you get here?”

I think there are lots of lessons in this little story. Let me just share one, right at the top, about how Sandler got a warm inbound lead, a bluebird who landed on his desk, ready to to buy without any sales call or persuasion or objection overcoming.

Sandler did it by flying across the country and getting up on stage and giving a talk.

That’s an effective way of getting warm inbound leads, if you’re willing to fly around and get up on stage and give speeches to crowds.

But the same psychology applies whenever you have a platform to speak from, even if that platform is entirely virtual, and even if speaking is really writing, like what you’re reading now.

The key is simply to build a mini-monopoly, a situation in which people in your audience have grown to trust you and to have a relationship with you and to want to work with you specifically, even if you have supposed “competition.”

All that’s to say, if you don’t consistently write daily emails yet, it pays to start. And if you want my help doing so:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Not reading my email today is expensive

Yesterday, I promoted an offer called “Unstuck Sessions,” basically consult calls to help people overcome a challenge and get unstuck.

Like I wrote yesterday, that’s an offer that I first heard about from marketer Travis Sago.

I actually have a bit of swipe copy from Travis from when he promoted his own Unstuck Sessions.

An Unstuck Session by definition is pretty waffly and vague. How do you sell “getting unstuck”?

I looked at Travis’s copy. Here’s what caught my eye, from the second half of Travis’s email:

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What’s it REALLY COSTING YOU to stay where you’re at?

(If you know all these answers, you probably aren’t stuck…LOL)

If you’re making $5k a month…and you want to making $10k…if my math is right…isn’t that a $5k a month problem? a $60k per year whopper of a problem…yeah?

And then…if I may be so bold?

What is the problem costing you in your enjoyment of life?

How much worrying are you doing now?

How much of life are you missing out on? 

I’m not trying to be a sadist.

It’s a courtesy “poke”.

Being stuck is expensive…emotionally, financially AND physically.

===

I happen to know Travis is a student of sales trainer Dave Sandler. And in Sandler’s book You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, Sandler writes:

“While you need to discuss the cost of your product or service, it’s more important to discuss the cost to your prospect if they do nothing.”

I read Sandler’s book multiple times.

I wrote down that line as a note to myself, and then transferred it to my “Library of Rare and Precious Ideas.”

And yet, this idea is something I only rarely and casually remember to apply in actual sales contexts, even though, as Sandler says, discussing the cost of doing nothing is more important than discussing the cost of your offer.

But Travis Sago doesn’t forget. And as you can see above, he actually puts this idea to use in his copy.

Lots of people read. Lots of people take notes.

But few put ideas into action.

And fewer still keep tweaking and fiddling with ideas-put-into-action until those ideas actually turn into big results.

Travis is one of those rare few.

That’s the reason why Travis is the #1 person I’ve been following and learning from for the past two years.

Actually I take that back. Travis is pretty much the only person, at least living person, in the space of marketing/copywriting/persuasion/online businesses, that I’ve been listening to and learning from.

This is also the reason why I keep promoting Travis’s Royalty Ronin membership.

As for the cost of Royalty Ronin:

Right now, you can get into Royalty Ronin for free, for 7 days, so you can test it out. After that, Ronin costs $299/month.

I guess I had to cover that. But the following is much more important:

If you are a copywriter who works with clients, then what is it costing you to not spot your client’s “trashcan assets”… or not know how to persuade your client to give you control of such asset… or how to monetize them?

In my experience, it can easily be costing you $10k this very month, and $200k feasibly over the course over the next year or two.

And if you have your own list, what is it costing you to keep “creating” new offers to put in front of your list, instead of “producing” new offers, the way Travis teaches?

Again, in my experience, it can easily be costing you hundreds of hours of unnecessary work in the coming weeks if you are working on creating a new offer.

To rub salt into the wound, it might also cost you $15k-$20k in foregone sales by the time you release that offer, both because you missed out on promoting other “produced” offers in the meantime, and because “created” offers often fail to sell as well as “produced” offers.

In other words, not being inside Royalty Ronin is expensive… in terms of time, stress, and money.

If you’d like to stop that, starting with a free trial:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

How to make your 1:1 coaching an easy yes

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

More predictable success with new offers

My first info product was called Salary Negotiation Blueprint. I created in 2012 after reading Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters.

Gary says something like, pick a problem, read a 3-4 good books on it, summarize the books, create your own super-dense guide packed with the best info, and then sell that at a premium.

So that’s what I did.

I picked salary negotiation because I was in an IT office job at the time, and the topic was a bit of a taboo to me, and personally fascinating.

It took me a few months to identify the right books, read them, summarize my notes, write my own little guide, and create a sales letter (maybe my first).

And once I launched The Salary Negotiation Blueprint on Clickbank, the result was…

Nothing.

Zero sales.

I later lowered the price. Nothing. I tried moving the Salary Negotiation Blueprint to Amazon Kindle. It didn’t sell there either. At some point I even ran ads to it via Adwords. Still nobody would buy the damn thing.

I recently checked the Google Drive folder where I kept all the work for this project.

There’s a spreadsheet of possible newsletter topics, a backlog of tasks to complete, and a subfolder of possible bonus ideas. Plus a half-dozen other files, probably totaling thousands of words of preparation, analysis, and plans,

In other words, I did all this work, spent all this time, created all sorts of busy work. The result was a very useful, well written, information-packed guide that nobody in the universe would pay me even a bit of money for.

I’m telling you this because it’s not the only time it’s happened to me.

The same thing has happened many times since — probably dozens of times.

Fortunately, I’ve also had a few random successes along the way, which kept me going, and some of which made me good money.

But last year, I finally got a bit fed up with having a “few random successes.”

So I developed a system.

This system is based on stuff that had done instinctively but inconsistently before… stuff I had learned from other good business owners and marketers… and on common sense which I too uncommonly applied.

I put my system to use when creating my Daily Email Habit service. It worked out really well.

That’s why I am now forcing myself to keep using this system for each new offer I think of creating, though the temptation remains strong to simply wing it once more, and have the thrill and rush of instant activity, followed by the dump and crash that comes when results roll in, or rather, don’t.

So far, I have only shared my system with the people inside my Daily Email House community.

This month, I will make this system available a bit more widely. I’ll be sharing it with a few people on my list, if I think it can actually be useful to them.

I will make you a deal right now:

If more predictable success with new offers is something that could be useful to you, then hit reply and tell me a bit about your current offer situation. In turn, I will add you to a private announcement list, so you have the opportunity to get my system when I release it later this month.

A critical look at Daniel Throssell, part III

In the unlikely case that my newsletter is the only direct marketer-y list you subscribe to, let me tell you some news:

Last week, there was an affiliate contest.

That means that a bunch of marketers all fought to promote the same affiliate offer, all at the same time. Beyond bragging rights, I assume there were also generous prizes for the best-performing affiliates, above and beyond the usual affiliate commissions.

I did not participate in this contest, and I didn’t even pay very close attention.

But I do know that among the people who did participate, there was a selection of A-list copywriters and top-flight industry gurus, with decades or maybe centuries of experience among them, and with big communities and hefty email lists at their disposal.

And yet:

The person who won this contest was a young guy, who apparently lives in the slums of a second-tier city in Australia… who nobody knew of before he started to build his legend online some five years ago… and who only has a modest-sized email list of his own.

That young guy is a certain Daniel Throssell.

I’m on Daniel’s list, and so I can share with you what Daniel wrote about the final results of this affiliate contest:

===

As of the final cart close, I think I had something like 60% of the TOTAL sales (thus meeting my usual goal of ‘more than everyone else put together’) … and somewhere between 8-10x the sales of the second-place affiliate.

===

How did Daniel do it?

I’ve already written a couple emails in past years with my thoughts on Daniel’s successful strategies (hence the “part III” in today’s subject line).

As for this most recent success of Daniel’s, my guess is it has to do with all three elements of the old 40/40/20 formula.

40% of your results comes down to your list…

… 40% down to your offer…

… and the remaining 20% down to the least important part, your copy. But it’s that least important part, the copy, that I want to talk about today.

In fact, I just wanna talk about one aspect of copy, a very mechanical aspect. Because even without paying close attention to this affiliate contest, one thing was notable to me:

Daniel sent 28 emails to his list to promote this affiliate offer.

He sent at least one email each day, as he does every day of the year, and many more emails as the deadline neared.

I’m not on the lists of all the other people who participated in this contest.

But from what I can see, most of the big names who did participate do not write daily emails to their lists outside of this promo. Some of them, including some who said they really really wanted to win the contest, chose not to send daily emails even during the actual promo.

To my Elmer Fudd mind, the conclusion is simple:

Email more, and you’ll make more sales, even if you don’t change a d-d-d-damned thing else.

But that’s not all.

Because if you email more, it’s gonna have a positive effect on that next 40% of your success, meaning your offers.

I defy anybody in the world to argue honestly that Daniel’s high-priced courses — which he gave away as free bonuses for this affiliate promo — would have the perceived value they have if Daniel didn’t send daily emails to build up desire for them… to justify the premium prices they sell for… to highlight all the other people who have bought these courses and praised them.

Anybody can say their course costs a thousand dollars. But that does nothing, unless people believe it, and unless they want it.

As for that other final 40%, your list:

I imagine that most everyone on Daniel’s list is also on at least one other list of someone who participated in this contest.

And yet, the odds are two-to-one (or actually better) that if such a person bought this affiliate offer, they bought it via Daniel.

In part, that comes back to the offer. But in part, it’s about the fact that daily emailing trains and transforms the people on your list.

The people on your email list are not simply “buyers” or “not buyers” — like it’s some God-given caste system you have no control over.

Relentless email followup, done well, takes disinterested or skeptical people and turns them into followers, converts, and partners. Not just anybody’s followers, converts, and partners — yours. That’s a moat that protects your business, even if some other business owner can somehow get the names and email addresses of everyone on your list.

So yeah.

Copy is the least important part of your success.

But in a way, it’s also the most important, via its effect on the perceived value of your offers, and via the transformation it creates in the people on your list. And I think Daniel’s results prove that.

All that’s to say… I don’t know? Email more? Maybe daily?

Yesterday, I announced a new service I’ll be launching over the next 30 days that gives you a new daily email prompt each day. The goal here is to make sending daily emails faster by an hour or two a week, and easier to start with and stick with for the long term.

I can tell you that my email today was based on one such prompt, one that I set myself a few days ago. Yes, I eat my own dog food.

I will be offering first access to this service to a small number of people on my list, based on who I think will be most likely to get value from it.

But my offer from last night still stands:

If you feel daily email prompts are something that could be useful to you, then hit reply and tell me what you like about this idea (do tell me why, because simply replying and saying “yes!” won’t do it). If you do that, I will add you to the priority list, so you have a chance to test this service out sooner rather than later.

Looking for 20 beta-testers to pay an unthinkable amount for my new book

I’m looking for 20 beta-testers for a pre-publication “email draft” of my new book.

The background:

Yesterday, I made my plans for this coming month. My goal #1 in October is to finish writing my new book, titled The 10 Commandments of Con Men, Pick Up Artists, Comedians, Copywriters, Hypnotists, Door-To-Door Salesmen, Professional Negotiators, Storytellers, Propagandists, and Stage Magicians.

I already have the first 3 commandments/chapters of this new book largely done.

Still, getting the remaining 7 written by the end of this month is ambitious, considering I’ve been working on this book for more than a year now.

In my favor, most of that time has gone to research and outlining. I’ve only been writing for the past few months, on and off. But still — I realized yesterday there’s a good chance that I won’t make it by the end of this month, not unless I change my approach.

I got to thankin’…

I’m good at writing emails, much better than at writing book chapters. Maybe there’s an opportunity there?

And so I thought up a new offer to 1) help me get this book done on time, and 2) entertain and maybe reward a small number of dedicated readers of this newsletter.

So here’s my offer to you:

If you like, you can join a small group of beta-testers for my new book. The price to get inside this exclusive and elite club is an unthinkable $10. That $10 will get you:

1. An extra email with extra content from me, each day this month, starting this Sunday, October 6, and ending Wednesday, October 30, with content that’s intended for the new book.

2. A chance to influence the final content in the book. I hope you you will hit reply when I send you these content emails and share your thoughts. If all goes well, I will have more content at the end of this month than I will need for the book. I will decide what to keep and what to toss based on your feedback.

3. An acknowledgement in the book when I do publish it, because you were there at the start, and because you helped me get it done.

4. A free paperback copy once I publish the book. My current 10 Commandments book sells for $9.99, plus shipping. This new 10 Commandments book will also be priced at $9.99, plus shipping. But join me for this beta tester group, I’ll send you a paperback copy for free when it’s published, and I’ll also cover the shipping.

If you’d like to join, you can do so at the link below. But before you do, a few caveats:

I encourage you to only join if you’re a dedicated reader of these emails… if you’re already interested in getting my new book when it comes out… and if you will have the time to read yet another email over the coming month, and maybe even to hit reply to tell me what you think of what I wrote.

Again, these “new book” emails will start this Sunday. The deadline to sign up for them is this Friday at 8:31pm CET (I want a couple days buffer), though there’s a fair chance I will turn off this offer sooner than that, maybe as soon as tomorrow morning.

If you know you want in right now, here’s where to go:

​https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments​

Reader bans herself from buying my offers for 6 months

Yesterday, I made available my Insight Exposed course for one day only. I made some sales of that. At $400 a ticket, it’s a nice way to write an email.

But I also got a couple responses like this:

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I enjoy all your emails… your courses are too tempting. I have banned myself from buying anything for the next 6 months… pray for me you atheist. LOL

===

I have heard this message a lot recently, particularly during my Water Into Wine launch, which I conducted via email instead of via sales page. A few samples:

“I have made myself an unofficial promise to stop buying copywriting stuff at least this year”

“already doing some classes”

“I have already joined 2 other creators this month, not financially feasible for me at the moment”

What’s going on? I can imagine four explanations:

1. Maybe I’ve done a poor job making people want what I offer. After all, except in times of global ice age, people can usually find the money for the things they really want.

2. Maybe there’s a genuine change in the economy. Maybe there is an ice age forming after all?

3. Maybe it’s always been like this, and I’m only hearing about it now because I’ve made a point to listen to my customers and readers more.

4. Maybe there’s a genuine change in the mindset of the people on my list. Maybe there’s a glut of coaches, course creators, and copywriting gurus, all selling offers, all promising “I will teach you to be rich, admired, and free!” Maybe folks in this market have been stuffed, to the gills and beyond, with direct marketing info, and they need time to digest.

I’m not telling you this to complain. I’m telling you because you might be facing some similar situation with your own business, whether you’re aware of it or not.

So what to do?

If you ask me, only points 1 and 4 on the list above make any sense to act upon.

Point 4 is a big issue, too big for a Sunday email to try to tackle.

But what about point 1? About not doing a good enough job making people want what you offer?

Here I got some bad news/good news for you.

The bad news is, I have a direct marketing sandwich to offer you, even though you may be stuffed to the gills already.

The good news is, this sandwich costs $11.42 to buy and maybe an hour of your time to chew through and digest.

Not sold yet? The only other things I will say right now in defense of this sandwich:

– I didn’t make this sandwich, somebody else did, so maybe you can trust me more on the recommendation

– the man who made this sandwich has a different take to “I will teach you to be rich, admired, and free!” than most everybody out there

– there’s nobody else I’ve listened to more this year or learned from than this sandwich maker

Does that stir your digestion any? Maybe there’s a bit of room in there after all? If so, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/sandwich