Insight Marketing

May we please have your attention

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https://bejakovic.com/deh

Don’t think of an Iranian drone

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A couple nights ago, I rewatched the 1997 comedy Wag The Dog… as research for work.

Robert De Niro plays a political communications consultant. He’s brought in for clean-up after news breaks that the President of the United States has had sex with a 15-year-old girl in a closet behind the Oval Office.

The situation is bad. De Niro needs at least a day to think up a way out of this sticky situation. Fortunately, the President is on a visit to China.

“Keep him there,” De Niro tells the President’s handlers. “Say he’s sick. And say his visit has nothing to do with the B3 bomber.”

“Sir, as far as I know, there’s no such thing as a B3 bomber,” says a White House staffer.

“That’s exactly what I said,” says De Niro.

The rest of the movie is about how De Niro’s character, along with a Hollywood producer played by Dustin Hoffman, orchestrate a make-believe war against Albania (“They seem shifty”), which happens entirely on the evening news.

I thought about this while reading a news article yesterday, titled, “New Jersey drone cluster sightings prompt call for ‘state of emergency.'”

In case you haven’t heard, the state of New Jersey is under attack by swarms of unexplained drones. An FBI official explained:

“Are we concerned there are nefarious intentions that could cause either an actual security or public safety incident? There’s nothing that is known that would lead me to say that, but we just don’t know. And that’s the concerning part of it.”

Could it be Iran? China? Perhaps the Albanians?

“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States,” said the Pentagon press secretary, “and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.”

So you’re saying it could be the Albanians…

Look, I’m just fooling around. I’m certainly not claiming there are any parallels between the current drone situation and Wag The Dog. As far as I know, there’s no evidence that the drone situation is any kind of ploy to cover up some new atrocity being committed by people in power as we speak.

(See what I did there?)

All I really want to do is to introduce you to the powerful concept of a “frame.”

A frame is all the stuff that goes on in your head before, after, and around a specific message. A frame is how the phrase “SHUT UP!” can be interpreted in your head as an insult… a joke between friends… a cry of surprise or disbelief… a sign of mental breakdown… and probably 10 other things, all depending on the context.

There’s a guy named George Lakoff, who is a real-life version of Robert De Niro’s character in Wag The Dog.

Lakoff is a professor of linguistics at Berkeley, and he has long advised Democratic candidates on messaging and communication.

Lakoff believes that frames are such powerful and valuable communication tools that he wrote a guidebook, all about how to use them in politics, which he titled, “Don’t Think Of An Elephant.”

Because you can activate a frame even if you seemingly deny or negate that frame.

Frames are definitely an interesting topic, and it makes sense to actively play with them in high-stakes situations like political messaging.

But in everyday life, it can be exhausting and paralyzing to try to “control the frame,” as pick up artists like to say.

Fortunately, it’s not necessary to be constantly aware and constantly in control of the frame as you go about your life.

Because you can simply adopt a frame which will always serve you well.

That frame is that everything that happens works in your favor and is there for your benefit.

It works in politics, and in daily emails too, where it’s often expressed by the maxim, “Nothing bad ever happens if you write a daily email.” Everything becomes fodder for the content beast.

If you’d like to see how I and a group of other smart folks are taking our everyday frustrations, thoughts, and even stupid news items, and turning them into daily emails that both entertain and sell, you can find that inside my new service Daily Email Habit.

I’m not saying this service could transform your life, or be the equivalent of hitting the lottery. The people who subscribe to Daily Email Habit have reported good results, but nothing so far that would lead me to say this is the one thing you will ever need in your life for success, happiness, and contentment.

And that’s the concerning part of it.

For more info on Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

A price does not need to be paid

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This is a personal email and there’s a good chance it won’t say anything to you.

Take that as a warning and only read on if you’re not looking for marketing tips or copywriting hacks today.

I’m sitting in a cafe as I write this, my usual refuge on Thursday afternoons when Flor the cleaning woman takes charge of my apartment.

Since I have a laptop, I am required to sit at the big table of computer-bound immigrants, next to the espresso machine, along a window that faces the street.

On Thursday afternoons when I sit here and work, more often than not, I see an old woman walking down the street, who comes to the cafe window and knocks.

The barista then opens the window.

The old woman and the barista chat for a couple of minutes.

The barista then gets ready a coffee and hands it out the window. The old woman takes the coffee, smiles, waves a farewell, and walks away.

I don’t know the agreement or relationship this old woman has with the cafe, but one thing that’s clear is that she is not paying anything for her coffee.

I’m telling you this because I recently caught myself thinking about success, about things I want in my life.

The phrase that popped up in my head was, “A price needs to be paid.” When I investigated a bit more, I found that I believe that in order to have the things that I want, I have to pay a price, and the currency must be something that is dear and valuable to me — time, comfort, my own self-image.

It’s a kind of grocery-store metaphor of life. “You can have whatever you want — if you can afford it, and if you can stomach to pay for it.”

No doubt, this metaphor of life works to an extent. It’s gotten me to where I’m at today.

But grocery stores are only one kind of thing you can see while walking down the street. You can also see, say, playgrounds, trees growing in the park, couples walking hand-in-hand.

If you’re anything like me, and if you think a price needs to be paid, maybe this is something to think about.

Maybe another metaphor of life might serve you better?

Maybe another metaphor might allow you to get what you want sooner, hold on to it longer, and enjoy yourself more along the way?

Maybe, rather than “a price needs to be paid,” it’s possible that “toys are there to play with”… or “a gift is there to be accepted”… or “it’s a free and voluntary exchange”?

I don’t know. But I’ve been thinking about it.

Anyways, all this popped up in my mind while I was doing “The Work.”

I’ve talked about The Work in these emails already. The Work was working for me when I wrote about it, and it’s working for me still.

Plus, right now, I’m in the middle of putting together a new offer. I also recently promoted my biggest course with some success.

So rather than trying to get you to send me money today, I will tell you the best thing I did this year was to read the following book, and to start doing what it says as soon as I got to chapter 2:

https://bejakovic.com/stillworking

Personal positioning that gets $15,000/month retainers

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Last night, I interviewed Travis Speegle, who is a media buyer, and kind of in the elite of his profession.

Internet marketer Ryan Lee let slip once that Travis gets a $15,000/month retainer, just to start a new project.

I’m telling you this to set up the following quote, which you might dismiss otherwise. Travis was talking about how he moved to Puerto Rico to surf, and how that lifestyle choice influenced how he works with clients. And he said:

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The personal things, those things that we think have nothing to do with our business, are the things that make the biggest difference.

The thing that made the biggest difference in my business and where I am currently today is when I specifically decided that I was going to live my life and become a professional surfer and that I was going to treat everybody that hired me for anything as a sponsor to my surfing.

And I started telling that story. It was the best filter.

Anybody who couldn’t buy into it or was like, “That’s just stupid,” well they’re not a good client that’s not a good fit for me.

But anybody who did, super respected it, and bought into my life, my lifestyle, then I could almost do no wrong.

And things got better because it just attracted more of the people that would actually like to work with me, not just my style, or the results.

It just so happens that results come a lot easier when you work with the right people.

===

Maybe you have your own takeaways from this, or objections to what Travis is saying.

I won’t try to convince you one way or another.

I’ll just tell you one thing I got from Travis’s “professional surfer” stance, and that’s the value of metaphor — of a super clear and easy-to-communicate image — both for the person who is talking and for the person who is listening.

This is just as true whether you’re pushing a product… a service… or, like in Travis’s case, yourself as a partner, expert, or leader.

But on to biz.

This week, until Sundae, I’m promoting Travis’s MyPEEPS, which gives you the core of Travis’s ~20 years of media buying and list-building experience for a one-time investment of $495 — significantly more affordable than Travis’s $15k/month retainer.

Plus, if you get MyPEEPS via my affiliate link, I will also include a bonus, which I’m offering for free, only this once, and which I would normally charge $500 or more for.

The free bonus is that I’ll ride shotgun as you build up your own list following the process in MyPEEPS, and give you my copywriting feedback and marketing input along the way.

For the full details on how this will work, or to get MyPEEPS and my free bonus as well:

​https://bejakovic.com/shotgun​

What color is your Lambo?

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Let’s play a game. But first, let me get the hardcore, XXX marketing lesson out of the way:

One of the crucial parts of an effective sales letter is where you get people to “grasp the advantage.” That’s when you get them to understand what your offer will really do for them, in their own lives, in terms that mean something to them.

In a way, it’s a matter of translation.

For example, let’s take a promise I’ve been making lately, of getting 10-15 new subscribers to your email list each day.

Sounds nice, but really, who cares?

Let’s translate what that could really mean in your own life.

Get 10-15 new subscribers per day, every day, for a year… and you would be sitting on a list of exactly 4,562 and 1/2 human beings who said they want to hear from you.

What’s that worth?

Nobody really knows. I can tell you that an individual subscriber to my own email list has been worth $0 in the months when I didn’t make any offers… all the way to $5-$10+ in months when I had exciting offers and went hard on the promotion.

I’m sure many people have much higher numbers still.

But we gotta pick something. So let’s say $1/month for every subscriber on your list. That’s a kind of rule of thumb for email marketing in general.

What could you do with an extra $4,562.5 per month?

Of course, you could do the classic things, like work less… pay down debt… save more for yourself or your family… reinvest to make still more money.

Those are all reasonable and respectable options.

But like I said at the start, let’s play a game.

What fun, unexpected, thrilling gifts to yourself could you spend and splurge $4,562.5 on each month? Just as a thought experiment?

How about this:

You could hire a personal chef to cook every meal for you and your family, day in and day out. Groceries, chopping, sauteing, cleanup, all included.

Rates for personal chefs start at around $150 a day. You might have to pay more if you live in London or LA, or if you want someone with Michelin-star experience. I don’t know, maybe just do the weekdays in that case, instead of every day?

Or take option 2:

You could get a membership at Carbone, a private club in NYC that allows you access to Carbone Privato, a members-only restaurant frequented by other members, such as Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jay Z.

Membership at Carbone is $30,000 per year, but I’m guessing you can break it up monthly.

Even if the monthly rate ends up a bit higher in total, it would still leave you money to travel to New York and afford a steak or two at Carbone Privato each month… while you toast Leo across the room with a glass of champagne, in that way he does in The Great Gatsby.

Or of course, there’s the third and final option:

You could simply go the Tai Lopez route, and lease a Lamborghini month by month. The question is, what color? Black? Yellow? Grigio Telesto?

A Lambo Galardo lease starts at $1,700/month. At that rate, you could just get two, so you don’t have to choose between your favorite colors. And you’d still have money left over for gas.

Maybe none of these is exactly what you would want to spend $4,562.5 on each month… but maybe I gave you some ideas?

If I did, this might help you make those ideas a reality:

Until this Sunday, 12 midnight PST, I am promoting Travis Speegle’s myPEEPS list-building course. In a nutshell, Travis shows you how to build your email list using ads, so you can put in $10-15 a day and get 10-15 subscribers out.

You can find out more about Travis’s course at the link at the bottom.

For now, I’ll just say I’ve personally gone through myPEEPS, and I will be following it myself to build up a new list I’ve started.

That’s why I am also offering a “Shotgun Messenger” bonus if you buy myPEEPS through my affiliate link below.

Basically, you can build your list while I build mine, and get my marketing feedback and copywriting input along the way.

I’ll ride shotgun alongside you as you implement the program Travis lays out in myPEEPS. I’ll shoot down any dangerous or distracting ideas that pop up out of the bushes… I’ll read the map if you feel you’ve lost the way… and I’ll help you protect the valuable cargo you are transporting — meaning the money to spend on ads, but more importantly, your enthusiasm and your will to keep going.

I will deliver the “Shotgun Messenger” part of this offer over the next month via Zoom and via Skool (already live for a group of people who signed up early).

If you must have the full, dry details of how this bonus offer will work in order to decide whether or not to invest in myPEEPS, then write me, and I will get the details to you.

Or if you want to find out more about the core offer, myPEEPS, and what it could do for you, and maybe your garage:

​https://bejakovic.com/mypeeps​

[firstname], here’s what’s working in email NOW

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Hey [firstname]!

Last week, I switched my email software from ActiveCampaign to ConvertKit. It’s largely been a smooth transition. The only thing I have to gripe about is ConvertKit’s overly enthusiastic UX, which greets me like a robot cheerleader each time I send a new email, and shows me a drawing of confetti and tells me congratulations. It makes me feel a bit like an imbecil.

I have this theory that, today more than ever, we all want something that feels real.

Or at least I do, and I notice how quickly I dismiss anything that gives off subtle hints that it’s not real:

Stale weeks-long autoresponders…

Merge fields…

Or just a fake emotional tone or connection, where there clearly cannot be any, like with a piece of email software that pretends to be my friend. You know what I mean, [firstname]?

A few days ago, I talked to a very smart and enterprising young marketer named Shakoor. He asked me if I think the email business model — build an email list, send emails, make money — will ever disappear.

I’m personally bullish on the email business model. But if it does ever disappear in its current form, I figure it will be replaced by something that works in basically the same way. Relationships with other humans will keep having value, as long as anything humans do still has any value.

And on that note:

Let me remind you that tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8pm CET/2PM EST/11am PST, I will host a “fireside council” with Travis Speegle.

Travis been selling online since 1996, and has been working as media buyer for 7- and 8-figure direct response brands for a good amount of time. He has seen things come and go.

Tomorrow, Travis and I will talk about paid traffic to grow an email list.

I imagine that nothing we discuss will be stuff that’s working NOW, in the sense that it wasn’t also working yesterday and won’t also work tomorrow, or next week, or next year.

But maybe that’s exacly the kind of information you’re looking for.

If you’d like to join Travis and me on the call tomorrow, you’ll have to be on my list first. Click here to make that happen.

Jim Camp, A-list copywriter

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Right now I’m reading a book titled You Can’t Teach a Kid To Ride a Bike at a Seminar.

The book was written by David Sandler, a 20th-century sales trainer.

I wrote an email about Sandler last year because of his connection to famed negotiation coach Jim Camp. That email ran with the subject line, “Jim Camp, plagiarist.”

Camp must have studied under Sandler, because the ideas inside “You Can’t Teach a Kid” and Camp’s book “Start With No” are as close to identical as two brown, “L”-sized, farm-fresh eggs. (For reference, Sandler died in 1995, Camp published Start With No in 2002.)

If you ask me, Camp did three things right.

First, he took Sandler’s system out of the world of sales — water filters, life insurance, and whirring hard drives — and he applied it, word-for-word, to the world of billion-dollar negotiation in corporate boardrooms.

In other words, Camp took Sandler’s valuable but provincial knowledge and brought it to a bigger, more prestigious arena, not encumbered by the slumdog baggage that’s attached to the word “sales.”

Second, Camp co-opted what Sandler taught and made it his own. He turned the Sandler Sales System into the Camp Negotiation System, without ever mentioning or crediting Sandler except once, in the middle of a list of 20 other mentors, in an appendix to his “Start With No” book.

You might think this is despicable, and in a way it is, but it’s also a necessary part of the positioning of the guru at the top of the mountain.

And then there’s a third thing that Camp did right.

It’s completely in the presentation, the messaging of his book and of his Camp Negotiation System.

You can see this messaging change in the title Start With No. It’s also present on almost every page of the book.

This messaging change is what built up the mystery of Jim Camp, and it’s why Camp’s book has sold so well and spread so far, and why so many sales folks and marketers and copywriters know Camp today, and why so few know Sandler.

Now ask yourself:

If you knew what change Camp made, and if you could apply it to turn your message from unknown to bestselling, from slumdog salesman to mysterious and yet celebrated negotiation guru…

… what could that be worth to you?

I don’t know. But you do know, and maybe the truth is it would be worth a lot — thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more.

I’m asking you this question because you can find this messaging change, the technique that Camp used to make himself and his system fascinating, in my Copy Riddles program.

It’s there in round 15.

If you own Copy Riddles and it’s not 100% clear to you how Camp applied the technique in that round to his messaging, write me and I will clarify it.

And if you don’t own Copy Riddles, you can find out more about it at the link below.

I can tell you upfront, at $997, Copy Riddles is an expensive program.

But maybe in your case will be worth much more than I’m asking for it. Here’s that link:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

I know what you did last night

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Well, I can take a guess. It’s not like I have a little camera in your kitchen or anything like that.

​​Also, I don’t know everything you did last night, nor do I want to. But I can take a good guess about at least one thing you did last night.

​​I’m guessing it’s one of the following:

1. You checked the latest Wimbledon results, or

2. You nodded with approval at the news that the far-right party in France lost at the elections, or

3. You read up on the U.S. election, maybe even going so far as to investigate what exactly “Project 2025” is.

So?

Did I guess right?

Did you do any of those things last night?

If you did, you may now marvel at the amazing clairvoyant powers of Cavaliere Bejako.

And if you didn’t do any of those three things last night, well, you really should have. At least one. At least statistically speaking.

A few days ago, I made a list of 10 ways to get an idea of what people are thinking about and interested in, right now.

And this morning, I cross-referenced some of these sources of information. Those three things above were the top three things I saw in my CIA-like sleuthing.

I did this research because I’ve been re-reading the Robert Collier Letter Book, which I have come to believe is the most valuable copywriting book ever published.

For example, after reprinting a sales letter that had helped sell 250,000 copies of an 820-page history book (!) by mail (!) in 1923, Collier says the following:

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The point would seem to be that if you can tie in with what people are thinking about and interested in, you can sell anything. And the particular form that your letter takes is far less important than the chord it happens to strike.

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So there you go. Figure out what people are thinking about and interested in, and you can sell almost anything.

Of course, what people are thinking about doesn’t have to be of general interest — something that will show up on Google Trends.

​​Your particular audience might have a unique and specific obsession right now that only a small number of other people share.

But the point is the same. If you can figure out what that obsession is, and if you can tie your sales message into that, then…

Well, would you like to buy something? Then consider this highly topical and highly valuable offer:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Persuasion, Plan B:

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This past week, Lawrence Bernstein shared, via his Ad Money Machine, a very risky but very effective direct mail sales letter that ran some 15 years ago.

The teaser headline on the envelope read,

“Retirement, Plan B:”

… and then in smaller font, the copy went on to explain how you could now enroll and collect up to $120,000 each year, for the rest of your life, in the form of “pension paychecks.”

Pension paychecks?

As Lawrence said, “I don’t have the risk tolerance for such a promo, nor the legal team to cover me in case. But there’s no denying the success of this promo, based on its longevity.”

Maybe there’s something we can learn from this promo, without crossing over into risky legal waters.

Enter “Persuasion, Plan B.”

Persuasion, Plan A is to make your best argument. To give your audience the big promise. To pile on the reasons why, the testimonials, the features, the benefits, the bonuses, the urgency.

In many situations, that will work just fine.

But what if it don’t?

Persuasion, Plan B is what you can try then. It’s what you can witness in the promo above.

And it’s to suddenly whip up a creative repackaging that sums up, often in just a word or two, all the appeals in your offer, and suggests other appeals also, even if they’re not really there in your offer. (It’s not always illegal.)

I’m thinking about putting together a one-evening workshop about this. About using this kind of repackaging in your headlines, your body copy, your emails, and most importantly and profitably, in the positioning and packaging of your offers.

Persuasion, Plan B.

Is this workshop something you’d be interested in? If so, hit reply and let me know. If there’s enough interest, I’ll put it on. Otherwise, we can stick with just Plan A.

Climate change is bullshit

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If you identify as right-leaning, at least in the American sense, then there’s a good chance you already suspect climate change is bullshit.

In that case, I’m not telling you anything new.

On the other hand, if you identify as left-leaning, at least in the American sense, then you should know that “climate change” is in fact bullshit.

The term was a kind of red herring proposed back in 2002 by a Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, in a memo to the administration of President George W. Bush. Luntz wrote:

“‘Climate change’ is less frightening than ‘global warming.’ As one focus group participant noted, climate change ‘sounds like you’re going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale.’ While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge.”

Luntz later distanced himself from this memo and the effects it may have had. But it was too little, too late.

The Bush administration had already taken up the fight for “climate change” at the expense of “global warming.”

​​Over the course of 2023, they started seeing results.

​​Climate change gradually became the standard way to talk about the environment — not just in Bush administration press releases, but among news media, left-leaning politicians, and ultimately the general population.

It’s now 20+ years later.

​​Yesterday was Earth Day.

Mainstream media like the BBC and CNN wrote about the occasion.

So did left-leaning media like NPR and the New York Times.

They all bewailed the fact that not enough is being done. And they all used the term “climate change.”

I have no interest in trying to change your mind one way or another about the environment. I identify as neither right- nor left-leaning, but upright, like a refrigerator.

​​My point is simply to talk about the persuasion aspect of all this, and to highlight what it means for you.
​
Because you might think the lesson here is to simply come up with a sneaky new phrase like “climate change” and snap your finger to make your customers, constituents, or even competitors play the game you want them to play.

Not at all. Here’s a story from George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and a kind of Democrat version of Frank Luntz. Lakoff wrote:

“I was once asked if I could reframe — that is, provide a winning slogan for — a global warming bill “by next Tuesday.” I laughed. Effective reframing is the changing of millions of brains to be prepared to recognize a reality. That preparation hadn’t been done.”

It’s possible to reframe the minds of thousands of your customers and even your competitors so they play your game… use your preferred language… and fume against you in a way that only serves you and reinforces what you want.

But it takes some preparation to do that.

There are lots of ways to do that preparation. I’m sure many of them are fine. But my preferred one is simple daily emails like the one you’re reading now.

If you haven’t tried writing daily emails yet, I can recommend it.

​​If you have tried writing daily emails, I can recommend keeping it up.

And if you want some guidance on how to keep it up, and what to put in your emails so you prepare all those minds to recognize a new reality, here’s my “intro to daily emailing” course:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/