Copywriting

Free presentation about storytelling in emails

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I’ll tell you about the free presentation in a second. But first, let me set it up:

I met a friend for lunch yesterday. She’s a corporate trainer. She trains, I assume, corporates. She teaches them things like “change management.”

We sat down on a park bench. I told her about my presentation in London last week, specifically, how I led it off with a story. That’s something even other copywriters forget to do when they get up and talk in front of others.

My friend said, “I’d like to introduce stories into my presentations. But I don’t know how.”

I frowned like she had told me she enjoys eating cat food. What is there to know? You look through the presentation, find the key moments of it, and squeeze in a story there.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure I know how to tell a story well,” she said.

I frowned again.

Like I’ve written before, I feel there’s a lot of mystification around storytelling. To me, it mostly comes down to 1) watching lots of movies and 2) occasional practice.

But I bet you want some shortcuts. Some tips. Some tricks to tell better stories, sooner, without the dozens of rewatchings of the Princess Bride that I’ve put myself through.

So I’ll make you a deal.

I’m preparing a presentation I’ll put together, tentatively titled:

“Next-level storytelling tricks for emails that sell (no hero’s journey, thank you)”

I’ll see about that title still. But I think you get the idea.

Now, the deal is — if you have questions around storytelling, hit reply right now and ask away.

You can ask me anything that comes to mind. I will use any questions you send me before tomorrow at 8:31 CET to shape and inform this presentation.

​​In return, I’ll tell you how you can get free access to this presentation when I do put it out — which will be soon, but more details on that are coming.

If this sounds interesting to you, take a moment right now. Think about your questions around storytelling. Then hit reply and let me know. Thanks in advance. ​​

A lesson for con men, car salesmen, and possibly, client-hungry solopreneurs

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A while back, I was listening to a fun episode of the James Altucher podcast.

James was interviewing the world’s most successful gambler, Billy Walters, who has won hundreds of millions of dollars by betting on sports. For the past 36 years straight, Walters has had a winning gambling record.

There’s apparently glamour associated with sports betting, which I wasn’t aware of. As a result, much of Walters’s story focuses on that.

But what I found curious is that, even before Walters became a successful betting pro, he was an unsuccessful betting amateur. He used to bet and lose millions of dollars of his own money, which he earned as a first-rate car salesman.

How do you make millions of dollars selling cars, back in the 1970s, in Kentucky?

Walters managed it because, as he said, “I did things that most people weren’t doing in those days.”

“Like what?” James Altucher immediately asked.

Walters obliged:

===

Well, every customer I sold a car to had a criss-cross directory. I got the identification of all of their neighbors. I would contact them either directly or I would send them a postcard and introduce myself and point out to them that I’d sold Mr. Smith his car, and who I was, and we were running a sale, and I would encourage them to come down.

Every customer I sold a car to, I turned into a referral source. I paid them a referral fee, a substantial referral fee.

I stayed in touch with them. I created personal relationships with them.

I would go to the local newspaper each day. People would have their cars, and they’re listed. ‘For sale, take over the payments.’ Well, they weren’t going to start walking. They wanted to sell their car because they could no longer afford it. So I would bring them in, sell them a less expensive car, take their car in trade and then reduce their payments.

When there was nothing else going on, I would just pick up the phone and start calling people with the same prefix as the area of Louisville I was working in. I would just cold call people.

​​And sometimes they’d slam the phone on me, but sometimes they’d get into an easy conversation. I would introduce myself, tell them that we’re running this sale, tell them where we are located, and as a result, I sold a lot of cars and made a lot of money.

===

This brought to mind something I read in The Big Con, all about the world of con artists back in 1930s and 40s.

A top roper — a con man who had to go out into the world and bring in the marks — was asked what it takes to be a first-rate con man. He replied:

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I couldn’t say what you must have to be a good roper, but I can tell you some of the traits you better not have. Never permit yourself to be bored. If you gander around you will always find some mark you can trim. But some heel-grifters think it is smartly sophisticated to appear languid or condescendingly wise. That is really stupid. Tie into any mark. He may have it in the jug.

===

I’m sure you don’t want to be a con man. And you probably don’t want to be a car salesman.

But you might be a copywriter, or designer, or coach, or you have another business that depends on a steady flow of client leads.

Cold calling works, as a last resort.

But Billy Walters above gave you four other great recommendations to keep you from being bored, long before you have to resort to cold calling.

And the bigger point is:

The trick to winning this game, that game, and pretty much every game, is to stay busy. Not to put on a stupid air of appearing languid or condescendingly wise.

​​And if you’re staying busy, you might as well do things that are known to work.

Maybe you’ve heard that having your own email newsletter works wonders for business.

​​Maybe you’ve even heard that doing it daily is better than doing it weekly or monthly.

But did you know that daily emailing can also keep you from being and looking bored, ever again?

In case you don’t have a regular email newsletter, or you’re not writing daily, and and you want a simple system for how to write effective emails, keeping you busy day in and day out, then take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/

Live, rushed, potentially typo-riddled, but fresh email from London

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Last day of The Copywriter Club live event in London.

This morning, I decided to skip the 7am writing of this email. Instead, I walked the streets and parks of London till it was time for the event to start.

Then a full day of presentations, workshops, lunch, and a live podcast episode followed.

Event concluded, everyone still standing joined for a farewell Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the Westminster City and the City of London.

The bus came to Trafalgar Square and it was time for a group photo.

Linda Perry, TCC’s mindset coach, turned around in her seat towards me. “Were you even in the picture?” she asked. “Are you hiding back here?”

Rob Marsh, co-founder of TCC, also turned around. “John’s taking notes,” he said. “This will probably be in an email next week.”

Which brings me to a reply I got from a long-time reader in response to my rushed email yesterday:

===

Great points as always John.

I’m curious if you ever write your emails in advance? I find it’s much easier to batch content. That way I can get into a creative zone and work faster, and also not have to think about making more content for a while.

Seems like it could make your life much easier during big events like The Copywriter Club? What am I missing?

===

I think it’s smart to write a bunch of emails instead of one — if you’re a copywriter working for a client.

But I don’t do it for my own emails for two reasons.

First, I like the tiny bit of excitement and danger involved in finding the time to write an email each day and a fresh, current occasion or idea to write it around.

(I’m writing this at the London Bridge train station, waiting for the train to take me to Gatwick airport, which will hopefully result in me getting back to my own bed in Barcelona later tonight.)

The second reason I don’t write my emails ahead of time is more practical, and certainly more relevant to you, at least if you are interested in having your own email newsletter:

One big reason people read email newsletters is for that feeling of freshness, immediacy, novelty.

I know I quickly lose interests whenever I realize I’m reading an autoresponder email, however clever and useful it might be (I’d rather just read a book).

My prediction:

The value of rushed, typo-riddled, and yet fresh emails will only increase in a world where you no longer need to batch or schedule your emails ahead of time, or even put then into an autoresponder, because an email or 20 can be generated on the spot by glossy, generic Claude or ChatGPT.

The fact is, much of the value I provide with this newsletter is that I’m here every day, and that I happen to be human.

Just something to consider:

There are certainly days when you might not be able to write a new email. There might also be days when even if you do write a new email, it’s not obvious to your readers that it’s really new.

But if you:

​​1) make an ongoing effort to do write a new email every day and

​​2) make an effort let your audience know it’s new… then this will give people a strong added reason to read your new email tomorrow as well, beyond any fun stories or insightful takeaways you might share.

Time for me to travel. So one final point.

Whether you decide to write a fresh email each day, or you prefer to batch a bunch of ’em in one go and then take a long break, consider my Simple Money Emails course.

The core promise of it is a simple method to write an email that makes sales today, and that keeps your readers reading tomorrow.

​​If that’s something you’d like to do:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/

The least boring thing that happened to me today

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At approximately 10:24am today, at The Copywriter Club live event in London, stage-mentalist-turned-email-marketer Kennedy took the stage to give a high-powered presentation about an easy way to produce five autoresponder sequences that he modestly says will double your sales, all without you creating a single new offer.

I say ‘modestly,’ because in Kennedy’s case, these five extra autoresponder sequences didn’t just double his sales of his core offer, but 18x’ed them, from $27k over some unknown period of time, to over $541k.

At the end of his presentation, Kennedy shared something actually modest — a simple way to never run out of daily email topics.

​​Says Kennedy, simply ask yourself:

“What’s the least boring thing that happened to me in the past 24 hours?”

The point being, take pressure off yourself, and you’ll be sure to find something interesting to write about.

Let’s see if it works:

The least boring thing that happened to me today was leaving the conference room, an hour before I was due to give my talk, in order to try to clear my head and work out my nervous energy.

​​I started trotting along the Thames and occasionally broke into a mild gallop, looking longingly at the passing barges and thinking to myself that there’s still time to jump over the railing, onto one of these passing barges, and sail off into safety, far away from the conference stage.

But I didn’t run away.

So the second least boring thing that happened to me today was actually giving my presentation.

That actually seemed to go over well — people leaned in, laughed, and after it was all over, quite a few even came over to tell they thought it was great.

The only reason giving the presentation was the second least boring part of my day is that, once I started speaking, almost all my anxiety disappeared — it was all due to anticipation.
​
​As I repeat often to myself, expectation is not experience.

I’m now back at the hotel for a quick shower to wash the fear off myself and to write this email, before heading back to the pub for an embarrassing, alcohol-free beer.

Since I have to sell something with this email, let me point out one curious thing about my presentation today:

The beginning and end stories of my presentation, along with all the examples I used in the middle, all came from earlier issues of this daily email newsletter. Word for word — or as close as I could remember them.

So if you need yet another reason, perhaps reason #16,736, to start writing a daily email newsletter, and stick to the habit, then consider that daily emails are an incredible content mill for whatever other endeavor you want.

​​Sales pages. Books. Lead magnets. Courses. Podcast appearances. Paid trainings. Even live presentations.

In case you think this daily email stuff is hard, then refer to Kennedy’s simple email idea generator above.

Or if you want a more in-depth guide to daily emails that make sales, keep readers reading, and even create endless content, then check out the following bare-bones sales page, which I stitched together from daily emails that I’ve written over the past few weeks:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

Terminal

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No, this email has nothing to do with death or disease.

Instead, I am stuck at the airport today, much like Tom Hanks in that Terminal movie. It’s not clear when I will get out.

I was supposed to fly to London this morning to get there in time for the Copywriter Club live event tomorrow.

But I missed my flight. I have no one to blame but myself.

I booked another flight for the afternoon. I tried to go through security immediately, only to be told that I am now at the wrong terminal, and need to go back out and get on a bus and then back inside another building. ​​I did so, only to find out my new flight is delayed.

Like I said, Tom Hanks-like. Maybe I’ll write you another email in six weeks from now as I start to get acclimated to this place.

But you surely didn’t open this email to read about my travel struggles.

So let me tell you a simple but surprisingly useful thing I discovered yesterday.

I was preparing for the presentation I’m to give in London. I decided to say the whole thing out loud while sitting at home and glancing at my notes. I also recorded what I was saying on my computer. I then went for a walk listened to that recording.

It turned out some of the presentation was good… while other parts, which seemed so clever when written down, sounded downright stupid when actually pronounced.

Here’s why I found this surprisingly useful:

I’ve noticed that it takes quite a while — days or even a week or more — to get emotionally divorced enough from what I’ve written to be able to judge it accurately.

If I read it any sooner, my brain tricks me, telling me this is as good as anything I or anyone else could ever write, so let’s drop it now.

Of course that’s not true.

I’ve also heard the advice, going back to Gary Halbert, to read your copy out loud multiple times. I’ve never found that to be useful for anything excepting getting a hoarse voice.

But this thing of reading your copy — or presentation — out loud as well as recording yourself and then listening to the recording… well, for me at least, this sidesteps the part of my brain that feels protective of what I’ve just written. And it allows me to actually come up with a better, stronger version 2.

​​Or 3.

​​Or 4.

So there you go.

Try recording yourself the next time you’re writing something important, and then listen to yourself with wonder and horror.

Maybe you will find it as useful as I have.

I will go do it once again right now, somewhere in the corner of terminal 2, where I hope not a lot of people will hear me revealing the secrets of writing for insight.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t gotten it yet, you might be interested in my Most Valuable Email training.

It’s one way to create the feeling of insight. That’s why I’ll actually be using the Most Valuable Email trick tomorrow during my presentation in London.

For more info on MVE:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/​​

AI expert tells you how to learn copywriting

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I’m preparing for the live presentation I’m supposed to give at The Copywriter Club London event on Wednesday.

My flight is tomorrow, and then Wednesday afternoon I’m supposed to perform.

While I’m not yet at full-blown levels of panic, there is still a lot more I would like to do to prepare. I hope that with preparation I can minimize the shock and horror and chance of humiliation when I actually do get up in front of people and talk on Wednesday.

All that’s to say, don’t expect any involved Bejako Baggins emails today. I have to keep today’s email short and to the point.

So let me pull out a bit of credibility I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks.

This bit of credibility comes from Steve Raju, who has transformed himself over the past year from your run-of-the-mill genius into a high-paid corporate AI whisperer.

Though it’s worth noting that, previous to this new AI career, Steve was a direct response copywriter. He even taught copywriting, both on his own trainings and inside Stefan Georgi’s thing.

Anyways, in the middle of a characteristically charming email a few weeks ago, Steve got serious for a moment to give some advice to those who want to learn copywriting:

===

Write every day. I never knew a single writer who got better about writing, without umm… writing. Write headlines, leads and closes. Write emails. Write ads. Launch your own offers. Learn what works. And of all the things to learn to write well, learn to write bullets. Best person to learn from? John Bejakovic and his Copy Riddles course. The best course of them all. I’m really not joking.

===

I am also not joking when I say that, during the few minutes it’s taken me to put together this email, a wave of nausea has washed over me, caused I suppose by that impending presentation in London.
​
So if you don’t mind, I’ll go now and pull my hair a bit and then get back to work on that presentation.

Meanwhile, if you would like to learn to write bullets, so you can learn to write better copy in general, and who knows, maybe even better presentations, then here’s what Steve calls the best course of them all:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

People lie, so what good is a survey?

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A couple days ago, I sent an email surveying my readers whether they would be interested in a paid mastermind all about publishing, growing, and monetizing a newsletter.

I got a few dozen responses saying, yeah… why not… sure… maybe… can’t wait… keep me in the loop… it depends… absolutely!

Now what?

What do I do with this feedback?

The classic direct response argument is that only sales count and that talk is cheap, because people lie, both to themselves and to others.

No doubt there’s some of that always going on. I know it from living in my own skin.

Lots of times I have good intentions that never turn into anything… I feel enthusiasm that peters out… I provisionally agree to stuff, only because I know I will never be called upon to deliver it.

So again, what does that mean for my proposed newsletter mastermind?

Well, I’ll tell you a secret:

That survey from a few days ago was not really the first bit of data I collected on this mastermind idea.

First off, there’s my own interest in the topic of publishing, growing, and monetizing a newsletter, which is high, and which I use as barometer of what others might be thinking, since I’m not all that unique.

Second, I’ve seen hundreds of other people starting newsletters over the past year or two. New services, websites, and quite a bit of money are flowing into the space.

Third, I see interest whenever I do write an email about my health newsletter, about growth strategies, about monetization plans I have.

Fourth and finally, there’s an anecdote involving Kira Hug and Rob Marsh of The Copywriter Club.

As I wrote yesterday, I agreed with them a couple of weeks ago to do a presentation at their live event, happening in London next week.

I came up with a few different proposed ideas for that presentation.

One was “Building a newsletter brand in your spare time,” all about my experiences building my health newsletter this year.

Kira voted for that one — because, as she said, it’s a personal interest. She would like to create a newsletter brand herself.

My ears perked up at that. I filed it away as another bit of data supporting the fact that newsletters continue to be a hot opportunity.

In spite of Kira’s personal interest, the newsletter presentation idea didn’t win out, because another topic — writing for insight — seemed to be more in line with what Kira and Rob’s event is about.

So insight is what I will be presenting about in London next week.

But if you are there, I’m happy to talk off-stage about anything — insight, that time I tried to kiss George Soros, or newsletters, if that’s your particular obsession. It certainly is mine, and so I will be creating that newsletter mastermind, most likely starting in January 2024.

But more about that soon.

For now, The Copywriter Club London event happens next Wednesday.

​​I realize that’s a tight deadline and not much warning.

But in case you can make and want to make it, here’s how to get yer ticket so you can join me there:

https://bejakovic.com/tcclondon

I’ll be in London next week, maybe you’d like to join me

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I’ll tell you about London in just a sec, but first, here’s an important question:

What’s your mental image of how the year looks like?

Is it a line, a calendar, a circle?

And if it’s a circle (the way it is for me), then where do the months go? Is summer on top or winter? Do the months flow clockwise or counterclockwise?

Two weeks ago I did a podcast episode with Rob Marsh and Kira Hug of The Copywriter Club.

Podcast episode over, Kira said as a throwaway, “I know it’s a long shot, but since you’re in Barcelona, we have an event in London at the end of this month. And in case you’d like to present something…”

I got excited and immediately said yes.

I gave them a couple of possible presentation ideas, and we agreed my presentation would be on the topic of insight, specifically about one repeatable, powerful way to create feeling of insight in readers.

I thought about that yesterday because I came across an article titled, “This is what the year really looks like.” It reported on a survey that basically asked the questions I asked you up top.

Some 75k people participated in the survey voluntarily… hundreds of thousands read and shared the resulting article online… and the article keeps going viral, on its own, every few years, even though it was originally published in 2018.

Why? How?

My claim is that it’s because the questions and the article manages to stir up the feeling of insight. So that’s what I will be talking about in London next week.

Now a disclaimer:

I am a terrible self-promoter, and am at best a very shoddy businessman, at least as far as this newsletter is concerned.

I did that podcast episode. I agreed with Rob and Kira to go to their event in London and present. But I didn’t ask to promote the event to my list — because… who knows why.

And then, only two days ago, Rob wrote me to say they have a few seats left over, and I could promote it to my list if I like.

The fact is, I do NOT like the idea of promoting this London event to my list. Because it’s now too close to the date, and that exposes me as being a bit incompetent.

But that’s not really a great reason to keep you out of this event in case you would like to attend, and are actually close enough geographically to be able to get to London by next Wednesday.

In case you’re interested, you can find the full details below, including the dates, times, prices, and my handsome mugshot photo:

https://bejakovic.com/tcclondon

Reader succeeds in provoking me with a backhanded compliment

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Yesterday, a reader succeeded in provoking me with a message that started with a backhanded compliment — how my Most Valuable Email course is ‘good’ but not ‘WOOOW.’

The hackles stood up on the back of my neck as I read this.

If you’d like to be provoked also, read through my reader’s message below, and then I’ll tell you something simple but powerful about influence:

===

I’m stopping by with a purpose: to finally give you my impression of MVE.

Look… The first time I read all the content, I found it “good”.

I’m not going to deny that, although I found the idea original, I hadn’t found the hook that made me say “WOOOW”.

Two weeks went by, and I found myself going around in circles to write some emails and improve my list engagement, and I decided to re-read all the MVE content.

…

I admit I have no idea what was going on in my head the first time I saw the course.

This is one of the best courses I have EVER bought.

I probably read it without much thought – the way one reads newspapers in the morning – and didn’t see how much value it had.

And I am writing this email to you after:

1. having carefully studied MVE, and
2. Having put it into practice and seen the results.

I paid $100 for this course. However, if it had cost me $500, I would have paid for it anyway (I really still can’t get over how effective and unique it is).

Even though MVE’s sales page states well everything the training comes with…

I believe the course contains MUCH more at a deeper level, and its results are better than what you state on your sales page.

Thank you for this. I understand that it is something I paid for and that is the “price”, but beyond that, I feel that selling this product is a service you are doing that is worth 10 times what I paid.

I have had good results in my newsletter, and just now it has grown more than expected and I have built an audience that I feel comfortable with – and I owe that in large part to MVE.

===

Maybe you yourself feel provoked or at least disappointed now.

Maybe you feel I’ve bait-and-switched you by promising you some genuine drama, and instead I’ve sneaked in a testimonial for one of my courses.

If so, let me work to make it up to you:

The reader who sent me the above message, Jesús Silva, “got” me with his opening.

I started off reading his email thinking, “What a jackass. Why would anybody take the trouble to write me and say something I’ve worked hard to create is ‘good’ but not WOOOW.”

By the end of Jesús’s message though, I thought this is the nicest testimonial I’ve ever gotten for MVE.

I asked myself why.

After all, I’ve had many people write me with very positive and even grateful reviews of MVE.

Why did this one impact me more?

Perhaps it’s obvious.

It’s that bit of emotional roller coastering… the swing from “‘good’ but not WOOOW”… to “one of the best courses EVER” and to thanking me for selling this course.

In other words, the second half of Jesús’s message is very flattering. But on its own, it wouldn’t have the impact that it had on me when prefaced by the hackle-raising opening.

So the point I have for you today:

There’s great power in emotional contrast.

From negative to positive… from humiliated to triumphant… from arrogant to nice… from alarmist to optimistic.

Emotional contrast is simple. But it can move people who cannot be moved otherwise… and it can can create a much stronger reaction than a one-sided appeal ever could.

But back to that “good but not WOOOW” MVE course:

I’ve raised the price of MVE dramatically since Jesús bought. Rather than the $100 I charged Jesús, I now sell MVE for $297. That’s three times as expensive. It’s a shameless price hike on the level of Martin Shkreli.

But if what Jesús says is true, MVE is still a good deal and is still underpriced, even at this new higher price.

And I can tell you I wouldn’t sell MVE at this new price if I didn’t think the education inside is worth much more, if only you only read the content thoroughly and then put it to use, growing your influence, list, and even marketing skills, faster and further than you might ever think possible.

The MVE trick takes all of one hour to learn, though you might want to go through the content twice to get it on a deeper level.

If you’d like to get started with that now, so you can start profiting today rather than weeks or months later, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

How I’m building a sales page in publick

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Two days ago, I released my Simple Money Emails course for the world to buy, even though the beast doesn’t have a sales page to promote it.

And you know what?

People did buy, even with no sales page.

But I bet more people would buy in the future if I actually were to have a proper sales page, one that explains the value of this course… and that answers questions prospects might have… and that assures them they are not being “had” but are in fact making a smart decision.

The trouble, as I wrote two days ago, is that I’ve been waiting for months for this sales page to magically write itself… but that hasn’t happened.

So I had an idea, which is just to write the sales page piecemeal, in publick, one email at a time.

I’ve done this once before, for the Influential Emails training I put on two years ago. It started out with just a headline, the details of the actual offer, and a “BUY NOW” button. I fleshed it out every few days, using stuff from my daily emails.

It ended up working great. Why not try it again?

So this morning, I took the core of my email from two days ago, about the actual SME offer along with a testimonial, and I put that onto a fresh page on my site. I added in a headline and the barest bit of deck copy.

Done. For now. ​​

In the future, I might write an email about how this course is unique… address objections I get from people… talk about how it’s taken me a good number of years to distill my experience into the simple idea at the core of this training… position myself against alternatives out there… hit you with some tear-jerking motivation copy to get going now… and all that can then be fitted into my existing minimal sales page, one block at a time.

If you’re curious about what’s actually inside the Simple Money Emails training, you can find it at link below. ​​And if you need a bit of an extra reason to click, here’s what Paul Morrison, who has helped marketing legend Ken McCarthy put out 11 of his most recent books, had to say about SME:

===

I’m glad you wrote this email soliciting feedback for your course. I’ve been meaning to send you a testimonial ever since first going through it.

Put simply, this course is probably the most straight-forward and practical approach to writing emails I have yet to come across.

I valued it so much that I printed the pages out and keep them next to my desk for regular study.

(As a point of comparison, next to your course, on my desk, are Ben Settle’s Skhema Book, and Daniel Throssell’s Email Copywriting Compendium — I’m sure you likely have both of those courses yourself — and I now consider these three documents my personal “email writing bible”.)

For anyone who is struggling to actually get started writing emails for their biz (especially daily emails) I think Simple Money Emails takes the cake, and I couldn’t recommend it enough.

===

If you wanna see a sales page being built in publick, or better yet, if you want to buy Simple Money Emails so you can start writing daily emails for your business, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/