Copywriting

Take a look at this

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Maybe you’ve heard that last month, marketer Todd Brown assembled a gathering called Copy Legends:

A bunch of top copywriters, in a mansion in Palm Beach. Sitting around a big table. Talking openly for a day, while cameras and microphones record it all.

What did these legendary copywriters have to say?
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Well, for example, during a discussion of headlines, Copy Legend Kyle Milligan, who used to be a copy chief at financial publisher Agora and who made a name for himself by analyzing sales letters on YouTube, said the following:

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I believe everyone way overcomplicates what needs to be done at the start of a promotion. They’re looking for this whiz-bang tactic to grab attention.

Yet, there are these tried-and-true openers which continue to work like crazy. Like, a visual pattern interrupt that just says ‘look at this’ and gets the prospect to sort of adjust and focus for a second is like one of the most timeless, time-tested methods there is.

If you don’t know what else to do for an opener, go with ‘Take a look at this.’ It’s like old faithful.

===

Kyle’s comment got a lot of people nodding their legendary heads around the Copy Legends table.

I found this amusing.

Because it’s a kind of anti-proof element for the whole concept of Copy Legends. As Todd says himself in the headline for the Copy Legends sales page, that concept is:

​“NEW Copy Techniques Working Like Crazy Today”

As in, they didn’t exist yesterday, and they will probably change by tomorrow.

It makes good sense to position an offer like this.

Like Kyle said around the Copy Legends table, people want that promise. They want whiz-bang tactics. And they will pay good money for such whiz-bangery, even though the really effective methods, as Kyle said at the actual Copy Legends event, are things that keep working year after year, decade after decade.

Todd Brown will soon release upon the world his Copy Legends recordings.

I won’t be buying it. But I certainly won’t tell you not to buy if you are after “new copy techniques.”

On the other hand, perhaps you are looking for timeless, time-tested copywriting techniques.

​​Technique that worked 50 years ago, 5 years ago, 5 months ago… and that will continue to work into the future, because they are based on fundamental human psychology and the competitive research of history’s greatest copywriters.

If that’s what you’re looking for, then… take a look at this:

https://bejakovic.com/cr

What it’s like to be… faced with AI eating your job

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Question:

What’s the worst thing you can ever say to a TV weather woman?

Answer:

“That’s not what my app says…”

I’ll tell you in a second how I found out that riveting bit of information. But first:

At a recent gathering of copywriters in London, I saw several attendees hang their heads and say, “As we all know, it’s been a rough year for many copywriters.”

I kept quiet because I didn’t want to expose my ignorance and absence of rough year.

​​I don’t work with clients any more. And my year has been fine.

What exactly has been rough on copywriters who do work with clients?

Is it the economic climate? AI taking copywriting jobs? Too much competition from the glut of would-be copywriters who entered the field over the past few years?

I felt it would be tactless to ask. So I kept quiet.

But back to the weather woman. I found out that the best way to piss off such a one is to say, “That’s not what my app says.”

I found that out because I’m dipping my toes into a new podcast, called What It’s Like To Be.

The podcast features interviews with people in different professions, so you can find out what it’s like to do their job. The last episode was TV weather woman Lacey Swope, who works for News 9 in Oklahoma City, the world epicenter of extreme weather.

I had no particular interest in hearing what it’s like to be a TV weather woman. But I’m glad I listened.

Because in many ways, weather womaning turns out to be a profession very similar to copywriting.

For example:​​

The job of being a TV meteorologist requires two separate skills — the technical skill of divining the weather, and the presentation skill, you might even say sales skill, of being friendly and cute on TV.

But wait, there’s more.

Weather meteorologists have for years been under threat by apps and websites that give the masses by-the-minute weather info. And the TV weather people who are surviving and thriving in spite of it are all—

… well for that, I will point you to the podcast itself.

You can find the podcast episode at the link below.

It’s worthwhile listening if you’re working as copywriter, and wondering what the future might bring, and how you can best prepare for it.

TV weather men and weather women been there, maybe a decade earlier. You can lean surprisingly practical stuff by listening to Lacey Swope and thinking how to apply her experiences and attitudes to your career.

And if that’s not enough to get you to click through and listen, then I will tell you the reason I started listening to What It’s Like To Be in the first place.

It’s because it’s the new podcast of Dan Heath, who is one half of the Heath brothers team that wrote the book Made to Stick.

​​So if you want to hear how somebody who literally wrote the book on effective, viral, long-lasting communication organizes and structures his content, then here ya go:

https://www.whatitsliketobe.com/2246914/13858315-a-tv-meteorologist

PS. Thanks to everyone who joined me and Kieran for the the storytelling presentation earlier today. I feel it went well. But I honestly never know when I’m presenting. If you were there live, I’d love to know what you thought of it. Write in and let me know.

The ONE thing to know about storytelling

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The ONE thing to know about storytelling is that, like cooking, plumbing, and robbing a bank, storytelling is really a collection of skills and strategies rather than a single unifying rule to follow.

I know you probably don’t want to hear that. But look at this:

– How do I know when I’m using too much detail?

– ​How do you know where to stop?

– ​How to add twists to a story?

– ​Making up stories… When might you want to do this?

A few days ago, I asked readers what questions they have about storytelling. Above are a few of the replies I got.

All fair questions. All require separate answers. Any answer that could possibly answer all of them, such as tension! or surprise! or delight!, is so vague as to be useless.

But wait, there’s more.

The real thing I want to share with you in this email is not the discouraging message above.

Rather, I wanna tell you something interesting I read yesterday in a book about magic and showmanship. The author of that book says the best performers, magicians, and showmen practice something he calls conservation.

Conservation: the ability to do more and the will to refrain.

From the book: “If we try to give any routine more importance than it will bear, we destroy the illusion and may reveal the secret.” Hence, conservation. The willingness to hold back the full might of your armory of magic tricks.

Same goes for storytelling.

There are lots of tricks if you really break down what the best storytellers do.

But in order to tell an interesting and effective story, you definitely do not need all of these tricks. In fact, one or two tweaks to what you might normally do are all it takes to turn a bland story into something memorable and exciting.

And on the other hand, making use of more than just one or two tricks per story is likely to destroy the illusion and may reveal the secret.

What secret?

Well, for that (drumroll) I invite you to join me for the free presentation on storytelling that Kieran Drew and I will host on Monday, specifically at 4pm CET/10am EST/7am PST (yes, I know).

This presentation is a bonus for those who get Simple Money Emails before the presentation goes live. After that, no free bonus.

If you already have Simple Money Emails, you should have gotten an email from either Kieran or me with the Zoom link to join Monday’s presentation.

And if you don’t yet have Simple Money Emails, you can get it at the link below. ​​I could try for some callback humor right now to wrap up this email, but instead I will conserve and refrain. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

New evidence that women tell amazing stories

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The late, great Patrice O’Neal — the man was literally great, weighing in at over 300 pounds — had a standup comedy routine about how women tell terrible stories.

“I always make my girlfriend tell me the end of any story she’s getting ready to tell me first, before I invest in the whole,” Patrice said. Then he gave an example:

“‘What’s the end of the story?'”

“‘Somebody got shot!'”

The big man grimaces and weighs his options hard for a moment.

“‘… ughhh… all right. Go ahead. Try to tell the story.'”

I thought of this last night as replies poured in to my email yesterday.

That email started with the story of a friend who wants to introduce more stories into her corporate presentations. The email ended by asking my readers to write in with their questions about storytelling.

So far, less than 12 hours later, I’ve gotten more than 40 replies to that email. And here’s what got me:

Except for one of those replies, which came from the friend I referenced in yesterday’s email, who also happens to read this newsletter and also happens to be a woman, all 40+ replies came from men.

I thought this was very curious.

For the record, my almost nonexistent bro-aura means I do not repel female readers in general. And typically, whenever I ask for feedback or solicit replies in an email, I get a healthy mix of both men and women replying.

And yet, yesterday, no women replied, except for my friend, who might have replied only because the email talked about her.

Clearly, all this is evidence that Patrice O’Neal was wrong, that women in fact tell amazing stories, and that they do not need any help with telling stories better.

But what about all those luckless men?

Many of them did ask really “male” questions, basically variations of:

“I want to know the algorithm that produces stories that are guaranteed to force every reader to read even if they don’t want to read and even if they don’t know me or want to know me, and also the algorithm should never fail and it should always specify exactly which word to insert in the next slot in the word-chain, given the totality of input that preceded it.”

I’ll tell you right now, I do not have that algorithm. And if I did, I wouldn’t share.

Fortunately, other men wrote in with more reasonable questions like:

– Where do I find stories to tell, or how do I come up with them?
– How do I know if my stories will be interesting to readers?
– How do I tie a random story into the thing I’m selling?
– Which types of stories to avoid?

All reasonable questions. But I won’t talk about them in any detail in the presentation I am preparing.

The reason why I won’t talk about them is that I’ve already created an entire course that addresses all of those questions in detail, and then some.

This course is clearly not meant for women, since they apparently don’t need it. But if you’re a man, looking for a rational, systematic, solution-oriented method to write sales emails, including ones with stories, then go here:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

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.

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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