Direct Marketing

Dead for 34 months — now alive again

by

I’ll pay off that provocative subject line in a second. First, let me set it up so it has a chance to have an impact on you:

Two days ago, I was listening to a new episode of Dean Jackson’s “More Cheese, Less Whiskers” podcast.

Dean is a legend in the marketing space. In this episode, he was basically having a live consult with a real estate agent turned coach.

The real estate agent/coach runs an 6-week cohort program, helping other agents to get their first transaction. The program features the usual recorded content plus live weekly calls. About that, here’s what Dean said:

===

Part of the thing about a live cohort is that it’s kind of synchronous consumption, that they are there and they’re physically present, and it’s easier to consume than while they’re sitting and could be watching Netflix.

You know what I mean. That’s always going to be more — it’s easier when things are synchronous and scheduled to actually get them done, then even with the best of intentions, to get yourself to self-directedly take that kind of action.

===

This made my pointy Vulcan ears perk up.

Because it’s a bitter pill to swallow:

You can create a really great course, with all the info inside that people need to succeed, but most people who buy will simply never even get through the first lesson. Of those who do, most won’t get all the way through to the end of the last lesson.

That makes it hard to profit from the course.

Yes, there are creative ways to encourage people to consume courses all the way to the end, or to get value even while consuming only a tiny part of the course. I’ve used many such tricks in my own courses.

But the fact is, nothing really compares to simply changing the format and not selling a “course” at all, but instead selling a live experience, happening in real time, shared with other people. In other words, running a live cohort, like Dean is talking about.

I can speak to this from my experience selling my Copy Riddles program over the years.

When I started Copy Riddles, I ran it as a cohort 2-3 times a year.

The lessons were delivered daily by email, and were necessarily synchronous.

More importantly, I had live weekly calls. Those calls where an opportunity for Copy Riddles members to come together, to see me there and feel that this is happening live, and to ask questions.

Plus, I featured a weekly “Best Bullet” contest, which was both fun for participants and also reinforced that week’s course content by showing why some bullets work better than others.

Small wonder that a disproportionate number of enthusiastic testimonials and impressive case studies I’ve gotten for Copy Riddles have come from people who went through the program in those live cohort days.

I’ve been thinking about this over the past few weeks in the lead-up to the “Unannounced Bonus” promo I’m currently doing for Copy Riddles.

The offer I’m making during this promo is already the most valuable offer I’ve made for Copy Riddles. But I decided to pull out all the stops.

I haven’t run Copy Riddles as a live cohort program since September of 2022. That’s 34 months ago. (You see where this is going?)

I also won’t ever run Copy Riddles as a live cohort in the future.

But I will resurrect the live cohort and run it one last time as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo.

No, I won’t be delivering Copy Riddles via email again. It still remains a course in the course area, so you can easily access it now or in the future.

But I will be doing live weekly calls for Copy Riddles members.

These calls will be an opportunity to ask me questions about writing bullets, about copy in general, or really anything else, as long as it’s interesting.

They will also be an opportunity to submit your bullets for the weekly contest and win recognition and prizes.

Most importantly, these calls act as a reason to go through the course content now, to get a bit of motivation and accountability by being a part of a group of people who are all doing the same as you, and to make it easier for you to own those million-dollar copywriting skills this program can give you — and to own them in just the next few weeks, instead of never.

Of course, the live cohort is only part two of the offer for this “Unannounced Bonus” event.

Part one is free lifetime membership to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine so you can get your daily direct marketing vitamin, the way A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga advises.

Lawrence only makes this lifetime membership offer available rarely. When he made it available last year, I paid $997 for it. But you can get it for free as part of this week’s promo event, which ends this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

If you’d like to act before the deadline takes the matter out of your hands:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

P.S. If you’re already a Copy Riddles member, the Ad Money Machine lifetime membership applies to you too. So does the offer of joining for the live cohort — just write me and tell me that you want in so I know to add you.

And about going through Copy Riddles a second (or third) time, here’s copywriter Yago Bader Galarza, who joined a couple times in the live cohort days:

===

The course is amazing, I’ve completed it twice now, and I’d say the second time I learned even more than the first.

I think it’s super-valuable to go through it periodically, trying to do the exercises from different angles forces me to be more creative and I can really see my improvement from launch to launch. I would love to sign up a third time and continue to learn from it.

In a world where most courses are hard to consume (and I think almost every copywriter has a pile of unfinished courses) Copy Riddles is a breath of fresh air that I recommend to everyone I know all the time. So thanks for creating it and looking forward to doing it again.

===

Over $1M ($1,000,000) and 20 years of loving labor went into this brilliant Unannounced Bonus

by

This week, I’m running an “Unannounced Bonus” promotional event for my Copy Riddles program.

Copy Riddles, as you might know, uses a clever mechanism to download A-list copywriting skills into your brain, over the course of a few short weeks.

I’ve been selling Copy Riddles since 2021. I have had a lot of customers go through the program. I have had only glowing feedback.

But I’ve been talking about all that for years. Odds are, you know it already.

So today, I want to share with you the special “Unannounced Bonus” I’m making available if you join Copy Riddles before this Sunday, July 20, at 12 midnight PST.

That bonus is a lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine.

I’ve written about Lawrence lots of times in my newsletter — he’s “the world’s most obsessed ad archivist.”

Ad Money Machine is Lawrence’s subscription service where, each day, he shares direct response winners from the past and the present. Two points to highlight about that:

First off, these are not just random screenshotted ads from newspapers.com. As Lawrence says on the Ad Money Machine site:

“I’ve invested over a million bucks on subscriptions and products to keep my name (and aliases!) seeded on direct mail lists.”

The vast majority of these ads, packages, and promos are not available online — anywhere, except inside Lawrence’s membership site.

The reason is that he’s spent the time, effort, and money to get himself on the lists of the biggest and most successful direct marketing companies, so he can see all their marketing — the front ends, being mailed out to specialized direct mail lists, as well as all the mysterious stuff that goes on in the back, to customers only.

Because of this, Ad Money Machine is effectively a collection of “businesses in a box” — the winning ad copy, offers, and funnels across a range of markets, from health, wealth, self-help, along with a bunch of quirky ones thrown in (fishing, stamps, “grass plugs”).

Second off, Lawrence isn’t “just some guy,” and Ad Money Machine is not even his primary business.

For over two decades now, Lawrence has been working as a direct response copywriter and operator, focusing on direct mail.

That means that, when it comes to Ad Money Machine, Lawrence doesn’t just share winning ads and promos. He also puts them in context, using his own decades of experience, and he explains why these ads worked and how they connect to deeper principles of copywriting and direct marketing.

A few bits of feedback Lawrence has gotten about that, from top direct response copywriters and marketers who have paid him thousands of dollars for his ad archives and commentary:

“Brilliant examples, great commentary. This one just gave me an idea for a newsletter we’re about to launch that I think will hit large. I don’t know where you find this stuff, but I’m glad you do.”

— John Forde, A-list copywriter and co-author of Great Leads

“My jaw is literally black and blue from hitting the floor over and over again as I got to see the techniques you’ve uncovered. I never dreamed many of these things were even possible, let alone how easy you’ve made them. The word ‘miraculous’ comes to mind.”

— Ken McCarthy, founder, System Seminar

“If Lawrence has got a product for sale, you should get it!”

— Marty Edelston, founder, Boardroom Inc.

About that last comment from Marty Edelston:

Ad Money Machine normally sells for $97/month. I subscribed to it at that price for over a year, starting in 2023. At that time I even promoted it to my list, for free, without being an affiliate, simply because I thought it’s such a valuable service.

Then back in 2024, Lawrence offered a rare opportunity to buy a lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine for $997 one-time. I knew I’d keep paying Lawrence monthly for a long time, so it was a no-brainer to take him up on this offer. I paid the $997 and bought the lifetime subscription.

Now, I’ve partnered with Lawrence so people who buy Copy Riddles during this week also get a FREE lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine, the same subscription I paid $997 for. I also got him to agree to extend the same benefit to previous Copy Riddles buyers.

(If you’re wondering why Lawrence would possibly agree to this, it’s because I’ve made the same deal to his lifetime subscribers — they can get Copy Riddles for free. Being a savvy direct response guy, Lawrence knows the value of growing his list with a bunch of people who are 1) interested in direct response copywriting and 2) have paid $997 to get better at it.)

Over the course of the coming week, I’ll have much more to say about Copy Riddles, about Ad Money Machine, and about Lawrence himself.

But frankly, I’ve never offered a deal this good before, at least if you too are interested in direct response copywriting and want to get better at it. In case you already know you want this deal, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

P.S. If you are already a Copy Riddles member, I sent you an email about how to claim your free lifetime subscription to Ad Money Machine. In case you didn’t get that email, write me and I’ll get you set up.

Copy Riddles customers hit jackpot with “Unannounced Bonus” scheme

by

If you are a Copy Riddles customer, I sent you an email earlier today. That email talks about an unannounced bonus you can get right now. I personally paid $997 for this offer last year. But thanks to my threatening and cajoling and deal-making on your behalf, you can now get this same offer for absolutely free.

The chance to grab this unannounced bonus for free is valid until next Sunday, July 20, at 12 midnight PST. So if you haven’t yet seen that email I’ve sent you or acted on it, it might be worth doing so now.

And if you are not yet a Copy Riddles customer, I’d like to share something that can be useful if you sell your own courses or create your own offers.

I have a long-standing policy of doing right by previous customers. It has worked well for me — customers stick around, are always grateful and excited when I run a new promo to promote an offer they already bought, keep reading my emails and buying new offers.

But this “Unannounced Bonus” scheme has developed into a sales argument as well.

Because I promote my courses with special events and special new bundles of bonuses, and because I make those available to previous customers, the sooner somebody decides to buy, the more they end up benefiting in time.

For example, had you bought Copy Riddles a couple years ago, you would now also have:

* Copywriting Portfolio Secrets (which I later sold for $97)

* Horror Stories For Sales (which I later sold for $200)

* $2k Advertorial Consult (which a business owner paid me $2k for, and which lays out my entire process for writing advertorials that drove tens of millions of dollars in ecom sales)

So if you have offers of your own, it might be worth considering implementing an “Unannounced Bonus” policy like this, and then announcing it loudly, not only your customers, but also to your prospects, and using it as a sales tool.

Of course, that’s exactly what I’m doing here.

I will be running a promo for Copy Riddles over the next week. I will talk in great detail about that $997 bonus which will be available for free during the promo, plus I will give you a couple other good reasons why you might want to get Copy Riddles now rather than later.

But why might you want to get Copy Riddles at all? I mean, at $997, it’s a very, very expensive course.

My claim is that Copy Riddles allows you to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe. If you want to find out how Copy Riddles does this, the mechanism behind why people say it’s “the best course I’ve ever taken, bar none” and “the most brilliant course concept I’ve ever seen,” I’ve written it all up here:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

3 FREE Bejako gift cards

by

A while back, I was listening to Dean Jackson’s More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast.

Dean, as he often does, was talking about marketing for local businesses — chiropractors, dentist offices, lingerie shops.

Says Dean, rather than discounting your services or products, simply give away gift cards. This preserves the perceived value of your offer, and yet lowers the barrier for people to try it out.

I’m sharing this in case you also pull teeth or straighten spines or sell purple panties.

But useful ideas like this not much use unless you put them to work.

And so, let me lead by example and try out Dean’s idea right here and now.

My cart software doesn’t have native support for gift cards, the way you might have at a local Target, with a total balance that gets decreased with each purchase.

But I’ve hacked it a bit and created the three following “gift cards”:

BEJAKOGIFT1

BEJAKOGIFT2

BEJAKOGIFT3

Each one of these gift cards is worth $30, one time. You use the gift card by inserting it into the “Have a gift card coupon code?” slot on any of my order pages. Once the $30 is used up, it’s used up for good. (Try one of the other two gift cards, maybe they still have money on them.)

Incidentally, $30 is just what a month of my Daily Email Habit costs. So if you’ve been curious about Daily Email Habit, and if it could help you start and stick with daily emailing, you can now try a month on me via one of the gift cards above:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

How to turn $99 courses into $999 offers

by

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a magic spell that turns plain, small, $29 or $99 courses into shiny, exciting, $299 or $999 offers?

The past week, I’ve been trawling the Royalty Ronin community, of which I am a paying member.

I found a curious and old post inside. A lightbulb came on. I had actually written an email on the exact same topic, back in 2021, as a kind of joke, talking about repositioning physical products.

Here’s what I wrote back then:

===

If you sell dog clippers today and nobody’s buying, then bundle your clippers with a video. Tell people how to set up their own dog grooming business in their back yard in their spare time.

Charge 10x what the clippers cost… and find yourself in a marketplace of one, instead of a commodity market.

===

I suffer from what is known as “copywriter brain,” which is limited in its thinking and reach.

It takes “marketing and business brain” to take the above idea seriously and see its full potential, particularly when applied to info products.

And that’s exactly what I found in that post inside Royalty Ronin. This post talked about this same idea, and it gave a real example involving Travis Sago (the guy who runs Royalty Ronin).

Travis took a course that sold well for $99 and transformed it, successfully and ethically, into a $999 offer that also sold well.

The point being, you don’t have to start from scratch.

If you want to create a big-ticket offer, this doesn’t mean you need big new course content, a big new topic, a big new mechanism.

You can take what you already have, even if it’s only selling now for $29 or $99 or whatever, and reposition it so it becomes a genuine big-ticket offer.

But what if you don’t have even a $29 or $99 offer right now?

That’s ok. Millions of other people do have such offers. And you can start a profitable repositioning business, with your own home as headquarters, by helping such people turn their $29 offers into $299 offers and their $99 offers into $999 offers.

If you want more info or advice or support on how to do all this, then you might be a good fit for Royalty Ronin.

You can sign up for a trial below and see for yourself if it’s for you.

If you do sign up, forward me your welcome email (the one that says “Vroom” in the subject line). I’ll then tell you where to find the post I mentioned above, which lays out how Travis repositions his $99 courses into $999 offers. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/ronin

A simple way to get course buyers to consume and profit from your info

by

Until tonight at 12 midnight PST, I’m promoting Kieran Drew’s new offer “Productize Your Knowledge.” Kieran’s launch of this offer will stretch into next week, but I am offering two extra bonuses only if you buy and send me your receipt by 12 midnight tonight.

For example, a long-term reader and customer named Ricky (not sure he wants me to share his last name) forwarded me his receipt last night and wrote:

===

I picked this up tonight. Thanks for offering it with some bonuses, I’m looking forward to the 3rd Conversion training (that’s the bonus that led me to pick you over others, FYI).

===

3rd Conversion is a training I put on last year, about how to get people not just to buy, but to consume and implement your info products. The goal is to take one-time buyers and turn them into people who actually profit from your info, so they get their money’s worth, and so they buy from you again.

All in all, 3rd Conversion features 19 techniques to encourage consumption and implementation. All 19 are “live” techniques, in the sense that I use them regularly myself.

Some of these techniques are involved, some are basic. But even the basic ones can make a big difference.

I’ll tell you a basic one right here, as a teaser. It’s simply to “re-sell” course buyers on the course, inside the course itself.

In other words, I continue the same kind of stuff, inside the course, that I did in my emails and on my sales page to get people to buy. For example, when new customers go inside the course area for 3rd Conversion, they actually see the following testimonials from previous customers:

“JOHN this was one of the best trainings I’ve been a part of. I cannot express how excited I’ve been and I’m already reworking my presentation’s overdue slide deck.”

— Jeffrey Thomas, in-house copywriter at MarketingProfs

“I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say how much I absolutely loved your live class. It was perfectly timed for me, especially since I’m putting out my own offer for a done-for-you course blueprint. Your presentation was not only engaging but also such a clever demonstration of your course content in action – I was taking mental notes the whole time! (And trying to resist writing everything down lol)”

— Antonet Vataj, owner of Ann Vee Marketing

“Finally got the chance to use what you taught in the 3rd Conversion training. And it went great. I did a workshop on influential and persuasive storytelling, and I modeled it according to what you taught. First time I’ve done a workshop and after sending the recording getting replies about how much people loved it.”

— Pete Reginella, email marketer and copywriter

The goal of this “re-selling” is to get new buyers once again excited about what they bought and intrigued about consuming it, as opposed to overwhelmed or disgusted by the task of watching a bunch of videos or reading a bunch of pages of how-to instruction.

I last sold 3rd Conversion for $197.

The other bonus I’m giving away until midnight tonight is my Most Valuable Postcard #1, about the most important number to focus on if you wanna have a successful business selling products or services or a mix of the two. Really, this is about more than a number — it’s about a philosophy that impacts everything you do, from how you get leads/traffic, to how you sell them, to what you deliver to them.

I last sold MVP1 for $100.

When you put those two bonuses together, you get a total of $297 of real-world bonuses, which happens to be the price that Kieran is selling his PYK for during the launch. (If you happen to already own both my 3rd Conversion and MVP1, but you get Kieran’s PYK through my link, then I will make sure you get another bonus bundle of equal or greater value.)

As for Productize Your Knowledge itself, Kieran does a thorough job explaining what it is on the sales page below. Two things I’d highlight:

1. This is not a collection of “secrets” about how to create a course. Rather, it’s a proven mechanism to take what you know or do already and turn it into an info product people want to buy.

2. If you buy during this launch, Productize Your Knowledge is an implementation group more than a course, because Kieran running an 8-week live bootcamp after the launch, where you get support, community, and accountability as you develop your info product.

For all the other details on Productize Your Knowledge, there’s the sales page below. Again, if you want my bonuses, read over this sales page, make up your mind, and forward me your receipt before 12 midnight PST tonight:

https://bejakovic.com/pyk

Announcing: Productize Your Knowledge

by

Starting today, I am promoting Kieran Drew’s new offer, Productize Your Knowledge.

The end result of Productize Your Knowledge is you take what you already know or are already doing for clients as service work, and package a part of that into a product that sells.

Like I wrote yesterday, Kieran’s Productize Your Knowledge is not a collection of “secrets” on how to create a course.

Instead, it’s both a process to help you go from where you are now to having a info product that actually sells and makes money.

It’s process that Kieran himself has followed, and also a process 7 private clients each paid Kieran $2,997 to help them implement, earlier this year.

Kieran lays out the process on the sales page below. And while you can read the sales page and then follow the process and try to do all this yourself, it’s worth considering paying Kieran for Productize Your Knowledge now. Three reasons why:

1. The launch price of $297, which will go up to $497 after the launch

2. The “Product Summer Bootcamp” community — basically an 8-week implementation and support group, with Kieran leading, giving feedback, and possibly cracking the whip (though don’t hold me to that last one)

3. Two free bonuses which I am adding in:

BEJAKO BONUS #1: 3rd conversion (last sold for $197)

Kieran’s Productize Your Knowledge guides you how to making a great info products people wanna buy. But the fact is, you can sell great info, and have people excited to pay you for it, and yet won’t consume it and won’t implement it.

3rd conversion shows you how to take care of that next step, and dramatically incraeses the odds people consume and implement the info you sell.

Not only does this make it more likely that one-time buyers buy the next thing from you and turn into long-time customers, but it makes it so you feel good continuing to sell info products instead of wanting to hang yourself (ask me how I know).

BEJAKO BONUS #2: Most Valuable Postcard #1: Nota Rapida (last sold for $100)

… all about the most important number to focus on in your business, whether you sell info products or services.

The fact is, I never cottoned on to this until I started selling info products. And out of the many mistakes I made while working as freelance copywriter, not focusing on this number is the only one I truly regret.

Whether you’re planning to completely shift to selling products or you want to sell a mix of products and services, I belive the info in this Most Valuable Postcard will keep you happy, wealthy, and wise.

These two bonuses I’m offering add up get a real-world value of $297, which is what Kieran’s PYK sells for during the launch.

If you want to get PYK but you already have both my 3rd Conversion and MVP #1, then write me and I will give you something of equivalent or greater value as a bonus.

Kieran’s launch, including the special launch price and the Product Summer Bootcamp, runs until next week.

However, if you want to also get the free bonuses I am offering, there’s a tighter deadline, this Sunday at 12 midnight PST.

The sales page for Kieran’s offer is below.

If you have knowledge or expertise, if you’ve been thinking about turning that into products you can sell, if you want Kieran’s guidance and even personal feedback on what you’re doing so can get this product done in the next eight weeks instead of the next eight months or the next eight years, then take a look at Kieran’s page below, decide if Productize Your Knowledge is for you.

If you do decide to join, forward me your receipt. I will then get you hooked up with 3rd Conversion or Most Valuable Postcard #1 — or if you already have those, with something of equivalent or greater value.

Here’s the sales page:

https://bejakovic.com/pyk

How to save time “productizing your knowledge”

by

Last week, I got a text message from Kieran Drew, who has a big newsletter and an even bigger audience in the creator space.

Kieran wrote to say he will be stopping by Barcelona in a couple weeks’ time, so let’s meet up.

Yes definitely, I said. I kept reading.

Also, the message went on, Kieran will be launching a product soon about “productizing your knowledge.” Maybe I’d be interested in promoting it as an affiliate?

“Oh God no please,” I thought. “Not a course of ‘secrets’ about how to build a course.”

Here’s my problem:

There’s no doubt you can make money with a course. I’ve done it. Kieran’s done it even more than I have. So have thousands of other people.

But to make a course and then actually make money with it takes time and effort that dwarf anything you might pay for the “how to” info itself. This is why a course on how to build a course is an investment that’s particularly unlikely to pay off for the vast majority of people.

Now here’s a spoiler:

I have since agreed to promote Kieran’s “productize your knowledge” offer. I did it because I’m greedy and unscrup—

No.

I did it because, out of politeness, I asked Kieran to send me his sales page. “I’ll take a look,” I said. “I’ll let you know if it’s something I could do a good job promoting.”

Kieran sent me his sales page. And since I’m as literal-minded as a three-year-old and I feel compelled to do things I said I will do, I took a look, even though I was sure this was not something I was going to promote.

Here’s three things that flipped me:

#1. There’s a legit mechanism

Right at the top of Kieran’s sales page, I found out this is not primarily a bunch of “secrets” about how to make a course, but a genuine mechanism about how to make an info product that sells.

The thing is, rather than teasing you about this mechanism so you have to buy to find out, Kieran actually lays it out on the sales page. That might not be good for sales, but it’s a positive in my book.

#2. Who it’s for

Before turning this process into an info product (hint), Kieran took on 7 private clients, each of whom paid $2,997. Kieran helped these clients implement this process themselves.

I took a look at who signed up for that, and it was people who had legit knowledge to share — athletic performance, personal finance, injury specialists.

This gave me a bit of an aha moment.

I realized that, while I’m not happy to promote an offer on “productizing your knowledge” to the vast majority of people, there is a segment of people who actually have expertise and knowledge.

Some of those people are looking to go the next step from their current service or one-on-one work, and Kieran’s process can be genuinely valuable and helpful for them.

#3. This is not primarily a course, at least not during this launch

During this launch, Kieran’s offer is really an implementation group, a cohort with feedback and accountability along with how-to info. That’s because Kieran’s running “Product Summer Bootcamp,” an 8-week private community, as part of this launch.

Speaking of:

Kieran is launching his offer tomorrow.

Again, the process he is teaching inside is outlined on the sales page.

You can read the sales page when it goes live, take the process for yourself, and run with it.

It will take weeks or more likely months to implement — that’s inevitable.

If you decide to pay Kieran $297 to get the tools, tips, direct guidance, accountability, and support to shave off weeks or maybe months off that time, you will be able to do so tomorrow.

I will also have a couple of congruent bonuses, not to entice you to buy if this isn’t right for you, but to make it more likely you have a successful long-term business, selling your products or a mix of your products and services. But more on all that tomorrow.

Scientists shocked to discover AI does what it’s supposed to

by

I’m signed up to get the weekly newsletter of Nature, the big science journal. The deal is, I give them my email address, and each week they send me a summary of the most interesting science breakthroughs.

But here’s what they sent me yesterday, reporting on new research from MIT:

“The brains of people using the artificial-intelligence bot ChatGPT to write an essay are less engaged than those without access to online tools.”

At the risk of sounding crude, no shit, Sherlock. Isn’t that the whole point? In the words of a smart dead guy, Alfred North Whitehead:

“It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy‑books and eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking about what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle—they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.”

The MIT research is only newsworthy because we all respond to anxiety-stirring and fear-mongering. If it’s not second-hand smoke, then it’s parabens in the water, or now, ChatGPT. “It’s coming for your brain!”

But let me turn this email around to be constructive instead of destructive:

I use ChatGPT daily. My brain is very little engaged while it’s happening. And I don’t think any kind of a problem.

At the same time, I also force myself each day to perform a kind of mental cavalry charge, specifically, to write an email like this.

There’s value in such a daily routine from an outside standpoint. I think people can sense that I write these emails, for real, flaws and flops included, live every day.

There’s also value from an inside standpoint. Writing a new and fresh email each day keeps what little brain I have sharp, active, and engaged.

All that’s to say, if you are worried that your brain is going to mush, or even if you aren’t, then start writing, regularly, and your brain will get fit right quick.

And if you put what you’ve written into an email like this one, and send it out to the world, then there’s extra value to that, even if it’s just you reading at the start.

If you want some guidance and help with that, take a look at my Daily Email Habit service.

A key idea behind Daily Email Habit is that there’s value in writing, even if AI could do it for you.

Daily Email Habit helps you get that value by sending you a new email prompt or “puzzle” each day, and narrowing the scope of what to write about.

If you think of a daily email as a cavalry charge, then Daily Email Habit gives you the direction to charge in, so you and your mental horse don’t stay locked in place due to indecision, and so you don’t half-heartedly trot here and there and back again, tiring out the poor beast without getting anywhere.

For more information on Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Why Parker Worth has got me beat in email marketing

by

Back in January, I got a message from Parker Worth that said:

===

I just did a list swap with Chris Orzy.

Was wondering if you’d be down to trade lead magnets?

===

In case you don’t know Parker, he is “just a guy with a neck tattoo,” as per his Twitter bio.

In reality, Parker is a bit more than that. He’s got an online audience of over 70,000 people spread across Twitter and LinkedIn and his email list, and he’s built a 6-figure business on the back of it, teaching people how to write online. And most impressive:

Parker has done it all starting in 2023, in under 2 years.

I replied to Parker to say yes to his offer of a list swap and… five months later, here we are, finally getting it done.

What to say? Parker lives in Brazil. I live in Spain. I guess we’ve absorbed the wrong things from the local cultures.

Anyway, the reason why I introduced Parker by talking about how short he’s been in the game, and yet how well he’s doing, is that nobody gets results like this without being systematic and strategic about it.

I know whereof I speak, because I myself am anything but systematic and strategic.

I like novelty. I like to improvise. I like to prove to myself I can do something and then move on to the next thing. It’s the only way I can live long-term, but it’s got its downsides. For example:

The first 2 years of this newsletter, from 2018 to 2020, in the same time that Parker built up an audience of 80k people and sold $250k worth of stuff, I managed to build up an audience of 100 people, and I earned precisely 0 dollars from the 100+ emails I had written to that mega-list.

That’s ok. It worked out for me in the end.

But my point is that maybe Parker has something worthwhile to teach you (did I just manage a pun), specifically, how to be more strategic and systematic when it comes to email marketing.

Enter Parker’s 3-Minute Email Template.

Parker wrote an email once that made him money. So he ended up reusing it over and over. It has made him tens of thousands of dollars since.

He has given this email to others. It has made them tens of thousands of dollars as well.

Parker has turned his email into a template, along with couple real-life examples, and has recorded a video explaining the psychology of why it works, if you really wanna go that deep.

He’s giving it all away if you sign up to his list below.

Yes, sign up for the profitable email template.

But really, sign up to Parker’s list for a different perspective than you might get in my own emails, one that can make you more strategic and systematic about what you do, so you can get to success with your newsletter or email list more quickly than I did with mine.

Here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/parker