Motivation

Two copywriting cowboys and a first draft

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This morning, I found myself, frown on my face, jaw clenched, staring out the window. I was actually stroking my chin, that’s how deep in unpleasant thought I was.

I was trying to come up with a way to start this email.

Finally, disgust swept over me. “Let me just write something, anything,” I said to myself. “In the worst case, it will be terrible. And I will just have to rewrite it.”

In case you’re starting to get a little nervous about where this email is going, let me ease your mind:

This isn’t me cowboy hollering at you to to git ‘er done.

Instead, I just want to remind you — and really, myself — of something I heard in an interview with Parris Lampropoulos.

Parris is one of the most successful copywriters working over the past few decades. He has something like an 80% success rate at defeating control sales letters. And he makes millions of dollars while working on only three or four projects a year.

Even so, Parris doesn’t produce winning copy straight out the gate.

In that interview, Parris said something like:

“When I first sit down and write the bullets for a promotion, I always think I’ve lost it. They’re terrible. Everybody will find out I’m a fraud. Then I rewrite the bullets once, and I think, maybe I will be able to get away with it. Third and fourth rewrite, they’re starting to look pretty damn good.”

So if somebody as successful, proven, established, revered, and experienced as P-Lamp still gets feelings of horror and doubt when he looks at his first draft… then maybe it’s okay if you and I also feel the same.

Or in the words of another A-list copywriter, Clayton Makepeace:

“Don’t compare YOUR first draft with MY 16th draft.”

“Thanks John,” you might say, “but I really don’t need encouragement to keep fiddling with my copy. I do that aplenty already.”

I feel you. I can revise my copy endlessly, moving a single word from place A to place B, and back again, over and over, a dozen times. There’s obviously a point at which it stops paying for itself.

But it’s good to still remind yourself that other people work the same way, including some of the best of the best. It can help you stay sane.

And just as important:

Reminding yourself of the power of rewrites can help you get going in the first place. Like what happened with me with this email you’re reading now.

So that’s all the cowboy hollering I have for you today. And now on to business:

I bring up both Parris and Clayton since they feature many times inside Copy Riddles.

That’s because both Parris and Clayton were a couple of the slowest — but most deadly — gunmen in the Wild West of sales copy. Here’s one of Parris’s bullets that wound:

“How to use an ordinary hairbrush to quit smoking.”

I discovered the secret to this (and many similar) brain-teasers by looking at Parris’s bullet… as well as the actual book he was selling.

The trick Parris used to write this bullet is simple. You can discover it in round 17 of Copy Riddles. Once you know it, you too can write intriguing stuff like this “hair brush” promise, on demand.

And then you can rewrite it… and rewrite it… and rewrite it some more. And slowly, it will start to look pretty damn good.

Anyways, enrollment for Copy Riddles closes tomorrow. So if you’ve got a hankering for some A-list copywriting skills, then pardner, head over here:

https://copyriddles.com/

My ape-like positioning fail

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“With our millions of subscribers and your skills,” he wrote me, “I’m sure we can have a big win-win.”

Here’s a bit of revelation about my secret client life:

Over the past month and a half, I’ve been talking to a business owner named Abdul.

Abdul runs an 8-figure business selling online courses. He wanted to start a daily email newsletter to both influence and sell the thousands of new subscribers who join his list every day.

Abdul’s front-end copywriter, who happens to read my newsletter (hi Ross!) recommended me as the expert email copywriter for the job.

So Abdul and I talked and made a deal. It’s all being glued and assembled as we speak, and once it launches for real, we will see how big of a win-win it turns out to be.

But here’s where this story gets a little wobbly.

A few days ago, Abdul texted me to say he’s thinking of hiring Dan Ferrari to write the front-end copy for an upcoming course.

A bit of context:

Dan Ferrari is a copywriter with a long string of controls for both financial and health offers. And Dan has what you might call the Midas touch when it comes to direct response.

I know this because a few years ago, I was one of a handful of guys in Dan’s coaching group, and I could see it first hand.

So when Abdul texted me he’s thinking of hiring Dan, I wrote in response,

“If you do end up hiring him, tell him I’ll gladly work as his assistant, just for the experience.”

I wrote that. But I didn’t send it. Instead, my index finger lingered over the send button. I then slowly brought that finger to my lips, like a gorilla considering his next meal.

“Maybe it’s not a smart thing to say?” I asked myself, while looking at the bananas on my kitchen counter. “I mean, I’m supposed to be the expert copywriter here. How will it look if I offer to work as another copywriter’s assistant?”

I shrugged my powerful ape shoulders. And I clicked to send Abdul the message after all.

Result:
​​
I haven’t yet been fired. And who knows, maybe I’ll end up working with Dan and learning something new.

So my point, in case it’s not obvious:

As I’ve written before, there’s big value to positioning yourself as a wizard… standing on a tall cliff… and, in a booming voice, letting the world know you wield secret knowledge and mystical skills…

But there’s also value in being driven to get better at the actual wielding.

And if I have to choose between the two, like in the case above, I will personally choose the second. It might be the slower path to success. But it’s worked well for me over the long term.

I’m not sure whether this fact can benefit you also.

Perhaps it can make you feel better, if like me, you are also a little skill-hoarder.

Or maybe it can remind you there’s always more to learn, and that there’s usually long-term profit in doing so.

Either way, here’s a possibly related tip:

Two days ago, after I announced I’m reopening my Copy Riddles program, I had a bunch of people who already went through Copy Riddles ask to be added to this new run as well. (One of the perks is lifetime access.)

And I noticed something interesting.

​​Many of the people who want to go again were among the most engaged when they first went through Copy Riddles.

They were the ones who consistently participated in the weekly bullet contests… who attended Q&A calls… who asked thoughtful questions… and generally, who seemed to get the most out of the course.

And here they are again, ready for more. Maybe there’s something to it… something you can use for your own success also.

Or maybe not.

In any case, enrollment for Copy Riddles closes Sunday. If you’d like to find out more about it:

https://copyriddles.com/

DO NOT WRITE A CROCK OF SH—

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A few weeks ago, I shared a bit of writing advice from A-list screenwriter and playwright David Mamet.

For some reason, Mamet likes to use all caps when he’s giving out advice. So here’s another loud tip from Mamet, one he initially shouted at a bunch of junior writers working under him:

DO NOT WRITE A CROCK OF SHIT. WRITE A RIPPING THREE, FOUR, SEVEN MINUTE SCENE WHICH MOVES THE STORY ALONG, AND YOU CAN, VERY SOON, BUY A HOUSE IN BEL AIR AND HIRE SOMEONE TO LIVE THERE FOR YOU.

I’m sharing this motivational quote with you to address the most common question I get about Copy Riddles. That question is:

“Is Copy Riddles about how to write bullets specifically, or copy in general?”

The short answer is yes.

The slightly less short answer is Copy Riddles is about implanting core copywriting skills into your head. I’m talking about stuff you can’t do without if you write sales copy…

Like promises… proof… intrigue… and some of those dirty and hidden psychological tricks you may have seen insiders whispering about.

Really, there is only one fundamental part of copywriting that you can’t get through the Copy Riddles process.

That’s telling a story. And that’s why I included a special bonus along with Copy Riddles, titled Storytelling for Sales.

This bonus lays out my system for writing the stories in my “horror advertorials.”

Some of the horror advertorials I’ve written have sold millions of dollars worth of ecommerce products to cold Facebook traffic. And in this bonus, I tell you how I write the stories in these advertorials, which is the most important part.

But like I say, that’s a bonus. Because the fact is:

Once you have the fundamentals that Copy Riddles will implant in your head…

You can use them to WRITE A RIPPING HEADLINE, SUBJECT LINE, BULLET, OR SLICE OF BODY COPY WHICH MOVES THE SALE ALONG… AND YOU CAN, VERY SOON, BUY A HOUSE IN BEL AIR AND HIRE SOMEONE TO LIVE THERE FOR YOU.

In case that kind of power turns you on:

https://copyriddles.com/

If they pirate, they pay attention

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Here’s a confession from a once-broke, today-very-rich Internet marketer:

I was living in an apartment that cost $250 a month.

And I had about a month’s worth of living expenses left.

So I couldn’t afford to shell out the $2k it cost to buy any of Dan’s courses.

So I did something I’m not very proud of these days – I went to the dark parts of the web and torrented his stuff.

I found his advanced sales letter course…

His Wealth Attraction course…

Lastly I downloaded his holy grail – Influential Writing – which in my mind is the greatest information marketing course ever made.

I went through all of these on repeat for months.

Anytime I was working, I’d be listening to a Dan Kennedy course.

Maybe you know who wrote this. It’s Justin Goff.

Justin wrote that email a couple years ago, the day the whole direct response world thought that Dan Kennedy had died.

Justin also thought Dan was dead. So he wrote an ode to Dan, and said Dan was his “greatest mentor.”

And I can believe it.

I can also believe that it was Dan’s stuff that helped Justin get successful. That without it, Justin might not have made it, at least not as quickly and as richly.

In the marketing world, it’s popular to say, “If they pay, they pay attention.”

It’s also popular to mock those who pirate, steal, and share paid content. Here’s a recent bit from Ben Settle on the matter:

These criminals all end up fetching peoples’ coffee or begging for change for a living eventually. Bums to the end. Irony is, if they spent half as much time working on themselves & a legit business as they do pirating products, they’d be multi-millionaires many times over.

Writing this makes good business sense for Ben.

But obviously, not everybody who pirates stuff winds up begging for change (see Justin above). And vice versa.

Many people who honestly pay for stuff get nothing from their purchase except the rush of handing over their money.

And in case you’re wondering what I’m getting at, let me tell you a personal story:

A few days ago, while surfin’ the Internet, I surfed upon a membership site that claims to have the recordings of the Influential Emails training I held last November.

I don’t know whether this site actually has a copy of the recordings and resources I shared with people after the training ended… or whether they just copied my sales page and are baiting people into handing over their credit cards.

And I don’t really care much to find out.

Because I feel I’ve done right by the people who paid to join me for Influential Emails. Those who joined me, who paid attention, and who end up implementing the ideas I revealed… will profit much more than what they paid me.

At the same time, I respect the fact that they gave me their money. That’s why I don’t entertain requests for free copies of my paid stuff… or even offer discounts on the current price.

But on the other hand, if there is somebody out there who does pirate my stuff… and ends up profiting from it also… well, I won’t set my hair on fire about it.

​​In fact, I imagine I will still somehow benefit from it, in some unseen or indirect way, somewhere down the line.

So my point for you is:

Pirate all you want.

No, wait, that’s not actually my point. My point is:

Pay attention to the good information out there, whether it’s available to you for free or whether you have to pay for it. And then — key point — put that information to work.

Or don’t. Because maybe you’re ok with fetching other people’s coffee. Of course, maybe that won’t happen to you.

In any case, let me make you a free offer right now:

My Copy Riddles program will be re-launching later this month. I’m trying to get a few more people to find out about it before it gets pirated and shared into oblivion.

And if you help me get the word out, I’ll give you something in return.

This free thing will only benefit you if you consume it… and then put it to work.

But if you do that, it could lead you to self-respect, ongoing client work, and thousands of dollars in your pocket. For the full details:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/

The old “Simon Lannister”: How to achieve the possible

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Simon flew through the finish line and immediately collapsed, face down on the track.

“You all right, Si?” It was his sister Margot, standing over him and holding a stopwatch.

Simon lay there on the ground, gasping for breath. “heave… heave… TIME? heave…”

“Oh right,” Margot said. She looked at the stopwatch. “Three minutes, 59.7 seconds. That seems good. Is that good?”

Simon kept heaving for breath, face flat on the ground. Gradually his hands curled into fists and his heaves turned into sobs. “I did it… I DID IT…”

Simon’s Jack Russell terrier, Sergeant, came over and sniffed his master’s feet. Sergeant followed the scent away into the grassy, wildflower-covered field in the middle of the track.

“I don’t mean to rush you Si,” Margot said, “but could you maybe hurry it up? We’ll be late for lunch. And you know how mum gets whenever we’re late.”

And that’s all the detail that’s been preserved about this historic event.

Because historians love to study and celebrate Roger Bannister, the first man to run the four-minute mile, back in 1954.

But practically nobody studies or even remembers Simon Lannister, the 34th man to run the four-minute mile, only a few years later, in 1958.

And I suspect it will be the same with me and my achievement yesterday.

Because yesterday, I got banned from r/copywriting.

The context is that over the past few days, I’ve been rewarding people who share links to my Copy Riddles optin page.

And that’s why Sonam Zahrt-Tenzin, a copywriter who’s already gone through the Copy Riddles program, put together a nice writeup of his experience and posted it on the r/copywriting subreddit.

But when I went to read it a few hours later, it was “[removed].” In fact, a post at the top of r/copywriting said any links to me and any of my stuff are now banned because there have been too many of them over the past few days.

You might think this is a failure but:

I’m grateful to Sonam and to all the other people who shared links to my site.

Like I said, I doubt history will remember our collective achievement in getting me banned from r/copywriting. I’m certainty not the first to break through that barrier — I believe that was Daniel Throssell, and probably other people after him.

Even so, it’s been an achievement for me. And I don’t mean that in a perverse, “good is bad, bad is good” sense.

I mean it in the sense that I’ve seen a nice bump in new subscribers over the past few days.

In fact, I saw a bump on top of that bump after the “banned” post appeared at the top of r/copywriting. And since that post is sitting there still, I’m guessing it will send a few more people to check out my site.

What’s more, I imagine this promo campaign will bring me knock-on benefits and name exposure, which will only be obvious in weeks and months to come.

That’s the achievement I’m happy about.

Now, as you might have noticed if you’ve been reading my emails for a while, I’m not a person who particularly craves attention, controversy, or conflict.

But the fact is, if you do anything in life… besides drumming your fingers on the table and watching the seasons change outside your window… then soon enough, you will run into resistance, whether internal or external.

In my experience, the only thing to do at that point is to give it the old Simon Lannister:

Keep putting one foot in front of the other, if for no other reason than that you’ve set your mind to it. And once you’re done, pick yourself up from the track, and rather than dwelling on your achievement or the resistance you encountered, go get lunch, and then move on to the next goal in your life.

For example:

Even though Daniel was the first to get banned from many choice locations on the Internet… I’m sure other virgin forums, groups, and communities remain.

So if you’d like to help me get the word out about this newsletter, and possibly get banned somewhere new, then take a look at the link below.

I’m offering a bribe in exchange for your help. But if the bribe doesn’t turn you on, ignore it. And if you want to help me out just for the sake of helping me out, I’ll be grateful to you. Here are the full details:

https://bejakovic.com/free-offer-niche-expert-cold-emails/

Breaking the code of the highly successful person

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The sun is shining, I have an egg sandwich and a bottle of water for the road, and I’m ready to get in the car and drive across three countries in about as many hours.

But before I can do that, I have to finish this email and two more things. And that’s my point for you for today.

I recently read Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs.

​​I long resisted doing so because the very words “time management” sound repulsive to me, a throwback to the time of Fred Flintstone slaving away at the rock quarry until the foreman yanks the pterodactyl’s tail to signal the end of the work day.

But boy was I wrong.

Dan Kennedy’s book is fantastic. I recommend it to anyone who is a driven go-getter (it will help you focus and get more done) or, like me, a lazy layabout by nature (it will still help you focus and get more done).

Anyways, towards the end of the book, Dan quotes a bit of wisdom he heard in his young days from success speaker Jim Rohn.

Dan says that, for him, this bit of wisdom broke the code of the highly successful person. It took all the mystery and mystique away. And here it is:

When you look closely at highly successful people in any field, you walk away saying to yourself, “Well it’s no wonder he’s doing so well. Look at everything he does.”

That’s what Jim Rohn used to say. To which, Dan Kennedy adds, “… and look very closely at the one thing or two or three things he gets done without fail, every single day.”

So there you go. My point for you for today. Figure out one or two or three things you will get done each day, without fail.

Perhaps you’re curious what my “without fail” things are.

Like I said, this email is one. Another, which i started only recently, is working on a new offer. And the third, which I’ve been practicing for most of my life, is reading. Because reading is really the fuel that drives any achievements I’ve had.

I’m not telling you to pick up these specific daily habits. Make your own choices.

​​But if reading is something you want to do every day, both for your sanity and for your success, then, again, I can recommend Dan Kenendy’s Time Management book. It’s a smart investment right now, because it will pay so much in time dividends tomorrow.

In case you want to check it out, you can find the Amazon link below:
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https://bejakovic.com/time-management​​

An inspiring story of blindsight

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One day in 1988, a woman named Diane Fletcher was taking a shower when she passed out and fell to the floor.

​​The water heater in her bathroom wasn’t properly ventilated. It was leaking carbon monoxide. That’s why Diane passed out.

She survived – her husband found her some 20 minutes later — but there were consequences.

For one thing, Diane was completely blind the first few days. Then gradually, the crude basics of her vision returned — some color and texture. But she never regained the ability to distinguish or recognize objects.

Put two wooden blocks in front of Diane, and ask her which is bigger. She would just shrug — she didn’t see either one.

But then, ask Diane to pick up one of the blocks. Her hand would shoot right towards it. Along the way, her thumb and fingers would adapt so she could grab the block perfectly.

And it wasn’t a one-time thing, either.

Put a box with a slit in it in front of Diane, and ask her which way the slit is facing, horizontally or vertically. Again, Diane couldn’t say.

But put a letter in Diane’s hand and ask her to put that letter in the slot. She did this perfectly each time — regardless of how the box was turned, even though she couldn’t “see” the slit.

It turned out Diane had “blindsight.” That’s the clever name some scientist gave to the condition.

From what I understand:

The neural pathway that goes from your eyes to the rest of your brain splits in two along the way.

One fork of this pathway goes up. It leads to the regions of your brain that interpret what you are looking at. This part of your brain also seems to cause the conscious sensation of seeing.

But another half of the pathway goes down. That part of your brain actually moves you around in space, based on visual input.

In some cases of blindsight, the consequences can be even more total and extreme than for Diane.

Some people with blindsight can be completely blind. They can’t consciously see anything. No color, no texture, nothing.

And yet, they can still see fine when it comes to movement. Another part of their brain, in charge of another part of vision, outside of conscious experience, is still working perfectly.

I don’t know about you, but I thought this blindsight stuff was absolutely incredible. It made me wonder how much people like Diane can get done on faith alone.

Yes, she had the absolute personal experience of not being able to see. But could she walk down an unfamiliar staircase without tumbling to the bottom… even though she couldn’t “see” the stairs?

Could she go outside and walk around a park? Could she avoid tripping over roots and never slam face-first into a tree… just by putting one foot in front of the other, over and over?

I don’t know. And I don’t want to get all Robert Collier-y, “Secret of the Ages” on you, and claim you can manifest anything you can imagine.

Bit I will tell you I’ve been to both extremes in my life.

I’ve spent many years sulking in the corner, arms crossed tightly, frown on my face, lower lip pouting out… because I knew for a fact, based on hard personal experience and intuition as well… that I didn’t have the biological talent needed to achieve the things I wanted.

But then I’ve also had moments in my life, which sometimes stretched out into months and years. During these moments, I tapped into magical new ways of being. I suddenly found myself with innate skills and abilities I never dreamed I could have.

Maybe that sounds a little abstract. Maybe you want some specific examples of these transformations I experienced.

Fine. But let’s keep that for another time. Right now, I just want to leave you with the following possibility:

You might have your own blindsight. Or maybe many of them. Not through brain damage. But just by virtue of being human.

The fact is, the unconscious part of our existence is a deep and mysterious thing.

There might be quiet little zombies inside you, working away right now… solving complex problems and providing you with unique and powerful talents and skills… completely outside of your consciousness or awareness.

And yet they are there, working on your behalf, or ready to do so.

All you have to do is to put yourself in a situation where those zombies have a chance to apply their diligent work. Well, that… plus you gotta have some faith.

Ok, that’s all the inspiration I can give you for today.

I might have something new tomorrow. If you want to read that, consider signing up for my email newsletter.

Out of office and Carlton’s self-programming trick

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I finished up this morning’s Zoom call and then I tiptoed back to bed, snuck in, and started shivering under three layers of blankets.

There were two things I wanted to get done today. The Zoom call was one. And I managed to get it done, in spite of being sick with some unidentified illness.

I’m telling you this in case you’ve written me in the past few days and haven’t gotten a response. It’s because I’ve pared down what I’m doing to the absolute essentials.

I also wanted to share a little psychological hack I learned from John Carlton. Carlton writes:

Gary Halbert used to buy himself watches, or cameras, or even boats (preferably used wooden craft requiring thousands in maintenance, but that’s another story) whenever he finished a big gig. As a reward for a job well done.

I’ve always rewarded myself with free time (as in taking the phone off the hook for an entire week, or splitting to hang with friends).

It doesn’t matter what, precisely, the reward is (as long as it’s meaningful to you)… but the ACT of rewarding yourself fires up the motivation part of your unconscious brain.

You might think it’s silly to connect Carlton’s watches-and-sailboats advice to my situation today.

So be it.

But I don’t think I could have pulled myself together for the call had I scheduled more work for myself right after, and had I not promised myself that shivery, four-hour nap as a reward.

But anyways. Here’s an email-writing tip. Wrap up what you’ve been talking about by giving your reader a takeaway he can use today. So here it is, in Carlton’s words:

Fastest path to burnout is to finish a grueling gig, clear the desk, and then start the next grueling gig.

What the hell are you thinking, you’re Superman?

Decompress, go shop for a goodie, teach your brain to associate end-of-job with fun rewards.

Main key: The reward cannot be something you’d buy or do anyway. It has to be pure excessive nonsense (like Halbert’s 14th watch or 3rd boat) that delights your Inner Kid.

Last point:

If you’d like to read me repurposing and curating famous copywriters good ideas, consider signing up to my email newsletter.

100,000 bad emails

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“I was a profound failure. Not really profound enough. I kind of slid in the middle of failure. Some of us were picturesque. I was just dull.”

Chuck Jones went to art college at age 15.

You might have heard of Chuck Jones before. He eventually became the Oscar-winning animator behind the best Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons… the creator of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote… and the director of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

But back at art college, Jones found everyone else was taller and could draw infinitely better than him.

He was dejected. One thing that helped him was a teacher who stepped in front of the whole class and said:

“Every one of you has 100,000 bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everybody.”

This includes everybody who signed up for my Influential Emails training. They’ve all been getting emails from me. I want to know why they signed up, and what they hope to get out of it. One guy replied:

For me, the challenge is finding ideas that seem unrelated, connecting them to create insights and then communicate them in an intriguing way without sounding fake.

In all honesty, its to remove the fear of I don’t know what to write with the confidence that I have a process for figuring out exactly what to do.

I’ll talk about the specifics of my process inside Infuential Emails. But honestly, the comment above brilliantly lays out the gist of my process, in just one sentence. That’s all you need to get started. That, along with the Chuck Jones quote above to get over any lingering fear.

But wait, there’s more!

This is part of a bigger thing I’ve found in life.

Many times, if I’m faced with a brick wall in my path and I can’t see any way through it, I’ll take out a piece of paper. And I’ll start writing down my currently available ideas.

“#1. Bang head against wall. #2 Beat fists against wall. #3 Lie down and die. #4….” When I free up my brain of bad ideas that take me nowhere, I sometimes find good ideas underneath.

Do you remember the rejection game? It was a trendy thing some 10 years ago.

Each day the goal was to get somebody to tell you no. As soon as you did that, you succeeded. The point was to keep the streak going for as long as you could.

I tried it back then. It was surprisingly fun and liberating.

Because when you seek out and reward yourself for reaching what you normally avoid, you don’t just achieve more. You reframe what success means.

Did you find this informative and motivational? Are you ready to get going writing something yourself? If so, good.

But did you think I’ve written more coherent and interesting emails in the past, and that this isn’t among one of my standouts?

Even better. I’ve just gotten rid of another one of those 100,000 bad emails, and freed up my brain for something new and possibly amazing the next time I sit down to write. And you can do the same, starting today.

2-year-old copywriter wants a deadline extension

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I’ve got an inspirational or perhaps sobering message for you today.

To tell you about it, let me first say that last week’s Copy Riddles launch was fantastic. Beyond all my expectations. It’s now time for people who signed up to see how I deliver on the promises in the sales letter.

But there’s one person who won’t see any of that. He wrote me about 3 hours before the deadline to say:

1. He only found my list two days earlier, so he doesn’t trust me.

2. He’s willing to give Copy Riddles a try since there’s a money-back guarantee.

3. He has read Gary Bencivenga’s Marketing Bullets. So unless he finds something new in Copy Riddles in the first few weeks, he will ask for a refund.

4. He’s been getting ready to start working as a copywriter for two years. If Copy Riddles gets him his first client, he will want to become an affiliate. Otherwise, again, refund.

5. Right now he only has cash on hand. He needs to go to the bank to deposit it. But his kids are asleep at home, plus the car is in the shop, and it’s near midnight anyhow. So he would like to sign up tomorrow, 12 hours after the deadline.

This reminded me of a girl I went on a date with once.

As soon as we sat down at the bar, she informed me that most guys are terrible — her last date put his hand on her knee. But she has a good feeling about me.

Then she launched into her education history (very smart)… work history (very successful)… current job (very important, yet underpaid).

She finished up her sales pitch by saying she is a great cook. In fact her father (she still lived at home) much preferred her cooking to her mother’s cooking.

She crossed her legs and she sighed. “I really feel like we have a connection,” she said with a smile. “When do you think we can meet again?”

On that date, as today, I glanced at the clock on the wall and calculated how many seconds separated me from safety.

Fortunately, the seconds today passed quickly enough. I closed down the Copy Riddles cart in time — at the exact time I said I would. I wrote back to the 2-year-old copywriter above. “The offer is now closed,” I said, “and it wouldn’t have been a good fit anyhow.”

So let me get to the sobering/inspiring thing I promised you:

Not long ago, I examined the things in life where I’ve succeeded. This includes copywriting.

“What were the common elements?” I asked myself.

There were three. I wrote about number one a while ago. I’ll tell you about number two today. It was this:

I had no other options. Maybe not in reality… but in my head.

And so it’s clear, this doesn’t mean I was shouting SPARTAAA as I charged off into battle. Or that I gritted my teeth and set fire to the boat that could take me home. Or that I staked my future first-born child on a lotto ticket… because “I’m all in.”

No, none of that.

Instead, all I had each time was a subtle and quiet voice, somewhere in the back of my head. I wasn’t even aware of this voice at the time. It whispered that the only possible way is forward. That I should focus my energy in looking for ways to succeed, rather than bracing myself against failure.

I’m not sure if this “forward only” voice is the only way to get what you want.

But I do know that every time I had the opposite of this voice in my head… like the guy above has about copywriting right now… every time like that, the end was always failure. A waste of time. A waste of money. A waste of emotional energy. It would have been better to recognize that early on and go do something else.

So that’s the sobering message. The inspirational message is this:

If you’ve got this subtle and quiet “forward only” voice whispering to you, or if you’ve got the self-discipline to cultivate it, then as Shakespeare said, the world’s yer erster.

There might be setbacks and humiliations and difficulties ahead. But you will succeed. At least that’s how it’s been for me, every time this blessed voice landed on me.

And on that note, I want to tell you about a book I won’t be offering much longer.

It’s my how-I-made-it-as-a-freelancer-on-Upwork book. I wrote it two years ago. It’s up on Amazon for a grand total of something like $5. And it’s got my best advice for the early years of being a copywriter, whether you’re on Upwork or not. Sometimes I still reread it, to remind myself of valuable client lessons I’d learned and since forgotten.

And like I said, I won’t keep this book available much longer. One reason is that the how-to info inside is underpriced by a couple of factors of magnitude. I’ve got other reasons too, and maybe you can guess them.

So to wrap up:

The book won’t go away today or tomorrow. But if you want to get it, I suggest you get it now.

Because if it’s gone, then no amount of “I was cooking spaghetti in the kitchen and so I couldn’t hear the deadline” excuses will work.

But if you’re working on that “forward only” voice, I guess I don’t need to tell you that. So let me just point you where to go for more information:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book