Personal Change

Why I sent you an empty email yesterday

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This morning, I woke up to an inbox full of messages that read:

“Hmm??”

“Huh??”

“Wha—??”

“I’m sure others are writing to tell you the same, but hngh??”

“Why?? Why?? WHY?? I need do know”

The story is that I sent out an email last night with the subject line, “Why is Alec Baldwin telling me to Always Be Closing?”

That email went out with no body copy, but only with the placeholder text that reads “Text goes here.”

Two things about this strange event:

#1. It was unintentional, and I blame ActiveCampaign for it, as I do for many other things.

I wrote my email, put it into ActiveCampaign, and scheduled it. For some reason, ActiveCampaign didn’t save the body copy.

This has happened a few times already. Each time before, I caught it at the last minute by noticing something’s off in the tiny preview window at the end. Last night I didn’t.

#2. I am amazed by how little I am bothered by this event. Maybe it’s because it’s genuinely a tech muckup out of my control, and not something that I feel responsible for. Or maybe I have just been sending emails long enough that I have built up a pachydermous outer layer that protects me from the slings and arrows and “huh??”s of the world.

So my brief inspirational message to you:

If you are afraid of writing something and publishing it because you think you might muck it up, and everyone will know, then do it anyhow, because 1) you will muck it up, 2) everyone will know, and 3) eventually you won’t be bothered by it.

Also, if you’d like to know why Alec Baldwin is telling me to Always Be Closing, here’s that message, with the body copy included this time:

https://bejakovic.com/why-is-alec-baldwin-telling-me-to-always-be-closing/

Forget about AI, it’s the Swiss we should be worried about

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I just read a writing-on-the-wall article on Bloomberg:

Earlier this year, a small town in Switzerland banned billboards. ​​And earlier this month, after pro-billboard opponents challenged the ban, the Swiss Supreme Court upheld the right of citizens to “limit visual pollution” and “opt out of unwanted advertising.”

“We didn’t recognize any public interest in having billboards,” said one local politician.

“We want to battle unnecessary consumption with this measure,” said another.

Other towns in Switzerland, including Zurich and the capital Bern, are also in the process of debillboardizing.

I know what you’ll say. Switzerland is just a quirky, small, isolated country, high up in the mountains, where cows rule and the rivers run with chocolate.

But Switzerland is not the first instance of anti-ad terror.

Back in the 2020/1/15 issue of this newsletter, I wrote about French anti-ad groups that were vandalizing billboards, protesting against advertising, and looking to pass new anti-advertising laws. A nurse involved in the protests said:

“When you walk down the street, how can you feel happy if you’re constantly being reminded of what you don’t have? Advertising breaks your spirit, confuses you about what you really need and distracts you from real problems.”

Maybe you think this is just a few crazy and fringe bolsheviks on the march, and that they should really get a job.

And maybe so. But other things that looked crazy and fringe a few decades ago are a reality now.

Today, smoking is controlled, heavily-taxed, and socially shunned. But was a time when smoking was glamorous and could be done anywhere, even in schools and hospitals.

Today, spanking your kid can lead to criminal charges or social services getting called in. But spanking used to be a prerogative of parents and even, as per the Bible, the right thing to do.

Today drunk driving one of the most irresponsible acts a human being can commit, and heavily criminalized. But it used to be a normal part of a good night of fun.

Those are all kind of “done deals.” But think about some deals that are not yet done, but that are in the process of being negotiated right now:

* Eating animals, particularly the cute ones, particularly when you have other non-cute options for good nutrition

* Flying to Thailand and back for a two-week vacation, and producing the monthly carbon emissions of a small 18th-century town, all by yourself, in the span of a few hours

* Drinking any alcohol ever, when Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia, and all your friends who listen to them, say that even a sip is bad for you

As the world changes, as science develops, as propaganda spreads, so do our attitudes to things that seem like an eternal fabric of our lives.

And maybe advertising, though it’s been with us for centuries, will become socially unacceptable, and sooner than you might think.

Oh boy. How do I dig myself out of this hole now?

​​After all, this is a newsletter about copywriting and marketing, and I can’t just leave you like this, despairing how it might all come to an end soon.

Easy. Because I think this hole I’ve dug for myself is not much of a hole at all.

Sure, artificial intelligence might eat copywriting soon.

Sure, social crusaders might eventually limit or ban advertising in some form.

And if you think of what you do as writing copy or creating advertising… well, if those futures come to pass, then you will be screwed.

On the other hand, if you think of what you do as simply effective communication… well, then you will be busy and successful, as long as humans are around, and as long as we continue to communicate and influence each other.

The specific applications might change. But the underlying principles will remain. ​​

As I’m sure you know, there are lots of places where you can learn about effective communication.

But there are certain truths about effective communication that you can only learn when you’re communicating with people one-on-one, in the privacy of their home or office, when they have their credit card in hand.

If you’d like to learn more about effective communication, and especially those “credit card in hand” truths you won’t find anywhere else:

https://bejakovic.com/cr/

My Prime Directive for writing this email newsletter

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A few weeks ago, marketer Matt Giaro interviewed me for his podcast.

Maybe because Matt also writes daily emails, or maybe because he’s into direct marketing, but he asked me questions I actually enjoyed answering and had something to say about.

The result is that this podcast appearance is one of my less horrific ones.

At one point, Matt asked me how I think about tying up my emails into the offers I’m making.

I told Matt how I think about that. But then I told him something that I think is much more important.

​​In fact, it’s my Prime Directive for writing this email newsletter.

It has never been to make money.

Maybe you think I’m signaling how good of a guy I am by telling you that. That’s not it. Consider this:

My Prime Directive also hasn’t been to provide value for my readers, or even to entertain them.

Nope.

My Prime Directive for this newsletter is very unsexy, very uninspiring, and a bit inhuman, almost Borg-like.

It’s simply… to keep this newsletter going day after day.

I’m writing this email from the Athens airport, waiting for my flight to Barcelona.

I’ve been in Greece for the past 5 days. It’s a kind of vacation, though each day I found a break in my “vacation time” to write this daily email.

Perhaps that’s because I’m a bit of a obsessive-compulsive beaver.

Or perhaps it’s a perfectly logical, rational decision. In the words of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money:

“What I want to have is endurance. I want to be so unbreakable financially in the short run to increase the odds that I will be able to stick around as an investor for the stocks that I do own to compound for the longest period of time. If you understand the math of compounding, you know that the big gains come at the end of the period.”

… and I’d add, it’s not just stocks. This is also true for other assets, such as skills you’re building, knowledge you’re stacking up, content you’re creating, or email subscribers you’re attracting.

That said, just because my Prime Directive is rather inhuman — “resistance is futile, another email will follow tomorrow” — doesn’t mean I can’t on occasion try to make these emails valuable to you.

So let me take this moment to remind you of the old chestnut, which is no less true because it’s preached so often:

The best time to finally start something you have been putting off for an eternity — is today.

It doesn’t have to be an email list you write to daily.

There are plenty of other good investments out there, which you can start investing a nickel’s worth of time, energy, or money into right now.

But if you don’t hate writing… and if you happen to like flexibility and independence… then an email list of engaged readers is a good investment to start today.

And if you want some practical tips about how to do that in a way that meshes with your sense of self, assuming you’re not a natural-born salesman, then the podcast I did with Matt might be worth listening to.

The topic for that podcast was “How to send daily emails that make money without selling.”

The topic came up because I heard from a few people that it never seems I’m selling in these emails.

Of course, that can be because there are times I’m not actually selling anything, like today. (The Borg can subsist for months without food.)

On the other hand, there were also unbroken periods — stretching for years at a time — when each email I sent ended with a CTA to buy a paid product I was selling.

And yet, people somehow didn’t find it salesy… and they wanted to know how I do that.

If you’re curious too, I break it down in the interview with Matt. The link is here:

Leadership by “dynamic indifference”

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Yesterday, I waited to board my plane with my handwritten, 100% fake-looking boarding pass.

The boarding pass was an ordinary piece of paper that had just my name and the number of the flight on it. And that’s it — no other information on there. It was a consequence of yesterday’s IT meltdown.

At the gate, the crew first let in a few passengers who had managed to check in online and had assigned seats.

Then they realized that the majority of the remaining passengers were just like me. The remaining passengers all had stupid pieces of paper in their hands, without any assigned seats. And since the computers were all down, there was no way to assign seats in any normal way.

First, there was a bit of panic on the ground crew’s faces.

They started calling around to their superiors, consulting with each other, trying to ignore the questions and suggestions that pushy passengers were making to them.

In the end, the ground crew shrugged their shoulders.

“Ok everybody can board,” they said. “You can sit wherever you find a free seat.”

And it worked out just fine. The boarding completed was as quickly, or maybe more quickly, than with the usual “excuse me but you’re in my seat” hokey pokey.

Point being:

Let’s burn down all the computers and ticket-booking systems and rules about who sits where and who does what. Let’s abolish all the top-down mandates, because the people will self-organize just as well or better.

Anarchy!

“Uh, really?”

No, not really.

But there really might be cases where doing just what I suggested actually works.

​​And it might work for you, too, even if you don’t run an airline, but an info publishing business.

​​And as a case study, let me share with you an interesting and quick snippet of an interview. The interview is with a man named Bill Bonner who:

1. Is a famous copywriter

2. Founded and still owns Agora, a huge consortium of direct response brands that employs thousands of people

3. Is worth a few billion dollars thanks to his stake in all those publishing businesses

Here’s the thing though. You might think that a billion-dollar company requires strong and dedicated management. But that’s just the opposite of what Bonner is saying in this interview.

It turns out he has abolished not just the seating assignments inside Agora, but has even vacated the pilot’s seat, and has left it to the stewardesses and the passengers to figure out who does what, and how, including flying the plane:

“In France, for example, we tried telling people what to do — from London, no less. It was a disaster. Then, at the end of our ropes, we told the remaining French employees that they would have to figure it out for themselves. “Who will be in charge?” they wanted to know. ‘Whoever takes charge,’ we replied.”

I’m telling you this because maybe you’re like me, and you have an aversion to the idea of managing people.

Well, maybe you don’t have to manage people, or even really have any management, in order for people to work for you, and to good work for you well, and to make serious money for you.

It sounds risky, or like a pipe dream. I know. But if you’re curious to find out a bit more about Bonner’s “dynamic indifference” way of leading a business, you can read about it here:

https://www.imsrindia.com/single-post/focus-on-the-work-itself-bill-bonner-founder-and-president-of-agora

The light at the end of the tunnel

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“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and the thing is, I love you.”

“What?”

“I love you.”

“How do you expect me to respond to this?”

“How about, you love me too?”

“How about: I’m leaving.”

That’s the start of the last scene of the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally. In case you haven’t seen it, the movie goes like this:

The first time Harry and Sally meet, they hate each other. The second time they meet, Harry doesn’t even remember who Sally is. The third time they meet, Harry and Sally become friends. Then they sleep together, and things go south and they stop being friends.

And then one New Year’s Eve, Harry finally realizes he loves Sally, and he runs to meet her, and he declares his love. And she says, “I’m leaving.”

The fact is, screenwriter Nora Ephron and director Rob Reiner both felt that movie should end like this.

​​No way should it end with Harry and Sally winding up together. That’s not how the real world works. People in those kinds of relationships don’t end up together.

That’s how the first two drafts of the movie actually went. The bitter truth.

But in the third draft, Ephron wrote this final scene, and Reiner shot it. After Sally’s “I’m leaving,” Harry delivers a speech about all the little things he loves about her, and they kiss and they wind up together, forever, in love.

And that’s how the movie was released, and it was a big, big hit.

So what’s the point?

Well, maybe it’s obvious, but you can go negative and cynical and sarcastic for the whole movie, but you gotta end on an inspiring, positive note.

​​It’s gotta make sense to people and give them a feeling of hope, at least if you want to create something that has a chance to be a big big hit, something that can appeal to a wide swath of the market.

Or in the words of screenwriter and director David Mamet:

“Children jump around at the end of the day, to expend the last of that day’s energy. The adult equivalent, when the sun goes down, is to create or witness drama — which is to say, to order the universe into a comprehensible form.”

But now I have a problem:

I’ve just pulled back the curtain. And what’s behind the curtain is not so nice. So how can I end this email on an inspiring, positive note?

Well, I can admit to you that the world is a large and complex and often unjust place. But it does have its own structure. And just by reading these emails, you’re finding out bits and pieces of that structure, and that helps you make more sense of the world you live in, and it helps you shape and influence the world for the better.

I can also tell you that the above bit, about Harry and Sally and Nora and Rob, is part of a book I’m working on, the mythical “10 Commandments of Hypnotists, Pick Up Artists, Comedians, Copywriters, Con Men, Door-To-Door Salesmen, Professional Negotiators, Storytellers, Propagandists, and Stage Magicians.”

I’ve been working on this book for a long time. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

In the meantime, do you know about my other 10 Commandments book, 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters?

It also collects bits and pieces of the structure of the world, and it can help you understand and shape that world for the better. In case you’d like to find out more:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Riveting, personal story to fill my mistake quota

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Hold on to your seat, and prepare to be riveted by the following true and very personal story:

Two days ago, I meet up with my friend Adrian. Adrian suggests we go out to dinner tonight, just him, me, and my dad. (Adrian is also friends with my dad.)

I say fine.

Adrian and my dad and I text yesterday to confirm the place and time for the dinner. We quickly agree.

But then it turns out Adrian’s wife would like to join also, along with their 3-year old daughter. Oh, and can we move dinner three hours earlier because of his daughter’s bed time?

I’m not thrilled by the idea — the early dinner, the wife, the kid. I honestly tell Adrian the earlier time doesn’t work well because I also have a family lunch to go to in the afternoon.

He says he’ll check with the wife.

Throughout the rest of yesterday, there’s more tussling over WhatsApp. And then finally, in the early evening hours, Adrian decides to go back to the original plan, the original time, and the original company for the dinner.

TA-DAAA! The end.

Now that you’ve read this, I want to apologize. I know this story was only riveting in how stupid it was.

​​But how else to get the following point across in a way that sticks?

A couple months ago, I bought a book called Suddenly Talented by Sean D’Souza.

Sean you might know — he’s an Internet marketer who’s been in the game since before Google, and I’ve written about him often in this newsletter.

Sean is best known for his unorthodox marketing ideas. But he’s branched out also — to courses and workshops about cartooning, photography, and learning and skill acquisition, which is what Suddenly Talented is about.

I actually haven’t read Sean’s book yet.

​​But there’s a WhatsApp group for everyone who’s bought the book, where Sean holds court and explains his ideas about how to get good at anything, and quick.

One idea will probably be familiar to you — it’s to get okay with making mistakes, whether you’re drawing, learning a new language, or trying to write a daily email.

But Sean takes it one step further.

​​In his own workshops, he actually gives his students a mistake quota.

​​​In other words, he tells his students that they have to actively and consciously make a certain number of mistakes before he will let them even attempt to do the thing right.

Result? I don’t know, but I can guess:

1. People loosen up. They realize that a mistake is not as fatal as it might seem in their imagination.

2. People actually learn something, by actively dancing around the “right” thing to do. In the words of Claude Debussy, music is the space between the notes.

“Fine fine,” you might say, “enough with the poetry. Does this really work?”

I don’t know. But it sounded interesting enough to give it a try. That’s why I opened with the pointless and uninteresting story above.

Don’t open your emails like I did.

Or do. Do it to teach yourself that hey, even a terrible email doesn’t really cost me anything, and hey, maybe I’ll even learn something by doing things wrong.

Are you convinced? Are you not convinced? It’s okay either way.

But in case this email triggered something in your brain, you might want to check out my Most Valuable Email training. It comes with a swipe file of 51 interesting ideas, many of which have proven valuable to me and to the people who have gone through MVE, sometimes even paying for the entire course.

If you’d like to find out more:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

Why do I keep linking to Amazon???

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I got a question from a reader last week, which I didn’t realize until just now had a slight dig at me towards the end:

===

I noticed that you linked to Amazon quite a lot in recent weeks … curious about your rationale?

Engagement, commission, or simply being unpredictable (ultimately become predictable)?

===

How’s this for predictable:

It is well known, by anybody who knows anything about Internet marketing, that linking to Amazon, particularly to books on Amazon, particularly to books on Amazon that feature word “eskimo” in the title, increases Gmail deliverability. This in turn translates to higher engagement and greater retention on expensive continuity programs like the ones I don’t sell.

No. Of course not. It’s nothing like that.

There’s no kind of tactical reason for why I’ve linked to a few Amazon books over the past few weeks.

I did it because the books were valuable and useful to me, and I thought they could be valuable and useful to you.

But beyond that, there is another, more personal reason.

I could explain that reason in my own words.

But the fact is, somebody has already explained it for me, in words that are so good thath they have stuck with me for 6+ years now, and that come ringing back in my head at certain key moments in my life.

If you’d like to find out those words, and maybe learn something that can help you run your business and your life better for the long term, then read the following, which is not an Amazon book:

https://www.psychotactics.com/greater-profits/

I don’t want people to see me fail

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It finally happened.

Yesterday afternoon, I reached the entrance to my apartment building and, for the first time ever, I realized that I’d left my keys at home.

I’ve been paranoid about this for months, ever since I started living alone again.

I don’t know any of my neighbors. The friends I have in town are away more than they are here. My landlord takes days to respond to my text messages.

If I were ever to lock myself out, who the hell would let me back in?

Fortunately, a few weeks ago, I acted on this paranoia.

I hid an extra key to my apartment somewhere inside the building. That meant I would just need to get inside the building and I could get back into my apartment.

Like I said, yesterday I finally forgot my keys.

But as I stood there at the building entrance, with a backpack full of groceries and a large leek in my hand, I refused to ring any of my neighbors to let me in.

Instead, I sat down on the bike rack that’s right in front of my building.

And I started to wait.

And wait…

And wait… until finally somebody came out of the building, and I could rush in beside them.

Maybe you’re wondering if this email will ever get to a point. So let me get to it now.

Why didn’t I simply ring some neighbors, politely explain the situation, and ask if they would let me in?

Brace yourself:

It’s because I hate to ask and be rejected…

Because I never want it to be known that I need something, which I might not get…

Because I don’t ever want to try and be seen to fail.

Stupid, right? Even nonsensical? Particularly in such a low-stakes, perfectly natural situation as just ringing a doorbell to ask a neighbor to let me in?

If you think my reasoning yesterday was stupid or nonsensical, I completely agree with you.

In fact, that’s why I’m telling you about it. Because it’s easy to recognize stupid and nonsensical reasoning in others, and maybe draw a conclusion that you can apply to your own life.

This “don’t want people to see me fail” is a strong instinct inside me.

On occasion I indulge it, in small, trivial things, like yesterday.

But in other situations?

Let me just focus on the business stuff.

Every time I write and send a new daily email to thousands of people, a voice inside me says, “What if people think this is dumb?”

Every time I launch a new offer, that same voice says, “What if this bombs? Everybody will see!”

And every time I have an idea for a change in this newsletter, the voice pipes up again. “But what if it doesn’t stick? People will know I tried and failed…”

The fact is, people don’t know I tried and failed, not most of the time, and certainly not most of the people.

That’s because nobody looks at my emails and offers with 1/1000th of the care and devotion with which I look at them.

And as for the people who actually notice when I do mess up, or when I try something and it doesn’t go like I planned — those people actually tend to like me better for it. Go figure.

In a second, I’m gonna pitch my Simple Money Emails program. But before I get there, maybe there’s something you can learn from my sitting outside my building yesterday, leek in hand, and waiting and waiting.

Specifically, if you’re afraid that:

1. You will write daily emails and they will be bad, or that

2. Nobody will sign up for your list, or that

3. People will sign up for your list and then (gasp!) unsubscribe, or that

4. People will sign up for your emails but not buy from you, or that

5. Worst of all, you will start sending daily emails, but not be able or willing to stick with it, and the whole world will know that you tried and failed at this new experiment…

… then I’d like to propose that nobody will notice, and if they notice, they won’t care.

I can tell you this because each of the above has happened to me. (Regarding #5 above, this newsletter, which has been running non-stop for close to 6 years now, is my third or fourth attempt to stick with writing daily emails. I failed every other time.)

My point being:

In spite of all of those awful, horrible things happening to me, and even though I’m a sensitive soul, I’m still standing. I’ve actually learned a bit in the process, and I’ve built something valuable as a result of it all.

Maybe you can do so too.

And if you fail?

Nobody will notice. And if they do, they won’t think bad of you.

​​The table stakes are very, very low. If you try and fail, you haven’t lost much, if anything.

On the other hand, if you manage to stick with it, the upside is huge.

And now, for my Simple Money Emails program.

You don’t need this program to start your email list or to start writing daily emails.

But if you want a bit of support and guidance along the way… if that will help you get started… and if you want to get going now instead of just waiting, waiting, and waiting some more… then Simple Money Emails can be a good investment.

If you’d like to find out more about it:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/

Mr. Beyagi’s sage advice

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I was in my shed today, trying to catch a buzzing fly with just a pair of chopsticks, when a rebellious, dark-haired youth of about 17 barged in.

“Hey are you the maintenance man?” he asked.

“No,” I said, without looking away from the buzzing fly.

“So are you gonna come and fix the faucet?”

I grunted. “Not my job.”

“Unbelievable!” the youth said. “Well, will you at least teach me karate?” And then he launched into the following monologue:

===

I’m at a point where I don’t know how to go about my karate practice. I have zero funds, no bank account, and just arms willing to fight. But how do I go about doing this?

Should I start my own dojo and market it as “Join me in my journey as a newbie karateka”? If yes, how do I attract students that way? When I have no credentials or any incentive for anyone to join my dojo for that matter.

I know it’s useless trying to beg for help, because this stuff is what other people pay you for. But I’m proud that I at least tried. I’ve never asked anyone for help before you.

I would appreciate a lesson about for aspiring karate masters. I’m not pitching myself in any way. All I ask is guidance.

===

Maybe, maybe… if only I had a collection of rusted old cars. But I don’t.

So I guided this rebellious dark-haired youth towards the door.

I opened the screen door and nudged him through it. And as I closed the door behind him, I gave him some parting advice, in my best broken English:

“You go YouTube. Free. Watch. Apply. Then go Amazon. Book, five dollar. Read. Apply. Read next book. Watch next YouTube. Apply. Apply. Come back. Five year.”

In less broken English:

It might seem cruel not to take in this youth and give him proper guidance.

It might seem cruel to send him away.

It might seem extra cruel that those who have the greatest need find it hardest to get a bit of good advice.

Except frankly that’s bullshit.

There’s never been such an abundance of free and good information out there. Or if you don’t want free and good, then $5 and really good.

The fact is, there is nothing new under the sun.

What I do, what everybody else in the course and coaching business does, is package up and simplify proven old knowledge, make it fun to consume and easy to believe in, to save you time and headspace, if that’s the kind of thing you can afford and choose to pay for.

If that’s not something you can afford, no shame in that. But in that case, you have to use your other resources — time, ingenuity, willingness to work — to get the same results that maybe you could buy with money.

I don’t currently offer any trainings about starting your own karate dojo.

But I do have a training teaching you the fundamentals of karate itself, ie. writing emails that make sales and keep readers reading.

There’s nothing new in this training. But it is proven, via literally millions of dollars worth of sales. And it is fun and easy to read. And it will save you many hours of time, if time is what you value over the bit of money I ask for this training.

Hai? Then you go here:

https://bejakovic.com/sme/

2 words I like to be reminded of every morning

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I was getting ready to shave this morning — foam, razor, face were all ready to go — when a yellow sticky note floated down from my bathroom mirror and landed in the sink.

“Oh no,” I said, “it’s all wet and ruined now.”

I put that yellow sticky note up on my bathroom mirror three months ago. It survived until now. It did well to live that long. It has now been replaced by a new yellow sticky note, which has the same two words on it:

“PRODUCER MOJO”

Three months ago, I got back into Travis Sago’s world. I wrote about Travis a couple times over the past week. In case the name still doesn’t ring a bell, Travis is basically an Internet marketing dude who’s been in the game some 20 years, maybe longer.

It was Travis’s advice to take a sticky note, write PRODUCER MOJO on it, and put it somewhere where you’ll see it regularly.

The idea is to become the marketing version of a Hollywood producer.

Hollywood producers don’t really “do” anything. They don’t direct. They don’t write. They don’t act. They don’t take a razor blade and cut rolls of film in two and then glue them back together.

Instead, producers… produce, whatever that means. My best guess is that they bring together other talented or resourceful people, and guide them towards some sort of common, hopefully worthwhile goal.

I’d actually first heard Travis promote “PRODUCER MOJO” four years ago, during my first visit to his world.

At that time, the idea of being a producer didn’t appeal to me.

“I like to write,” I told myself. “I don’t want to trade that for managing a bunch of people.”

Somehow, the idea is more appealing now. Maybe because I’ve aged a few years and I’ve had some experience running an Internet marketing business myself.

Or maybe, because I realized that producing doesn’t have to equal managing — maybe it can mean roping in an effective manager.

Anyways, that’s the idea I wanted to share with you today:

PRODUCER MOJO

… because there are plenty of people who have written thrilling stories, or who have tearjerking acting skills, or who just don’t know where to invest the oodles of money that are pouring out of their pants pockets.

There’s no law that says you have to ignore all this, and instead make a movie that you write, film, act every role in, and of course, fund. And don’t forget the special effects and makeup that you also do yourself.

I mean, you can do all those things.

But it’s not the only way.

And if you want to be reminded of that, then get a yellow sticky note, write PRODUCER MOJO on it, and put it somewhere where you’ll see it.

Or simply reply to this email. Because maybe you have some assets already. So do I. There’s no guarantee we’ll end up making a movie together, but if we talk, and compare what we each have, who knows where that could lead.