Personal Change

How to make $75 million with an email newsletter

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News broke today that Morning Brew was acquired by Business Insider.

Morning Brew, as you might know, is a daily email newsletter started a few years ago. The insight behind it was to take business news — a boring topic, thanks for nothing, Wall Street Journal — and make it more millennial-friendly.

Well it worked. Business Insider paid $75 million for a controlling stake in Morning Brew. Not bad for an email newsletter.

I bring this up for reasons one and two.

Reason one is that it fits my post from yesterday. That’s where I suggested that if you take a dry but useful topic and sexy it up, you can become a star. Or in the case of Morning Brew, you can earn yourself a $75 million buyout in about five years’ time.

Reason two has to do with my current romp through NLP axioms. The axiom I have in mind is,

“The past does not equal the future.”

In other words, even if a shadow has trailed you all your life — I mean a phobia, or some limiting belief, or just “how you are” — that doesn’t mean you cannot change, and change quickly.

That, in theory, is what NLP is all about. Of course, there are also other ways to effect change quickly.

For example, a few months ago I listened to an interview with Alex Lieberman, the founder of Morning Brew. Lieberman said how he can’t see any reason to sell his company.

Well, $75 million later, he found a reason.

“The past does not equal the future.”

Human brains love patterns and trends. But that’s not how the world works much of the time. Things can stay the same, day after day after day, and then suddenly — your tomorrow can be different.

Speaking of a different tomorrow:

I have a daily email newsletter. Its current valuation is -$39.17, which is what I’ve paid for the software to send the emails.

The insight behind my newsletter is to take the boring topics of marketing and copywriting and sexy them up. If you’d like to get on this rocket ship before it shoots to the moon, click here to subscribe.

Tony Robbins leaves clues

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In a recent post, I used the phrase, “Success leaves clues.” I didn’t realize somebody had colonized my mind and those words were not my own.

This phrase, as far as I could find, goes back to Tony Robbins. It makes sense he would say it. After all, the idea of success leaving clues is basically the central idea of neuro linguistic programming — NLP — and NLP is where Tony Robbins got his start.

I’ve been curious about NLP for a long time. Unfortunately, from what I see, the field is filled with blowhards and snake oil salesmen.

​​The first, the blowhards, are people who use fancy words like “Primary Representational System” to impress their seriousness and authority on you.

​​The second, the snake oil salesmen, make ridiculous claims like “if any human being can do anything, so can you.”

That’s a shame, because NLP is interesting and in my experience works. The reason I know is that I’ve gone through and applied Tony Robbins’s Personal Power, which is pretty much NLP for the masses.

And that’s my message for you for today:

If you can take a dry, inaccessible, but useful topic, and simply sexy it up without venturing into snake oil territory, you can become a star. (Maybe not Tony Robbins, but you know what I mean…) The good news is that right now, there are more such dry but useful topics than ever.

Let me leave you with a quote from the book Positioning by Jack Ries and Al Trout. This is basically what I’m trying to say but more concise — just swap “blowhardness” for “poetry” and “credibility-destroying hype” for “creativity”:

“For many people or products today, one roadway to success is to look at what your competitors are doing and then subtract the poetry or creativity which has become a barrier to getting the message into the mind. With a purified and simplified message, you can then penetrate the prospect’s mind.”

For more clues about success, you might like my daily email newsletter. To try it out, click here.

Persuasion world: Men wanted for hazardous journey

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A few days ago, I was talking to a successful copywriter. He said he had studied Dan Ferrari’s sales letters in detail.

(Dan, as you might know, is another successful copywriter, with a string of big-name controls.)

So I mentioned a presentation Dan once gave, where he broke down one of his most successful promotions. I offered to send successful copywriter #1 this presentation.

But he seemed reluctant. It seemed he had gotten what he wanted from Dan’s sales letters alone… and he didn’t want or need to hear Dan’s take on it.

And you know what? I can understand.

I liken it to going to see a movie versus reading a review of that same movie. The review might be good, might be bad… but even if it was written by the director himself, it’s certainly going to be a very different experience than seeing the real thing.

It won’t stimulate the same random pathways in the brain. It won’t trigger the same emotions. And it won’t allow for much independent thought.

This applies to you too. Right now, you may be reading books… going through courses… skimming emails like this one. Fine. They can give you the lay of the land when you’re new to a topic.

But the map, as they say in NLP, is not the territory.

Somebody else’s second-order interpretation of what persuasion is all about can only take you so far.

​​The good news is there’s a whole wild and dangerous world of TV shows, movies, current events, tabloids, political propaganda, real-life experiences, and yes, even books and articles, just waiting for you to start exploring and asking — why do I think this is compelling?

If you found this argument compelling, you might like my daily email newsletter. Not for any persuasion lessons it might contain… but rather as an example of content that you can dissect yourself. If that doesn’t turn you off, then click here to subscribe.

Rejection stings, this might help

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“You have to love yourself first. How else can you expect anyone else to love you?”

I knew a girl once who shared that bit of wisdom with me. I was young and naive and it sounded reasonable.

But then I lived a bit more. There were times when — not only did I not love myself — I didn’t remotely like myself.

And yet, other people loved me. My mom and my dad, of course. Friends and girlfriends, too. They didn’t know or didn’t care whether I found myself unlovable — they loved me.

Message received, loud and clear. So I concluded the following:

When somebody loves you, it says much more about them then about you. It says they are able and ready to love. All we know about you (not you specifically, you know what I mean) is that you are adequate.

Anyways, that’s a bit of personal philosophy I wanted to share with you. I’m not trying to depress you, by the way. Quite the opposite.

Because I believe it works the same the other way. If somebody does not love you… well, it says more about them than it says about you.

But this blog is about marketing and copywriting. So let me tie it up:

I bring this up in case you’re hustling, in business for yourself, or trying to flush customers or clients out of their hiding places. If that’s you, then you know (or soon will) that rejection is part of the game. Leads dismiss you. Customers and clients leave you.

I’ve been rejected thousands of times, personally and in business. It still stings. But little logical reminders, like the one above, can help.

Can help what?

They can help you go out there and get rejected again. They can help you keep working. Which is how you find success eventually — and even self-acceptance, if you haven’t got it now.

Now for something less fuzzy:

I’ve got a daily email newsletter. It’s about cold, hard persuasion lessons. If that’s not your kind of thing, then reject it, I’ll be ok. Otherwise, click here to subscribe.

How to write slowly

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“In ten hours a day you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day.”
— Isaac Asimov

It took me about two hours to finish this post.

I didn’t spend most of that time writing. Instead, I looked over notes for topics I meant to cover but didn’t… I read articles searching for inspiration… I picked up and then put down a book.

The trouble of course was that I had a large block of free time today.

I finished with client work some time earlier… I have a client call later tonight. In between, the only thing I have to do is to write this daily post.

Hence, two hours. To write about 300 words. You might know this as Parkinson’s Law:

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

It’s a problem in my life. And it’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to overbook myself with work — about three times the usual amount — for the coming month.

Because according to marketer Ben Settle, writing lots of words under intense deadline pressure will make you a faster writer. Permanently.

I’ll let you know how it works out. (Although there’s no need to wait for me. It’s something you can try yourself right now.)

Anyways, I’ve long collected copywriters’ advice on how to write faster.

So far, I’ve got direct “how to write fast” tips from Ben Settle (above), Dan Ferrari, David Deutsch, Colin Theriot, and a few others. I’ve also connected some ideas I read from people like Gary Halbert and Gary Bencivenga to the topic of writing faster.

So here’s my offer:

If these tips interest you, sign up for my daily email newsletter. If I share this complete collection of tips, that’s the first place it will go.

How to make hard decisions with the “fluff minimization” framework

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“The framework I found, which made the decision incredibly easy, was what I called — what only a nerd would call — a ‘regret minimization’ framework. So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80. Now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have. I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this.”
— Jeff Bezos, speaking about his decision to start Amazon.com

One of the books that shaped my self-image the most is called Stumbling On Happiness.

I read it in my mid 20s. It made me trust myself even less than I had before then.

The book was written by Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard. The gist of it, as I remember, is this:

1) Human beings are terrible at predicting the future. We can’t predict what will happen, and we can’t even predict how we will feel if certain things do happen.

2) Human beings are terrible at remembering the past. To protect our current identity, we will warp our memories, forget unflattering things, and even invent stuff that never happened.

In other words, the kind of “regret minimization” fluff that Jeff Bezos talks about might motivate you…

It might even help you make a decision…

But will it be a good decision?

Will your vague and ghost-like projection of your future, cranky, and forgetful self… trying to sift among his warped memories of decades earlier…

Will he tell you anything useful?

Not in my world.

That’s what I want to suggest to you, too. Look elsewhere for help with making decisions.

For example, look at the third leg of Daniel Gilbert’s book. It might help you if you are trying to make a big, hard decision.

Gilbert’s advice is to talk to people who are currently going through what you want to go through. Ask them the reality of their lives now. ​​That’s the only hope you have of getting an honest answer… and minimizing all the motivational, inspirational, self-serving fluff.

Regarding fluff:

Project yourself into the future. No more than a day in the future.

Will your future self enjoy receiving an email from me?

Or will your future self regret not signing up for my daily email newsletter?

In case that exercise made your decision easy… and you want to see what my daily emails are like, click here to subscribe.

You’ve been lied to

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You’ve been lied to — by every movie and every copywriting guru who ever caught your attention.

Let me explain.

Today I watched a Guy Ritchie movie about King Arthur. I was surprised to find I liked this movie… but I want to warn you about it nonetheless.

At the start of the movie there’s a montage as Arthur, orphaned, goes from a boy getting beaten up, living in a brothel… to a slightly older boy, still getting beaten up, still living in a brothel… to a young man, still living in a brothel but no longer getting beaten up… and finally to a full-grown man, muscular and handsome, who runs a criminal gang in medieval Londinium, while still living at a brothel.

The entire sequence takes maybe 45 seconds.

And that’s what I want to warn you about.

It’s not just this one movie. All movies, TV shows, documentaries, anything you see on a screen… they collapse our sense of time. And along with it, they collapse our expectations of the boredom, frustration, pain, and doubt we will experience during that time.

I bring this up because the past six months have been pretty wild for me and my copywriting career.

I’ve broken through long-standing earnings plateaus, and I’m finally earning the money that copywriting gurus promise is possible.

Potential clients now contact me each week — without my pitching them at all.

Even my daily emails are getting traction. A number of people wrote me over the past month to say they like and appreciate what I write… and some have even bought the little offers I put out.

But maybe you’re curious what happened six months ago to make my life so brag-worthy today.

The answer is nothing. At least as far as I can tell.

For years, I’ve been trying to do a good job each day, and to get better through practice and study. I guess my internal and external assets finally built up to some critical level, and results followed.

And if it’s starting to feel a little stuffy in this church…

Let me say I’m not trying to give you a sermon about hard work.

All I want to point out is that you’ve been lied to, by people who meant to lie to you, and by those who just wanted to entertain you.

Real life isn’t a montage. ​​There’s nothing wrong with you if you experience boredom, frustration, pain, and doubt on the way to accomplishing any goal.

Success requires time, effort, and patience. But that’s something nobody in the copywriting (or entertainment) world is selling.

So watch King Arthur. It’s a fun and inventive movie. But don’t believe it for a second — or 45.

Speaking of entertainment and lies:

If you are worried that you’ve reached the end of this post, you might like my daily email newsletter. To give it a try, click here.

Confessions of a name-dropping titan

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“Bejako won’t be going on the field trip.”

It was my high school photography teacher, calling my mom on the phone. He was taking our photography class down to D.C. to visit some art gallery.

“Young Bejako is currently failing a class,” the teacher explained, “and unfortunately that means he can’t go on any school field trips.”

My mom turned white and looked at me.

“Which class is he failing?” she asked.

It was English. I was failing English in 11th grade. I hated everything they told me to do and I refused to do it.

Flash cards for notes? Outlines? Supporting quotes and references?

Hell no.

The irony is that, now that I’m finally out of the school system and its awful English classes, and now that I write for money, I voluntarily do all the things they once forced me to do.

I take notes and I write them up on flash cards. I spend most of my time on a project outlining. And I will refer to sources and references like crazy.

As for that last one, a reader named Robert wrote in yesterday to say:

“You sir, are a name-dropping titan. ‘Name-dropers’ are what copywriting and copywriters need. Knowing what material to listen to, read, watch, by who and who not… Man, that’s half the battle.”

Thing is, Robert actually jabbed me into a sore spot. Because I quote and refer to experts and authorities too much.

The reason I do it is that it’s a cheap way to get proof. For example, my recent book, The 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters, gets its credibility from the names I drop therein.

But all that name-dropping doesn’t come without a cost. In fact the problem is twofold.

For one thing, there are other, more powerful ways to prove a point, such as illustrations, analogies, demonstrations, and case studies. And relying too much on authority means that I (and perhaps you) am not doing that work and getting the benefits of those more powerful modes of proof.

The second problem is more insidious.

And it’s that all this name-dropping means that I myself am not an authority. Not in my readers’ eyes necessarily, but in my own.

It’s what school tried to teach me, or beat into me, all those years ago. And that’s a shame.

And that’s basically the point I want to leave you with. Learning is great. But be careful not to become too reliant on authority opinion for your thoughts — which is what happens to me.

By the way, I’ve been reading an author who opened my eyes to this recently. I could point you to who he is… but just for today, I will hold off.

And if you want more of my ideas on copywriting, marketing, and learning — and occasional name dropping — you might like to sign up to my daily email newsletter.

An admission about my own incompetence

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“I’ve started to write short stories,” a friend told me today.

I asked him to tell me more.

“I wrote the first one three weeks ago. It’s about a man who believes inanimate objects have souls. So he goes around giving proper burials to chairs and tables. He finds an old wardrobe left out next to the trash and that’s when the story begins.”

I listened to him summarize the adventures of the man as he drags the wardrobe to his back yard. I leaned in and I laughed and I was pleased with the ending. Which reminds me of something I read recently,

“Genius is as common as dirt.”

That comes from an essay titled, “Against school.” John Taylor Gatto, the guy who wrote the essay, was the New York State Teacher of the Year way back when. But he turned against the school system once he realized the real problem.

It’s not apathetic kids… or underpaid teachers… or an outdated curriculum.

The problem is that the purpose of school is, first and foremost, to break kids, so they become fit to serve.

Maybe you don’t agree with this. So let it just sit there as an idea to be aware of. But here’s a personal admission:

I feel I have zero creativity or ability to solve problems. Of course, that’s not really how I am. I’ve solved problems before and I’ve created stuff, too.

But I sure feel uncreative and incompetent. I think the reason why is that, through long and arduous training in the school system, I’ve learned there is always a right answer, and you either have it at your fingertips or you don’t. And I almost never do.

Of course, having the right answer at your fingertips is not really how creativity works. And if you ever doubt your own creative abilities, maybe it will be worth turning a critical eye towards your school years, and looking for a bit of that “common as dirt” genius that’s probably sleeping somewhere inside you.

But let’s get to business:

Remember how I mentioned I create stuff on occasion? One thing I create every day is an email about copywriting, marketing, and, now and again, Marxist ideas about the education system. If you’d like to test out this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Try not to enjoy reading this post

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Hypnotist Mike Mandel says that there is a magic power word, which you can use to get people to fail. What’s more, if you find yourself using this word to describe your own actions, expect that you will fail also.

What is this magic word?

I’ll tell you but be careful. The word is “try.”

Mike has all sorts of technical explanations for the destructive power of try. But my best evidence (and maybe yours, if you give it a try) is just by looking inside my own brain software. Whenever I found myself saying, “I’ll give it a try,” or “I’ll try my best,” deep down, I found I was expecting to fail. And often, fail I did.

I’m telling you this for two reasons:

First, it might be worth kicking the word “try” out of your own vocabulary, down to the curb with the rest of the head trash. It might take some time to find other words that will express what you want to say. But when you do, you will probably find the effort was worth it.

Second, if you write copy, then you can use the word “try” to get other people to fail. Why would you want to do such a cruel thing? Well, a classic example is the three-pronged road at the end of so many sales letters:

“So here are your options now. Option one is you can go back to what you were doing before, pulling your hair out and picking at your skin while your unsolved problem mounts and your family looks at you with growing suspicion each passing day.

“​​Option two is you take the breakthrough system I’ve just described to you and TRY to implement it yourself. But you know how that’s going to turn out, don’t you?

“​​And then finally, you’ve got option three, which is to accept the risk-free offer I’m making you today. And then just try not to shout with joy when your problem is finally solved…”

Finally, I’d like to announce that I write a daily email newsletter. Try not to sign up for it. But if you find you aren’t successful, then click here and follow the instructions.