Flipping The Script

Operation Mincemeat

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Today being April 30th it’s a particularly good day to tell you about Operation Mincemeat. Here’s a debrief I read about it a few weeks ago:

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Early on the morning of April 30, 1943, a floating body was discovered off the southern coast of Spain. Retrieved by a fisherman, it was brought to the city of Huelva and identified as Captain William Martin, of the British Royal Marines. A briefcase chained to the corpse contained documents indicating that the Allies planned to advance on Greece and Sardinia — intel that the Nazi-sympathizing Spanish authorities passed on to the Germans.

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The Germans decided to act on the intel, and shifted their troops to Greece and Sardinia. But the allies attacked neither Greece nor Sardinia.

Instead, the Allies attacked and easily took unguarded Sicily, which was their plan all along. The taking of Sicily in turn opened the door to mainland Italy… which led to the overthrow of Mussolini… which fractured the Axis… which shifted the balance of World War II.

As you might have guessed, Operation Mincemeat was a fakeout all along.

The corpse of “Captain William Morris” was really that of Glyndwr Michael, a London tramp who had died some days earlier by eating rat poison.

Michael’s corpse was transported by submarine to the waters off southern Spain, dressed up in a Royal Marines uniform, and left to float. The documents in the briefcase chained to the corpse were all forged by British military intelligence to make the Germans think they had stumbled onto something real.

I’m sharing this with you because 1) it’s curious and was new to me, so maybe it’s new to you too, and 2) because it’s applicable in your business as well, even if you don’t have a corpse at hand and even if you’re not engaged in a historic struggle with the Nazis.

In fact, this story ties in great to a lead magnet I have devised to go with my new 10 Commandments book, which is an extra, apocryphal 11th Commandment I’ll be giving new readers who sign up to my list. (If you’re an existing reader, you’ll be able to get it too.)

Some of the early reviewers of my book have gotten back to me. I’m eagerly integrating their feedback into the final draft of the book. I’m both excited and relieved to hear that, in spite of niggles here and there, the overall impression of the book has been very positive so far.

And so, it looks like, after a years-long and grueling struggle with this book, the balance has shifted. May 2025 will finally see the publication of this new book, full title:

10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Professional Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

Speaking of, I have an offer to make you, or maybe a favor to ask.

Do you have an audience of your own? A newsletter, an online community, a local book club or bingo group?

What I want is for you to promote my book when it comes out. Of course, that means nothing to you and does nothing for you. I don’t know what I can offer you to make it worth your while to promote my book when it comes out, but I am open to all kinds of ideas, from straightforward to outlandish.

If you are open to it as well, at least in theory, hit reply. Let’s talk, and maybe we can figure something out that works for both of us.

3 women come to my rescue

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Yesterday, I wrote about a female reader who accused me, along with the rest of the 4 billion males on this planet, of being sexist.

I did my best — it wasn’t much — to defend myself against the accusation.

But when you’ve been charged with a serious thought crime, what you really want is some good third-party witnesses to corroborate your own defense.

Fortunately, I got a few responses from women to my email yesterday. I won’t name names here — that’s against thought court protocol — but here’s what they wrote.

​​First, from a PhD scientist and business owner:

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Bwahahahaha I noticed all 5 were men and thought – oh my, some woman is gonna write in and whine about this…

Couldn’t see that one coming *cough*

Watcha gonna do?

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Second, from a fundraising copywriter for NGOs:

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I’m a woman and I almost lost an eyeball when rolling my eyes as I was reading allaboutme’s comment.

It’s the saddest, most annoying, most passe rebuke to resort to when you’ve got nothing else to throw at a man.

It’s plain lazy.

Thanks for the good work, John.

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Third, from an MD and science fiction author:

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Pretty impressed by the link at the end. I was a bit suspicious about the sexism, but it really helps that you clarify that everyone who entered the contest was a man. More chicks should step up, I guess! XD

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errr… yeah. About that. I actually also got one reply yesterday, which just said:

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Hey John,

Just read your email and I wanted to let know I am a woman (and from India).

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Uh-oh.

This reply came in a thread of one of the Most Valuable Email contest submissions I got last week — the contest that triggered this entire sexism affair.

​​Only men ended up as winners of the contest because — so I thought — only men ended up submitting any entries.

Except apparently not.

It turns out I did get at least one submission for the MVE contest from a woman. But I didn’t recognize her as such because of her Indian name/nickname. That means two things:

1) My defense in my sexism trial has suddenly been dealt a serious, possibly fatal blow, and…

2) I might now be charged with racism to boot, or at the very least, with involuntary cultural obtuseness.

My life just got a lot more complicated.

Clearly, my slapdash self-defense won’t be enough to handle this any more.

I’ll have to call in some serious help.

The help of a master communicator.

​​Someone who hasn’t lost a legal argument in over 40 years, while fighting in dozens of big criminal and civil cases.

Perhaps you know who I mean.

Perhaps you don’t.

If so, I’m willing to tell you. But be warned. This person is too male, too pale, and too stale.

Maybe he can still teach you something though.

If you’re interested:

https://bejakovic.com/criminal

Confidence kills

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This morning, I saw a chocolate Labrador run up to a couple at a streetside cafe.

The couple — a man and a woman — were sitting in the sun and having coffee and sandwiches.

At first, I thought the dog knew the couple. He frolicked around them, wagged his tail excitedly, and let them pet him.

But it turned out no. This was their first-ever meeting.

The dog’s owner came up, leash in hand, apologizing to the couple, and tried to collect the dog.

The lab evaded the owner. He ran to the other side of the table. And then he put his entire head on the actual table, right next to the sandwich the woman was eating.

The woman started to laugh. She wagged her finger and in a mock-educational tone, she told the dog, “La confianza mata!” Confidence, as in trust of others, kills. I’m not 100% sure, but I think she slipped the dog a little piece of jamón from her sandwich as the owner yanked the beast away.

Maybe there’s a persuasion lesson in there?

Maybe. Let’s see.

Dogs trust strangers instinctively.

Humans don’t.

“Confidence kills!” That’s what we tell ourselves, our kids, and even those same dogs, though we can’t beat it out of them.

This lack of confidence is a problem, particularly if you want strangers to trust you and to do as you want.

Solution:

Do as the dog did.

Trust people first. Even if they are complete strangers.

This is what master persuaders, the ones who have persuaded thousands or even millions of strangers, have found to work the best. In the words of one such master persuader, Claude Hopkins:

“Ask a person to take a chance on you, and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on him, and he might slip you a piece of jamón.”

And now, can I ask for your help?

The fact is, I don’t have any offer to promote today. Maybe even tomorrow.

So if you’re okay with it, can I ask you a rather personal question? Here goes:

What’s one thing on your todo list for today that you’re dreading?

It can be big or small. Important or trivial. The only thing that counts is that you’re not looking forward to doing it. ​​

Let me know. Maybe I can figure out or find a solution to help you get rid of this troubling todo item. Thanks in advance.

How to get a piano to sell itself

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Pianos are bulky, expensive, and almost impossible to use.

As a result, it’s hard to sell a piano, if you have to be the one selling it.

On the other hand, it’s easy to get a piano to sell itself. Here’s a straightforward 9-step process to do so, recommended by an expert on the matter:

1. Start with a fundamental human instinct (eg. “building a home”)

2. Tie that into a new habit or convention that serves your ultimate goal (eg. “every refined home has a music room”)

3. Organize an exhibition of music rooms designed by well-known decorators

4. Put on a gala event to create dramatic interest in the exhibit from step 3, and invite key people who influence public opinion and habits, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a society leader

5. Publicize this event and these associated people through various media

6. For an even easier time, also convince influential architects to introduce music rooms into their new architectural plans

7. If successful with step 6, publicize these influential architects and their new plans through various media

8. Wait a little bit while this percolates through society, and music rooms become a thing that everybody has to have

9. Sit inside your piano shop and welcome men and women as they file in and say, “Please sell me a piano? I have this empty music room I need to fill.”

After reading this straightforward 9-step process, maybe you say:

“Thank God I don’t sell pianos! I’ll go sell my thing right now, and I’ll go do it directly, without your straightforward 9-step process.”

Of course. Do as you think is right. All I was really aiming to do is to share the following idea:

It can be very valuable to create circumstances that channel natural emotional currents into demand.

Creating such circumstances is something you can do regardless of what you sell, whether that’s your own courses… your copywriting services… or even physical products.

You can create the right new circumstances right now. Over time, you can get people to change their own minds, to demand what you have, and even to reach out and ask you for it.

I gave you the general recipe for how to do it above.

As for how to put that recipe in action, in your particular business, selling your particular offer, I’ve actually prepared a training all about that. You can find it here:

https://bejakovic.com/mve

Flip the script or your life

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Time for flip-the-script Friday:

Today I have an ancient story for you. I know, you’re thrilled.

In an attempt to bring your eyes back from their trip to the back of your skull just now, let me preframe this ancient story by saying it could 1) save your life and 2) make you lots of money.

More modestly, maybe this story can simply teach you an important thing about influence.

The hero of our ancient story is a man named Eumenes, a Greek, who started out as a secretary in Alexander’s army.

Eumenes had secretarial ability but he also had strategic ability. He became a successful general in his own right, and invented lots of clever strategems to win battles against much bigger and more experienced armies.

Following Alexander’s death, Eumenes was brought in to keep order in a region of Alexander’s vast empire. The satraps of that region — the Macedonian and Persian governors — all hated each other, constantly bickered, and fought regularly.

The only thing they could agree on was that they hated their new Greek chaperone even more, and wanted him dead.

Now perk up your ears, because here’s an example of Eumenes’s strategic brilliance:

Eumenes knew that he would soon be dead by poison or dagger, unless he somehow dealt with the hatred of the satraps he was brought in to control. So he did the opposite to protect his life from what most people might do.

Instead of trying to win the favor of the satraps who hated him, he pretended to be in need of money. And he borrowed large sums of money from the satraps whom he suspected of being most ready to have him assassinated.

In this way, says the Greek historian Plutarch, Eumenes “secured the safety of his person by taking other men’s money, an object which most people are glad to attain by giving their own.”

Result:

Some time later, an assassination plot indeed formed against Eumenes’s person. But the plot was independently betrayed to Eumenes by two satraps, both of whom were afraid of losing the large sums of money they had lent to him.

So the next time your life is in danger or you are about to be brought down by political intrigue, think of Eumenes. Flip the script, and you might not only survive but thrive.

The end. Except…

As you might know, flipping the script is one of the chapters I am planning in my new 10 Commandments book, tentatively titled, “10 Commandments of Hypnotists, Pick Up Artists, Comedians, Copywriters, Con Men, Door-To-Door Salesmen, Professional Negotiators, Storytellers, Spirit Mediums, and Stage Magicians.”

But since I’m currently doubling down on my health newsletter, that book is on hold.

The only thing I can therefore offer you today is my first 10 Commandments book, 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters.

Here’s one Amazon review to get you curious:

“A quick, easy read with great quotes, a bunch of other books it guides you to read, and evergreen information based on psychology and proven results. It’s got a soft but classy pitch for the author’s newsletter leveraging a bunch of the commandments right there in your face. He practices what he preaches.”

If you’d like to get this quick and rather affordable book now:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments