A few days ago, I read a fascinating story by Yassine Meskhout, a public defender in some unnamed U.S. state.
Being a public defender is a dull job, says Meskhout. Mostly, you are defending people who are clearly guilty, and there’s nothing you can do.
Meskhout story was of one such defendant. This guy was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He was caught driving drunk, and not for the first time. He was then released on bail. As part of his probation, he had to wear a tracking ankle bracelet.
And then, the following hapened. From Meskhout’s article:
“The ankle bracelet company sends me an update a few days later. My client had visited their office, informed them that he intended to flee the country because he was scared of jail, then underscored his statement with a flourish by taking out a knife and cutting off the ankle bracelet in front of them.”
The bracelet guy had panicked. He immediately changed his mind about leaving the country. But it didn’t matter.
After this dramatic breaking of his probation conditions, it was highly likely this guy would get sent back to jail. And that’s not the worst part.
If he went back to jail, he would then be deported and never let back into the U.S. even though the rest of his family — his mother, wife, and children — were all there.
During the probation hearing, Meskhout made his best appeal. It didn’t work.
The judge decided the drunk driver would be sent back to jail. Case closed.
The defendant sat there without understanding. His mother started bawling in the background.
Meskhout stood up from his desk, his brain whirring. And right before the hourglass emptied down to the last grain, he blurted out these 11 magic words:
“Is there anything else the court would like to review to reconsider?”
The judge looked up from her glasses. She paused for moment. She flipped through the case file for a second. And she said:
“All right. Mr. Meskhout, I’ll go ahead and give him an opportunity. Since you have asked.”
In other words:
The defendant would not have to spend 180 days in jail. He would not be deported.
In an instant, his life went from being perfectly dark to being perfectly clear. The mother started bawling again, but this time from happiness.
Now put aside the question of the craziness of how the justice system operates, or who it decides to free and who to put through the meat mincer.
Instead, simply focus on the impact those 11 magic words had.
11 words, put together in the right way at the right moment, which absolutely changed the course of somebody’s life, in spite of overwhelming odds to the contrary.
That’s something to remember when you yourself are making offers or crafting appeals.
But let me take my own advice.
I’ve been promoting my Copy Riddles program for the past 7 days. After today, I won’t be promoting it for a while.
In case you haven’t bought Copy Riddles yet, let me ask you:
Is there anything else you would like to review to reconsider?
Like I say on the sales page, if you have any questions or doubts whether Copy Riddles is right for you, then write me and ask.
I don’t have a money-back guarantee. What I do have is a pretty stellar record of satisfied customers who have bought this program. I’d like to keep it that way.
So if you are on the fence, then write me and ask. I will answer your questions honestly, because I would rather not have you buy than buy and be disappointed.
And if you need a bit more of a push, I can tell you that round 14 of Copy Riddles is all about magic words.
Sprinkle these words into your appeals and offers to instantly boost response, without doing anything else.
You might know some of these words. But a few are sure to be a surprise. Perhaps a valuable surprise. In case you’d like to review this one more time: