AIDA School

The Prince of Get Rich Quick

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At age 23, David B. was flat broke and was waiting tables to make ends meet. Full of shame and unsatisfied ambition, he made a commitment to himself that by age 28 he would be worth $1M.

And sure enough, by age 27 1/2, David was worth over $1M.

By age 29, he was bringing in $6M a year, living in a mansion overlooking San Diego, and driving a big white Rolls Royce.

How did he do it?

Well, that’s the topic of a 1989 Rolling Stone article about David Bendah, titled The Prince of Get Rich Quick.

I’d never heard of David B. until a few days ago. But back in the 1980s he was apparently a big deal (hence the Rolling Stone story). He started a publishing business that was bringing in tens of millions a year selling get-rich-quick books.

Bendah eventually did land in jail, but that was only when greed got the better of him, and once he moved from selling get-rich info to running a full on envelope-stuffing scheme. (After all, why bother with a product when you can just sell your own marketing?)

The Rolling Stone article on Bendah is eye-opening and has many ideas that can make you rich or save you from losing it all (like Bendah). They are as relevant today as they were in 1989.

I won’t spell out all these many idea. There would be no point. Instead, I’ll give you just one:

“In all of Bendah’s books, the crucial step toward success is getting beyond ego problems, which he interprets as understanding and accepting who you are and what talents you have.”

I think Bendah’s advice is actually spot on. It just needs to be extended a bit further.

In Bendah’s case, his talents were obviously in the promotion of opportunities. And who he was was was a die-hard opportunity seeker in his own right – or at least that’s my interpretation of how he wound up in jail, even after having created a successful, multi-million-dollar business.

Your own talents and your own instinctive drives might be different from Bendah’s. But whatever you have inside you, it’s worth facing it honestly… using it for all it’s worth… but also keeping an eye on it, if it’s something that can get you in trouble.

Anyways, I once bounced around the idea of creating AIDA School — a classroom-style place to learn direct response copywriting.

​​That’s not gonna happen. But maybe one day I will create just the curriculum for AIDA School. And if I do, the David Bendah Rolling Stone article will go in, and will be required reading.

In case you’re curious about learning more about direct response copywriting and my future AIDA school curriculum… then sign up for my email newsletter, where I will talk more about both. And in case you want to read the David Bendah article now:

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/david-bendah-the-prince-of-get-rich-quick-52915/

 

Bad news for my AIDA School

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“If I would’ve known their real job-placement rate — not to mention how hard it was to actually learn at the school — I never would have signed up.”
— Jonathan Stickrod, one of the students involved in arbitration with Lambda School

Almost exactly a year ago, I proposed something I later called AIDA School. A new way of teaching people copywriting… for free… modeled on Lambda School.

As you might know, Lambda School is a startup. It provides an education to folks, like the young Stickrod above. And it then places them into paying jobs as programmers and designers.

And Lambda School does it all for free. Well, at least upfront.

Because Lambda School gives you the free education. Then it finds you the job. And once you have the job, it takes a cut of your salary, for a few years, up to $30k in total.

Interesting. At least I thought so.

Only, it doesn’t seem to be working. I read about it today in a Business Insider article.

The article makes it sounds like Austen Allred, the CEO and co-founder of Lambda School, is a conman. Cutting back on instructors to make money… defending a crappy, inadequate curriculum… lying about the percentage of students Lambda School places in paying jobs.

But knowing what I know, I doubt Allred is a conman. I think he’s probably just a dolt.

I’m not saying that from any kind of smarter-than-thou place. After all, I also thought the Lambda School model smelled interesting.

But with a bit more sniffing… it now reeks to me of a flawed setup. Regardless of how good or bad the management or the education might be. Because check it:

From direct marketing, we know two fundamental appeals sell.

The first is FREE.

The second is done-for-you.

These appeals tap into some monkey brain, lizard brain, whatever. Not a brain that’s likely to be successful in the 21st-century economy.

And yet, these appeals still stick around inside of us, in spite of being unhelpful. That just shows how powerful they are. Which is why direct marketers use these two appeals so much.

The thing is, direct marketers know not to put those two appeals together.

Not just because it’s unnecessary. But because when you combine FREE and done-for-you, who exactly are you selecting as a market?

I’ll leave that question hanging. And I’ll just say that, seen from the powerful lens of direct response psychology… it’s clear to me that Lambda School, and by extension, my AIDA school, are doomed to failure. Allred, I’ll meet you at the bar for a drink.

Maybe you find all this depressing. So let me give you the good news.

Direct response fundamentals like FREE and done-for-you still continue to work.

You can use them, starting today, to make money for yourself. Just don’t combine them in one offer. Because you’ll attract the wrong kind of business.

Buuut…

What if you don’t want to just cautiously avoid bad business? What if you want to actively attract the best business?

In that case, you might want to go beyond direct response fundamentals… and to my Influential Emails training.

Influential Emails is not about abolishing direct response law. Rather, it’s about fulfilling it with new ideas that transform how you make sales and how your market sees you.

I won’t give you the full pitch here. All I’ll say is that Influential Emails is neither free… nor done-for-you. If that doesn’t trigger your lizard brain too badly, then take a look here for more information:

https://influentialemails.com/

A $30,000 copywriting course?

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Today I’ve got a business idea for you, if you’ve got an entrepreneurial mindset:

A few months ago, I speculated on a fanciful idea. What if copywriting education were free upfront, and the only income came from the money that students make thanks to the education?

Back then, I thought it was pretty impossible. It seemed to me that copywriting education can only go to one of two poles: AWAI or Agora.

AWAI is Mark Ford’s direct response business about copywriting. It works like any other direct response business — a never-ending stream of new offers. There’s always another secret to learn.

At the other extreme, there’s Agora. Not Agora the client-facing direct response business. That works just the same as AWAI.

Instead, I’m talking about Agora the copywriter training machine. That’s where Mark Ford (again) and the rest of the Agora folks bring in promising and ambitious people… teach them how to write copy… and then set them to work, capturing most of their productivity.

In other words, it seemed to me that you can either be an employee and get a great education for free (Agora)… or you can be a freelancer (or freelancer wannabe), and pay thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for your education, delivered in drips and drops of offers and upsells (AWAI).

So that brings us to today.

Because I learned something today that I didn’t know a few months ago, when I first wrote about this. What I didn’t know is that there is a business called Lambda School, which teaches you how to be a computer programmer.

So far, so meh.

The interesting thing is how Lambda School charges its students. It doesn’t charge an upfront tuition (like a regular undegrad education)… and it also doesn’t put you to work, paying you a wage and capturing your productivity (like a PhD, or work at a company).

Instead, Lambda School offers an income share agreement. I’d heard of these before, but only in the context of a traditional university. But things seem to be changing.

So here’s how Lambda School and its income share agreement work:

First, you apply to Lambda School. If you’re accepted, you sign the income share agreement, and you take the course. 6 months later, once you are a hireable programmer, you go out into the world and get a job. And then, you start paying a share of your income to Lambda School, for a total of 24 months, not to exceed $30k.

So there’s my business idea for you.

It works just like Lambda School, except it’s called AIDA School. And it teaches you copywriting and marketing. In a bit more detail:

You ask people to fill out an application to get into AIDA School. You test for basic writing skills… level of dedication… availability to commit to the course. The applicants who pass a certain threshold get in.

​​And then, you really give ’em a great education. You even help them get freelancing clients. And then you reap what you sowed, in the form of a share of their income, not to exceed $30k.

$30k per person. More than you’re likely to make selling ebooks and teasing secrets. And if you do an honest job on the teaching side, more of a positive impact also. Just remember to mention me in the first commencement speech.

And remember also to sign up for my email newsletter — if you want more business, marketing, or copywriting ideas than you would ever believe.

Yes more scrubs

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I recently learned of a successful real estate guru who partners with you, even if you’re a scrub.

That means he teaches you what to do… provides you with office support… gives you tens of thousands of dollars to fund your deal… and then splits any profits with you.

Sounds good?

It is. But here’s the monkey wrench:

He also charges you a hefty upfront fee so you can become his partner.

I mentioned yesterday the idea of “success share” in direct response businesses. So far, this real estate guru is the closest I could find to that.

I thought about what a pure “success share” direct response business would look like, without a hungry hippopotamus of a fee up front.

I imagine it wouldn’t be recognizable as a direct response business any more.

Just to be concrete, let’s take the example of a business that trains would-be copywriters. How would that work if it were based on a share of results that customers get… rather than an upfront fee?

Well, instead of being a factory for constant new offers, I imagine it would look more like the startup incubator Y Combinator, or like Goldman Sachs. It would work to attract the highest performers, the people who would succeed regardless of which system they go through. And it would ignore everybody else.

In this hypothetical “success share” world, 99% of direct response businesses would vanish.

Because most direct response businesses need scrubs, just like most strippers need tips. It’s what pays the bills.

But like in a strip joint, this doesn’t mean the average direct response customer is getting nothing for his money. Keep this in mind if you’re trying to sell something. You’re selling hope… entertainment… even companionship. Results can be valuable, but they come after those more important things.

Speaking of important things:

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