Brian Wynne

Eureka! The opposite of a humblebrag

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In this newsletter, I have a questionable habit of dissecting jokes to find out what their digestive and pulmonary systems look like. I’m about to do it right now as well, and I honestly think the result is gonna be amazing.

A couple days ago, I wrote about an interview I’d listened to with a Dublin barman, Brian Wynne. Here’s how Wynne introduces himself at the start of the podcast:

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As Michael Crichton said, I do sometimes suffer from a “deplorable excess of personality.”

I’m a friendly kind of an outgoing chap. I become friends with people easily. That’s what makes me, um, fit the bar trade so well is that, uh, I’m extremely likable… I’m incredibly handsome, intelligent, witty… you know? I am the most humble man in Ireland.

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Now here’s a riddle for ya:

If you ask people what characteristics they hate most in others, the top 2 Family Feud responses are likely to be 1) Arrogant and 2) Fake.

And yet, here is Wynne being either arrogant (“I am the most humble man in Ireland”) or fake (maybe he’s just saying he’s the most humble man in Ireland, but he doesn’t really mean it).

Of course, you probably don’t agree with either of those negative diagnoses of Wynne.

I can tell you that when I listened to him introduce himself in this way, I certainly didn’t get irritated by his supposed arrogance or repulsed by his supposed fakeness. In fact, he put a smile on muh fehs. I imagine this effect comes through in the transcript as well.

So the riddle for ya is:

What is Wynne doing/saying to make his message come across as it does?

I don’t have a good name for the effect he’s creating, but it’s kind of the opposite of a humblebrag. Maybe it could be called a boastful bond.

In any case, I have my own insightful ideas about what exactly Wynne is doing to achieve this effect.

My insightful ideas take advantage of my experience of 5+ years of running this daily newsletter, plus of course my own native intelligence, which truly is… something spectacular. An intelligence to behold. In fact, I might be the most brilliant man to ever write an email newsletter of middling reach and questionable influence.

If you’d like to get my immense insights on this topic, all I can really recommend is that you be signed up for my Daily Email Habit service before tomorrow, because I will have a daily puzzle and accompanying hints that allow you to do a “boastful bond” in your own emails as well.

After all, there’s no sense in just knowing how to do something without actually putting in in practice. And putting in practice is what Daily Email Habit is all about. If you’d like to sign up for it in time:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

What it’s like to finally sell Guinness

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My friend Biff recently texted me to say he had been listening to the What It’s Like To Be podcast, which I’ve written about often in these emails.

That podcast features interviews with people in different professions, with the goal of finding out what it’s like to do their job.

(As is often true of these kinds of podcasts, the host is somebody famous or influential, who has decided to do a pet project. In this case the influential person is Dan Heath, author of the book Made To Stick, which I’ve also written about many times in this newsletter.)

Anyways, I had not been listening to the What It’s Like To Be podcast for a while – there’s too much damn stuff to listen to.

I felt guilty after Biff wrote me to say he had heard some good episodes lately.

So at the gym two days ago, I put on the latest episode, to find out what it’s like to be… a barman.

A barman is apparently what in Ireland they call a bar tender. Except not really, because a barman also acts as a kind of standup comedian as well as a therapist or self-esteem coach, which U.S. bar tenders are typically not certified for.

But let me get to the point of today’s email, the valuable message that can maybe make you millions of cents or even dollars:

The barman — name, Brian Wynne – said that his pub has been around for 30 years. But in spite of it being an Irish pub, in Dublin, they didn’t sell Guinness until three weeks ago. He explained:

“We’ve been open since ’96 and we put our first Guinness tap in three weeks ago. We make an equivalent porter. When I say equivalent, I mean it’s vastly superior, of course, but I can’t say that. I’m sure your lawyers will have a go at you for allowing me to say that kinda thing.”

Dan Heath then asked Wynne how Guinness is doing after the first three weeks. Wynne replied:

“Oh, it’s outselling everything else we have. You spend 20 years explaining to people why we don’t sell Guinness ’cause our products are superior and more Irish. You make jokes about it. I have so many anecdotes and lines all built up about the sale of Guinness, which we don’t have, and then we do have it in…”

… and it outsells everything else, without even trying.

I wanted to share this with you because it’s a truth that goes far beyond the Irish pub.

I thought to myself, as I listened to Wynne while doing my fire hydrant exercises, how many online business owners find themselves in same position?

They work to create a “vastly superior” product… they turn themselves into the equivalent of a barman who educates and jokes and soft-sells… they show up day after day in front of their prospects… and yet, sales still a fraction of what they could be, if they only sold what people already really wanted, ie. a Guinness instead of their no-name vastly superior equivalent.

Do with that what seems meet.

As for me, I’ll take me to do some market research. I’ll even offer you a trade:

Hit reply to this email and tell me the last digital info purchase you made. It could be a course… some live training or coaching… a new newsletter or membership you subscribed to… or an ebook (except Amazon kindle ebooks, that’s too broad for my purposes).

I’m curious to find out what you’ve already spent money on, and maybe I will start selling the same.

And in return?

I’ll reply to you and tell you my own latest digital info purchase. (It’s not Travis Sago’s Royalty Ronin, I promise that.) I will tell you that it’s an ebook, that I paid $209 for it (yes, there are no missing decimal points in there), and that I have so far taken 9 pages of notes from it.

I’m not sure it will be as useful for you as it has been to me, but if you’re curious to find out what it is, you know what to do.