Madonna

The best presentation Rich Schefren has ever given

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On a road trip with a friend through Ireland this past August, I listened to a podcast that featured Moby, the bald, skinny, spectacled techno producer who’s sold some 20 million records worldwide.

Moby told an intimate story about a night before the 2002 MTV Awards.

I didn’t know, but Moby was apparently one of the biggest music stars in the world at that time.

For the MTV Awards, he was being housed in a fancy hotel in Barcelona — “one of the most elegant hotels I’ve ever been to,” he says — in one of the hotel’s four penthouse apartments. In the other three apartments were Madonna, Bon Jovi, and P. Diddy.

And yet, the night before the awards, Moby started to feel suicidal.

The reality was had been given everything — money, fame, appreciation — and yet he wasn’t happy. He had tried to drink his troubles away, but even that didn’t work.

So there Moby was, in his penthouse apartment, trying to figure out how to open up the big glass windows so he could jump out and end the misery. (He couldn’t figure out the windows either.)

This story struck me when I heard it. But really, if you listen a bit, you will hear the same story from a lot of people who go from absolutely nothing to absolutely everything.

It feels great for a while. A pretty short while.

But if it turns out that this is really all there is to it — living in the penthouse apartment, in an elegant hotel, with Madonna and P. Diddy as neighbors, with all the money and fame and achievement you could ever want — what follows is first emptiness, then craziness:

“Is it my fault? Am I such an idiot that I cannot appreciate all this? How messed up am I?”

Or…

“Was I so blind to pick the the wrong goal? Did I work like a dog all my life to get to the wrong destination, one I never really wanted?”

Or…

“Is it that there’s no sense in having any goals to begin with? Is all achievement and striving ultimately a race to disappointment?”

These are ugly questions. Maybe you started feeling uneasy just reading them. ​​It’s no wonder that people who find themselves ruminating on such questions often start to feel crazy or even suicidal.
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Good news:
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The answer to all three questions is ultimately, “No, that’s not it.”

I could go into the psychology and neurology of it, what I know of it, but really, it’s much better to hear a story or three about it, and to be inspired along the way.

The best and most inspiring bunch of stories I’ve found on this topic come from business coach Rich Schefren, from a talk that Rich gave a year ago.

Rich answers all the questions above, and tells you what goals really are, and what they are for.

It was new and inspiring to me when I first heard it.

I still think about Rich’s points often.

And so I want to share his talk with you once again, and remind myself of it as well. In case you’re curious, here’s Rich on stage, giving the best presentation he’s ever given:

https://pages.strategicprofits.com/rich-diamond-day-c

Being authentic is overrated

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In 1976, David Bowie got accused of supporting fascism. How could anybody say that of Bowie?

After all, a few years earlier, Bowie claimed he was gay. Then he was an alien. Then he became one of the few white singers to perform on Soul Train.

This certainly doesn’t sound like your typical fascist. Why would anybody think different? Well, there is the following quote:

“I believe very strongly in fascism,” Bowie said in a 1976 interview with Playboy magazine. “Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.”

People are always telling you, be authentic, be authentic. That’s how you will connect to others. Share your geeky stories. Be vulnerable. Be true to yourself.

And yet there’s David Bowie, who became a huge star by striving to be plastic, artificial, and impossible to pin down. He made up stuff and he lied for his own amusement and profit. He provoked and played the media. Bowie again:

“The only thing that shocks now is an extreme. Like me running my mouth off, jacking myself off. Unless you do that, nobody will pay attention to you. Not for long. You have to hit them on the head.”

And it’s not just Bowie or his rock star spawn like Madonna and Lady Gaga who get away with this. Look at the world of online marketing.

​​Ben Settle has admitted he consciously plays up his crotchety persona online. ​​Matt Stone has an oversexed alter ego he writes under, named Buck Flogging. The greatest copywriter of all time, Ross Manly, is not even a real person.

Fact is, authenticity is overrated. It’s much better to be entertaining, or at least interesting. If you are boring or unpleasant by nature, there’s no need to push that pollution out into the world.

​​Rather than being consistent with your “authentic self,” assume a new, more exciting viewpoint and unflinchingly defend it — for as long as you find it amusing or valuable to do so. ​​As Bowie put it:

“The only way I can be effective as a person is to be this confoundedly arrogant and forthright with my point of view. […] Nothing matters except whatever it is I’m doing at the moment. I can’t keep track of everything I say. I don’t give a shit. I can’t even remember how much I believe and how much I don’t believe. The point is to grow into the person you grow into. I haven’t a clue where I’m gonna be in a year.”

Email newsletter. I have one. Every day I write an email and share ideas that are not consistent with each other. But you might find it interesting anyhow. It’s available here.

The Warren Beatty strategy for seducing copywriting clients

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“Women are like a jar of olives. You can eat one, close it up. Or you can eat them all.”
— Warren Beatty

I recently read some statistics about the sex life of Warren Beatty.

The man lost his virginity at age 20.

And then, he became a Hollywood star.

Over the next 35 years, he supposedly slept with almost 13,000 women, according to the best estimates of his biographer, Peter Biskind.

That averages to a new woman every day.

Almost certainly not true. Even Beatty himself has denied the claim.

However, he has over the decades been associated with a lot of famous women, including Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Jane Fonda, Vivien Leigh, Madonna, Carly Simon, Goldie Hawn, Barbara Streisand…

Oh, and Joan Collins, who said Beatty was “so pretty but just TOO exhausting in the bedroom.”

Mind you, all those women knew about each other. In other words, Beatty’s playboy background didn’t hurt. It helped. ​​

Anyways, now that you have that in mind, I want to tell you something related that might help your copywriting career.

I am currently negotiating a project with a client that I’ve done some smaller work for.

If this comes through, it will be the biggest single project I have had to date.

But the interesting thing is how I got this client.

About a year ago, I wrote him a cold email to introduce myself.

“Sounds interesting,” he replied. “I will keep you in mind.”

And he did.

He first hired me for a single project around December, then again for something in April, then a few small things earlier this summer. And now, here we are.

And here’s the thing.

I’ve sent the same cold email to several other leads.

They haven’t hired me yet. But they have all gotten back to me very quickly, with an almost identical response.

“Sounds interesting. I will keep you in mind.”

So what was the cold email? Well, if you’d like to find that out, you can get it inside my shamelessly promiscuous A-List Zone. For more information:

https://bejakovic.com/alist-zone