Michael Caine

“Talk low and talk slow”

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Lately I’ve been watching a lot of “behind the scenes” documentaries about various movies I have seen and liked.

That’s how I saw an interview a few days ago with actor Michael Caine, who you are most likely to know as Alfred from the Chris Nolan Batman movies, but who really has quite an acting career behind him.

In the interview I saw, Michael Caine was talking about the early days of that career, back in the 1960s, when he first became a star and was getting a lot of publicity.

One day during that time, Caine was sitting in the Beverly Hills Hotel lobby, when who walks by, dressed up in full cowboy gear, coming from a movie shoot, but the biggest movie star of the day, John Wayne.

John Wayne spots Michael Caine. And spurs jangling, leaning to the side, John Wayne comes over.

“Kid,” he says.

“Yes, Mr Wayne?”

“I just got a piece of advice for you. I see you’re doing well. If you wanna last long in this business… talk low and talk slow. It’s stood me in good stead. Goodbye kid.”

Maybe you’re smarter than I am, and can read some sort of useful meaning in John Wayne’s piece of advice. To me it just sounds like one of those cryptic things that people say to sound profound, maybe to others as well as to themselves. It doesn’t hurt that it rhymes.

My point for you today is that you can ask people what the secret to their long-lasting success is. Odds are fair that you will get back some version of “talk low and talk slow.”

Fact is, most people cannot pinpoint what their success comes down to, or won’t share. And even if they can and will, odds are still fair that what’s brought them success won’t work for anyone else, and in particular, won’t work for you.

That’s why I think it’s better to ask people who have managed to help others succeed, and not just had success themselves.

I am telling you that as a blatant pre-pitch for the promotional extravaganza I’m about to embark on.

As I mentioned in a recent email, I have for the past 6 months been advising the owner of a sizable email list, who only used to make about $0.30 per email subscriber month after month, and who wrote me once to say that $1/subscriber per month would be a great result for him.

I started giving him advice. He started applying my advice. After a few months, he started making $1/subscriber, first one month, then two months, and now three months in a row.

How?

Well, that’s what I’m gonna be promoting over the coming days.

As for today, I can tell you the first thing this list owner and I agreed on, and the first change he made to his email marketing. was to start emailing daily.

You’ve probably heard me give that advice before. That’s because it’s foundational. The sooner you start, the sooner results will come.

If you want to start seeing results sooner rather than later, and you want my help starting a daily email habit today:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

A dirty rotten scoundrel’s secret to making a living online

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I recently watched a dirty little movie called Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is set on the French riviera. It stars Michael Caine as Lawrence, a dapper English scammer who charms rich and corrupt women for large sums of money… and Steve Martin as Freddie, a classless American jackass who milks the pity of any woman for tiny bits of money.

It’s been a few days since I saw the movie. The following monologue by Caine’s dapper scammer is what’s stuck in my mind:

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Freddie, as a younger man, I was a sculptor, and a painter, and a musician.

There was just one problem. I wasn’t very good. As a matter of fact, I was dreadful.

I finally came to the frustrating conclusion that I had taste and style, but not talent.

Fortunately, I discovered that taste and style are commodities that people desire.

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Like I said, this stuck with me. Maybe it will stick with you too.

You don’t have to scam anybody — that’s not what this is about.

But what Caine says about taste and style is true. They are commodities that people will pay for.

The amazing thing is that whatever your taste and style — ahem, obscure and campy 80s comedies — there are people out there who will appreciate it. And thanks to the miracle of the Internet, it’s easy and affordable to find such people.

I rely heavily on this, simply curating ideas, articles, movie scenes that I find interesting or funny or outrageous.

You can do the same. You can use your own taste and style, and simply share ideas that somehow impressed you or stuck with you.

That’s all you need to do, and you can be successful.

But if you want to do something a little bit extra with those ideas that impressed you or stuck with you, you can apply what I call the Most Valuable Email trick.

The result will be something that goes beyond what most other people will ever do.

In case you’re curious:

https://bejakovic.com/mve