Nick Krauser

3 good reasons to insult your readers

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Last night I organized a direct response dinner in a restaurant in Barcelona’s Eixample neighborhood. I invited 7 people, all of whom either own direct response businesses or work in direct marketing. The agenda was communicating with like-minded primates, and food.

One of the people who joined was a Canadian girl who works in ecom and is also starting a Substack.

She was sharing her plans for the Substack. Eventually she said something like, “I gotta figure out how to engage readers.”

I’d had a couple of glasses of wine by this point.

They say that in wine there is truth.

So I blurted out, “You gotta insult people.”

The girl and the guy next to her, an executive coach who refused to eat anything because he is on the Gundry anti-lectin diet, both stopped and stared at me.

“Insult them? No, come on…”

“Yep, insult them.”

And then, using my best debating skills, I laid out my case.

First, insulting people can demonstrate higher status — not always, but when done in the right way. And there are no influence tricks that can match the persuasive power of having higher status.

Second, insulting people can be a game that you play with people, with them being in on it.

I once heard Nick Krauser, the world’s best pickup artist, say, “attraction is bullshit.” That’s what this kind of insulting is — bullshit, banter, fooling around.

Note that this is exactly the opposite situation of the previous, “higher status” kind of insult, though some people will try to sneak in a “higher status” insult as banter. (“It was all in good fun!” they’ll say, to try to cover up for themselves. Weak, if you ask me. If you’re going to insult people because you’re after higher status, then own the insult.)

The third reason to insult your readers is that nice is boring. And in the words of A-list copywriter Jim Rutz:

“The #1 sin in ad mail is being boring, and over half of it richly deserves its quick death by wastebasket.”

This applies not just to ad mail, but to daily emails… to ads, advertorials, sales letters… to Substack newsletters, books, movie scripts, political pamphlets, and cereal box copy.

Maybe you don’t agree with me about insulting people.

You donkey.

One day, I’ll write a book about this topic, which I call “natural authority.”

Meanwhile, I’ll just point you to my most recent book, “10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters.”

You still haven’t read that book? What are you waiting for? Here’s the link, you muppet:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

The world’s best daygamer in action

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A few days ago, I was walking in a shopping mall with a guy named Nick, who considers himself to be the world’s best daygamer.

Daygame, in case you don’t know, is the practice of approaching a woman in the daytime, starting a conversation, and then getting her phone number, with the clear and stated goal of inviting her out later.

As we walked through the mall, Nick and I passed two girls walking together. One was very attractive. Nick’s highly trained eyes spotted something as we passed the two of them. He immediately spun around, leaving me behind.

“Excuse me, miss!” he said in a commanding tone. The two girls stopped and turned. Nick got up close to the very attractive of the two girls and looked her in the eye. He shook his head in mock disapproval. “You can’t do that,” he said.

“Do what?” the girl asked with a coy smile.

“You can’t just look at me like I’m a piece of meat,” Nick said.

The girl was beaming now. “And why not?” she said. “You look great.”

A few moments later, the girl waved off her friend, who was hovering a few steps away. The friend disappeared. The very attractive girl and Nick were left alone, leaning on the railing, talking closely in a little bubble of intimacy, as dozens of shoppers passed by, completely oblivious to what was going on.

Point being, a seduction needs to gradual. That doesn’t mean it needs to be slow.

This isn’t just about seduction, either.

Techniques exist that allow you to seamlessly lead to a fast seduction, or negotiation, or sale — so fast that it can seem impossible to those who haven’t experienced it themselves.

If this is something you’re interested in reading more about, you can do so in my new 10 Commandments book, specifically, the canonical Commandment III and the apocryphal Commandment XI, which I give away as a bonus at the end of the book. For more information:

https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments

Magical incantations to make people laugh, fail, buy, or unzip their pants

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Yesterday, I shared two puzzles, two incomplete stories of two hypnotists, Mike Mandel and Derren Brown.

I asked people to choose which puzzle they wanted the answer to. The requests came pouring in, and the results were clear, two to one. People wanted to know the answer to the Derren Brown puzzle twice as much as to the Mike Mandel puzzle.

My “two puzzles” offer is now over. I replied to everyone privately with the answers to the puzzle they chose. I’ll save the Derren Brown puzzle answer for a book I’ve decided to put together. But if you’d like to know the answer to the Mike Mandel puzzle, here it is:

Mike did his induction in his hypnosis subject… then planted his suggestion to remove the phobia. And then, hypnosis over, he asked the person to try to bring back the feelings of fear they had before.

There are two reasons Mike did this. One was straightforward — to test if he had done his job.

“Why don’t people test their work?” Mike asks. “Because they are afraid it hasn’t worked. But if it hasn’t worked, isn’t it better to know when they’re still in your office than when they phone you two weeks later and they’ve had a nervous breakdown?”

The second reason was more subtle. It’s that the word “try” sets people up to fail — or so Mike claims.

I’ve tested it out on myself, and I agree. Whenever I say, “I will try…” I’ve found that what I really mean is, “It won’t happen but let me make a show of it.”

Mike claims you can subtly do this to other people too. Whenever you want to get somebody to fail at something, simply tell them to try to do it. “Try to bring back those feelings of fear.”

Now try to ignore the bigger point, which is that individual words have real power.

This is true in hypnosis (“try”)… in copywriting (“secret”)… in confidence games (“opportunity”)… in comedy (“moose”)… and in pickup. In the words of pick up artist Nick Krauser:

“I tell my students that Game is not a series of magical incantations to get into an unsuspecting woman’s pants, but that’s only half true. It sort of is.”

Now try to tell yourself you didn’t read anything new here. And try not to be interested in what I promise on the following page:

https://bejakovic.com/mve