Guess who’s coming on Tuesday
That wild-eyed pontiff who had been away
Hasn’t changed, is gonna have much to say
But man, I still think that cat is crazy
This coming Tuesday and Wednesday, the current Pope, Leo XIV, is coming for a visit to Barcelona.
The Pope is gonna have lunch at the episcopal palace.
He’s gonna visit a prison.
He’s gonna give a talk to the masses at the Barcelona Olympic stadium, after which, he will go for a ride in the popemobile from one end of Barcelona to the other, all the way from Montjuic to Sagrada Familia, before blessing and inaugurating a recently completed tower at the church.
I’m thinking to actually go see the man at the Olympic stadium, or at least to try to catch a glimpse of him as he rolls by in the popemobile.
Which is kinda curious.
I’m not Catholic. The Pope for me is effectively just some guy. And for the longest time, it was unimaginable and impossible for me to understand why I would stand and crowd and cheer just some guy.
How does just some guy get imbued with so much charisma and authority and personal power?
As I’ve gotten older (brain works badder than before) and as I’ve learned more about psychology, I have an answer, at least one that works for myself.
The Pope has billions of people’s eyes on him, and, crucially, billions of people know that billions of people’s eyes are on him.
We are all looking for mental shortcuts. (And the older we get, the more we look for mental shortcuts, at least my experience.)
And the best mental shortcut is to go and think and do like others do. Hence, Pope fascination.
You might think it’s sacrilegious or disrespectful for me to boil down that crazy cat from the Vatican to this.
I just think it’s human psychology, which applies far and wide, to religious stuff as well as to business stuff.
It’s the same basic idea I shared a few days ago, that it’s better to be seen as a leader than an expert, even a really good expert.
No amount of personal charm or professional skill can compare to the persuasive magic of having a lot of eyes on you, and having a lot of people know you have a lot of eyes on you.
If you happen to be the Pope, leader positioning comes simply by being elected to the position, and put at the head of this big existing organization.
If you happen not to be the Pope, you gotta do the work of establishing yourself as a leader. The best way to do so is to let people know that other people view you as a leader.
Speaking of, a few recent things people have said about me:
#1. Yesterday, Liz Wilcox wrote to her email list of 15k business owners to say, “I’m on less than five email lists right now. This is one of them. [that last sentence was a link to my home page]”
2. A couple days ago, Maliha Mannan wrote to her email list of 9k readers and buyers about something I’ve created that “it’s from John Bejakovic, and everything this guy puts out is the absolute freakin’ best, but moreover… DIFFERENT from the rest (fine, I’m biased, but you know it’s justified bias)…”
3. A few weeks ago, Jakub Červenka, who runs the Muž 2.0 mens’ health business, and has an email list of thousands of readers, told me that, “You are the only newsletter that I’m really looking forward to reading. I signed off from every other marketing newsletter. Yours is the only one that I’m reading. Even [another well known daily emailer] himself, it just starts to get boring, but you are really great. I really enjoy reading your stuff.”
Good for me, you might say.
Maybe you think you have nothing comparable to share with people.
I guarantee you that you do.
Inside my Most Valuable Email training, halfway down page 2, I take a little aside to reveal a personal system to help you see and use the status you have today. It’s a system I have been using since 2022. In fact, it’s how I had above quotes about me from various business owners ready to go, instead of lost like tears in the rain.
And that system is just one small side way that Most Valuable Email helps you build authority and leadership positioning. For more info on Most Valuable Email, and all it can do for you: