Rafa Casas

¡Announcing: 10 Mandamientos De Los Mejores Copywriters Del Mundo!

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Yes, I now have a book in Spanish.

Even though I’ve been living in Spain for over two years, and though I’ve been studying Spanish for longer than that, the locals still frown when they hear me speak the language. Many will even switch over to English.

No matter.

Because I now have a book in Espanish.

Spanish A-list copywriter Rafa Casas took it upon himself to take my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters, and to translate and adapt it to his native language. Result:

“Los 10 Mandamientos De Los Mejores Copywriters Del Mundo”

… which you can now buy on Amazon.

But why?

Why would you possibly want to buy a Spanish-language version of a book I published 4 years ago, in perfectly serviceable English, and promoted a hundred times since then?

I can only imagine two possible reasons:

1. Because you read Spanish much better than you read English.

It’s not impossible. I know I’ve had some readers write in to reply to my emails, and I could see that they were automatically translating my emails into Spanish via Google Translate.

That’s easy to do with emails, but with books?

Now, there’s no need to translate anything yourself. Thanks to Rafa, the treasures inside this book can be yours on demand, in Spanish.

2. Because you read English much better than you read Spanish… and you want to make your Spanish better.

Don’t laugh.

I’ve been listening to podcasts in Spanish and even reading some Spanish-language books to achieve my mediocre and faltering command of the language.

I quickly realized I should listen to and read things that interest me, or my listening and reading wouldn’t last long.

So if you’re learning Spanish, and if you’re interested in topics like influence and persuasion and direct marketing, then maybe here’s your oportunidad to practice and learn and be estimulated at the same time.

I don’t expect the above two reasons will sell a lot of copies of my new Spanish-language book.

That’s ok.

​​From what I understand, Rafa is planning a kind of promotional blitz for this book in the Spanish copywriting world.

And if you’re wondering why he would go to all the trouble, it’s because all the proceeds — all the dozens of dollars in royalties that are sure to flood in — are actually going to a local charity here.

Yes, not only do I have a book in Spanish now… but I’ve changed my cold and heartless ways, and I’ve agreed to do something that can help others also.

I honestly don’t know what’s happening to me.

In any case, if you’d like a little light entretenimiento, and maybe even some ideas útiles, then:

https://bejakovic.com/10mandamientos

The owner smiled when I tried to speak Spanish… but when I switched to English!

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Yesterday, I stepped into the beautiful Librería Nobel — Nobel Bookstore — in Almería, Spain.

“Buenos días,” I said as I entered.

The owner, who stood behind the counter, smiled at me politely and returned my greeting. He didn’t recognize me at first. So I changed tack.

“Hola Rafa,” I said and then switched to English. “How are you?”

A look of surprise spread across his face. “John! Coño! What are you doing here!”

The owner of Librería Nobel is one Rafa Casas, who I’ve written up before in this newsletter as a Spanish A-list copywriter.

Not only is Rafa a skilled copywriter who has helped a bunch of clients make money, but he’s building up his name in true A-list style.

Along with his bookstore and his client work, he now runs two coaching programs, one to help Spanish-speaking business owners get set up online with their digital marketing, and another called Circulo Copy where he mentors a number of Spanish-language copywriters, including some well-known names.

This was the first time I was meeting Rafa in real life. But I have known him online for a while.

Rafa first got on my email list in 2021. He then went through my Copy Riddles course, back when I was still offering live weekly Q&A calls.

At that time, I ran a weekly contest for the best answer to one of the week’s Copy Riddles. Rafa won the first contest ever. (Among the three books I offered him as a possible prize, Rafa wisely chose my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.)

Then some time in 2022, I interviewed Rafa for my Copy Zone guide to the business side of copywriting. His story of getting started writing daily emails about books while his bookstore was locked down — and then turning that into paid client work — was both interesting and impressive.

We also had a short-lived language exchange after I moved to Spain.

He’s even translated my 10 Commandments book to Spanish, and we will be putting that out soon, as soon as the cover designer gets back to me.

Point being:

I started out this email newsletter with the vague aims of having a sandbox in which to practice copywriting and marketing, as a possible source of samples to show clients, and as a way of maybe winning some client work, back when I was still hungry for that.

And my newsletter has delivered on all those fronts.

But it’s also produced a bunch of amazing opportunities and outcomes I never could have imagined when I got started.

It’s resulted in great new relationships both online and in real life… people doing me solid favors without ever being asked… cool free stuff shipped to my front door… speaking opportunities… and even the occasional note from people who tell me that what I’m doing has actually changed the course of their life for the better.

If you want, you too can have something similar. At least that’s my claim, one I will work to pay off on the free training I’m hosting in a few days’ time.

The training will cover how I write and profit from this newsletter that you are reading now.

It will happen on Monday January 22, 2024 at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. But you will have to be signed up to my list first. Click here to do so.

Fear v. glory

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This past weekend I finally broke down and listened to an interview with Dr. Andrew Huberman.

Even though I’ve never listened to Dr. Andrew speak before, I’ve written about him in this newsletter.

That’s because the man is a phenomenon.

He’s been the fastest-rising podcaster of the past year or so. An international celebrity. I’ve heard talk of him from a half dozen entirely unrelated people, living in as many separate countries.

Anyways, among the many novel recommendations Dr. Andrew has for your health, one is:

Several times a day, practice panoramic vision.

Find a place that allows you to look off into the distance, so the immediate details around you melt away.

It’s a physical equivalent of mentally seeing the bigger picture. And like with so many other things, the physical and mental equivalents are linked, or so Dr. Andrew says. According to the research in his lab at Stanford University, “panoramic vision practice” lowers stress hormones yadda yadda.

All right, and now for marketing:

Yesterday, the “Wizard of Ads,” Roy H. Williams (not a doctor), wrote a very interesting email.

Even though I’ve never listened to Roy H. speak before, I’ve written about him in this newsletter.

That’s because the man is a phenomenon.

He’s written several books about advertising that have sold well. He appears to head an international advertising agency. Plus he has a weekly email newsletter.

Anyways, among the many novel recommendations Roy H. has for your marketing, one is:

Reframe pain v. gain as fear v. glory.

People are very reluctant to experience pain, says Roy. But they are only modestly motivated by gain. Pleasure is not much more motivating.

Instead, what you want is for your prospect to look off into the distance, so the immediate details around him melt away.

It’s a mental equivalent of panoramic vision practice. And like so many other things, the physical and mental equivalents are linked, or so Roy H. says. According to the research in his kitchen somewhere in Texas, reframing pain as fear and gain as glory lowers your prospect’s buying resistance yadda yadda.

All right, and now for sales, our last topic for today:

Ever since I started selling my Most Valuable Email training, one of the claims I’ve made is that you can get through this course in an hour and start applying the MVE trick right after.

And it’s true, but it’s also marketing hype. As Spanish A-list copywriter Rafa Casas wrote me:

“Thanks for the course. It’s true that it can be read in an hour, but it needs more resting time and practice to get the full potential out of it. Which is a lot.”

You know, and I know, that if you do go through this training, quick and brief though it is, that’s when the real work starts.

In order to get any real-world benefit out of my Most Valuable Email, you will need to apply the MVE trick yourself dozens or maybe hundreds of times, over the course of months or maybe years.

Maybe that amount of work scares you. Maybe you’re afraid of the commitment, or maybe you’re simply afraid to set your mind to it and then fail.

Those are serious things to worry about. I won’t lie to you and say that they’re not.

On the other hand, imagine the acclaim, praise, and yes, even pride you can win if you do manage to get the full potential out of this course. Imagine:

Readers writing to you regularly to say you’ve blown their minds…

Industry heavy-hitters sending you endorsements and treating you like an equal…

And most important of all, the knowledge inside that you’ve accomplished something in spite of your own fears, that you’ve got a valuable skill that nobody can take away from you, that you can feel good about yourself for doing something that few other people were willing to do.

The choice is yours. If you’re willing to act:

http://bejakovic.com/mve/

Spanish A-list copywriter makes me an indecent proposal

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Last year in September, I kicked off the third run of Copy Riddles, my program for learning copywriting by practicing bullets.

As part of that September run, I had a little each week for the best bullet. Anybody who wanted to could send me their bullets. The winner got a prize, usually a book on marketing and copywriting.

(The contest has since been shuttered, since I spun off a complete coaching program to go with Copy Riddles.)

Anyways, the very first week and the very first contest, out of something like fifty submissions, the winner was Rafa Casas, a Spanish-speaking and Spanish-writing copywriter.

Rafa’s first bullet won because it was so simple and promised such a clear and desirable benefit.

But Rafa kept submitting bullets for later bullet contests (no dice, you can only win once). Still, he had such clever and persuasive ideas that I was sure he will be a big success soon.

And it seems to be happening.

Rafa is now writing copy for a number of clients in Spain.

He’s also offering his own email copywriting coaching to a few clients, based on his experiences writing two daily email newsletters.

And from what I understand, he recently won some kind of fancy award in Spain, recognizing his wizard-like copywriting skills.

Put all this together, and I think it qualifies Rafa as an A-lister in the Spanish copywriting world.

And if you wonder whether Rafa really has the hard results to back up being called an A-lister… then I’ll tell you that copywriting stardom is more about endorsements, legend, and mental shortcuts than it is about results.

That’s something to ponder if you yourself have aspirations to become an A-list copywriter.

But back to the indecent proposal I promised you in my subject line. A few days ago, Rafa sent me the following email:

It turns out that this afternoon while I was waiting for my daughter to do her yoga class, I read, as I always do every Thursday afternoon with a coffee, the book I always read while I´m waiting for her: The 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters, and I have come up with a business with which we will not become millionaires (not for now) but it will not cost us money either.

What do you think if I translate your book into Spanish and we try to sell it to the Spanish-speaking world as well?

Of course I wouldn’t charge you anything for doing it, well not in money at least. The idea is that while I translate it and we try to sell it, I can learn from you the strategy that we implement to sell it, for example.

Immediately upon reading Rafa’s message, I drifted off into a pleasant fantasy. I saw myself being interviewed on CNN, with all the different translations of my book on a shelf behind me.

“So Bejako,” the CNN anchorwoman asked me, “what can you tell us, as an internationally read copywriting expert whose books have been translated into multiple languages, about the recent news of monkey pox? Is this something to worry about? Is washing our hands with soap enough? And are there influence and persuasion principles we can learn from this?”

My dream balloon popped. I fell back to reality.

I realized was that Rafa’s proposal was indecent. But only in the original sense of that word, meaning not suitable or fitting.

Because while I would love to have a Spanish-language version of my book, it’s probably not worth Rafa’s time to translate it. Either for the money we could make together, or for the learning experience of how I might promote that book.

My feeling on these Kindle books is that they are valuable for credibility and as lead magnets.

They siphon people from Amazon into your world. They sit there, more or less passively, and do their work. In my experience, most of their value comes without any added promotion, outside of some very basic Amazon ads and occasional mentions in this newsletter.

Maybe you think that’s a cavalier attitude about promotion for somebody who calls himself a marketer.

Perhaps. But perhaps it’s about the best use of your time.

So in case I haven’t piled on the value in this email sufficiently, I will give you one last practical tidbit. It comes from James Altucher.

James is an interesting and quirky Internet personality. He has written and published 20 books, both fiction and non-fiction. And he’s doing something right, because he has amassed a huge audience… sold truckloads of books… and even had a WSJ bestseller with a book he self-published.

Here’s the book-marketing tidbit. James asks:

What’s the best way to promote your first book?

Simple.

Write your second book.

That’s what I’m planning to do to promote my 10 Commandments book. Along with, of course, occasional mentions in this email newsletter.

So if you don’t have a copy of the 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters… and you want to find out why a star in the Spanish copywriting sky like Rafa might want to read this book every Thursday afternoon… then take a look below:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments​​