Ryan Lee

Solid as a rock

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I was on the Barcelona metro yesterday, bouncing along, keeping my eye out for potential assailants, and listening to a podcast — James Schramko interviewing Ryan Lee.

In case those names don’t mean much to you, both guys are highly successful, highly influential Internet marketers.

Both James and Ryan have been at it for decades.

Both have made many millions for themselves, and probably hundreds of millions for their various coaching clients.

For example, Ryan has coached multimillionaire fitness marketers like Mike Geary (PaleoHacks, Truth About Abs) and Jeff Cavaliere (Athlean-X, 14M subscribers on YouTube).

James on the other hand has coached multimillionaire info marketers like Ryan Levesque (ASK Method) and Kevin Rogers (Copy Chief).

Point being, both Jeff and Ryan are the real deal when it comes to knowledge of Internet marketing and to getting actual results.

At the end of the interview, just as I was nearing my stop, James summed up the takeaways of their call, with Ryan jumping in:

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JAMES:

1. Find a way to get recurring income

2. Keep it as simple as possible

3. YouTube is a strong front-end driver and potentially a good income earner

4. Email is still solid as a rock

RYAN: No matter what you do, whatever social platform you pick…

JAMES: … build an email list.

RYAN: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram — get ’em on your list, because at the end of the day, you control it.

JAMES: That’s the simple advice that people ignore.

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I’m telling you all this because there are still people who say they don’t have time to email.

Maybe that’s you too.

I’m sure you’re busy, and you have lots of stuff to do. Work, family, dog, cat.

I can completely understand.

I just wanted to share the point of view of James and Ryan above, because they are both very experienced… because they both make very nice money by working something like 10-15 hours a week… and because they are not in the business of selling email marketing or email copywriting.

And yet, both agree that there are only a few needed ingredients for long-term success… and that email is one non-negotiable part of that. (By the way, they both practice what they preach, and write emails, as Ryan says, dailyish.)

If you want to follow their simple advice, and you also want to see how to write dailyish emails faster, in as little as 15-20 minutes a day, without being particularly creative or inspired, then take a look here:

https://bejakovic.com/sme

How to offer discounts without discounting your offer

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I once went to buy a pair of RayBan sunglasses. When I went to pay, the woman at the counter leaned in conspiratorially.

“Would you like to buy this cleaning kit for your new sunglasses?” she asked.

Before I had a chance to tell her that in fact I work in direct marketing, and that she should try her useless upsell on somebody else, she continued:

“The cleaning kit is only 9.95 euro, but we have a special promotion, where if you buy it you get a 20% discount on anything in the store. That’s a 50 euro savings on your sunglasses.”

What happened next is what I believe they call “cognitive dissonance”:

The twin angels of Refusing To Be Upsold and of A Perfectly Rational Argument vied for supremacy of my soul.

After a brief but fierce struggle, the Angel of A Perfectly Rational Argument won out.

“Uhh… I guess I’ll take the cleaning kit?” I said, still trying to figure out how I was being scammed, and how this made any sense for the sunglasses store.

I never really did figure it out, except to think that maybe it allowed them to discount their sunglasses and make people feel like they were getting a bargain… without actually discounting their sunglasses.

I though of this this morning when, in my usual rounds of snooping on other marketers, I checked out Ryan Lee’s current offer.

I don’t really understand what exactly Ryan is selling — he’s helping people publish a “micro book,” whatever that is.

I do know that the cost for his 2-week “Micro Book Accelerator” is $895. Included in the price are a number of bonuses, one being a book cover designed by Ryan’s personal crack designer (“a $999 value”).

So far, so normal.

But then you get down to the bottom of the sales page, where the checkout links are.

There’s a full pay option for $895…

There’s a 3-pay for $319 per month…

And then there’s an option to “join and get the full MBX experience (only without the cover design) for a BIG discount (almost $600).”

I have no doubt that most people who join are joining Ryan’s full experience, cover included.

But I thought this last option was interesting:

A way to discount the offer… by not discounting the offer. By respecting the people who buy the full package, and by making everyone else a different offer, and a credible reason why that new offer is significantly discounted (that’s what connected this in my mind to the sunglasses story above).

Maybe you say this is just a downsell. Maybe. But I’ve never seen it done like this, and to me at least, it was new.

Anyways, since I very much like to take interesting ideas and apply them in this newsletter, I decided to put this one to work as well.

So if you like, you can now sign up to get my Simple Money Emails training (minus the swipe file and the bonus 7 Deadly Email Sins and Quick and Dirty Emails trainings) at a significant “Perfectly Rational Argument” discount from the usual $197 price.

This new offer is only $77, $120 off the price that the complete Simple Money Emails program sells for.

Since this is an experiment, and kinda makes me uncomfortable, I am restricting it to only the first 20 people who take me up on it. And one way or another, I will close down this offer this Saturday at 8:31pm CET.

If you want the “Perfectly Rational Argument” discount, here’s where to take me up on this new offer while it’s still live:

https://bejakovic.com/sme77/

Looking for a partner for my longevity list

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I was massaging my ears this morning and watching a training hosted by marketer Ryan Lee.

Maybe you know Ryan — he’s been doing business online for 20+ years. He has coached and collaborated with and gotten endorsements from people like Russell Brunson and Ryan Deiss and Brian Kurtz and and Todd Brown — all big names in the Internet marketing space, in case you don’t know ’em.

Anyways, Ryan said:

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Biggest mistakes I’ve made by far, I just let a list go or I shift and I get out of that.

If I would have stayed in like the fitness market, just doing fitness stuff from 23 years ago, I’d probably be a billionaire.

Or if I got a piece of everyone’s business I taught, I would definitely be a billionaire by now. I’ve done fine, but I know, seeing what happened.

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When I heard Ryan say this, I let go of my ears. “Hmm,” I said. “HMM.”

Because back in March, I let my longevity list go.

For over a year, I had been writing a weekly newsletter to that list. The list was small but growing. Readers loved the content. But I didn’t have good offers to promote, and in spite of a year of work, I couldn’t make it pay.

I had had enough. So I stopped mailing it. It’s been sitting there ever since.

And it’s still getting people opting in to it… and even people writing in and asking me when I will write more newsletter issues.

The answer is, never. I have too much other stuff to do. But I had the idea this morning to look for a partner for this longevity list, somebody who would actually like to handle the regular writing part.

Maybe that partner could be you?

Before you start imagining that future, here are three facts of life:

# 1. I’m looking for a partner, not an unpaid coaching student or a drunk intern.

If you can write and enjoy research, then this could be a fit.

But if you cannot write, or if you’re sloppy with research, then it won’t work. I’d rather not send anything to this list than send a tossed salad of fluff and garbage. And while I have systems in place to help with the research and writing… and while I’m happy to give my feedback and ongoing input on the content… I also do not want to be constantly looking over your shoulder.

#2. This will only make sense if you are interested or rather obsessive about health and the science behind it.

If that’s not you in real life, this will not make sense — you will hate the day-to-day work, and the result won’t be very good, not in the long term.

#3. The list is not making any money right now.

If you need money yesterday, or by the end of the today, or by the end of this week, then this is not for you.

On the other hand, if the list ever does make any money, we can split it the way partners split stuff.

About the last part:

Even though the list is making zero money right now, it’s not impossible that it could make money, even right quick.

In part that’s because some things have changed since March — I’ve had a few potential good offers pop up.

Another reason is that, while I don’t want to spend time writing that longevity newsletter each week, I am willing to do other stuff.

Such as, finding offers to promote… finding partners for various JVs… growing the list… or even putting in money — assuming we have some hope of getting that money back.

Again, I am really looking for a partner. Writing is one thing you can contribute, but if you have other things to contribute too, then great. I’m also willing to do my part, long term.

This means we will have to like each other, have complementary skills and resources, and have some kind of common vision.

It’s highly unlikely all these things will line up. But maybe it’s not impossible.

If you’re interested, hit reply. And write me something to convince me that you’ve read this email thoroughly, that you could be a good fit for who I’m looking for, and that you’re actually interested in this idea, long-term.