Back in 1967 if it was dark photos barely came out, so this “Flashcube” was affixed to your camera and would light up simultaneously with your picture to light it up:

These Flashcubes were only good for 4 shots before burning out. Each side of the flashcube would burn out after each shot. 

With modern smartphones and lights it's almost hard to believe this is how people used cameras!

I've been planning out some "thought provoking business questions" you can ask of your own business.

I currently have 90 of them, but here are the first 20:

1. Why did you decide to start this business?
2. Can you describe your product in one sentence?
3. What main benefit does someone get if they buy your product?
4. What is the best method you’ve found to sell your product?
5. Why did you start a business in this specific industry?
6. What would you do if you had to start this business again from scratch?
7. Do you have a 1 year plan? 5 year plan? 10 year plan?
8. Do you want to run this business forever, or eventually sell it?
9. If someone gave you $10million to grow your business, how would you use it?
10. Who are my competitors?
11. Who in my industry would I most like to be? What specific aspects of their company do you like?
12. Which channel brings in the most customers? Can you double down on that?
13. What’s my company's value proposition?
14. Have similar companies to mine been sold for a lot of money?
15. What can this company realistically grow to?
16. How are my prices compared to my competitors?
17. What if I 5x my pricing? Could I serve my best customers better?
18. What bigger company would want to buy me? Why?
19. What’s a bottleneck in your company? Is there a way to clear that?
20. If you were to disappear for a week, which process in your company would break first?

I'll share more of these if people like them!

I really love this old Gatorade advertising which takes a rather scientific approach to why someone should drink Gatorade:

Their ads eventually went the "brand-exposure" route as people got to know the name "Gatorade" such as this:

...so it's kind of neat to see their original ads which had to explain to people WHY to drink Gatorade in the first place.

Here's a picture of my July 2022 Goals:

Goal #1.) Podcast Outreach:
I've been doing more podcasts and live sessions on other people's platforms, and would love to do more. I've started to formalize this process a bit more.

Know of any cool podcasts or live sessions I would be helpful on?

Reply to this email and let me know!

Goal #2.) Hire in-person researcher:
Almost everything I do is remote, so I supplement having in-person co-workers with frequent co-working sessions hosted at my place.

This July I want to hire an in-person researcher to help me write posts.

This person would:
- Be a researcher/writer to help me write posts & lists.
- Help out writing and maintaining our CC community.
- Come work (in person) with me 1-2 times per week.
- I’m in Central East Austin, you would be close by.
- Paid if you’re a writer/researcher

Some more details:
- You can come in 1-2 times/wk in person to East Austin (required).
- Work can also be done remote, but want some in-person time.
- You’ve already written some stuff. Link it to me!
- You already have client work or a job where you write
- Need someone with some writing experience. Not a mentorship.
- Fun Bonus: You can make other content: Video, Social etc.

Goal #3.) List --> T --> Y
I don't explain ALL my goals here 🙂

I've lived through two economic "crashes" in my income-earning lifetime:

The 2001 Economic "Crash"
The economy was already shaky, with a big tech boom swinging up and down. Then 9/11 happened and business all stopped overnight. 9/11 seemed to be the "Black Swan Event" that toppled the shaky Jenga economy.

That event was something you couldn't really plan for. This spooked the world, and commerce slowed down.

The 2008 Economic "Crash"
There was insane borrowing of money to buy houses....LOTS of houses! I knew people making $70k/yr who bought 4 expensive houses at a time, something almost unthinkable today.

In fact 2008-Neville who was 25 years old at the time running a small rave company bought a house by walking into the neighborhood selling office, and this is how it went:

Lender: "How much money do you make?"

Neville: "Well I'll have to go home and check first."

Lender: No don't worry, we'll just say $100k on the form. Approved!

THAT'S IT.

Next thing I know the house was being built:

In retrospect these lax (and borderline illegal) lending practices were destined to cause a problem.

In 2008 I sold the contract for that house. A month later in March 2008 the giant bank Bear Sterns went bankrupt, which seemed unthinkable, and this "Black Swan Event" toppled the economic house of cards.

Lessons Learned:

• They call these "crashes" but they should be called "things coming back down to Earth."

• You generally hear rumblings of an economic crash before it comes, and then an unpredictable "Black Swan Event" happens which topples it (sounds like we're in this area now).

• Good deals on stocks and real estate come after the Black Swan Event...often around 1-2 years after, but not immediately.

• People who have cash 1-2 years after "The Black Swan Event" scoop up tons of deals at cheap prices.

• During a crash all the news is bad.....but most people will still have jobs, people still do things, people still buy things, people still spend money. The world turns as usual.

• Instead of reckless hiring and blowing money on dumb things, companies start to focus on optimization of what they've already got. Once again reminding me of this great book title:

Halfway through 2022 is the perfect time to start, prepare, and optimize for Q3 and especially Q4. We'd love to have you inside our community where people are constantly optimizing and testing their pages/emails/pitches:

Join right now at: CopywritingCourse.com/join
Use code JULY2022 for 35% off the entire year!

Deal ends tonight at 11:59pm PST.

In the 1960's Volkswagen did an ad campaign which featured some clever "Marketing Judo" by turning the laughably small-and-funny-looking Beetle into the top selling car in the world.

Look at these awesome ads starting in 1960 going to 1969:

Almost every Volkswagen Beetle ad they ran poked fun of the Beetle's small size and odd appearance...

...but in the copy went on to brag how it's small size was a feature:
- Almost no maintenance costs
- Made it very fuel efficient
- Easily replaceable parts
- Very high quality
- Very cheap

The formula for each ad was:

→ Sarcastic headline
→ Eye catching image
→ Talk about how it's size/shape made for a great car

This was a massively popular campaign, and from 1960 to 1973 the VW Beetle was the top selling car in the world!

You can see high res versions of these ads on our blog:
CopywritingCourse.com/blogs/64

I love it when in ONE FRAME a social media post explains a concept.

By simply viewing that one image you can learn something new.

Here's a few examples:

Optimizing an Instagram profile, in one pic:

How to pick a watermelon, in one pic:

I like how there's zero fluff in these pictures....just pure information!

I propose a new AirBnb program called “Good Neighbors.”

What it is: AirBnB hosts can share a small cut of booking revenue with select neighbors. Easy!

This program could:
- Make neighbors happy, and WANT more bookings.
- Get neighbors to consider signing up to AirBnb.

So I live next door to an AirBnB charging $1,200+/night.

On occasion I experience:
• People opening my gates, tripping the alarm system.
• Wrong Uber Eats deliveries at weird hours of night.
• Randoms parking by my house.

These small annoyances increasingly frustrate me since I have no control over them, and don't get any profit from them.

Solution 👉🏼

The "Good Neighbors Program" would allow my neighbor to "cut me in on the action."

This way the "negative externalities" I'm experience would be compensated.

Even a few hundred dollars a month would turn my neighbor's AirBnB from an Enemy to an Asset!

Everyone wins 🙂

It would be Implemented like this:

The AirBnB host selects account to share bounty with.

Share Option 1: Share a percentage of revenue.
EX: "You get 1% of all booking revenue"

Share Option 2: Share set fee per new booking.
EX: "You get $50 per booking"

With this program:

✅ AirBnB wins!
✅ Host wins!
✅ Neighbor wins!

This was a fun idea, I sent it to AirBnB, and hopefully this gets implemented in the near future.

Here's where I work from everyday:

If I have people over to co-work then we sit at this table instead:
Pictured: @nomadicmatt

I posted this on Twitter, and people responded with their workspaces....some of them pretty awesome looking!! Check em out:

@michael_soledad: Super sleek and fancy looking!

@jackzerby: Clean, lots of books, cool art in back.

@jayvasdigital: From a small town in Portugal.

@C3ODAD: Guy works from an F1 car paddock!

@jack_rnc: Love the minimal and bright look.

@taskett: Bright, clean, and airy.

@misskavita: Very Zen.

@acquireconvert: 5 feet away from a piano AND hot tub, I like!

Did you know you can use •bullet points• to create art on a page?

• You can
• make a descending
• list out of them like this.

• Or you can start long and
• make them shorter
• and end in a
• point.

• Or you
• can make them
• go up and down something
• kinda like this
• too.

You can make awesome "Bullet Points" with Emoji. Examples:

• This (my fav)
→ This
✅This
✔️This
❌This
✘ This
✔︎ This
★ This
☁︎ This
► This
❒ This
➖ This
➕ This
🔲 This
➡️ This
🆇 This
✏️ This
◼︎ This
👉🏼 This
⇨ This
♥️ This
➤ This
🔥 This
⭐️ This

One of the most fascinating people in my life is my friend Nick Gray:

He moved to Austin two years ago, barely knew anybody, and within 6 months had bigger networks than almost anyone I know.

He did this by throwing what he calls "2-Hour Cocktail Parties" where everyone must wear a name tag 😂

Look how every picture has people wearing name tags:

He insists on name tags because it creates easier communication at his parties...and even gives people something to talk about:

He's very specific on how to write name tags and has whole blog posts about it:

Nick doesn't fit the normal mould of a party-thrower because:
- He doesn't drink.
- He doesn't like to stay out past 9:30pm.
- He doesn't like rowdiness or drunkenness.

That's why he wrote a book about throwing parties...specifically for people who don't normally throw parties (and want everyone out of their house by 9:30pm)!

Here's his book, which I've personally used all his tactics:
The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings

I have some awesome friends I've met through hosting events, hopefully this book will encourage more people who AREN'T used to hosting events to host something (his goal is get 500 people this year to host a "2 Hour Party."

Here's some articles Nick wrote on throwing a "2 Hour Party"
• How to Host a Happy Hour
• How to Plan a Networking Event
• How to Do Icebreakers
• How to Make Party Name Tags
• The 2-Hour Cocktail Party Book

I love old school ads, and these decades-old Range Rover ads do a great job of two main things:

#1.) The Range Rover can handle tough terrain.
#2.) The Range Rover looks good.

For example in this it says "You can drive it as if it were your brother-in-law's" and it shows the RR going over some crazy difficult terrain:

Not sure why the person who hates this his brother-in-law so much....but we get the point 😂

This next ad promotes the suspension of the Range Rover by comparing them to Nike Air's (which in the 90's were a huge hit).

This ad is good at just showing the product also:

This next Range Rover ad is my favorite. It doesn't even show the product (up close at least). 

It just shows the Range Rover going wayyyyy off the beaten path, opting for taking a desert sand drive instead of a comfy highway like all the other cars:

Here’s the computer program of my life:

load (Neville){
0: Born
20: Make money
30: Slow down
40: Family
50: End competitive working life
60: Family
85: End;
}

Yours is likely the same, maybe some variance in numbers.

Almost every biography I’ve ever read ends with “wish I spent even more time with friends and family.”

The journey is the point 🙂

I recently spoke with designer Chris Do  on a podcast about:

COPYWRITING:
"If you change words around on a page, it often makes a dramatic impact."

STARTING BIZ:
"If you can't do it on the side, you probably can't do it full time."

BEST CLIENTS:
"They're doing a bad job, but in spite of that, doing well."

You can listen to the whole podcast here.

Here's a fun weekend project I did:

I added an "Ab and Stretching Area" to my garage gym. Here's a quick tour:

Here's what the garage gym looked like (those are chalkboard walls):

I always thought this concrete lip was wasted space, and could be turfed or padded in some way:

My friend Sam was clearing out his garage down the street and had some leftover turf, so I took it:

I cleared off all the stuff on the concrete lip. Unfortunately this means removing the table that held my speakers, lamp, and star projector:

I laid out the turf and measured it (making sure the grain of the "grass" is all the same direction):

Started slicing up the turf, using turf tape to attach the 4 different pieces:

Then glued all the turf down to the concrete so it doesn't move:

Then let it sit for a while to settle in:

Started putting stuff back on it:

Including these two stool thingies to use for stretching and sitting:

Downside of this....the speakers had nowhere to go 😳

Luckily this meant I got to do another project! I bought some speaker mounts to hang the speakers:

Mounting the speakers on studs:

Got them mounted, but it had this big droopy cable showing:

The next step is to route these speaker and power wires behind the drywall:

Unfortunately these are exterior facing walls with insulation behind them and cross-brace studs....so I'll have to call a professional to hide the cables for me (I checked on YouTube....it's a little above my skill level)!

But anyways, now I have an "Ab and Stretching Area" in the gym!

I've seen online education evolve as technology has become better:

Education people pay for has changed quite a bit:
- 2000: PDF file with info.
- 2010: Online course with video.
- 2022: Communities + Results.

Pure how-to’s and information are nearly 100% free now.

Loved this Tweet about it:

Inside the Copywriting Course we have "assignments" people can do, and one of them is "Marking Up Images."

One of the images we have people markup is this one:

These are just practice-grounds to learn image skills + showing off features and benefits.

Just for fun, look at some of the different results people have posted in the assignment (only members can view that link):

T.R. Posted:

J.P. Posted:

D.M. Posted:

B.B. Posted:

R.R. Posted:

Those are all amazing....but I have to say the best designed one so far is this one.

Q.A. Posted:

Cool to watch people learning + doing + sharing...and watching a simple picture of a sneaker take on different forms!