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    The S.T.U.P.I.D. Email (Friday July 1st, 2022)

    (Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

    This is a fun email for Friday July 1st, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

     

    Swipe:

    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:

    kodak-flashcube-ad.jpg

    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!

    Thought:

    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!

    Uplifting:

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

    gatorade-thirst-ad.png

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

    gatorade-ads.PNG

    ...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.

    Picture:

    Here's a picture of my July 2022 Goals:

    july-todo-list.jpg

    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 🙂

    Interesting:

    black-swan-event.webp

    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:

    nevs-house.PNG

    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:

    getting-everything-you-can.webp

    Drawing:

    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:

    cc-sales.gif

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

    Deal ends tonight at 11:59pm PST.

    Hope you enjoyed these little tidbits, have a happy Friday!
    Sincerely,
    Neville Medhora -
    CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

    nev-head.webp

    12 Comments


    Recommended Comments

    RE Podcast Outreach:

    No particular podcast recommendation but we use respona.com for our podcast research and outreach. It might help you keep everything under one hood. Happy to do a short screenshare on how we appraoch our outreach. 

    Edited by Daniel Kupka
    Link to comment
    • Administrator

    Hey @Daniel Kupka thanks for the rec, I've never heard of this software! 

    At first glance it looks more like link building software, but I can see how it can crossover for podcast outreach. Cool rec!

    Link to comment

    Hi Neville 

    Recently I uninstalled my social media apps - Twitter and Instagram mainly - to try to free up some time, and free up my thinking a bit. 

    I started reading lots more of the blogs and newsletters I'm signed up for including yours. 

    This is really good. Thanks. Love the 20 questions here. 
    Have a good weekend 
    Ash

    Link to comment
    • Administrator

    Hey thanks Ash! 

    A lot of the information from my STUPID Newsletters is posted in various forms on my social media or private community, this is a nice re-cap for myself and the readers...so glad you like it!

    I'll put out more of the business questions in a giant post soon 🙂 

    Link to comment
    • Administrator

    Thanks a bunch Eric, I will probably list all 90 of them out in a post and publicly publish them circa next week!

    Link to comment

    Hey Neville, 

    Happy Friday, just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to write/send out these emails. I enjoy reading every one and always learn something new from you!

    Let me know how I can help you with something in 2022!
    Very best, 
    Nick

    Link to comment

    Always inspired by your Friday emails. I found your list of 20 thought provoking questions especially engaging. Would you mind sharing the rest? 

    Kasey

    Link to comment
    • Administrator

    Hey Kasey, give me about a week and I'll publish the full list. I want to publish a list of the questions, plus maybe several "example answers" for each question (which means I have to write ~180 sample answers) 😬

    Link to comment

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