Let's start today off with THREE different swipes!

1.) This is a “writing mark-up” ad that explains each feature of these huaraches shoes:

There's something just so dang eye-catching about hand-writing when overlaid on an image!

 

2.) Welllll maybe eating Jello all day won’t make you lose much weight, but in 1952 this was promoted as a great tasting yet lower-in-calorie dessert. Not sure why he’s weighing himself with loafers on…that’s like 1 extra pound on the scale 😬

 

3.) To be honest this is a great pitch for Rick.

He’ll never:
✔️ Give you up
✔️ Let you down
✔️ Desert you 😂

Sometimes a complex subject can be better illustrated than told. For example this is a cool graphic that shows all the stuff that comes out of a barrel of oil:

While electric vehicles and transportation is clearly the way of the future, it's interesting to note that oil propelled our species forward for several hundred years.

This graphic shows a portion of the other products that it helped provide.

Checkout this concise 8th grade overall exam from 1912.

Think you can pass it??

I'm in St. Kitts all week and it's awesome!

Here I am walking over an old 400 year old dam:

My hiking outfit (and doing my best to avoid sun damage) 😬

After I finish this newsletter I'm immediately jumping into the ocean 🙂

As Apple started getting bigger and bigger, its logo got simpler and simpler:

I spoke about this before in this video:

It basically says you should pick a slogan based on your company size: 

• Small Company: Be very direct. 
• Medium Company: Can be slightly vague. 
• Big Company: Aspirational.

For example:

When you’re a giant brand you have many products and many services, so a “direct” slogan is hard.

That’s when you can go aspirational and vague like:

A Redditor said his mechanic brother sent him this sketch to easier understand different tires…super simple, and you instantly understand!

Forget running a Twitter Poll, just run an outdoor  to see which house color your neighbors prefer!

What a fun idea + way to meet the neighbors 😂

I made a Twitter Cheat Sheet.

Can help spark new ideas to post 🔥

I like making cheat sheets where a single image can spark a thousand ideas!

Apparently pestering your kid to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or business owner really works!

A possible reason for the average income of Indian's (at least in the USA) is there's a large percentage of business owners as well as engineering based professions.

Take a look at data supporting this:

Basically the more "engineer-y" your job is, the higher your lifetime earning potential is.

My buddy Nick Gray is famous for throwing "2 Hour Cocktail Parties", and one fun thing he does is organize parties at OTHER people's houses:

He held one of these parties on Wednesday, I was there for a speedy 2 hours, met a bunch of people (old and new) and left!

He will often invite a special guest, this time it was Andrew Wilkinson whose company just went public (guy in the middle):

Nick always conducts at least 1 or 2 quick ice breakers, here's him in action:

This party was hosted at Cody Mclain's house here in Austin, and he had this secondary backyard area where the whole party could stand around:

This ice breaker was HUGE, maybe 40 or 50 people, so Nick kept the train moving quick and the icebreaker was done in 13 minutes flat (I timed it) 😬

Was a fun time!

Anyone else notice when messaging groups get too big, the quality goes down dramatically? 

Like if you're in an iMessage or WhatsApp group where people keep getting added, it has some sort of natural size ceiling before it devolves into annoying-ness:

In the last few months I've left several text groups (or at least muted them) that have just got too chatty. The main problem is your phone pinging 100 times a day from a single group...that's personally too much for me to handle.

I love “Marking-Up” images to explain features. Checkout this Esprit Shoes ad showcasing the features of these huaraches:

If you wanted to flex as a kid, you showed up with the Crayons box with the built in sharpener 😎

That built-in sharpener was a unique feature stood out, was useful, and for kids it was the adult-equivalent of walking around with a Gucci purse!

 

Speaking of showing off...this other Crayola ad from 1959 shows a little kid with his “hands against a store window” looking at a box of Crayola Crayons. The ad is designed to show parents that THIS is the gift to buy their kids:

If you want to build something big (or run a small company with large outputs), you need to some form of "scale."

There's 4 main ways to scale:

1.) Scale with Code
2.) Scale with Media
3.) Scale with Product
4.) Scale with People

With the advent of new AI tools that can do more-and-more tasks, the people that can utilize those tools will scale even further.

 

1.) Scale with Code/AI

If your product consists only of computer code, this is the easiest form of scaling because you can run that computer code trillions of times for almost zero money:

 

2.) Scale with Media

You can create a piece of media, then show it over-and-over again at virtually zero cost.

Looks at these videos I made 4+ years ago...till this day, everyday, they bring in views/subscribers/buyers. Pretty good for something I did ONCE 4 years ago:

 

3.) Scale with a reproducible product

Once you've designed a machine/process to build a product, you can crank out a bunch of them quickly, getting you to "scale."

 

4.) Scale with People

Almost any process can be scaled, but some of them currently require real humans, not just computer code or AI.

For example a writing agency can assign different tasks to different people, and output a lot of writing:

With AI getting better, these people can become even more effective and create more output.

This “reverse psychology” style ad campaign from Avis did a fun judo-move and turned their “being only No. 2” status into the reason you SHOULD rent a car from them! 

They did this in response to Hertz having an ad campaign showing how they’re #1.

This reminds me of a funny billboard David Letterman took out in response to Jay Leno’s #1 billboard in New York City 😂

One of my favorite product lines in history is Philips Hue lights. I have ~85 Philips Hue connected lights & devices throughout my house 😬

I don't get sponsored by Philips Hue (but it would totally be my dream).

My favorite part is a single press of a button can change the whole vibe of a room, or the entire house.

When I'm not on video calls I use this vibey light setting in my office:

Just a couple of Phillips Hue Play and some color bulbs in lamps light up the whole office.

One press on the remote and office gets funnkkaayy:

I've been shuffling around furniture in my office lately, so you'll see different views of this in the near future 🙂

Instead of think of "Luck" as some nebulous concept, think of it like a unit of measure.

In other words: How many "Units of Luck" are you producing for yourself?

Warren Buffett talks about how lucky he is:

• Two parents
• Speaks English
• Born in the United States
• Born during a time when USA was booming

Each one of these added "Units of Luck" to his life.

Here's other ways to add "Units of Luck" to your own life:

• Be hard working, and willing to do more than someone else.
• Take more shots than other people normally do.
• When young try many different things, weed out stuff you don't like, do more of what you do like.
• Share your thoughts on the internet, this can attract other like-minded people into your network, no matter where they live.
• Go to places with successful people. Cities, events, gatherings etc.

 

Takeaways:

• You create "Luck."
• "Luck" isn't a quality you have, it's a quality you build.
• You can create more "Luck."
• People who create a lot of "Units of Luck" get lucky.

Here's an experiment I added this week:
Putting my own ads on SwipeFile.com (my personal swipe file).

I added these two boxes on there as add placements:

They show up on the site like this, in the 5th and 12th slots:

 

I can't track the book ad very well since it goes to Amazon, but I can track the CC link: 85+ clicks so far, and the highest on-page time of all referrals.

Interestingly, the normal Adsense revenue that comes from the site hasn't dropped at all....so far this has been a huge win!

 

A constant chore of marketers is to demonstrate why a cheaper product is not necessarily better, and might even cost you MORE in replacement over time. 

This graphic does that with two pairs of running shoes:

I’ve always believed copywriting is a skill to learn so you can apply it to a business you own, not necessarily to BECOME a professional copywriter.

This way you can improve any piece of marketing you ever send out:

 

My advice for people coming up with taglines or slogans for their company:

Don’t pay attention to billion dollar brands! 
Example: Apple's slogan of: “Think Different”

Instead, you should pick a slogan based on your size: 
• Small Company: Be very direct. 
• Medium Company: Can be slightly vague. 
• Big Company: Aspirational.

For example:

When you’re a giant brand you have many products and many services, so a “direct” slogan is hard.

That’s when you can go aspirational and vague like:

My personal opinion for best big company slogan is Geico, because their slogan also SELLS!

To me, this is what ideal male body looks like:

• Muscles look big (but not too big)
• Maintainable body fat
• Can still be limber

Judging by the picture above, he is 10% to 12% body fat.

My current goal for myself by the end of May is 15% body fat, and I think I can comfortably live at that percentage for most of my life.

One regret I've had is not putting my consulting on a platform. 

This tiny hidden page is what 100% of my consulting has come through 😂

That dumb page has results in hundreds of consulting calls over the years, I reserve Tuesdays for them, and they are great fun and educational!

• You get to hear people's cool stories and numbers.
• You get exposed to a bunch of different industries.
• You get to advise on marketing tactics and see the results.
• You make some extra cash.
• You get clients out of it.

But my big mistake has been...

Not putting myself on a platform and building credibility through those hundreds of sessions.

I wish I could reverse by a few years, and built tons of reviews and credibility on either: Intro.co, Clarity.fm, UpWork.com, MentorPass etc...

While consulting is not scaleable as other business activities (which is why I relegate it to just Tuesday's), I feel like personally LEARN a ton from other people, and make genuine connections as well (plus get paid for it).

This will probably be something I try to build up in Q3 of the year.

Step 1 is going to be picking the right platform to build on. I'm undecided about this still. I just made a profile on Intro here and will try that first:

 

Step 2 would be to build up reviews and results on some platform.

While UpWork is associated with cheap hourly work, it has 50m+ views/mo, is world-wide, has many high end workers, and now has a consultation feature:

I'm curious if YOU have any experience with any good platforms for this? Reply and let me know!

What I like most about this ChatGPT Cheat Sheet is that it all fits on one page. What a great download or one-pager to send people, and this type of “screenshottable” image does very well on social media!

Created by: @hasantoxr

Lol...I'm not sure who originally created this dentist ad, but it's been re-used by HUNDREDS of different dentists across social networks and ad networks.

The guys tooth really grabs attention 😂

I scrolled by this image and immediately had to screenshot it, so it worked! This chart assumes a 4% interest return per year.

Sometimes it's just need to see a giant table of data like this, it makes for very screenshottable social media images!

This was the equivalent of 18th century Google Chrome Tabs 😂

This was a cool device that allowed researchers to read up to 8 books at a time (high tech stuff for the time)

It's kind of wild that in many of our lifetimes information was retrieved by looking it up in books. That kind of thing is almost inconceivably inefficient now.

•15 years ago NONE of these things even existed:

• 2 years ago GPT-3 came out (predecessor to ChatGPT).

• 4 months ago ChatGPT didn’t exist.

New tools for learning and information retrieval are getting faster and cooler!

Once you go this route, it’s hard to go back 😏

A couple years back me and my brother went to Japan for a few weeks, and EVERY SINGLE PLACE IN JAPAN had an automated bidet like this.

It took a few days for me to get used to, but once I got the hang of it going back to normal was hard.

A few months ago I put one at my house, and it's AWESOME 😎

Here's a quick essay by David Ogilvy (legendary marketer) on how to write:

Here's the pieces of advice I like the most from this:

2.) Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3.) Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4.) Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

8.) If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9.) Before you send your letter or memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10.) If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

This cool graphic by @OzolinsJanis is a great reminder to show the results of your work, not the tools:

This is especially important in selling where showing the end result is more important....the specific tools used to get the customer there aren't as important.

For example: The customer cares about how the picture and the picture frame look on their wall....they care less about the type of camera used:

Because it’s “handwritten” you'd think someone wrote this and left it at your door…and it definitely got my attention enough to read through it!

The ad above is from a flooring company, but it looks like the window installation industry has caught onto this too, checkout this "handwritten quote" from a window installer:

Speaking of hand writing....I currently hand write my daily to-do list, but it lacks one major component:

It's not digital so I can't share it between devices!

My wishlist of features would be:
• Access/edit from phone and desktop.
• Easily integrates with everything.
• Not many options, dead simple.

SO I polled Twitter for the best *simple* daily to-do list app, here's results:

• Todoist: 21 votes
• Things3: 7 votes
• MS Todo: 5 votes
• Apple Notes: 4 votes
• Google Keep: 4 votes
• Written: 4 votes
• Apple Reminders: 3 votes
• Notion: 3 votes
• Teuxdeux: 3 votes
• TickTick: 3 votes
• Asana: 2 votes
• Evernote: 2 votes
• Sunsama: 2 votes
• Trello: 2 votes
• Tweek.so: 2 votes
• Alexa: 1 vote
• Any.Do: 1 vote
• Carrot: 1 vote
• Done: 1 vote

I will commence playing around with a few of these! Let me know if you have suggestions as well 🙂

In Apple Stores all screens are tilted at exactly 76° degrees. This is so you move the screen with your hand…interacting with the product more and making you feel more attached to it.

 

They use protractors to measure the screens:

 

The laptop screens are measured at 76° as well:

 

Isn't that level of obsession so hilariously "Apple-like"? 😂

I remember Earl Nightingale telling a story from the 1970's about a top television salesman (I'm paraphrasing this):

Guess the 76° Rule isn't so crazy!

A fun & cheap joy in life is getting a carwash!

Here's me enjoying my $7 thrill 😂

It's like you go into a different world for a few minutes.

Pro-Tip: If you have automatic seat presets, make setting #3 a "CHILLAX" setting where one button push leans the seat back, lowers the seat, and moves the steering wheel up 😎

An extremely common Instagram Ad I’ve been seeing is this white paint makeover for older brick houses.

They just paint over the brick, and paint the window trims black so it gives the house an updated "Stucco" look. TBH it looks pretty damn good!

I think Before & After photos are one of the best way to get attention for a service on social media. It instantly shows the transformation people want without a lot of text. Here's another great example of Before & After ad:

**Side Note** I posted that brick-to-white house makeover on social media, and HOLY COW DO SOME PEOPLE HATE IT!!

I personally think it looks neat, but man the amount of hate comments it got was kind of hilarious. Never thought THIS would spark such a heated debate 😬

Whatever your yearly goal is, you still have 9 more months to complete it:

❌ Q1: January, February, March
✅ Q2: April, May, June
✅ Q3: July, August, September
✅ Q4: October, November, December

At this time I'd like to invite you to join The Copywriting Course.

Why?

Because if you sell online we can help you optimize & improve every piece of marketing you have:

Here's 4 Member Wins from March 2023 alone:

"Thanks for the feedback on my newsletter. It worked really well. We sold out of our first shipment on the first day. " - HN

"And I thought I was just gonna learn copywriting here. Thanks for the GOLD marketing advice." - JH

"Major win---launched my podcast today! Thank you all for the inspiration, support and great feedback that made it possible!" - TG

"I'm amazed how much my business grew in 2023. This course and the hands-on feedback from the mentors & community made all the difference!" - JN

We go way beyond just a course, and actually help you re-write your copy and content!

• You Learn (courses)
• You Practice (copy practice assignments)
• You Get Guidance (our 24/7 reviewing forum)
• You Get Live Reviews (our weekly Office Hours)
• You Improve

For the next few hours if you join Copywriting Course, you'll get 30% off a whole year. Jump in today:
 

Link: www.CopywritingCourse.com/join
Coupon Code: Q2START (enter at checkout)

I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
Sincerely, 
Neville Medhora

 

P.S.

Look at this Before & After photo of a home office video setup. Instead of explaining a bunch of technical jargon about camera and lighting, you can INSTANTLY see the quality upgrade from this service!

This instantly gets people interested!

Before & After's work SOOOO well for construction and remodeling. Honestly it's probably one of the top ways to show off work in this industry.

This simple one-image Instagram Ad shows a great before/after example of shower that was old but has been remodeled.

No need for a lot of text.

This ad uses a “Before & After” format but with specific times that demonstrate how fast they can remodel a bathroom.

This takes the whole before & after concept to the next level by giving a time frame as well!

Copywriting Tip: Sometimes a simple Before & After photo will explain an entire product without much need for copy.

For example, this simple advertisement for a charging device shows a 1-outlet device replacing multiple charging bricks:

You instantly understand the product with this Before & After image.

Since that charging device is a PHYSICAL PRODUCT you can see, it’s easy to do a before & after of it. But if you sell a service you can show the after results of using your service, like these ads:

So instead of showing the service itself you show the RESULTS of the service.

This clever Instagram Ad for CreatorU uses a meme to show that building an audience is easier with them.

Since this service is more an education platform, it's harder to show the "results" of the service, so instead it shows of results in written form.

I like how Clixlo promotes their website builder by showing how many services (and their prices) you have to use to compare with their single service.

This is an ad seen on Instagram, and it instantly shows this service is way cheaper and simpler than the alternative. 

I personally love this style of Before & After for software companies.

This was a great Instagram ad image by Sene.

It shows the same model in a loose and frumpy suit, then an “After” picture in the more fitted Sene Clothing outfit.

Since clothing is so visual, they simply used a visual to convey the looks of their clothes.

In my experiences copywriting for clothing companies, the image matters far more than the copy.

Physical services do best for Before & After's, and this pet Before & After is no different. 

Not only does this ad have cute dogs (which always works), but also shows a cute transformation!

 

We've gotta include at least one powerwashing Before & After photo!

This simple before/after doesn’t use any text, and it doesn't need to, because the photo results speak for themselves!

Like we said, copywriting is for SUCKERS!!

This is a simple but effective way of showing a before/after result for a company that helps you design yard spaces. 

Since this is an ad, it first need to grab attention...and explaining the process of how this company delivers yard plans would be way too boring, so just showing a nice Before & After is way better!

 

A CLASSIC use case of Before & After's is the weight loss industry. This is an example of before and after weight loss photos...you instantly can see the transformation without the need to read anything.

The goal of this A-Frame ad for a shoe hospital was to have people look at the Before & After pics and think, “Ohhhh maybe I can bring in my old pair or shoes and make them awesome again!”

No need for a lot of text here, just show Dirty then Clean shoes!

Cough syrup in the 1920’s was LIT!! 🔥

A fun thing about browsing so many old ads is you see the INSANE ingredients that were in some old-timey medications. 

This "Cough Syrup" contained alcohol, weed, chloroform, and morphine...I bet this worked WAY TOO WELL 😂

Remember that people pay money for things that:
• Saves them time.
• Supports a cause.
• Saves them money.
• Improves their status.
• Teaches them new info.
• Gets them access to info.
• Satisfies a need or desire.
• Solves a specific problem.
• Improves their earning power.

If you sell a product, ask yourself which of these things your product solves!

Some people specialize, some people generalize. This guy (who is an electrician) decided to list evvvveerrryything he can do plus some funny stuff for novelty 😂

I would say this business card falls under the "novelty" category and entertains the reader enough so they might keep the card. 

This card reminds me of this soap I use called Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. The packaging has these looonnggg rambbbllinng paragraphs of ultra small text all over the bottle: 

I use the soap because it's a quick way to rinse off (the soap "comes off" your body very fast compared to other stuff), but I'm always tickled and entertained by it's insane packaging 😂

My friend just posted a book I recommended The Male Mid-Life Crisis by Nancy Mayer:

I first read this when I was 17 in high school, and it fundamentally shifted the way I viewed life/relationships/death.

It was cool to see from a young age what causes (men in particular) to blow up their lives in middle age, and I took away many methods of avoiding it.

The book shows how males can approach a “mid life crisis” when all these stressors hit at the same time:

• They look at their children and realize “THEY are young, I am old.”
• Their parents are starting to fade or die, and they see they're next.
• Financial demands from children, spouse, life, parents.
• Time demands from children, spouse, friends, work, parents.
• Some men got pressured into marriage way too young and never got to explore the world outside their relationship and they realize "this is it."

According to the book a combination of these things happening at the same time can make a man snap.

I talk about it in this one minute clip:

Anyways, checkout the book if you're interested in the subject. I found her writing style to be incredibly raw and honest which is what I liked about the book.

Sometimes I’m jealous of people who are like: “I was broke as shit 2 years ago but now I’m hella rich and I’m gonna teach you how!!” 

My story is way lamer: “I haven’t been broke since I was 17, and have always had several years of savings ready!!”

😬 HOWEVER THERE'S A PLOT TWIST 😬

This current economy seems like a repeat of 2008: 

A bank fails, then another, then another...then a BUNCH.

During an obvious recession like this the climate shifts from get-rich-quick schemes to preservation of money. 

All of a sudden the get-rich-quick guy goes out of favor, and a boring-advice guy like Warren Buffet (who has been consistently rich for 60+ years) becomes more trusted. 

The next few years will be super interesting to watch as non-useful products fall by the wayside, and the useful products rise to prominence.
 

So many people obsess about the "Subject Line" of their email, but this is short term thinking.

Your sender reputation is far more valuable than your subject line!

Imagine your mom sends you an email but it has a crappy subject line.

You’d probably still read it! 

If your emails are:
✔️ So good readers forward them.
✔️ So good readers learn from them.
✔️ So good readers respond to them.
✔️ So good readers screenshot them.
✔️ So good readers look forward to them.
...they will likely consistently get high open rates.

This simple chart makes it visually easy to see prices of different medical procedures in the USA, Korea, Singapore, and India.

Fun personal story about Indian medical costs: 
In 2013 I got bit by a homeless guys pit bull and had to go to the hospital and get a full set of rabies shots. 

Insurance paid $7,500 for the first set of shots, and $350/each for the 4 follow-up shots. 

I was going to India THREE DAYS AFTER I GOT BIT, and the same shots cost: $50 for the first set of shots, and $7/each for the 4 follow-up shots.

The Indian healthcare system is far less regulated than the USA, so the quality of care was....questionable at times...but the difference in cost was staggering! 

$9,000 vs $78 😳 

Know who your actual customer is. 

For example: If someone is buying Crayons...it's the PARENT not the child spending the money. 

This 1979 Crayola ad appeals specifically to parents who want their kids to be creative, inventive, and explore their artistic ability....

SECRET TRANSLATION: 
"Get your kids to sit down and be quiet for a few minutes so they leave mom alone!!" 

They know their customer 😏

What's very easy to see here (thanks to a this simple data chart) is how NetFlix and YouTube combined account for ~25% of all internet traffic!

Fun thing yesterday happened yesterday: My friend Noah Kagan threw a SXSW party and panel to talk about content creation in 2023:

It was me, @noahkagan, @thesamparr, @jwmares, and moderated by the awesome @nickgraynews:

It was a fun turnout on East Sixth St here in Austin, TX during the SXSW Festival:

My friends @cathrynlavery, @thesamparr, and @ramonvanmeer chatting:

Some guy was wearing this funny shirt with Kim Jong Un on the back 😂

The "Cloud of Influence" is the cloud of exposure you get from posting on multiple platforms:

→ People directly subscribed (high engagement)
→ Mentions & conversations (medium engagement)
→ Exposure through feeds (low engagement)

10+ years ago it used to be simple to see where a follower came from:

They Googled "copywriting"
⬇
Found a post.
⬇
Subscribed to email.
⬇
Bought a product.

Now with so many social platforms/feeds, a customer journey can be loooong and winnnndddding.

So putting out a large "Cloud of Influence" helps!

I personally do this through posting every platform including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter.

 

Have you ever wondered how I blast out 50,000+ emails a week to this newsletter?

I use a service called ConvertKit.

It's my top pick for sending out an email newsletter because:

Most email senders are complex, CK is not.

The editor is the simplest I've ever used.

It does autoresponders, broadcasts, and email signups.

It's what I've been running 100% of my emails through for years.

In addition to this newsletter, I send out email sequences to people who have just signed up, ConvertKit also handles that:

This is a frequent question I get: "Which email service should I use??"

I have extensively used other platforms like Aweber, Klaviyo, MailChimp, and InfusionSoft....but ConvertKit has been my go-to for years. I wrote more in detail about it here!

This headline created a "surprised" emotion with the giant headline “Oops! We goofed”

I didn’t WANT to read the smaller print of this 1964 ad, but HAD to with this headline!

Since it got me with the headline, it runs me down the "Slippery Slope" to the small copy which examples they’re out of stock of Pop-Tarts because they’re so popular.

This 1979 Crayola ad uses a descriptive headline to appeal to parents who want their kids to sit and be creative (AND QUIET!!) for a few minutes.

Whoever wrote this ad knew what they were doing 😏

This headline clearly appeals to parents who would **just-for-a-bit** play with a toy that keeps them quiet.

This ad pulls a few heartstrings saying “I didn’t get the job” from a man who hasn’t shaved.

You can clearly feel the disappointment on the man and his partner through the combination of this headline and image.

This ad uses some reverse psychology to get your to read it by saying why NOT to buy the car 🤔

Since this headline grabbed us to read it the rest of the copy, you realize these are all ACTUALLY great reasons to buy the car!

This was a great headline in 1978 that causes some intrigue in your brain, since “Playing the TV” was a totally new and novel concept at the time!

I love the simplicity and grabbiness of this ad, and how it focuses on one major feature of this stereo: A handle.

It shows that by buying this stereo “boom box” you can take your music anywhere.

This is a tasty looking Big Mac ad from 1979 that has a very funny headline.

Both the image AND headline are quite grabbing!

The inside joke on this one was from a McDonald's in the 1970's where people say this sentence very quickly:

"Two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame-seed-bun"

The McDonald's swag game in 1984 was hard 😂

If they still had this promotion I'd totally buy a Big Mac just to get it 😂

Most of these hats are going for $100+ on eBay!

 

This cool illustration shows how much you learn from theory, from practice, and from mistakes:

This is an AWESOME way to display lots of data in a small image:

...at the same time it's disheartening to see the decline of a great show visualized like this.

There's many cool YouTube videos talking about how The Simpsons fell into an un-watchable show (which you can see reflected in its modern IMDB ratings):

tl;dr: 
- All of original writers left.
- Instead of mocking pop culture they became it, and had tons of weird celebrity cameos they "forced in."
- Storylines and jokes used to be layered and complex, then they became lazy and unfunny. 

Who else is like this? 😂

Also it's SXSW time in Austin and there's so many meetup/event thingies going on. Went to one yesterday thrown by my friends Nick and Cody:

The party was bigger than normal, so it was split up into different rooms in a big house:

Saw some of my friends there:

We had a similar meetup a few weeks ago at my house:

Fun Fact: Here's what ~30 people drank over a 2.5 hour period on a Wednesday at my party a few weeks ago: 

• 32 cans of seltzer water
• 8 normal water bottles
• 8 Topo Chico's
• 2 alcoholic seltzers
• 1 beer 

Very little alcohol consumed!

Sometimes using a "pattern interrupt" is great way to grab attention. A "pattern interrupt" can be something something that's a little different than normal, and gets attention in an otherwise mundane task. 

For example: This was a fun unsubscribe email from Drizly with a funny pattern interrupt! You get this funny copy and dog that tries to make you 2nd guess your decision of unsubscribing.

The "OMG look at his little glasses" part got me 😂

When un-subscribing to an email there's normally a boring thing like this:

But that fun copy and glasses-dog potentially make you re-consider 🙂

Another example is this extremely goofy gif on the homepage of Copywriting Course:

 

I've always wanted to make that area more professional, but the reason I keep it like that: That silly gif gets a 10% to 12% conversion rate.

That means out of 100 people that land at that page, 10 or 12 enter their name and email (which is pretty good). 

I've never been able to out-perform that number with other tests so far!

 

My "Splurge" recommendation today costs a grand total of $13. 

It's an AMAZING book called Project Hail Mary, and it's been my most recommended book in the last few years (and the one I've let the most amount of people borrow)!

You may recognize the author Andy Weir, he wrote "The Martian."

This is his third book and in my opinion the best (even better than The Martian which is an already amazing book).

Book 1.) The Martian: Great book! 
Book 2.) Artemis: Meh. 
Book 3.) Project Hail Mary: Amazzzzing book!

I like this book because it's "hard science fiction" which means the story is not real, but the physics in the book are real. 

I don't even want to tell you about the book, because it has some great reveals and stuff you'd never expect, so I don't want to rob you of that. 

My favorite thing to do is recommend this book, people start reading, then every few days they call and are like, "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE ______!!!!!"

Happy Friday! Let's start today with an example of “Lumpy Mail” which is mail with an object inside that makes you curious to open.

This came from Self Publishing School and included a metal bottle opener.

When I got the mail I could feel it had something hard in it (giggity) so it got me curious.

When you open it there was a handy bottle opener!

"Lumpy Mail" is great because when people check their mail they often have two piles:

The 'A' Pile: Personal letters and stuff they want to open.
The 'B' Pile: Stuff you just toss in the garbage.

If you send mail that seems like it has something inside it...it'll more often get put in the A-Pile!

This is a fun diagram showing the meaning of life for different theories and philosophies. 
I thought this was a perfect perfect combo of images + text working to educate!

Why write lots of copy, when you can show a picture? Instead:
➡Show Don't Tell!⬅

Here's some graphics that convey wayyyy more information in a small space rather than large amounts of text.

Show Don't Tell #1.) The 12 Major Hair Types

There’s a lot of different hair types, but this chart makes classifying them very simple with examples of each:

Is there something in your industry you could simply explain with a graphic like this?

 

Show Don't Tell #2.) Keep guacamole green!

This combination of images and callout text taught me something I never knew....several ways to keep avocado guacamole nice and green for longer!

 

Show Don't Tell #3.) Different types of pasta

This helpful chart instantly taught me more about pasta than I've ever know, thanks to a quick combo of images and a little text:

 

Show Don't Tell #4.) The hardness scale in one image

This simple graphs shows a lot of helpful data in one simple-to-read chart. I love how it relates "hardness" to everyday things we can understand like a "fingernail" or "copper coin."

I'm gonna refrain from making any jokes 😂

Awwww F it I'm gonna make one joke!!

heh heh heh 😏

Two weeks ago we went out to a 500 acre ranch for my buddy Noah's birthday and it was really fun!

We did ocean fishing, pond fishing, hunting, and lots of grilling...here's a few random pics from the trip (apologies if you don't like gun/fishing pics 😬)

Some of the guys:

 

Huge ranch with one main house, and 6 smaller houses:

 

Cowboy Neville 🤠

 

Main house had hunting lodge vibes:

 

Some guys:

 

Hey I caught a fish in the pond!

 

Skeet shooting:

 

Went fishing and found this random shack built on stilts in the middle of the ocean and climbed on it:

 

We did a piñata for Noah's bday and shot it with a shotgun instead of hitting with a stick 😂

 

It worked 🌮

 

This pic looks so Texas 😂

 

So does this pic...goats + ranch + hunting truck

 

We went night hunting for boars using night vision stuff, never done that before and it was kinda neat:

Lots more photos, but that's enough for now! 

Why do Le Labo candles smell so much superior to other candles?

I've spent hundreds of dollars on these candles (FREAKIN CANDLES!!) and wanted to know why I couldn't find a cheapo knock off.

Honestly it was a difficult question to answer through Google, so I resorted to Twitter. 

Apparently it has something to do with certain fragrances costing thousands of dollars per ounce:

Other factors are the type of wax used and "fragrance load."

As someone whose worked in copywriting/marketing, I'm often skeptical of expensive products that are expensive only because of marketing.

Skin care is a big culprit of this. This $14/bottle of CeraVe lotion is probably the same (or better) than most $100/bottle lotions:

So I'm not 100% sure why Le Labo candles smell so damn good to me, but it seems like high quality ingredients (plus a dash of fancy marketing) is the cause!

To combat being a lazy asshole who goofs off all day, I have been using this site called CaveDay.org. It's a place to virtually co-work over Zoom, and I've used it a ton this month!

Normally I do 1-hour work sprints, but yesterday I did a 3 hour "Work Cave" with 80 other people on the call:

Essentially it's virtual co-working, but done really well!I love to co-work, in fact I get more done in co-working sessions than an entire day being alone.

I regularly invite people over to work with me:

....but scheduling in-person co-working is hard, and sometimes we just chat a bunch and don't do solid work. Also it's really hard to setup co-working EVERY SINGLE DAY with friends. 

So instead I "Book a Cave" and join the Zoom call with others who are also working:

I'm currently writing another book, and finding long periods of focused time to write is difficult, so I've been using CaveDay a ton...as well as for my daily regular work.

Full Disclosure: I'm not part of CaveDay, it's just a product I like, and I'm using affiliate links in the description (if you join from my link I get a small cut).

I love this old Atari ad, it has a great headline:

“Don’t watch TV tonight. Play it!” 

This was a great headline in 1978 when “Playing the TV” was a totally new and novel concept!

Things that seem weird to teach kids today:

- Cursive writing
- Reading an analog clock 

Cursive was designed to reduce ink splatter from quil pens. This is no longer a problem, so I'm not sure why kids should learn to write English in two different ways:
🤔🤔

Circular clocks were simplest way to keep time with the stored energy from a wound up spring. This is no longer a problem.

Your phone, your watch, your computer....can all tell time with digital layouts:

These can still be “fun and interesting” things to teach children, but they are outdated and shouldn’t be required (in my opinion).

Seems like that brain space could be better applied to more modern problems!

This book is now worth $1,000+ each 🤯

I own 4 original copies of this book...so you're looking at a man holding $4k worth of books 😉

The reason it's so expensive is I posted this Instagram Reel video 3 months ago about how much I love this book, and since then it's gained tons of steam with 800k+ views, now every original copy of this book is 100% sold out!

Me and some friends got together an "Austin Texas Internet Meetup" last night!

My friend Nick Gray "conducted" the party, and did several rounds of quick ice-breaker style intros:

He even did "scene changes" for the party and we all went outside then came back inside twice 😂

He also picked several people to give 45 second "Lightning Talks" about different subjects they're interested in:

My friend Sam's dog Sid came....he's kind of an old boi (13 years!) and I was surprised he snuck up on the couch while we were all outside 😂

If you had an extra ~$1,000 per month to spend on your business, where would you spend it?

• Monthly advisor calls
• Creating new content
• Spend on ads
• Specific role
• Freelancer
• Other?

I asked Twitter and here were some responses:

• Probably 80% creating content, 20% boosting content w ads - @TyrelJohnson
• Spend 100% of that budget on @MentorPass calls cc @NoCodeKenny  - @BryantJaquez
• I would have said content a few months ago, but now I'd invest it in a freelancer who could research and get me stats and data. - @Ldnbox
• Coaching/consulting for either the business or self development.You are a direct extension of your business that will have greater returns than anything else you put into it. The coaching could be on anything from Sales, Marketing, Leadership etc ... - @dream_liv_scale
• Have never tried ads so can’t speak for that one, but probably an advisor. I’ve spent $15k+ in coaching in the past 6 months and it’s been the most life / business changing money ever. - @SilvestriChris
• either a VA or some sort of software that can help distribute the content tbh - @dgajsek
• The right answer is ads to email list as a self-liquidating funnel. Then keep reinvesting that money into more growth. - @FonziCreates
• Funny thing is creating new content doesn’t cost that much money it’s more like time and opportunity cost - @jackie_startok
• My salary 😂 - @kylevandeusen
• Advisor calls - wake me up to what I’m missing based on their experience - @TheDabbleBro
• Getting it off the ground - @hofo
• Twitter blue? - @swinterroth
• Getting a content creator - @JaySinghWrites
• Staff time off ratio. - @chris_bore
• In my pocket - @theGloPro
• 80% VA I’m the Philippines, 20% Ad Spend - @SyndicatorGuy
• Ads. My dream is get a scalable funnel this year. $1000 a month would be great to experiment with to get there. - @WhoWorksThere
• Either towards some sort of coaching/paid community or I’d blow it all on fun events I’d invite my dream 100 clients or partners to. - @JohnVishnesky
• Totally dependant on the problem in that moment, and business objective. - @theox500
• Ads. No question. Easiest ROI. There isn't an advisor who can teach me anything at $1k a month that would netback like ads. - @InkConor
• Me personally, content. But this is certainly a question with no definitive answer. All about what can bring the value you need the most: time/money/connections - @ctro1998
• It sounds crazy but spending $300 of it for a maid service a couple times per month has a huge ROI for women business owners. Delegating the chores frees a ton of time and mental stress. - @kathchalmers
• I just did so I spent it on working with @HeyJeffFelten and developing a strong email marketing strategy. The next extra $$$ will go to hiring a VA for customer success. -@thesaraloretta

In the end it seems like a good use for an extra $1k/mo would be on ads going to my email newsletter, or talking to 1 or 2 advisors per month!

I hope you have a very happy Friday!!

BY THE WAY...If I added a section to this email where I either place a sponsor or promote a product I personally use (software, books, household products etc)...would you mind??

I would call the section "Sponsored" or "Splurge" or "Spend" (open to suggestions). 

Reply to this email and let me know if you'd care or not!

This helpful magazine guide shows how to use a cast iron skillet...the guide is so good you can cut it out of the magazine and frame it.

I love when helpful information is so good it can be art!

It reminds me of this Guinness Oyster Guide that was designed for bars to clip it out of a magazine and frame it in the bar (and conveniently advertise Guinness to all the bar patrons)!

Here's an interesting thing about copywriting: 

A lot of copy can be replaced by a simple image.

This one-image ad shows a great Before/After example of a shower that was old, but has been remodeled: 

This is a perfect example of the classic copywriting advice:

SHOW, DON'T TELL!

The image does all the heavy lifting, not much need for additional copy!

....this other bathroom remodeling ad takes it even a step further, and cleverly uses "This Morning" and "Late Afternoon" in place of "Before and After."

By giving specific times this ad demonstrates not only that they can remodel a bathroom, but also how FAST they can remodel a bathroom!

I've watched some great documentaries lately and thought I'd share!
- Ms Cleo doc (HBO)
- Shaq doc (HBO)
- Bernie Madoff doc (Netflix)
- Playboy Hugh Hefner doc (Amazon)
- Dana Carvey Show doc (Hulu)

I had run out of documentaries to watch so I asked for recommendations, here's some of them you all wrote back:

• Man on Wire
• Operation Odessa
• My Octopus Teacher
• Icarus
• The Dissident
• Redeem Team
• Coinbase documentary
• Toni Morrison documentary
• Air
• The Elephant in the Living Room 
• Pepsi, Where's My Jet?
• Full Swing
• Fire of Love
• Bill Russell doc
• Roadrunner
• Dealt
• The Great Hack
• (watched) Free solo
• (watched) Andre the giant
• (watched) Comedian by Jerry Seinfeld
• (watched) Stutz by Jonah Hill

I keep a list on my phone of docs to watch, hope this helps you add to yours!

Soon after this email goes out, I'm headed off to go to a friends bday party at this ranch in an undisclosed location!

Should be fun 🙂

I heard a friend talking about a daily check-in practice his team does at work called: P.E.I.

You rate each of these from 1-5:
Physical: How you feel physically.
Emotional: How you feel emotionally.
Intelligence: How sharp or clear you feel.

Everyday when they meet the team shares their PEI. This lets you know if someone is grumpy, or isn't 100% fit to do a certain task.

 

Years ago I made a small checklist to see why I would be grumpy on some mornings:

...however this PEI methodology is much simpler and better. 

On a day where you are:
Physical: 2
Emotional: 2
Intelligence: 1

...that may not be the ideal day to do creative work. So you know you need to rest up and handle your life before you're at optimal creativity. 

I thought this was a cool check-in practice and hope you try it out!

This interesting scribble shows you the different endings of surgical terms, and what they mean:

I learned something from this, but wish 12 year old Neville knew about this! 

Then I could've invented terms like:

• Buttectomy: You cut your butt off.
• Buttplasty: You change the shape of your butt.
• Buttrraphy: You sew up your butt.
• Buttdesis: Your butt is stuck together.
• 😂

I love this headline and image and copy combo, where Volvo makes the case that a wagon can be fast!

The small text copy goes on to show:
🚙 In a 0-60 test this Volvo beats the Porsche.
🚙 Just because it’s a wagon doesn’t mean it’s slow.
🚙 Road & Track Magazine called this Volvo Turbo Wagon the closest thing to a “five door sports car.”

One of the best things about owning a business is tax advantages.

I know that sounds really boring but...

If you have a hobby such as cooking...and you start a small cooking business, you can buy all sorts of cooking stuff FOR YOUR BUSINESS AS AN EXPENSE.

 

Start YouTube/social channel about building house stuff.

⬇

Build out your dream house, document it.

⬇

Write off renovations as a business loss.

😏

This guy's full time job is making fun tools on his personal website Neil.fun:

From making these cool little tools he gets:
• 4,000,000+ vists/mo
• 300,000+ SEO visits/mo
• Full time income monetized by Google AdWords

I'm totally jealous of this!

If I was hired as the copywriter for this 1986 Honda Helix scooter ad, I would've positioned it differently.

I think this is the UGLIEST SCOOTER I'VE EVER SEEN 😂

I re-made a few different versions of the original 🤪

This ugly scooter reminds me of this popular thermostat ad from Joe Sugarman. He loved how the thermostat functioned, but being an honest person he put this sentence right at the top!

You must have noticed that almost every service you signup to has either Monthly pricing, or Yearly pricing:

This may seem relatively obvious, but capturing a yearly customer is farrrrr better than a monthly customer! 

✅ You only pay fees once. 
✅ Collect all the money up front.
✅ No churn from expiring credit cards.
✅ You keep the customer for a full year.

Getting a yearly customer is so much better, that companies will usually give you 2 months off the purchase price if you pay by the year.

For example look at this ConvertKit email to upsell a yearly plan for my account:

✔️ The copy gets straight to the point.
✔️ It makes an offer for 2 months free to upgrade to yearly.
✔️ It has a call to action that makes it easy for me to accept by saying, "Just click here and we'll take care of the rest!"

Using this recurring revenue calculator you can see why yearly is so attractive.

Here's a $97/month product, with 100 subscribers. If each member stays on for one month, total revenue is $9,700:

However if you manage to bill people for a year, that same 100 subscribers at $97/month could be worth $116,400!

...and that's why you see so many subscription services incentive people to do yearly plans.

One of my favorite formulas for writing ANYTHING is the  AIDA Formula.

Have you ever used it??

I have a favor, can you respond to this email with how you've used the AIDA Formula in your work or personal life??

Just respond to this post with your story about how you've used the AIDA Formula!

Checkout this door flyer I received:

It appears to be handwritten (it's just a convincing print) so it catches your attention. Then it explains why replacing your windows is a good idea during the "down season."

I thought this was a great flyer that drums up business in the slow season...and the "handwritten" nature of it somehow got me to read all the way through!

The political style of your brain is a dictatorship, not a democracy. 

You are the dictator in charge.

Ruthlessly prune out people/news/information that doesn't serve you.

I asked people this:
Skip to 2025. You look back and reflect on February 2023 (today). What do you wish you started doing consistently?

Here's some answers:

@StartupFreshman: 
Exercise. And probably, more writing.

@xahuler:
Its 2025, I have been consistent for 3 yrs doing,

• Running a $50k MRR Saas
• Writing(sharing my journey as a solopreneur)
• Streaming(code)
• Making yt videos

@DallinsYield:
Sleeping at a scheduled time

@javs_says: 
Getting into action mode faster!

@FrancoisRice:
Focused more on the high-leverage tasks with the most benefits.

@BryantFerate: 
30-60 min of writing daily.

@shubhankarchau7: 
Putting my thoughts out into the internet.

@AliYalcinKaya: 
Exercise & meditation.

@drewmarkert: 
Writing publicly & exercising.

@NancyGoyal30:
Twitter, Inner Engineering, Workout.

@WriterSumeetG: 
Ice baths 🛁 

@minhasv:
Finding early adopters.

@VAplus1:
Gym and doing me more.

@ClayNichols:
Stretching

@InspiringSia:
Writing on Twitter again

@TheAllmaziful:
Making fresh mozzarella cheese every weekend.

@jaxx_sam: 
Probably stretching and reflecting more

WHAT ABOUT YOU?? What will you look back on in 2-ish years and wish you'd been doing right now? Reply to the email and let me know!

We had a weird freezing day here in Austin, so some buddies came over to co-work: @heydannymiranda, @thesamparr, and Sid Da Dog!

"Copywriting" is associated with writing words on a page, but my definition is: 

"Installing an idea into someone’s head and getting them to take action."

The medium could be: 
- Writing 
- Images 
- Videos 
- Software 
- Combination of all the above

The medium of transmitting information has changed many times, the human brain has not.

Apparently this is how Benjamin Franklin used to organize his day 🤔

Almost all daily to-do list methods are similar. Like this "Ivy Lee Method" of productivity:

The beauty of this system is it limits you to 6 main tasks, then forces you to first organize them by importance. You can fill out a chart like this everyday:

My own daily to-do list method looks like this:

I will say my daily to-do list is more complicated looking than my monthly goal layout which is very simple:

In old-school print advertising you had to cram a lot of information into a small space because you were advertising in small slots like the back of newspapers or magazines.

This 1962 ad hits all the points of a good sales message:
• Attention: Grabs attention of new reader
• Interest: Gives interesting info
• Desire: Makes them desire product
• Action: Specific action

Oh yeah....also in 1962 you could just mail order a monkey 😂

A common path I've seen people take online:

Learn skills —> freelance for quick income —> sell small digital product for income —> make a business out of your skills —> hire people to help deliver —> build personal following —> use following to launch next thing.

I've had two ideas for Twitter I'd like to put out there: 

IDEA #1.) Allow people to browse email like a Twitter feed. 

Email makes me click back & forth hundreds of times per session. 

Instead, show me a scrolling interface for email that pulls up first part of an email. I can double-tap to load the rest. Soon as I "scroll by it" it archives the email. No need to do another action to archive it.

Benefits of this:
- There are ~4billion email users.
- People do 40 to 120 emails/day.
- People are on email half the day.
- SMTP is an open protocol so anyone's email can transfer to Twitter.
- Better email would contribute to “Unregrettable User Minutes” as Elon puts it.

As people "scroll their email" Twitter can insert ad spots between emails like regular twitter. Ad inventory would boom if 100's of millions of people would "scroll their email" on Twitter.

40 to 120 emails per day, ad spot every 20 slots.
2 - 6 extra ads/user/session = $$$

Try getting to "Inbox Zero" on your email client, and count how many clicks/swipes/backs/archives you must do.

The Twitter interface allows me to intake hundreds of posts with simple vertical scrolling.

tl;dr: If email is integrated with Twitter, lots more usage + UUM

 

IDEA #2.) Allow voice memos on Twitter.

It could look like this, with auto transcription:

Pro's of Voice Tweets:
• You can "Voice Tweet" a thought quicker than typing.
• Adds another layer of media onto Twitter.
• It's almost like short form podcasts.

Con's:
• Would make browsing Twitter partly audio.
• Would have to limit length to avoid rambling.

I wonder if a small-scale test could be implemented on this, and how it would effect Twitter 🤔

 

For my private community I chose to use a heavily modified forum over other social platforms. This was so members can post looooong things like sale pages or long blog posts or long emails for review. 

Not only that, but the posts had to be able to accommodate different sized fonts, in-line images, boxes, etc.... 

This was impossible on Facebook or other platforms, so I had to go custom:

Also I wanted the content to all be integrated, tracked, and lock/unlock access based on if someone is a guest or has access.

Lists like this were hard to do without going custom:

Anyways, I nerd out on the backend components of courses/communities...from my experience most people don't actually care that much so long as they get the value they paid for 😂

I had a candid conversation with a friend who is very close with 5+ multi-billionaires. Here's some notes I wrote down from the conversation:

#1.) There’s always people around.

An assistant, a hair person, security, nanny, chef, maid, driver. There’s not really times when you’re completely alone.

 

#2.) You can make your house like the fanciest spa or hotel you’ve ever been to.

Did you like a hammam at a high end resort in Morocco? You can hire the same company to build you a personal one.

Did you like the bathroom at your W Hotel Shanghai suite? Replicate at home.

 

#3.) Weird realms of possibility open up at that level of wealth.

You can buy/rent ANY physical thing. Think about how that impacts what you do.

See a cool plane? You can afford two.

Have a cool plot of land but can’t land your planes there? Build an airstrip, hangar, and private road.

Like a specific car but have houses in California and France? Buy two and put one at each home.

Did you want to speak with someone but don't want to fly to them? Send a plane to bring them to you.

These totally "not normal" things are accessible.

 

#4.) Access to anything gets so much easier.

Want to meet a rockstar or talk to a foreign country’s ambassador or president? It can be arranged.

There’s a whole team of people with an unlimited budget working on whatever weird whim you have.

 

5.) If you buy a yacht or cool plane, everyone wants a ride in it.

Politicians, business people, or anyone becomes grateful to you for the opportunity. Influence becomes easier.

 

6.) It becomes difficult after $500m+ to relate to normal people.

Developing new friendships with normies is harder, as people often have other motives for befriending you. Having a “normal” relationship with a boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse becomes harder because the power dynamic is so tilted.

 

I'm not saying any of these things are “good” or “bad”…rather just interesting observations picked up.

"The Circle Of Influence" concept can be applied to your business:

• Circle of Control: You can completely control these.
• Circle of Influence: Can't fully control, but can influence.
• External Circle: Can't control these at all.

Let's fill it out →

"Circle of Control" is things you have 100% control over, and should most focus on the most, such as:

• Your product
• Your social media
• Your website
• Your emails
• Your customer service

 

"Circle of Influence" is things you have SOME control over, but can't 100% control them, such as:

• Your employees 
• Your SEO results 
• Your product reviews 
• Perception of your product 
• Word of mouth marketing

"External Circle" is things you shouldn't "worry" about because you have no control, but rather learn to adapt around them, such as: 

• The economy
• Recessions
• Bull markets
• Foreign competitors

You cannot control these, only adapt and compete.

 

This concept is a variation of "The Circle of Influence" concept on what to worry about, and what NOT to worry about in your mind:

 

This is the perfect representation of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

The basic Bic Pen has been pretty much the same since 1955!

Here's a standard process I've seen people utilize the internet as a career:

Learn skills.
⬇ 
Freelance for quick income.
⬇
Sell small digital product for income.
⬇
Make a business out of your skills.
⬇
Hire people to help deliver.
⬇
Build personal following.
⬇
Use following to launch next thing.

 

Which stage are you in??

Do Venezuelan online gurus say: “I make 17-figures a year!”
😂

All this stuff happened in the last two years 🤯

It's kind of wild that in a few short years a couple of fields have pushed forward so fast.

in 2019 A.I. seemed a long way off, then in 2022 you could accurately have ChatGPT do tasks and write blog posts for you.

Kind of wild how fast that happened!

No business is operating at 100% efficiency. This is a big opportunity to fix these problems in your own business, or help others do it for their businesses:

• Can you show some results?
• Can you make a page convert higher?
• Can you add some good testimonials?
• Can you completely eliminate a process?
• Can you demonstrate your product is superior?
• Can you remove options/products that don't sell?
• Can you take what a human does and automate it?
• Can you remove or combine pages to reduce clicks?

Over the next year I would personally like to:
→ Optimize top SEO posts.
→ Optimize social media to email signups.
→ Double the email list size.
→ Optimize our Join Page.
→ Optimize our Home Page.

My goal in life is to play on the internet all day and somehow make a living from it.
Come to think of it, that's like 90% of what I do already!

Online income comes from these channels:

The plan for this year is to double all the metrics above. 

One of the key ways I used to output content is "Cascading Content" from blog posts, which means writing a long blog post then breaking it up into other forms of smaller content:

As time has gone on, I feel like more of my long form content has come from ideas originally posted on social media, more like this:

Then I often take the content that does the best or garners the most interest, and make more in-depth trainings on them in our Members Area.

I love the eye-grabbing image of this 1980 "boom box" ad, and how it focuses on one major feature of this stereo: The handle.

It shows that by buying this stereo you can take your music anywhere (which in 1980 was pretty neat):

Every business in the world will completely change how they operate in the next 10 to 20 years.

This is a huge opportunity to help them do it, or replace them.

There's always a shiny new thing on the internet. In my lifetime:
It used to be Digg
It used to be Craigslist
It used to be Del-icio-us
It used to be Orkut
It used to be MySpace
It used to be Xanga
It used to be Geocities
It used to be Friendster
It used to be Periscope
It used to be Instagram Posts
It used to be Instagram Stories
It used to be Instagram TV
It used to be YouTube
It used to be Vine
It used to be SnapChat
It used to be Twitter
It used to be Clubhouse
It used to be TikTok
It used to be Instagram Shorts
It used to be YouTube Shorts
It used to be BeReal It used to be........ ?

There will always be "the next hot thing."

The underlying commonality is all these platforms allowed to you connect with other people 🙂

Ironically the one platform that still brings me the most sales, yet gets very little recognition: Email.

Whatever the very rich have, thanks to technology in 20 years it’s usually available to everyone.

From 2001 to 2023:
• Secretary → Calendly
• Private Chauffeur → Uber
• Vacation Homes → AirBnB
• Consultants → UpWork → YouTube
• Employees → Software Automation

It'll be interesting to watch what's only available to the rich become commoditized and super cheap in 20 years:
• Hair transplants
• In vitro fertilization
• Corrective vision surgery
• Private jet access
• Detailed medical testing
• Virtual assistants

What else??

That's me, talking on the phone, to YOU:

Did you know every Wednesday and Friday I do 10 minute calls with people on my email list?

It's my way of connecting to new people, seeing what they do, learning about them, and just chatting.

If you want to setup a time, reply back to this email with "I WANNA CHAT!" and we'll setup a quick call.

I started doing this sometime last year and have talked to 100+ people so far!

You are judged and rewarded by your utility in life.

This means without even thinking about it, people naturally judge you by:
• Your looks
• Your height
• Your strength
• Your intelligence
• Your cleverness
• Your entertainment value
• Your loyalty
• Your competence
• Your wealth
• Your social capital
• Your manual labor
• Your reliability
• Your skills
• Your experience

Of course some of these qualities may be more/less valuable for men or women.

(If) you are trying to move up in life, generally increasing one or more of these can help.

It's neat to see different AI trends popping in 2022:

For fun I ran these same charts with all Elon Musk related companies. It seems certain keywords like specific car models have stable demand through the year:

I thought this would be a cool graph but it turned out not to be that insightful:

This flyer lays out the reasons why people shouldn't be afraid of opossum’s.

Most people have a negative perception of opossum's (probably because they're not the cutest animal around), and this great copy changes that!

Love the friendly headline "Hi I'm your local opossum!" 😂

With some simple copy on a page, this flyer has managed to make people change their mind from thinking of opposum's from scary and gross animal:

To a friendly, harmless, and even helpful animal!

Here's what I mainly use  Twitter for 😂

Interestingly enough, just dicking around and harassing friends often gets a lot of engagement, and it keeps social media fun and "social!"

This sentiment has been popular lately: 
"People's attention spans have become shorter because of TikTok and Shorts." 

I disagree.

Human "attention spans" are the exact same...we just have more media options that didn't exist before.

People used to watch long movies and read long books simply because that's all they had. That was the entertainment option of the time.

If you teleported phones with TikTok to the 1950's, everyone would use it!

The human brain hasn't changed, technology has.

Short content relays MORE information to people in a shorter amount of time, so it's not crazy to think people would consume it.

Attention span hasn't necessarily decreased, we've just compressed the amount of time it takes to relay a message by eliminating all errs, umms, pauses, and useless information.

With that said, it seems the best way to consume media is:
• Short Form = Discovery + entertainment
• Long Form = Go deep on a subject

It's cool we have so many options now!

I did a fun project today: 

Step 1.) Bought a chainsaw on a long pole

 

Step 2.) Climbed onto the roof with the chainsaw 😎

 

Step 3.) Clear out some nuisance branches.

 

Step 4.) Chopped down two trees from top to bottom.

That’s all!

This probably isn't the greatest set of pictures in the world, but this was a fun project 🙂

It's fun to re-visit history and see every new technology get negative press for a while while it disrupts the existing system.

This article says too much reading can be bad:

 

When computers came out it was a problem for some:

 

When spell-check started becoming popular people got scared, much like people are with ChatGPT now:

 

Calculators were a "problem" for some:

 

Wild accusations of technology have always been a thing:

 

Some people thought too many novels were bad:

Image credits:  Pessimists Archive

New tech comes out ➡ Disrupts System ➡ Adaptation ➡ Repeat.

This graphic is so true 😂

Drawing by  Ferraro Roberto

A single notification on your phone can destroy deep thinking time so easily.

Here's some ways I personally combat notifications:
- Don't allow social & email apps to show up.
- Silence phone + turn phone upside down.
- Leave phone in different room.
- Use "Focus Mode" at night.

 

I like this ad because the headline copy and image work together to show your tires are the only part of your car that touch the road.

The headline uses underlining for "you're only safe as your tires" and the image cleverly removes the body of the car and just shows the tires:

 

I like this quote: 

Quote

“Once you understand the motivation, reward and punishment structure of any system, you can begin to control it.” 

- Guido Van Rossum (founder of the Python programming language)

I once heard Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) say all dogs like at least 1 of these 3 different rewards: 
- Toys
- Food
- Affection

Once you know the type of reward a dog responds to best, it makes it much easier to train!

Hugsy likes toys, food, and affection:

 

Sid is primarily motivated by food, and is "meh" on the rest:

 

Poe mostly responds to affection:

 

Knowing the reward/punishment structure seems to help in any system!

- Training neural networks
- Training dogs
- Raising kids

Here's a funny term I heard:

A doctor friend said a lot of her patients have “Million Dollar Pee” because they take so many useless supplements 😂

I hope you're having a great holiday season!!

This picture sums up Christmas & New Year's in Austin: Cold enough to wear some long clothes, but warm enough to work outside without freezing to death 😂

Here's an idea for the U.S. Department of Education:

Crowd-source short form videos for every subject & every grade K - 12. Students can casually browse these like TikTok as a supplement to their classes.

Here's An Example: 
Take this 3rd grade Language Arts curriculum and put a $10,000 award for the best short video for each section (1 minute or less)…

Educators across the world will flood social media with their entries.

The $10,000 prize is split up into: 
• 1st place: $6,000 
• 2nd place: $3,000 
• 3rd place: $1,000 

You then take the winning videos and add them to playlists on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. 

Now let’s do the math…

The U.S. Department of Education budget in 2022 was $636 billion. 

Each grade curriculum is 32 weeks, with 5 lessons per week. 

• 160 lessons per grade X 12 grades = 1,920 lessons 

• 1,920 lessons X $10,000 per prize = $19,200,000 

• $636 billion / $19.2 million =  .003% of budget

Conclusion: 
For just .003% of your US Education budget, in one month, you could give high quality supplemental materials to every student in the country (technically the world)…and turn social media from a time-suck to kids, into a powerful teacher that benefits millions!

 

Evidence crowd sourcing works has been proven by @xprize and @DARPA. Interesting analogy is @thesamparr and @ShaanVP offered $5k for anyone who can make a clip viral…it resulted in hundreds of clips, hundreds of creators, and hundreds of millions of views…for just $5k 😳

Even if this program cost 5x or 10x what’s quoted here it would still be an intensely efficient use of funds.

This same competition could be held every year, or whenever there are changes to the curriculum…massively increasing the quality of the education as people compete.

This program could bring out a whole new generation of digital educators.

A high school English teacher in Missouri may discover she has the skills to educate millions of students online, rather than just 100 students in person.

Digital education would advance quickly with this method.

I hope someone takes this idea and runs with it!

My content consumption has changed in the last few years.

I’d say for every 1 blog post, I’m viewing 100’s of Reels/TikToks/Shorts

I've also noticed far more growth on my short videos than my blog posts recently (see full stats here).

How many blog posts do YOU read vs watching short form video? Reply to this email and let me know!