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.