Sometimes a simple comparison helps you *instantly* understand something. 

This simple graphic seen on Instagram *instantly* shows your fullness level after eating 400 calories of 
oil -vs- beef -vs- vegetables:

I first learned what a "calorie" was when I was 26 years old, and comparisons helped me understand it better.

I ate King Size Snicker's bars all the time which were 440 calories each.
"440 calories" on it's own meant nothing until I started comparing it to  other foods.

I was shocked I could eat 12 clementines and get less than 440 calories! I even made this image for myself back then:

These comparisons slowly helped me discern good foods and bad foods.

Using comparisons (or "analogies") are very useful when explaining something!
 

I love this quote:

Quote

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires. 
- William Arthur Ward

I'm not a big hot sauce person, but for some reason this one just hits the right spot:

- Very flavorful.
- Goes on anything.
- Not hot enough to wreck stomach.

Cholula is great in general, but the Chipotle flavor is even yummier!

Yesterday was my 40th birthday, so here's 40 lessons l've learned about life...

Just kidding, I dunno anything, I'm just gonna have fun 🤩

I was in Mexico City last weekend celebrating a bit, and this weekend I'll be in Austin. 

Friends have stuff planned but I don't know what it is yet 😬

"Be clear, not clever" is generally great advice, especially when trying to sell something. 

However sometimes "cleverness" and "beauty" can work!

For example I think this graphic of bicycle parts is both beautiful and clever:

Or what about this clever (and kinda funny) ad for Pringle's Hot & Spicy 😂

Or this beautiful Rolls Royce ad just showing how pretty the car is:

When selling and writing, I think clearness is best.....but every once in a while some cleverness and beauty can go a long way!

The "Compression of Information" marches forward as we get better technology. 

For example I made a 7 minute video about "Becoming Indispensable", but recently put out a YouTube Short video that's only 39 seconds....and to be honest it kinda gets the same point across, but 10x more efficiently!

To me, copywriting has always been about getting information from one brain to another brain....or one brain to a MILLION brains. 

Whichever the most efficient method is best. 
 

This "compression of information" has happened to reading:
🕓 🕓 🕓 Books: Days to read.
🕓 🕓 Magazine Articles: Minutes to read.
🕓 Tweets: Seconds to read. 

Also it's happening to video:
🕓 🕓 🕓 Movies: Hours to watch.
🕓 🕓 YouTube Videos: Minutes to watch.
🕓 "Shorts" Videos: Seconds to watch. 

I've been experimenting with some shorter form content all this year, maybe you could follow me on those platforms to see it?

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Twitter
• TikTok
• LinkedIn

Do you like shorter form content? Do you consume it?? Reply and let me know!

Here’s some clever ways to turn boring data & stats into easier visuals:

1.) This was a clever way to spice up a boring “bar chart” and make it into a “Battery Bar Chart!” 📊

2.) Instead of boring bar charts show boring megaton data, this chart uses nuclear explosion visuals to show the different sizes of nuclear blasts.

3.) Instead of using words and data to describe lethality of different drugs, these viles each show a lethal dose of 3 different drugs, and shows how shockingly little is needed to overdose.

This visual hits home harder than plain numbers and data:

We are visual creatures. Our minds are ~6X likely to remember a message if it's combined with an image:

So if trying to get data across, sometimes it's beneficial to make it an image!

This is a neat quote:

Quote

“The amount of money a person receives will always be in direct proportion to the demand for what he does, his ability to do what he does, and the difficulty of replacing him.” 
- Earl Nightingale

This is a cool way to judge which career path or business to get into:
→ Demand for what you do
→ Your ability to do it
→ The difficulty of replacing you

In fact we could make a measuring scale out of this:
→ Demand for what you do (Rate 1-5)
→ Your ability to do it (Rate 1-5)
→ The difficulty of replacing you (Rate 1-5)

A janitor is a job associated with low pay because MOST people in the world are capable of doing the job.

If an average janitor needs to be replaced, it's very easy:
→ Demand for what you do (3)
→ Your ability to do it (3)
→ The difficulty of replacing you (1)

If an average brain surgeon needs to be replaced, it's very difficult:
→ Demand for what you do (5)
→ Your ability to do it (3)
→ The difficulty of replacing you (5)

I've given other note-taking and organization apps like Notion and Coda many solid tries....but I keep winding up back on Google Docs.

90% of what I love about Notion is being able to navigate to different pages quickly via it's sidebar menu.

If Google Docs had something like this, it would like beat the pants off any other up-and-coming app.
I wish Google Docs would add this functionality, like:

Editing a physical paper "back in the day" had a whole markup language of its own, shown in this graph:

If you were an editor or proofreader, you would know most of these!

I only knew two of these symbols: The "insert" mark ^ and the paragraph mark ⁋

How many of these symbols did you know??

Features -vs- Benefits is a common discussion in copywriting. 

Feature: Something your product has (ex "Water Resistant Cloth").
Benefit: Result after using your product (ex: "You stay dry in the rain").

For example you can sell the features of an umbrella: 
Unbreakable stems, wooden handle, water resistant cloth.

-or-

You can sell the benefits of an umbrella:
Keeps you dry in the rain, keeps the sun off when it's hot.

Selling the "benefits" of a product is usually the wiser decision. Even David Ogilvy said so:

My advice on the Features -V- Benefits debate is:
 

USE BOTH!

I prefer trying to sell the benefit, and backing it up with the features. So:

Love the use of "rhyme" to help people remember important stuff.....such as which bear to run from 😬

Something I got from people's comments on Twitter were Polar Bears are by farrrr the most dangerous bear!

• If they're Polars, they'll soon be spitting out ya molars
• If it's a Polar, you cannot control her

If you take away one thing from this email....it's don't play with Polar Bears 😂

Checkout this beautiful Western Electric ad that visually shows the history & evolution of the telephone up till 1964 ☎ 

Fun fact: Crude forms of analog video calls existed back in 1964. You had to book a time slot, and it cost $100+ for 15 minutes, but it existed!

Goals. They're important to have. It drives you towards something.

For example here's my November 2022 Goals:

If I'm ever wondering what to do, I can look at this sheet of paper sitting on my desk and start working on getting one of those three things scratched off. 

We do this in our community where we ask people to list out their goals in our Goals Tracker (If you're a member go post now)!

One word of advice: Limit your monthly goals to around 3 major goals. Anymore and the list becomes daunting:

Feel free to respond to this email with your November goals. 

Also respond to this email with "I WANNA CHAT" if you want to chat with me for 10 minutes!

This graphic shows all the hidden work that goes into writing and sending emails to a large number of people, including:

Sending emails seems like such a simple little thing, but there's often a lot behind the scenes!

A few days ago I woke up and it was rainy and grey skies outside. I decided to stay in bed and work. 

While sipping coffee and working from bed, I had one of those moments where you look around and think, "This is nice 😊"

Get the mug reference?? 😛

You can make your life so much more convenient if you buy multiples of commonly used items:

There've been some purchases in my life where after years of frustration I would think, "Why the hell didn't I do that sooner???"

For example:

When I first moved into a house I would have to bring phone chargers and laptop chargers into different rooms allllll the time. Sometimes I wouldn't have one in the room, so my devices would start to die. 

Instead one day I spent a few bucks and bought chargers galore for every room. 

I put them everywhere. There's on in my closet for when I get ready, one in my bathroom, an iPhone and USB-C in my kitchen: 

I use chargers all the time, so shuffling them back and forth through the house was a huge waste. 

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
I like randomly stretching, and I have one of those foam roller thingies I keep in my garage gym. 

But...

Sometimes I wanna use it in the living room.
Sometimes I wanna use it in the master bedroom. 

But I have to go get it, so I don't use it!

So in a flash of brilliance, I BOUGHT THREE:

A simple cheap purchases like this encourages me to stretch more, and spend less brain power on useless tasks like shuffling foam rollers between rooms!

I mentioned last week the CC Blog has side menu bars that show member content, but only members can access it:

So if a non-member clicks, they see this error message which gets shown between 1,000 and 1,300 times per day:

I asked people if they could give that an update, and two people really stood our: "Cinderella" and "Joe." You both are getting sent t-shirts for your contribution!

Cinderella's version was this clean two-column:

Joe's version was this "sales page" style message: