Was telling my son Jantz this. There’s a reason Batman is the de facto “leader” of the DC heroes. No special powers. No mythological origin. Just a guy — with an uncanny focus and obsession with his mission in life. A perfect example is Justice League: Doom. The villain, Vandal Savage, systematically eliminated all the Justice League heroes (Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, etc) so he could execute his evil plan without them interrupting. And Batman, of course, escapes the trap he was in. And discovers all the other Justice Leaguers are in trouble. And, he immediately knows exactly

I read this blog post the other day… Guy’s genius insight for pricing your freelance services was… “just make it up”. Probably SOUNDS good to some people out there, but it’s terrible advice. Because, ya know, you have actually get hired at the rate you charge. In any case, I decided to give you a real answer. If you’re a freelancer trying to figure out what you should charge… This is the video for you: Be sure to say hi over there, too. 🙂 Later, John Idea Engine LLC P.O. Box 245 Winona, MO 65588 Want to unsubscribe or change

Welcome to Biden’s America! 😉 Don’t worry… I’m not gonna go full Trumpian on you. In actuality, I couldn’t care less about who’s president. I barely even live in the U.S. anymore, so it doesn’t affect me much. (I know… I’m so privileged. But, in my case, it’s a privilege I created.) But, there’s that window. That first six months. They all blather on during their campaigns, making promises and somesuch… how they’re gonna “save democracy” and “fix healthcare” and “unity” and whatever nonsense it happens to be. But, that first six months… That where you really see. That’s what

Some might call it a flaw. Some a “loophole”. Whatever it is, it’s there and it gives freelancers NEW to the platform a huge advantage over even the most experienced Upworkers. Unfortunately, very few people know what it is… And, more importantly… how to EXPLOIT it. And, for the record… no, it’s not some shady “hack” or something that breaks their TOS. It’s simply a quirk in how it works, based on their own internal growth strategy, that can revive dead profiles and give new Upworkers a leg up. And can lead to things like this from Jithin: “John is

I know you’ve been DYING to hear my take on politics. So, let me go all Expensify on you for a second. It’s a pretty riveting take. You ready? Here it is: Meh. I’m old enough to remember when the last election was the most important one in the history of the Republic. And the one before. In fact, this is the 6th election I could have voted in — and every one was the life or death. And sure… Some of them of have affected me in ways… But, for the most part… eh. Even more, it’s complete nonsense

Today, Wall Drug Store does $10 million+ in revenue. It has 225 employees, a 76,000 square foot store and is visited by up to 20,000 people per day. But, in 1931, when Ted Hustead purchased the store — in a 231-person town in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota — business was slow. Hustead made just enough to stay open, but things didn’t look good. They were 2 years into the Great Depression… And, by 1936 — and the birth of second child — Hustead and his wife were beginning to question whether they should give up on their dream

FYI, I just uploaded my “magnum opus” on getting clients over on YouTube. Before I give you that secksy link, a word of warning… if you’re the low-attention-span, give-me-the-latest-bright-shiny-gimmick type, you’ll hate this. And basically everything I teach. Not even sure why you’re here, TBH. But, if you’re the serious type who is committed to making their life happen “come hell or high water” or you got mouths to feed and no time for a bunch of BS gimmicks and “hacks”, then you’ll love it. Because, if you simply focus night and day on the three things I show you

This is a lesson in what NOT to do. For the past month or so, this guy — we’ll call him Derek — has been harassing me about switching from Aweber, as my autoresponder, to using Constant Contact. Here’s his main pitch: — Constant Contact has a 97% percent email deliverability and a compliance department. Meaning that 9.7 out of 10 of your sent emails will get to the inbox and pass the spam filters vs other programs (Aweber) can only guarantee 7 out of 10 of your emails with no one to call. — It’s a compelling enough pitch.

This is what I mean by “content crack”. My brother sent me this Tik Tok video… which “eww” all on its own. But, this guy says he’s going to show you a “6-figure hack” that “no one else is doing” and you can “setup by the end of today”. Ooh… sounds great. What could it be? You go to Capterra and find the top-rated software products in a niche you’re interested. Then, you search Google for that product and see if they’re running any ads for searches of their own name. When you find one that isn’t… You join their

At some point in every freelancer’s career, you find your… ahem… cajones. For me, it was the project I worked on for Michael Hyatt. I’m not blameless. I was very new to freelancing, so I was naive. And, I didn’t get that it was MY job to set and manage expectations… No matter how “famous” or experienced the client is. But, however we got there, I had to draw the line. It was 9pm on a Sunday night (I bet you can guess where this is going). Unbeknownst to me, Michael and his team had been working a relaunch of

I had to sit my boys down. They’re good dudes. They’re smart boys. I’m confident they’ll do just fine in life. But… they’re pretty chill. Not really in a hurry, not really super drive or passionate about any one thing — at least, not yet. Chill, good dudes. Their little sister, however. SHE is aggressive. Driven. Focused. She’s only 1-year-old and it’s clear as day. She started trying to roll over almost as soon as she got home from the hospital. Driven to crawl. Driven to walk. Relentless in learning how. And, now she’s working on talking. And, she’s smart