I’ve gone to the dark side. Doing a whole week of Black Friday deals for my courses. It’s super straight-forward, though. Get 50% off any of my courses until Monday, Novemember 30th at 11:59pm CST. The discounts are already active and on the site. You’ll see them on the checkout page. To be clear, the buttons and such still say the regular price. But, when you click the “purchase” button you’ll see the discounted price… BEFORE you enter payment details and all that. Anyway, here’s the courses I currently have in my portal that are eligible: R2 Protocol Video Training

This won’t apply for 90% of the people reading this. If you’re a low-IQ freelancer — the people who have this weird split personality where they want people to hire THEM, but they screech and shriek and clutch their pearls every time anyone else tries to sell them. Doesn’t matter what I tell you… You’ll never do anything until you un-flub your own messed up thinking. But, for the very small percentage of you left… Let’s talk UBI. You may have heard of this. This idea going around in political circles of creating a Universal Basic Income. Basically, every person

It started at 9:30 am every morning. That’s when I’d come slumping in the back door. Black pants, company shirt… and “DON’T FORGET YOUR HAT OR ELSE!” Clock in and begin the riveting work of cooking chicken… at a pizza restaurant. A career full of meaning and purpose! Yeah right. “Hey, chicken boy, I want more legs.” “Hey, chicken boy, the potatoes are cold.” “Hey, chicken boy, your chicken is garbage.” Day after day, month after month — sucking the life out of me. A former college athlete, an Army veteran who’d successfully led a squad of soldiers in Iraq

It was the look in her eye. The way she’d laugh at the waiter’s jokes when we went out to eat. How she’d light up when we’d have her male co-workers over to the house. The way she seemed to flirt with her male friends in Facebook comments. Always on her phone. Laugh and immediately responding to new texts. I didn’t make her light up like that. She didn’t laugh like that at my jokes. She’d barely respond to the things I put on Facebook. When I would text her, she’d take hours to respond. If I called, it seemed

What if I told you there’s a place you can go… right now… to get a quick injection of cash? 500, 1,000, 3,000 and up. A kind of “safe space” from the recession we’re still in. Not some new “opportunity”… Or some shiny new technology. Nope, actually an old faithful. One that’s been there this entire time: Yep. Upwork. 17 hours ago, 18 hours ag0, 18 hours ago. 200, 6,000, 3,500. Brand new jobs posted in the last 24 hours. If the pandemic has you against the wall, the work you need to find your way out is STILL pouring

Was watching Below Deck on Bravo. And, this bloated pig on there says, “I wonder what the poor people are doing, today”. As he sits their on a yacht in the middle of the Caribbean. I’m talking pasty white, warts — wouldn’t touch with a 100-ft pole. Not gonna lie… As a kid who grew up in a mice-infested trailer house, that rubbed me the wrong way. The jimmies are definitely rustled. But, that’s how these people snicker and laugh at you. That’s what they think of you. No, not all of them, but more than you might think. It

I ain’t no dumb-dumb… I know when I say, “the flaw in Upwork’s algorithm”… it elicits an eye-roll or two. “Whatever, dude!” And, maybe I’m being my eccentric self when I say that, but what I’m pointing to is as real as death and taxes. And, it can send a bunch of new client work flooding your way… If you know how to exploit it. So, let me show you, sparky: What you’re looking at is an interview from Upwork’s former VP of Product and Marketing. It’s nauseatingly-boring corp-speak, but what she’s saying is Upwork’s growth and differentiation strategy is

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