Kinda messed up. I came across it the other day. Of course, it’s Twitter… so shaker of salt and all that, but it was a freelancer saying how they’d been let go by their client because they didn’t want to get the corona vaccine. Ultimately, it’s two adults… With different opinions… And every right to run their lives how they wish. Still… it’s a stark reminder of how wacky the world has gotten. I actually had a similar situation with a client. She didn’t said I had to get it or anything… but she was “horrified” I hadn’t yet. Which

You ever have those moments where you’re suddenly realize: “OMG, I’m becoming my parents.” Haha. Stargate is that for me. When the show was still airing, I’d visit my parents and there was this growing stack of SG-1 DVDs next to their TV. Every visit, it grew just a little bit more. Until it was damn near taller than the TV. And, I’d always make fun of my dad. “Still watching your ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ TV show, huh?” This went on for at least a decade. So, it wasn’t some one-time thing. I gave him s*** about that TV show

My little brother is addicted. I avoid the s*** like the plague. Don’t have the app. Don’t watch the stupid videos people send me. Want nothing to do with it. But, him and I work out every day after he gets off work and he’s always watching that s***. Anyway, the other day he was watching something. And, it’s video after video of grown adults… Acting like complete morons. Dancing around like idiots, telling very bad jokes, dumping ketchup or some other crazy liquid on their head — all for attention. And, let’s be real… the vague hope that their

I about fell outta my truck. Was at the Evil Clown joint (McDonald’s) the other day. Was sitting in the curbside waiting on my food. When we pulled in… a cop had some dude pulled over in the parking lot. So, we’re sitting there watching as they go back and forth. At some point, the cop says he’s searching the guy’s car. And the guy goes ballistic. Just starts laying into this cop: “You’re the lowest of low. You’re such a douchebag. You f***ing loser! Do you have any idea what I’ve been through? Did you stop to think about

Comes this from Hamid: “I want to buy your course, but do i have to pay to get email leads?” In short, no. I’ll say it once more for the kids in the back… I do NOT teach you how to buy some rando lead list, load it up in some software and blast a cookie-cutter email out to 1,000 nobodies who may or may not need your services. No, no and no. So, no… you don’t pay for leads. Instead, I show you how to find, sift and sort the thousands of very highly qualified leads that are all

Little bit of a rant today. Haha. But, seriously, it’s one of the more annoying things about being a teacher. Not gonna lie, sometimes… some students… I want to slap them in the forehead and ask them, “What the f*** are you doing?” Not in some mean-spirited way. Sometimes, it just feels like *I* take their life more seriously than they do. Here’s one example… Y’all know… most of you anyway. When you sign up to this here mailing list, I now have a one-question survey that asks you what your biggest road block is when it comes to freelancing.

I’m putting the finishes touches on my new Freelance Feast course… Which will be the course I release for the month of May — and will be my flagship entry-level course for freelancers. It’ll be for people who know nothing about freelancing except they want to do it… And, it’ll walk you through all the steps, processes and systems… You’ll need to build in order make your freelancing all feast and no famine. Thus the name. In any case, I just finished up a lesson on the 80/20 of freelancing. It’s a reference to what I discovered early on in

Nearly a 1/3 of the entire company has quit. Including the heads of marketing, support and design. That’s a pretty wild mass exodus. Basecamp’s been around for 20 years and has always been pretty adept at traversing the rapid changes that come with being an internet company. So, it makes you wonder… What the hell happened? Get this… The company changed its policies on political and social conversations within its official work channels. Basically, they’re no longer allowing their employees to bicker about politics in official channels. And boy-o-boy… You know that has the know-it-all, 20-something, purple hairs lighting the

It is D-day my good people of the diaspora… Your absolute last chance to grab my latest course, the Cold Email Method, over on Skillshare before it comes down and, like an evil villain, I make you fork over your heart and soul (probably $100 or so) to get it. So, let me bonk you over the head with a small taste of what’s inside: A clever way to send your emails that guarantees near-100% deliverability — this sneaky little trick is dead simple, but almost nobody does it… and it all but guarantees your prospect will not only open

Was reading a Ben Settle email the other day… And, he said something that’d make most people, even hard core, Bernie Madoff-types, soil their pantalones. He was talking about a client he’d work with several years back in the aftermath of the housing crisis. And how that guy drooled over recessions. He almost wished they’d happen. Here’s what Ben wrote: “Early on we started talking about the economy, and he said: ‘Direct response marketers love recessions, this is when we make all the money.’ Yes, hardcore direct marketers (and clients) don’t spend less during bad times. They spend more. They

Got this sweet-nothing from Scotty P: “The content in this class is great stuff. I know some of it will be taken down and turned into a paid class. I can’t wait to whip out my credit card. I hope it turns into something I can download and play on my phone while driving. The thought of owning some of this content makes me pretty excited!” Well, Scotty… don’t you worry. It will… And, I will give you that chance. Haha. That’s how some people like it. Others, either can’t or don’t want to invest in their own education. I

My little brother calls himself a “master procrastinator”. Keep in mind, he’s not some scrub polishing rocks for a living. He’s a Director at one of Fortune’s 500 fastest growing companies. His client list includes Google, Amazon, Nike, Office Depot, Home Depot… and on and on. He’s wildly successful for all intents and purposes. But, openly admits he procrastinates hard. I always find that fascinating… how many people continually struggle with it. Especially since I’m not much of a procrastinator. It’s not something I never do, but I am ruthless with prioritization. As a matter of fact, I just fired

I get this from time to time with certain clients. I was watching this YouTube video the other day. Some rando off the street apparently went into a boxing gym, talking s***, and challenged the trainer there to a fight. Talking about, “I mess people up on the streets”… blah, blah. You can about guess how this went down. Trainer played with him a bit. Let him throw a few shots. Then, out of nowhere… like a lightning bolt… dropped him with a left hook. Bahaha. Dude was done, then… but, his ego wouldn’t let him stop. Got up… trainer

Lewis Howes mastered this. I first met him at an internet marketing conference around 2011, 2012. Everybody kept calling him the “salsa dancing” guy. “Have you met the salsa dancing guy?” “You should meet Lewis, the salsa dancing guy?” “Did you know Lewis also salsa dances?” Yeah no… I’ve only heard it about 700 times today… thanks! Not gonna lie, my curmudgeonly self found it annoying. Buuut… I had to admit it worked for him. At that time, he was one of the lesser known online marketers. Yet, everyone was talking about him. They were fascinated by his salsa dancing.

I think Ryan Lee was the first one I heard say it. I was backstage at his Continuity Summit seminar he used to do (maybe still does, not sure). A client of mine was good friends with him so they let us backstage and we got to hear their behind-the-scenes strategizing. It’s actually quite interesting how precisely planned these seminars are. Anyway, he said it to his staff. And, I remember thinking… “That’s a bit cynical, but okay.” In the years since, having worked with some of the top people in online business and marketing on numerous 6- and 7-figure

Just got this from Andrew: “I’ve sent out 3 emails to some lawyers in my town using your method, guess the open rate? 100%. Anyway, wanted to thank you for all the content and the courses that you’ve made and shared with us. Right now I’m watching, listening and rewatching, and relistening your course on Content Marketing. It is so good and right now I’m building my sales page (almost done with it) and making the packages as you teach in the Premium Pricing method.” Mic drop! 😀 Now, of course, it’s a small sample size for sure. But, with

It was the closest I ever came to dying. During my year in Iraq, I was stationed on one of (if not THE) smallest bases in country. A “magical place” (eye roll) named Log Base Seitz — or more appropriately nicknamed “Mortaritaville”. It was about a mile long by 300 meters wide. For reference, Camp Victory next door, was 20 square miles. Yeah, we were tiny. A little speck on the war map. Anyway, in the year I was there, 1153 mortar rounds landed in that 1 mile by 300 meter area. Imagine a dart board with every last inch

Grab your tin foil hat, again… But, for real… I’m an optimist, but I sincerely think things are going to get worse before they get better. Just looking through these stories: “We Were Left With Nothing”: Argentina’s Misery Deepens in the Pandemic “Iran’s economy is closer than ever to collapse”, says expert Two blocks from the Federal Reserve, a growing encampment of the homeless grips the economy’s most powerful person China facing economic crisis Economic Recovery After Covid: Scars Will Remain Now, I know… It’s the media… “if it bleeds, it leads”. But, the data, in this case, supports the

You might know… A few years back, I had a mid-life crisis… at least, according to most my family and friends. Haha. Not really, but they all did think I was crazy. My wife and I abruptly sold our lavish 2,000 sqft home… Moved to “hillbilly heaven” in Missouri. And, built a small cabin deep in the Ozark Mountains. It was all pretty bizarre from the outside looking in. But, for us, it made complete sense. We only actually used maybe 500-600 sqft of that house. I was dreaming up s*** to put in the large finished basement we had.

Brindas Filip Andrei. Quite the mouthful. Haha. Anyway, so speaketh Andrei (or Brindas… or Filip): “When I’ve received the notification from Gmail I started laughing as I could not believe that you’ve given me a shout-out. Here’s my average open rate: somewhere around 70-80%. I really believe that cold email is more like a superpower rather than a client acquisition method. Email is so set in stone that you could reach anyone by email if you do the research. This can get you clients (like it did for me), a job, partnerships, whatever you want or need.” Ah yes… my

All you really need to do is read Aristotle. Er’body these days is just ripping him off. When I was getting my business marketing degree, studying Aristotle and his Art of Rhetoric was one of the few useful things we learned. I’ve sold millions worth of courses and services over my career. And, most of what I do still goes back to Aristotle. Of course, devishly applied to today’s technology. Anyway, tell me if any of this sounds familiar: “Persuasion cannot occur in the absence of emotion.” “The best way to ‘transfer’ emotion is through storytelling.” “The most important part

So spaketh Filip: “The cold email course is pure gold! [It] brought me the first client that I’ve reached out to. It was amazing. Thanks a lot for the value you offer us.” 1 email. 1 client. Told you. Haha… sorry, but I can’t help but rub it in the face of all the negative nancy’s that constantly natter on about how “cold email doesn’t work, duuuuh”… when they’ve never actually taken the time to learn what I teach… Let alone actually TRY it. No hard feelings, but you’re just wrong. As you can see, we’re not blasting out thousands

Just created this video breaking down a terrible cold email I received the other day. The kind you probably get and are imagining I teach you how to write — which couldn’t be more wrong. I show you all the things wrong with it… And, why it will never work… Including why 99% of cold emails are doomed to fail no matter what words are written in the email. Avoiding this one mistake, in and of itself, will instantly lead to better results with cold email. And, of course, I’ll show you what to do instead. If you’re even mildly

I saw this coming after 2016. I was never big into Facebook ads, but I’d figured out a few things. I had one that I’d run for several years that brought me in a few thousand smackers each and every month like clockwork. Tons of “hate comments”… but tons of business. Anyway, freakin’ Donald Trump. Screwed everything up! Haha. After 2016, Facebook started really cracking down on its ad platform. I wasn’t doing anything nefarious, but my ad was admittedly controversial. One day, they just up and rejected the ad — after it having run for years with no issues.

One of the later sales jobs I had was for this company called CPI. I honestly don’t even remember what that stood for. I think it was the owner’s name. Gotta love those self-aggrandizing CEOs! Haha. Anyway, they sold what now would be called “managed” Qwest phone service. Every month, we got a list of Qwest business phone subscribers whose contracts were up in 2 months or less. Our job was to convince them to renew… But, with our add-on service. Basically, we became their account managers. So, instead of calling the Qwest hotline if they needed help and waiting

Let me rap about the nay-sayers for a minute. I had someone ask me this: “Do you think, someone will respond on any random, unknown person’s email?” Oh, my young padawan… there’s a lot of assumptions wrapped up in that little question. It’s someone who’s never actually done it… jumping to conclusions about how *they* would do it and thinking it won’t work. Well okay… but that’s not how *I* do it. Don’t blame me for YOUR lack of imagination. Haha. Anyway, here was my response: “If you just blast out a templated email to a bunch of people with