Category: Cold Email Marketing

Freelancers being forced to get the COVID vaccine

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

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The client-getting secret of the Annulus

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

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The Tik Tok disease

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

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Wanna know how I know you’re a turd?

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

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The thousands of FREE, highly qualified leads all around you

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

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I can lead a cow to slaughter

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.

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How I consistently beat other developers

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

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Basecamp implodes as employees flee the company

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

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The evil behind this blatant sales pitch

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

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Here’s a toast to the next recession

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

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Talk dirty to me

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

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A clever way to use procrastination to your advantage

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

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When a bully steps into the freelance octagon

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

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The purple cow principle

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.

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My Army brain can’t freakin’ understand these people

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

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100% open rate on his cold emails

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

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The mortar round that nearly ended me

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

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As the world crumbles, here’s your escape hatch

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

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Everyone thought I was having a mid-life crisis

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.

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Client-getting super powers from the man with 3 names

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

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The 2400-year-old genius who invented Facebook stalking

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

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Developer lands first client from cold email

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

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How scrubs do cold email

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

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The ad that got me kicked off Facebook

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.

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My 6-figure tele-marketing gig

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

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Do people even read these emails?

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

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Absolute power and control of your life and business

There’s a few steps to this… so, stick with me. It starts with who you trust. In my opinion, the only real way to have complete, top-to-bottom control of your business, your finances and your life… is to be 100% dependent on yourself for how you make your living. Not a job. Not your government. Not a parent or spouse. You. Nobody else. Now, some people will start arguing here… “We live in an interdependent society… you still rely on clients…”, etc, etc. Yes, but I’m talking about this at a root level — a visceral, no bullshyte, no airy,

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[VIDEO] Where to find high quality clients on Google

So, I just want to show you this. Enough talky-talk, Johnny Boy! Am I right? SHOW ME THE LEADS! Haha. Anyway, I made a video showing you where to find highly qualified leads on Google. It’s about 10 minutes of research and you can start building your list… Of potential clients you KNOW have the moolah to pay you (and well)… And who you KNOW are in urgent need of your services. As the saying goes: “The money is in the list”. This is how to build yours: https://myjohn.us/leadology Give it a watch and let me know if you gotsa

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The 5-minute client

I have to make a confession. When I decided to go ahead and create my Cold Email Method course, I actually hadn’t used the method in a few years. It’s one of the reasons I’d held off teaching it. I only like to teach stuff I actually do. And while I HAD used it for years… it had been awhile. But, it worked so well… I really wanted to share it. So, I made a deal with myself. I was going to put it to the test and if it worked just like it had before… then, I’d go ahead

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Cashme on onlyfans, how bow dah?

You remember that chick? Danielle Bregoli or “Bhad Bhabie” as she now calls herself — was on Dr. Phil when she told an audience member: “cash me ousside, how bow dah?” And, for some stupid reason, it went viral. Well, she recently turned 18. Started an OnlyFans. And, made $1 million in just 6 hours. Eh. You ever feel like our society is designed to promote and reward the most awful people on the planet? This chick… all them “Real Housewives” shows — all the most emotionally unstable and mentally weak people we have. Teachers, doctors — all the people

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Let the noobs fight for Upwork clients

I’m obviously a big fan of Upwork. I started my freelance career, in earnest, there. I teach a course on it. I’ve helped tens of thousands of freelancers get started there. It is one of the better ways to get started and get freelance clients. Still… I’m not blind. It’s competitive. And, only gets more competitive as time goes on. And, as more people jump into freelancing. I’ve also NEVER been a fan of putting all your egg in one basket. It’s one of the things I’ve found with freelancers who struggle to get clients consistently. They usually only know

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Success Stories

Ready to add your name here?

Tim Covello

Tim Covello

75 SEO and website clients now. My income went from sub zero to over 6K just last month. Tracking 10K for next month. Seriously, you changed my life.

Michael Phoenix

Michael Phoenix

By the way, just hit 95K for the year. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve taught me. You’ve changed my life. Thank you!

Stephanie Korski

Stephanie Korski

I started this 3 days ago, following John’s suggestions, and I gained the Upwork Rising Talent badge in less than 2 days. I have a call with my first potential client tomorrow. Thanks, John!

Jithin Veedu

Jithin Veedu

John is the man! I followed his steps and I am flooded with interviews in a week. I got into two Talent clouds. The very next day, I got an invitation from the talent specialists from Upwork and a lot more. I wanna shout out, he is the best in this. Thanks John for helping me out!

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

After viewing John’s course, I made an Upwork account and it got approved the same day. Amazingly, I got my first job the very same day, I couldn’t believe it, I thought maybe I got it by coincidence. Anyways I completed the job and received my first earnings. Then, after two days, I got another job and within a week I got 3 jobs and completed them successfully. All the things he says seem to be minute but have a very great impact on your freelancing career.

Sarah Mui

Sarah Mui

I’ve been in an existential crisis for the last week about what the heck I’m doing as a business owner. Even though I’ve been a business for about a year, I’m constantly trying to think of how to prune and refine services. This was very personable and enjoyable to watch. Usually, business courses like this are dry and hard to get through…. repeating the same things over and over again. This was a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU.

Waqas Abdul Majeed

Waqas Abdul Majeed

I’ve definitely learnt so much in 2.5 hours than I’d learn watching different videos online on Youtube and reading tons of articles on the web. John has a natural way of teaching, where he is passionately diving in the topics and he makes it very easy to grasp — someone who wants you to really start running your business well by learning about the right tools and implement them in your online business. I will definitely share with many of the people I know who have been struggling for so long, I did find my answers and I’m sure will do too.

Scott Plude

Scott Plude

I have been following John Morris for several years now. His instruction ranges from beginner to advanced, to CEO-level guidance. I have referred friends and clients to John, and have encouraged my own daughter to pay attention to what he says. All of his teachings create wealth for me (and happiness for my clients!) I can’t speak highly enough about John, his name is well known in my home.

Sukh Plaha

John is a fantastic and patient tutor, who is not just able to share knowledge and communicate it very effectively – but able to support one in applying it. However, I believe that John has a very rare ability to go further than just imparting knowledge and showing one how to apply it. He is able to innately provoke one’s curiosity when explaining and demonstrating concepts, to the extent that one can explore and unravel their own learning journey. Thanks very much John!

Mohamed Misrab

Misrab Mohamed

John has been the most important person in my freelance career ever since I started. Without him, I would have taken 10 or 20 years more to reach the position I am at now (Level 2 seller on Fiverr and Top Rated on Upwork).

Who else wants to build a thriving freelance business?

I’ve helped 39,413 other freelancers start and grow thriving freelance businesses. Are you next? Subscribe to my Freelance Secrets newsletter and I’ll show you how.