✍️ Rules ✍️ → Sunday: I make a new post for the week → Participants: Share your content goals (blog posts, emails, social posts, essays... whatever writing-adjacent goals you plan to accomplish during the week, and need accountability for) → During the week: Share progress or lack thereof throughout the week so the rest of us can either congratulate you, motivate you, or (only if specifically asked for) crack a whip or whatever you need to get you back on track → Saturday: Report results. We will continue this for as long as there's sufficient interest. Now, let's begin!

My emails reward me in ways I do not always anticipate. I got two new members to the Vault these past couple of days, even though I've been promoting the Write Without AI workshop... and NOT the Vault. I often sell courses or templates to people who find me on Google, Pinterest, or AI... but they don't sign up for the membership. That takes nurturing. So, what happened? If I had to guess, I'd say it's likely because my subscribers see my emails daily, I'm on top of their minds even if not all of them open my emails or read them every day, and when they're ready, when they feel the need to solve a problem that I have a solution for, they think of me quite naturally. Both of these members are first-time buyers, too, even though each of them have been on my list for a few months already. So that's nice. These random purchases or membership signups are my signs/reminders that: 1. Daily emails help; they keep you fresh in your readers' minds 2. Story-based emails are powerful; they make you memorable to your readers (your emails don't just blend into the sea of gazillion other marketing emails) Do what you will with it.

Many, many years ago, I was reading "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami, and in it, there's an exchange between our very average main character, Toru Watanabe, and his more dashing and charming friend, Nagasawa, that left a deep, deep impression on me. Both Watanabe and Nagasawa are loners, offbeat characters, who have little in common with their peers, including the books they read. When Watanabe comments on Nagasawa's favorite authors (Balzac, Dante, Joseph Conrad) not being very "fashionable," Nagasawa replies with: "That's why I read them! If you only read books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. That's the world of hicks and slobs. Real people would be ashamed of themselves doing that. Haven't you noticed, Watanabe? You and I are the only real ones in the dorm. The other guys are crap." --- Of course, this is a work of fiction, and in the world of fiction, a character can be rude and declare the rest of the world crap... Even so, I think there's merit in reading things nobody else is reading. So, my question to you... let's maybe help each other find books that are not on Amazon's best-selling list or worse, on the New York Times' best-selling reads. And to keep things from going out of control, let's stick with books that taught you the most about marketing, selling, doing business, or writing in general. Even if the books weren't marketed as such. I'll start 👇

The winner of the rights to monopolize my Sundays, from now until the end of 2026, is @Nick Bandy with his signature bid: $1,569. ================================= Today is your chance to tap in and benefit from my 9,000+ subscriber email list, which is not only constantly growing, but growing by 30-90 subscribers... PER WEEK! Leads? Yeah, we got 'em. But it's not just leads. This is your opportunity to get in front of a sea of buyers, hungry for info on how to succeed online with their own businesses. Starting with a bid of just $2! Here's what I'm offering: 👉 Put your list growth on autopilot for the rest of the year. [You get a classified ad in my Sunday newsletter for the rest of this year (42 Sundays left in 2026).] 👉 Get my direct input and help on your ads/offers to get you the best results from my audience. [I've been sending emails since 2018 and know what my people respond to. Will gladly give you my input as often as you like to make sure your offers are positioned in the way that's most likely to land with my audience.] 👉 Test out new offers/appeals/hooks/lead magnets without risk. [There are 42 Sundays left in this year, which allows you to promote your main offers as often as you want, and also test out small new bets if you ever want to take a week off from promoting a known winner.] 👉 Benefit from my own mad scramble to grow my list. [List currently growing at 30-90 new people PER WEEK. In addition, I'm doing list swaps, am networking like I just got out of Harvard MBA, am even (secretly, don't tell anyone) working on a cold traffic funnel to grow my list even more with buyers. No hard promises here, but my personal goal is to get my list to 20k people by the end of the year. Whatever number I manage to reach, all these people will see your offers and ads, every Sunday, for the rest of 2026.] Wanna see what my ESP's backend looks like? Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4-F0yTthM&t

I'm hearing whispers in my head, telling me nobody will show up for my auction, and nobody will bid more than $2... The woe is REAL. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. BUT! Maybe you can help distract me... with... direct mail! The other day, on a whim, I bought a $9 ebook off Instagram of all places... from a dude I know nothing about... about direct mail marketing with ugly postcards 🙃 I know folks who do some cool stuff. @Lex Roman, for example, sends stickers and postcards to their new Legends (paid subscribers). I wanna do something similar, too, to acknowledge my Vault members. But as far as marketing goes... does anyone have any thoughts? Especially for online businesses? Like, would you or would you not hate me if I sent you a postcard with a QR code to my Vault membership? Or maybe it needs to link to a lead magnet instead.... I loved getting Lex's stickers, also got a postcard from @John Bejakovic once, loved that too (though Spaniard mail is no joke)... but those are not marketing mails... So yeah... anyway... thoughts? Also, just realized Lawrence Bernstein has a direct mail marketing mini guide here (I think I prefer Airmails over ugly postcards...): https://admoneymachine.com/2020/05/25/greatest-money-making-loophole/