Dan Kennedy says: === INDUSTRY NORMS EQUAL AVERAGE RESULTS. Your success may very well be directly proportionate to the number of industry norms you violate, the extent to which you violate them, and the number of industry dinosaurs and self-important gasbags you offend in doing so. === This got me wondering, what are some email marketing norms? Even things that seem inviolable? I figure we could make a list, and then think about how to violate each of those norms, with our own emails and lists, for notoriety and profit.

I'm sending this riddle to my list later today. But I thought it would be interesting to people in this group, too. So here it is: I'm in the living room, typing this on my laptop, while my mom plays with my 22-month-old daughter. Baby Shark is blasting in the background. (*Doo doo doo doo doo doo* stabbing my brain.) Meanwhile, I'm thinking about a mystery our nanny may have solved yesterday. For a while now, my oldest daughter, Olivia, has refused to get into her little bathtub. And we couldn't figure out why. Until yesterday, when our nanny came up with a theory. See, we also use that bathtub for Sophia, our 1-month-old daughter. Our nanny thinks Olivia may refuse to get into the tub because she associates it with babies. Maybe Olivia thinks that if she gets into the same bathtub as her little sister, that makes her a baby too. But Olivia doesn't see herself as a baby anymore. And she doesn't want to do things that babies do. So it might be a matter of identity. Now, as you probably know, identity plays a HUGE role in marketing and copywriting. We all have certain beliefs about who we are. Some are positive, some are negative. But here's what's interesting. Even when we hold a negative belief about ourselves, we don't like it when someone else says it out loud. For example, you might tell yourself you're a loser. Yet if I call you a loser, you'll get defensive. You'll close up like a clam and resist anything I say next. And that's a big problem. Because sometimes, to persuade someone, you need to address a negative belief they hold about themselves. But if you confront that belief directly, you risk putting them on the defensive. So here's the quiz: How do you address a negative belief someone has about themselves without putting them on the defensive? Hit reply and let me know how you'd do it. --- SOLUTION: Here's my answer. I try to follow this rule of thumb: Never ask prospects to agree with something negative about themselves in order to agree with your sales argument.

Pictured in front of his yacht, at John’s insistence. :)

I will be hopping on Zoom with some of ya to talk monetization. The call will be built around a case study of one guy I've helped monetize his list better. Based on this, you could consider the promise for tonight's call to be: - How to 3x the money you make from your email list every month - How to pull out another $3k-$4k from your email list each month - How to add $1/subscriber per month to what you're making from your list If you've already signed up for the call, I've sent you an email with the Zoom link. And if you haven't signed up yet, there's still time. Here's where to go. Looking forward to seeing you there!

I went to my Muay Thai training this morning. Apparently we were supposed to come in a Halloween costume. I didn't have one, so I was forced to wear a tutu (photo attached). Are you doing Halloween? Are you not doing Halloween? What or why, in either case? (There's almost certainly a daily email hiding in there, if you haven't written one for today. Write a comment about it below and you'll be 75% of the way done.)