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I got this note from long-time Planet Perry member and copywriter Nick Neilson. Nick always asks great questions:

In the software company I’ve started, I was torn between re-learning to code or hiring it out. I learned to code several years ago, but I’ve never been great at it. No doubt, there are middle school kids that can code circles around me. But I do know the theory of OOP and have the capacity to pick it back up.

I had a choice – do I maximize my existing strengths and stick with the marketing (my inner Dan Kennedy is screaming this at me) or do I expand my understanding of mathematics and technical understanding of my product (a perhaps malformed version of my inner Perry is gently persuading.)

Nick Neilson

Nick,

If you…

I spent a week at “Fantasy Drum Camp” in Cleveland. I’m a drummer and it was 5 days of in-your-face, 14 hours a day immersion.

The teachers were the best in the world. Like Steve Smith who played on all the famous Journey songs, which don’t even hint at his jazz skills, and Peter Erskine with 600 albums including Steeli Dan, Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt.

I spent all day in class with each instructor. Then played music with them at night. Awesome.

You know what the best part of the whole thing was?

You see an ad in a magazine. It’s get-rich-in real estate. Confident-looking alpha male. Chiseled features and confident gaze. Rolex watch and Gucci shoes. His right leg is perched on the bumper of a Rolls Royce, parked on the curved brick driveway of a McMansion.

The headline says, “You Can Achieve Wealth and Financial Security With The Same Proven Plan I Discovered Just 18 Months Ago.”

That ad is CODE.

You know what it’s code for?

“Hey there

When you approach your student properly, you can start with ONE basic, mechanical thing….

….and create an entire universe.

Everyone author, speaker, consultant, teacher should listen to this recording. It’s from…

Entrepreneurs especially are endowed with a special kind of creativity. Entrepreneurs are artists. Business is ART. A great USP is ART. Copywriting is art. Design is art.

And art is divine. That is my conviction.

The particular spiritual stream I grew up in (think “Calvinist”) put far more emphasis on the brokenness of humanity than the divinity. Everyone had a grave distrust of that artist inside. If you desired something…

Ever bought groceries at ALDI? In Chicago it’s the cheapest grocery store you can find.

Everything in that place is processed to the max. Huge conveyor belts cough the stuff into cardboard boxes as fast as the High Fructose Corn Syrup can pour in.

Today, three techniques from Rich Jacobs, a long-time Mastermind Club member who does marketing for attorneys. Rich is rising through the ranks, having made autoresponders a high art.

Autoresponder Trick #1:

Just curious… what are you guessing I’m about to say?

I could say…

“Getting superbad at 80/20”
“Getting superbad at copywriting”
“Buying my amazing new $2000 program”

I’m not against any of those things, but your BEST hedge against disaster is actually: