What’s your Word of the Year?

What word, idea, or guiding principle will define your 2020? Last year mine was “ownership.”  Not just in my business, but of my entire life. This year’s word is about transformation — but with powerful ima12gery involved, pulled straight from classical mythology. In...

“How to Find Companies that Hire Freelancers?”

I’m doing this week’s Breakthrough Marketing Secrets issues as videos… Today’s Mailbox Monday is all about finding companies that hire freelancers. And in today’s video I have three specific recommendations to help you out. Here’s the question I answer… — Roy, I...
Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas.  Happy Hanukkah.  Happy Solstice.  And happy ANY holiday you may celebrate this time of year. And whether or not you have a holiday to celebrate this week, I wish you the utmost love and joy. I’m off for at least the next few days, to...
The kid who will never start a business…

The kid who will never start a business…

By the end of the conversation, I’d was sure he’d never start a business… The other day, I met someone, completely outside of a work context.  I happened to be with a friend who is also deeply involved in entrepreneurship and business-building.  And soon our three-way...
Stop calling yourself a copywriter

Stop calling yourself a copywriter

I’ve been in the copywriting game for almost 15 years now… I’ve been a marketing employee who does copywriting. I’ve been a freelance copywriter. I’ve been a copy chief and supervisor — recruiting, hiring, and firing copywriters. I’ve written about and taught...
What’s next for BTMS?

What’s next for BTMS?

What’s next?  In short: even more value… I’m putting even more time, energy, effort, and expense into creating more value for YOU in 2020.  But there is a catch, described below… Today’s article will be a little different. Instead of sharing a lesson or insight on...
Freelancers: Break out of the Upwork meat market…

Freelancers: Break out of the Upwork meat market…

“Copywriting is a now a commodity…” It was 2013. At the Marriott, in Stamford, CT. Across from the world headquarters of Boardroom, Inc., the legendary direct response company, founded by Marty Edelston, run with the help of Brian Kurtz (and many others), and top...

Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins [One Big Idea]

What’s the biggest thing you can do to achieve YOUR goals? That’s what this lesson is about.  From the MASTER of motivation, Tony Robbins. It’s another One Big Idea video, about his book, Awaken The Giant Within. I share a story about how I recently applied this...
Value first…

Value first…

What do you want in life? What do you want to get?  What do you want to have? How rich do you want to become? Have you ever thought about — really focused on — how you can get all those things your heart desires?  How you can get all the stuff you want? STOP. No,...
What to do when clients don’t pay… [8 strategies]

What to do when clients don’t pay… [8 strategies]

This is part of why I started requesting 50% of my fee BEFORE starting work… I remember reading about this from both Gary Halbert and Dan Kennedy, very early in my copywriting career. Both had worked with very entrepreneurial clients.  And the more entrepreneurial a...

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield [One Big Idea]

It hit me out of left field — I went from hyper-productive to PROCRASTINATION… And at first, I didn’t realize what was going on.  Then, I remembered a lesson from Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.  And I realized that in the One Big Idea from that book, I had my...
Spending crazy amounts of money to get a customer…

Spending crazy amounts of money to get a customer…

He was willing to spend $250 to make a $69 sale… That means that for every $1 he’d bring in, he was willing to spend almost $4 on marketing. And that didn’t even count his cost of fulfillment! This was a client of mine.  Not an investment newsletter publisher, but...