Why I’m such an “insensitive” rat-bastard…

In came a “question” from a reader RE my last email titled: “How to sell supplements during the Iran war…”

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Wow dude I get you sometimes make your emails about recent news/developments but profiting off people dying in Iran? That’s a bit low and also generally insensitive.

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!!!!!!!!!!

Rarely am I lost for words…

But I genuinely just don’t even know what to say to this.

There’s so much wrong in that reply I don’t know where to start – perhaps with the assertion that I’m somehow “profiting off people dying in Iran”

My question is…

How?

How am I profiting?

I literally DO NOT even sell anything. Well I do sell my Email Storyselling services…

…but those are not available for you to take me up on now anyway.

So I genuinely made – and will make – a grand majestic total of…

ZERO dollars from my previous email.

Secondly…

What’s “generally insensitive” about my email?

(I’m assuming that’s what he meant because he was a bit too vague here.)

Is it insensitive to talk about… the reality? Is there not a war going on right now? Do only news outlets reserve this special privilege to even mention that FACT?

And aside from the Subject Line…

I didn’t even mention the war ONCE.

My email just talked about how people usually start behaving during times when tensions – geopolitical or not – are high.

(Especially after coming off a global pandemic, still ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East, the worst inflation run since the ‘80s, and ‘being left behind by AI’ doompilling spread by disquieting tech bros and their puppets called the media.)

My email was just there for YOUR – and my – edification (I also need to be reminded sometimes) about a slight change in the marketing approach.

But I don’t think you’re stupid – I know you understood what I meant and what my email is about…

I think you wrote that reply simply because you’re one of those people who believe the world should end and everything should stop…

…every time one of these big events occurs around the world.

So here’s a word of advice:

Focusing on news of wars is utterly unproductive – from both a business and especially a HAPPINESS standpoint.

Let me give you an example from the Russia & Ukraine war:

I remember this one lady – who I went to high-school with and currently owns/runs a hair salon – made this really REALLY long Facebook post about how “war bad” and how this “makes her sad” and even posted a selfie of herself looking visibly upset like she’d just spent the last 5 minutes bawling her eyes out.

It was as if she was going to go and jump off a bridge after she finished writing that Facebook post – that’s the impression I got.

And in true virtue-signalling fashion…

She did not include a CTA to book a cut/coloring/styling at her salon that day because it would’ve been “wrong” to sell/promote something when the world was oh-so clearly about to end and be reduced to atoms the next day.

Except… It did not.

The world moved on as usual.

I had to put down my cat last week after a grueling 3 month battle with cancer…

(That tells you how aggressive and malignant the tumour was when she only lasted that long – and that’s with me essentially operating as one-man hospice…)

Guess what?

The world kept going.

So I wager most people who had Ukraine flags in their bios or had some strong view one way or another…

…have probably long since moved on from caring about it.

They’ve proceeded to go back to work… to BUY things… to SELL things… create things, build things, and keep the global economy moving otherwise.

Trillions of dollars have been made, by individuals and businesses alike, since those events – they just kept doing what they did.

(The stock market achieved a 122% cumulative return – or 13.8% CAGR per year – over that time. That’s well above the long-term average of 8-10% annually. Make of that what you will.)

So if you’re sitting there staring at news of things you can’t control and telling yourself that – this time – it’s the end and we’re all doomed, and it’s gloom and it’s joever and that we should up and stop doing anything…

Then you’re misusing your life.

It’s hard to accept this – because you’re biologically “wired” to be terrified of existential threats…

(And the fear-mongering shit you see on almost EVERY social media certainly doesn’t help – and I get asked why I’m not on any…)

Therefore you have to take deliberately engineered action to alter your behaviour to NOT fry your brain.

I.e. block all those websites and simply show up to work on your business each day, regardless of how you feel about these events.

And guess what happens when you do that?

You’re going to be a stratospheric distance away from everyone else who is just losing their heads at these things.

Frankly, my angry reader?

I have no idea how you are still in business to begin with harbouring this cognitive framework…

Perhaps that speaks levels to how good/competent/skilled you are when you built your supplement brand up to what it is today…

…with your own disposition actively functioning against you.

Maybe that’s not what you wanted to hear – maybe you just wanted a fight…

But a fight is what I won’t give you.

I don’t do fights.

They’re unproductive, drain energy, and rarely lead to something of worth – this newsletter is here to help you turn your email marketing into the “X” factor of your business…

The sports nutrition industry is as cutthroat as it gets – so you need some kind of an edge against the competition…

What I send out – every single day – here is supposed to help you achieve that…

…EVEN IF you may not like what you read every day from me.

However…

That’s actually where you’ll learn THE MOST from.

Smart people learn from everything and everyone, ordinary people from their experiences, and stupid people already have all the answers.

(Thank you for that valuable maxim, Socrates.)

So the next time you plan on sending a reply akin to the one you sent to me?

Think about what you’ve read here.

And hey, if you just CAN’T get over yourself and my emails just simply grate on you…

Well… you can always just click that unsubscribe button at the bottom.

(Although don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Everything that’s a good idea for one person at a certain point in time, is a terrible idea for someone else.

This is partly the reason why I don’t believe my Email Storyselling methodology will ever catch-on like wildfire and infiltrate every corner of the sports nutrition/supplement market.

(Wouldn’t that be nice 🤑)

And frankly?

EVEN BETTER!

The few of us who do – the Email Storysellers – will simply make out like bandits due to less competition.

The late great Charlie Munger – also one of my biggest idols/mentors in life – once said how the secret to success in any business is not intelligence/expertise/competence…

…but rather poor – or a complete lack of – competition.