It pays to be scared

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One of the leading causes of death for professional skydivers, ironically, is the diver becoming too comfortable falling.

They become so comfortable they pull too late—or forget to pull their chute at all.

Another case.

One of the leading causes of death for professional freedivers is also becoming too comfortable (in the water). More specifically, too comfortable holding their breath.

Due to frequent practice of holding their breath, they become ‘immune’ to the negative feelings paired with a lack of oxygen.

They become so used to it in fact that it’s entirely possible for a diver to keep swimming, holding their breath comfortably and without any issues until suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, their brain shuts off and they lose consciousness altogether.

Both of these facts sound surreal and almost fake to the non-professional.

Yet we experience it everyday with everything we do.

I don’t fear falling when riding a bike anymore—while I used to be extremely scared to do so when I was younger.

Most people aren’t anxious 24/7 while driving. Hell, most experience drivers repeatedly doze off while driving, not even thinking about what they’re doing. Yet people who just started learning will tell you how scared they are—they couldn’t imagine NOT paying attention.

I once saw a documentary about snake venom.

And there are these people whose job it is to breed snakes and drain their venom to help with medicine and antidotes and whatnot. Extremely venomous snakes as well. It’s a dangerous job. One bite can kill you for good if you’re not paying attention.

There was this one guy working there we said, and I still remember this well, “The day I stop being scared is the day I resign”.

And it even happens in his profession where people stop being scared, only to doze off and accidentally get bitten.

My point is this.

The more used to get to something and the more experienced you become, the less you’re aware of the risks involved in what you’re doing.

This is also true for social media.

I used to post on Twitter religiously ever single day. During that time I’d often see people getting blocked, restricted, or outright banned indefinitely.

Yet for some reason I thought “this will never happen to me, I’m not doing anything wrong.”

What a young an naive person I was.

Just a while later I unexpectedly woke up to a notification telling me my account had been suspended. It can happen just like that—without you even knowing why.

In fact, the longer you stay, the more likely you’ll get banned, hacked, or something equally terrible happens to your profile.

Moral of the story: It pays to be scared.

So build your email list.

And if you want to know how I built mine, how I write my emails, and more importantly, how I get paid for doing so.

Then check out Email Valhalla here to learn more: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


It’s not the product, stupid

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Before I dive into today’s topic, I want to preface this with the following:

Building a high-quality product that delivers on its promises and leaves the customer with the feeling they got ripped off is essential.

That said.

The quality of the product, in 99% of cases, by definition, is never the reason why you’re not selling anything.

Simply put: people can’t experience the quality of your product (or lack thereof) if they didn’t purchase it in the first place.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, because I see it all too often how people build a product, write some ads, run those ads, barely get any sales, and go back to working on their product hoping a better product will fix all of their issues.

All of which couldn’t be further from the truth (again, don’t sell shitty products—but it’s important to know what’s causing your lack of sales).

The true issue, more often than not, comes from your marketing… more specifically, from the fact you’re trying to create demand that doesn’t exist for a product, nobody wants instead of channeling the demand that’s already there into a product people simply didn’t realize they wanted yet.

Big difference right there.

This doesn’t mean your product isn’t good. I’m certain it’s got its uses.

But nine times out of ten you’re highlighting the wrong features, solutions, and especially problems (I can’t tell you how often you’ll see people creating products looking for a problem instead of looking for a problem and creating a product to help solve it) associated with your product.

Long story short:

Find out what people want or struggle with, then communicate your product in such a way it’ll fulfill what people are looking for (this goes for every type of product or server, whether health, fitness, financial, technological, arts, hobbies, entertainment, or anything else for that matter—nobody buys a product that doesn’t look like it solves a problem or fill a need.)

I’ll go deeper into how to go about this process in my upcoming course all about writing and running profitable ads to sell your products and bring you consistent and reliable income.

In the meantime, if you don’t have a product of your own to sell yet, consider checking out one of my best-selling (and definitely one of the more expensive ones) courses, Product Creation Made Easy.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product


The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever gotten

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Yet it’s also the most overlooked, often thought of as “unhelpful”, and sadly not even considered to be “good advice” by most people.

Sucks to be them I’d say because there truly isn’t a better way to become a better writer—or a better anything for that matter.

See, this piece of writing advice isn’t just applicable to becoming a better writer.

No, no.

It’s applicable to every single thing you’ve ever done, everything you do, and everything else you will do in both the near and distant future alike.

This is the closest to a “Theory of everything” we’ll ever get.

Now, that I’ve got the preliminary pieces of warning out of the way, it’s finally time to share with you the best piece of advice you could ever get which, once again, can be applied to everything you can ever think of.

Yet, it’ll also be the most obvious and boring thing you’ll ever hear me say—probably to the point where many people will dismiss it altogether, only to go chasing newer, shinier, and cooler (yet a whole lot less effective) ways of improving at their craft; only to end up asking themselves why they’re barely making any progress after putting in, what they claim to be, "tons and tons” of effort.

The golden piece of advice?

Here it is, exactly as it was written in the gem of a book, “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser:

“You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it’s true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.”

I told you it was boring.

Yet I’ve never heard better advice than this, nor do I think I’ll ever hear something better in the future.

But so it goes for everything else you do in life.

For example.

It’s been the exact same for me recently when I got into the world of creating and running ads online.

My first ad was shit. My second one was shit. And my third one was shyte.

But the fourth one?

Also shit.

It wasn’t until I got enough practice in. Learned what makes people click, what makes an ad demand attention, how to get people to finish reading the ad, click through on the offer, match the landing page to the ad, make sure there’s enough hurdles for the customer to jump through (to pre-qualify them so you don’t end up wasting more money than necessary), but at the same time limit the amount of hurdles so you don’t scare away the good customers, and much much more.

Sure I devoured everything I could get my hands on when it came to creating ads.

But none of it would’ve mattered if I didn’t get my hands dirty and experimented dozens of ads to compare what worked (and what didn’t).

True knowledge can only ever come from practical hands-on experience.

Which is why I’m putting a heavy emphasis on practical experimentation in my upcoming course all about how to successfully run ads that get you paid, while making sure those “practice ads” remain as cheap as possible so you’re not punished simply because you want to learn.

But more about my course in the future.

For now, if you’d like to learn how to write daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, a practice that’s invaluable if you combine it with the power of running online ads to sell your products and grow your list at the same time, then consider checking out my flagship course Email Valhalla.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Do not run ads if you’re not getting paid

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Imagine if I’d ask 100 people the following question:

“Should you run ads if those ads aren’t making you any money?”

Now, I’d imagine all 100 of those people would answer “no”. You’d probably give me the same answer (at least I hope you would).

But then you look at what people are doing, and boy it’s a mess out there.

The amount of people who are running ads to their free lead magnets, straight to their opt-in page asking people to join their (free) email list—without making any upsells or qualifying their readers—or, and this is the worst of all, asking them to follow their social media page.

See, I get it.

The thought process goes something like this: “Me want make money. Guru says build following with big numbers. Me run ads for big numbers. Big numbers give me money.”

Although I might have explained the thought process in too much detail and made it too complex to follow—especially for the types of people who follow that type of thought process.

That said.

I hope you can see the issue. If not, let me explain it to you step-by-step.

Let’s say you are in fact running ads straight to your free lead magnet. You probably already understand the importance of building a list and good for you. But you clearly misunderstand what it means for a list to be “high-quality” (spoiler alert: big numbers isn’t it).

In this case, you’d be building a list filled with people who only joined your list because of the free stuff you were giving away.

The result?

You’ve got a list full of freeloaders and tire kickers, none of who will ever pay you a single penny, no matter how good of an offer you make them. They simply won’t pay and they won’t care.

(This is the same reason why you never run “Engagement” Facebook ads if you’re hoping to get some sales—you’ll only get people who like, comment, and follow everything they see, but never, ever buy something. But that’s another story for another time.)

“But Alex, I’ve seen plenty of famous and well-known entrepreneurs such as Russel Brunson, or big multinationals run ads “selling” free stuff”.

Do you have the same budget they do? Do you know your numbers as well as they do? Have you been in the game for as long as they have?

No?

Then stop comparing yourself to them. They’re quite literally playing a whole other game than you are.

The point is this.

Ads are an incredibly powerful (and surprisingly simple) tool you can use to build an effective, consistent, and reliable business. As long as you’re using them to to get clients or sell your offers.

In fact, I find them so useful myself that I’m building an entire course teaching you how to write, run, and profit from ads in a simple and straightforward manner—specifically focused on creatives and those who work in the entertainment industry.

I’ll let you know more about this course later, so definitely keep an eye out for this one.

It’s going to be worth it, I guarantee it.


The most insightful off-the-cuff comment I’ve ever heard from a family member

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My sister came to visit yesterday and said something to me, totally off the cuff—I doubt she even thought about it for 2 seconds or pondered about the significance of what she said—yet incredibly insightful and meaningful if you truly look into it.

At least, insightful about how I approach business, personal matters, and literally everything else I do in life. As biased as it may sound, I also think this is the superior way of working, experimenting, making progress, approaching every problem and obstacle you’ll ever face, and generally living life a productive, meaningful, and successful life.

What was it that my sister said to me?

Well, before I get to that, I’ll have to give you a bit of context first.

See, I’ve always believed that, at least for me, the most important task(s) should be done first thing in the morning. Whatever my top priority is at a certain period in life, that’s what I should be focussing on immediately when I wake up.

As of late, that priority was more often than not writing something, whether a sales page, an email, a digital course, or a book I’m working on.

Early 2021 to 2022, that would’ve been going to the gym.

But a few days ago I came across someone (can’t remember who it was) who talked about the benefit of going on an hour-long early walk first thing in the morning, preferably before the sun is up so you’ll see the sunrise during your walk.

So that’s what I did.

As for how well it’s fairing, no idea, I’ll have to keep on doing it for a few more days to adapt to this routine and see how it compares.

Anyhow, I told my sister this and she replied (translated & paraphrased) “You’re always living the extremes, aren’t you? One moment you’re on a walk at 6 am, the other you almost sleep until noon”.

Now, the waking up/walking part isn’t what matters here; instead, it’s the “living in extremes”.

It’s incredibly insightful and absolutely true.

I love experimenting with how I approach life and fill in my day, partially because I haven’t quite found my ideal and optimal way of life yet (who truly has?) but also because, as I’ve heard Alex Hormozi once say, who probably got if from someone else, who got it from someone else yet again, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”.

Now I don’t often listen to Alex Hormozi anymore, but this little jingle is something that stuck around.

If I commit to trying out some new thing, whether that’s learning a new skill, building out a new offer, or even trying out a new daily routine, I’m going to give it my all.

No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

This, however, also means that whenever I give something my all and it doesn’t work out, then I’m completely burned out and need some time off to recharge—meaning I’ll wake up at noon and do nothing at all for a day or two,

In other words.

I’m, as my sister correctly stated, always living life in the extremes… and I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today, nor can I go to where I want to go (at least as far as I know, because who truly does?) if it wasn’t for this specific way of life.

This is also why people who ask me whether it’s good enough to email their list monthly, weekly, or worst of all, whenever they feel like it, will never truly be successful with their email marketing practices.

Email is something worth doing, so treat it like a priority and take the time to do it well (read: mail every single day).

Anyway.

If you’d like to learn how to come up with and write daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


How this world-famous film director got good without going to film school

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I was watching an interview with Christopher Nolan on the ReelBlend podcast the other day.

One of the most interesting things Nolan said was how he didn’t go to film school.

Just imagine that. One of the biggest, best, and definitely one of the most popular, directors currently around. Yet he didn’t go to film school or any other form of formal training in the art.

Instead, he simply got in there and started practicing making films at an early age.

Nolan was seven years old when he first borrowed his dad’s Super 8 camera to play around with.

He loved watching other films, thinking about the narratives, and just indulging himself in the world of cinema.

But that’s not where our story ends.

Christopher Nolan isn’t the only person where this is the case. Coincidentally, another big industry name who works closely together with Nolan, and someone who, as you may (or may not) know, I can’t seem to shut up about, also didn’t have any formal training.

More specifically, Hans Zimmer.

Zimmer never went to music school. Instead, he used to play in rock/punk band when he was younger and loved to improve music on the piano or create his own compositions.

Now, this isn’t to say the only solution for you is to start young.

Maybe it is if you want to compete at the highest level of Hollywood. But I’m guessing that’s not your gig. And it’s not mine either.

Instead, I want you to realize the importance of going out there in putting in the work. Getting the practical experience. Getting your hands dirty so to say. You don’t have to get some formal schooling to be good at your craft (this isn’t medical advice).

I don’t care how if you’ve gone to business school, med school, music school, or no school at all.

The only thing that matters is how often you’re practicing your craft.

And that’s one of the many, many, seriously many, reasons why I recommend you and everybody else to start mailing daily and start doing so today. The amount of growth you’ll experience is almost unfathomable—both in personal ability as well as in business and revenue growth.

You don’t need to go to email or business school to get started.

But getting a quick 1–2 hour introduction to point you in the right direction never hurts.

With that said.

Check out Email Valhalla to learn the foundations and avoid the early pitfalls so you can focus on getting in there and getting that practice starting today.

Here’s the link for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


A brontosaurus’ email writing masterclass

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What's a writer's favorite dinosaur?

A thesaurus.

Now, this silly little joke won’t land me a Netflix special together with Dave Chappelle. But it more than fulfilled its purpose.

What was the purpose of my silly little joke, you ask?

To continue reading this email.

See, whereas the subject line of the email serves the one and only purpose of making people open the email (unless you’ve already established a relationship with your reader—at that point, the subject line matters a lot less than the “from” line), the opening line instead serves the one and only purpose of getting people to read the second line, and then the third, the fourth, the fifth, and so on.

Now, there are many ways to write great opening lines that make people continue reading.

One of which is to be different than every other email in your reader’s inbox, to say something unique, to be entertaining even and make them smile—or at least chuckle internally.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there.

You’ll want to follow up your email with something education, informative, inspirational, or anything that gives your reader the feeling of being worth their time—simple entertainment won’t have people coming back for more every single day after all.

The simplest way to do so is by tying the topic of the opening line to a useful lesson or insightful anecdote.

After that it’s simply a matter of connecting everything together and packaging it up into an enticing and simple-to-follow call to action.

So if you enjoyed this mini-masterclass in grabbing attention (and keeping it) when it comes to email writing, then you’ll want to check out my flagship course Email Valhalla which will teach you all about how to write emails that get you paid while keeping your readers reading day after day.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Why I don’t use lead magnets (for now)

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First and foremost: I just plain don’t like them.

Not just as in "I don't like using them to build my list" But as in "I don't like other people's lead magnets".

Meaning.

I might like certain people's content and would happily opt-in to their list. But often the only way to opt-in is to first download their lead magnet—which is extra friction and makes me less inclined to opt-in.

Why?

First, I simply don't care about your lead magnet and have no need for whatever it’s trying to teach me.

So forcing me to download it?

Nah.

Second, most lead magnet landing pages don't talk about what happens afterward.

How many emails will you send me? What are they like? What will you talk about?

Are you even going to send me regular emails?

And god forbid if the only way to read their emails is to go through a "10-day email course" I don't care about, forcing me to wait 10 days before I can read your (daily) emails and actually keep up with what you're doing on a daily basis (which more often than not is a lot more entertaining and interesting than the email course itself).

And yes, yes, maybe I might just be a special snowflake in this regard

Obviously, every market, niche, and person is different.

But these are mine.

And because I plain don’t like lead magnets, it would make negative sense if I made my (future) readers go through the same process I dislike.

On another note.

Most lead magnets only attract broke people and freeloaders—you don’t want those on your list. You want people willing to invest, willing to buy what you offer, and willing to engage with your stuff and work towards a better future.

That’s a high-quality list and one that’ll get you paid by selling products, landing clients, or both.

Speaking of getting paid.

Consider checking out Email Valhalla if you’d like to learn how to write daily emails that get you paid Alex Style.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


This email contains an incredible tip to guarantee people will read your emails

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And I mean truly incredible.

But at the same time so simple, so easily overlooked, and not to mention how extremely underrated it is.

In fact, I’ll probably get some people laughing at me because of it.

But really, sometimes it’s just that simple.

Want to know what the tip is?

Well, it’s the simple “This email contains …” subject line.

It’s easy, straight-to-the-point, and effectively attention-grabbing—especially if you combine it with some of the other 11 attention-grabbing principles and subject line types I teach in my flagship course Email Valhalla.

Speaking of which.

If you’d like more information about Email Valhalla, check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


When 2+2 doesn’t equal 4

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A while back I came across a Ted Talk by famous film director, screenwriter, and producer, Andrew Stanton, who worked on films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Up, Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Coco, and many, many more.

Long story short: he knows what’s up. He’s a master of his craft.

One of the storytelling devices he spoke about is, what he calls, The Unifying Theory of 2+2—where, when telling stories, you don’t simply give the audience the answer.

So instead of giving them 4. You give them 2+2. The audience wants to work for their meal; they just don’t want to know they’re doing it.

Basically, don’t tell the audience everything that’s going on.

Give them just enough information that they’re able to put the pieces together themselves.

If you’re writing a character in a story who’s running late for a job interview and has to wait for the bus.

Don’t make him say, “That damn bus is always late. I’m never going to get to my job interview in time.”

Make him pace around nervously. Have him look at his watch repeatedly and wipe some sweat off his face while adjusting his tie.

He’s in the same scenario, but it’s so much more enticing to watch. The audience has all the necessary information to deduct what’s going on.

Make your audience invested.

Now, you might be thinking. “That’s great, Alex. But I’m not a screenwriter. I just want people to buy my products.”

And that’s great.

See, this simple Unifying Theory of 2+2 works for everyone, even for you (regardless of what you’re selling or which market you’re in).

You might expect me to give you an example right now as to how I’m using it or how you could be using it for your own business. But I’m not going to give it to you.

You’ve already got all the pieces to figure it out for yourself.

So why don’t you simply head on over to the following link and, do whatever makes sense: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla