Social media gurus would have you believe paid traffic is “cheating”.

Which is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.

It can work miracles for you and your business, making it so you can infinitely scale your income, as well as saving you tons and tons of wasted time in the form of manual labor.

Which brings me to a question I’d like to ask you.

Have you, by chance, ever thought about running your own paid advertising or would you consider experimenting with ads in the foreseeable future? Or maybe you’ve already experimented with running ads and/or are still doing so as we speak.

Let me know by replying to this email.

I’m working on something you might find incredibly exciting if that’s the case.

This Sunday was election day for every Belgian adult with a right to vote.

Three different elections took place actually. A local vote, a vote deciding the national government, as well as a vote deciding who will be elected to the European parliament.

And before you click off, let me warn you that I won’t get all boring or political in this email.

Quite the contrary, in fact.

There’s something extremely interesting and valuable that took place in our national election. Something I doubt many people would even think twice about, but yet it happened right there, under everyone’s noses, plain and simple for everyone to see. And it’s one of the most valuable and practical persuasion lessons I’ve seen in a long time.

To give some context:

Here in Belgium, we have the option to vote on one of the 7 different parties (there are a few other smaller parties to vote on, but these are the major ones), depending on their agendas and whichever we like most. As in most first-world countries, gender and sexuality have become quite the popular topic and one of the major points of discussion among the people. So naturally every political party had to take a stand on it and voice their opinion and how they’ll act on this whole shebang.

Naturally, the people who care about this are the loudest group in society.

Resulting in something an overrepresentation of that group in society, leading to the fact that, one by one, every single political party shared how much they care about gender and sexuality, how much they’re going to aid and support the LGBTQ…+ community, even going as far as stating they’ll reform education plans as early as kindergarten to teach kids all about it.

Well, all political parties except one, that is.

Out of the seven (7!) there’s only one party that dared to voice their distaste of what society has become with the gender-and-sexuality movement, saying there should be no place for “gender propaganda” in kindergarten, or any other level of education for that matter (and rightly so).

Even more.

The better part of our entire media landscape is against that particular political party, actively trying to undermine them, make them look bad, digging up dirt wherever (and however) they can, going as far as almost boycotting other people or parties to support them, in short, doing whatever they can to make them as weak and tiny as possible.

And yet.

After the results of the election came in, they secured a tied first place in the national election.

Regardless of what your takes are on the gender discussion, there’s a lesson to take away from this story.

And that’s not to be afraid to voice your opinions, stand up for what you think is right, and dare to fight the crowd.

Who knows, maybe you might just end up winning an election.

Even if you’re not planning on running in any election. Voicing your opinions, and daring to fight the crowd is an immensely powerful way to strengthen your bond with your fans and repel everyone you don’t want, nor care about—leading to a much healthier and higher quality audience (as well as a lot more profits for your business).

If you’d like to learn other persuasion principles to increase your business’s profits, especially through (email) writing, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalfrom

Yesterday I had another long walk scheduled.

More precisely, I mapped out a nice relaxing route, mostly through parks and the occasional forest where I live. The total length was 30 kilometers—that’s about 18.5 miles or around 16,745 refrigerators for the hamburger people—and would take me about 7 hours to complete, including the occasional eating or toilet break.

And so I went on my way in the early afternoon.

It all started well. Amazing scenery, great weather, no prediction of rain at all that day, sunny and warm, but not too warm that I was sweating all the time. Everything was just right.

An hour into my walk I ended up in one of those small forests.

I looked at my phone to figure out my directions, and Google Maps told me to turn right, over the bridge to cross the river, and continue walking in the same direction.

Except…

There wasn’t a bridge in sight.

I went back and forth a few times, thinking I must have passed it somewhere and it might be hidden in between some bushes. But no luck.

Luckily, the river was small enough for me to consider just jumping over it. It was a big enough river to make it a challenging jump, but the ground were I was walking was also a bit higher than the ground on the other side, so I had some luck there.

After a (rather short) bit of thinking it over, I decided to just go for it and jump over. With all the sports and physical activity I do, a little jump over the river shouldn’t hold me back, should it?

Anyway.

I got ready, took a step back to get myself a running start, and just went for it, not thinking about the consequences at all.

Luckily I made it over the river, all in one piece, and without getting wet.

Except, I now found myself a foot deep in what apparently turned out to be a wet and barely solid underground of mud (which wasn’t clear just by looking at it). So much so that I actually lost my shoe right after I jumped and tried to continue walking.

So there I was, happy that I made it and didn’t get wet, yet my feet, shoes, and bottom of my trousers were covered in mud.

Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from jumping over rivers—I’d happily do it again. But this experience did bring up a good point… No matter how much you prepare, or how well you plan everything out, there will always be stuff you didn’t (or couldn’t) account for that’ll mess up your plan and alter the course you’ll have to take.

Luckily, as the great Matt Furey used to say “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer”.

Read it again and think about why that might be the case—powerful stuff.

And that’s why I’ll highly recommend you to check out Email Valhalla so you can learn how to write better emails that’ll get you paid (and so nothing bad will ever happen to you).

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

For the past week, I’ve been back on track, writing more than I have been in quite a while.

More specifically, I’ve been working on what will most likely become a physical book, with the preliminary placeholder title of “How to Make Writing Fun, Simple, and Enjoyable (while writing faster than ever before)”.

It’s been a lot of fun, so far (meta, right?).

But the whole premise got me thinking: What does it mean for something to be considered “fun”?

For starters, and contrary to popular belief, if something’s “easy” (that is, entirely without a lack of challenge), then I’ve got it on good authority it ain’t going to be a “fun” experience. There’s simply nothing LESS FUN than boring activities.

This is what many of these “I want to sit on a beach and drink pina coladas all day” types of people miss.

They only say such stuff because they currently aren’t capable of doing so (as humans we tend to want the things we cannot have—such is the cruel way of life). In fact, if they could, chances are they wouldn’t even want to. Maybe you’d enjoy it for a day or two, sure. But after three, four, let alone a full week, you’d be entirely sick of it and you’d crave for some challenge, some excitement in your life, something to dedicate yourself to and actually work on achieving something worthwhile and meaningful (what’s considered meaningful differs from person to person).

But what does this have to do with writing?

You see, if I could hand you a cheat sheet with the exact steps to take, the exact actions to make, and the exact buttons to press (such a cheat sheet doesn’t exist, but let’s assume it does), then writing for you would be the most boring task you could think of.

It’d be monotonous, repetitive, factory-like work which, no matter how much results or how good of an outcome would come of it, none of it would bring you fun, much less true joy.

So, if making the practice “easy” doesn’t do the trick, then what will?

Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about—intensely. And I finally figured it out.

See, everything that’s fun can be boiled down to 2 ingredients.

And once you know these two it’s easy to inject them into almost every single activity you do (making it so you can turn almost any activity or experience into one that’s as fun as it can get).

Imagine how much more work you’d get done if what you were doing! You wouldn’t even consider it “work” anymore at that point.

So what are those two ingredients?

Well, to figure that out you’ll have to buy my book when it releases.

Until then, why don’t you check out Product Creation Made Easy? I’m using almost the exact same method I teach in there to write (and eventually launch or publish) the book. I say almost, because as with anything, there’s always room for adaptation and improvisation—which I show you how to do in the course as well.

Anyway.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/product

Contrary to popular belief, Nero, one of Ancient Rome’s most notorious and infamous emperors nowadays, wasn’t hated by the people.

Stronger yet, he was actually very much loved by the citizens of Rome—until the whole “killing his mom” and “building a giant golden palace in the middle of town after a fire—which the angry mob later, wrongly, accused him of causing it—destroyed most of the city” fiasco happened.

Still.

The people used to love Nero.

He was very entertaining, quite caring, and extremely outgoing. In fact, he was so outgoing he regularly gave theatrical performances where he would play the lute or act out a whole play (in a time when actors and artists were regularly considered to be on the same level as prostitutes and slaves).

Naturally, the Roman aristocracy hated him for doing such “foolish” and “low-status” activities.

But nonetheless, he definitely had the love of the common man.

Thing is, Nero didn’t actually care that much what others (especially the aristocracy) thought of him. In a way he was a real goofball, did what he wanted, regardless of what the shnobs thought of him, and enjoyed the company of others (and their praise). He wasn’t

Quite ahead of his time if you ask me.

Anyway.

This goes to show you how there’s a formula you can follow to be loved and adored by people, regardless of the difference in your station or upbringing (assuming you don’t happen to kill your mother, your step-brother, two of your wives, and a whole load of other people just because they said something you didn’t like).

The formula in question?

Be a goofball. Talk about your passions. Embrace them. Do your own thing—your way. And learn to enjoy the company of others while showing interest in who they are and what they do.

Which brings me to my point of today’s email.

I already talked to many people on my list. But I’m not even close to having spoken to everyone yet.

So here’s a question for you today:

What kind of business are you running? Or if you don’t have one yet, what are you (hopefully) working towards?

I’d love to hear more about your situation and how it’s going.

And if I already know because you’ve told me already, then message me again and tell me how everything’s been for you and your business since the last time we spoke.

Just hit reply.

Once upon a time, I received the following email from a long-time reader who got his hands on my Product Creation Made Easy framework (and who prefers not to share his full name):

===

I have a couple more items to go but just wanted to let you know that I've had a number of 'a-ha!' moments.

Favorites include: Prevalidation and minimal viable product and ideation.

Another thing that I personally appreciate is that it's not spread out in 50 modules. This hits the important things and gets me started – great for busy folks like me.

So far – easy 5 star product.

===

I’m partly sharing this to boost my ego and tell you about my confirmed 5-star-worthy product and how it helps people create profitable digital products in 21 days or less from start to finish—that is, from ideation, all the way to launch and beyond.

But that’s not all.

More importantly, I’m sharing this to show the importance of knowing who your customers are. In my case, that’s, more often than not, busy folk working a job, taking care of their kids or other family members, while using almost all of their remaining hours to work on their creative passions and build something that’s uniquely theirs.

More.

Whether you’re writing a book, recording an album, working on a video game, running a fitness business, tending to your garden, improving your cake-baking skills, or getting your digital marketing agency up and running (all of which are real examples of people I spoke with on my list)… When creating a product, any type of product, a written digital course, a mentorship program, poetry, a card game, or a limited-time small-scale rollercoaster experience in your backyard, when creating such a product, all the principles are—and will always remain—the same.

Now, some guru’s or experts you follow might not like to say or hear this.

But that’s only so they can feed (and sell) you the same crap over and over again by disguising it as somehow “being different” or “only working in this market”.

Which is nothing more than a pile of crap.

Everything inside Product Creation Made Easy is as evergreen as it gets. It’s always been useful, it will always remain useful, and it’s as applicable in your market as it is in the next guy’s.

The only downside?

There’s no hand-holding or spoon-feeding.

I give you the tools, the reasoning, the examples, and the know-how to create your next (or even your first) profitable digital product in 21 days or less. But I can’t create it for you. That’s something you’ll have to do yourself.

It’s as they say, you can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Anyway.

Here’s the water, go and drink some: https://alexvandromme.com/product

Last week I wrote an email where I talked about how I had a cool and exciting offer for people who owned an email list of 500 people or more.

I received quite a few responses.

Some big lists, some mediocre, and some merely passed the requirement.

But I also received a few responses from people who didn’t yet meet the criteria—either because they only started their list recently or hadn’t started at all yet, but were interested in starting soon.

I always encourage people to respond and love getting to know my readers better and more personally, so this was a welcome surprise.

That said.

I understand the struggle of people just beginning on the journey of creating and growing their email list.

See, I’ve been there, and let me tell you… It ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s hard to get started. Truly difficult work.

Not only because you’re not sure what to write about, when to write, who to target, and why you should even bother (since nobody’s reading your stuff anyway—yet). But also because there’s a dozen bazillion ways to do everything, everyone gives a different answer (and everyone who says their method is the best is full of crap), and you feel lost and alone in the jungle of possibilities, afraid to even pick something and give it a go.

I’m not kidding when I say I could count the people who read my first few emails on one hand.

It feels like a lost cause at first.

But, as with anything in life, at first you suck, you discover 100’s of ways to create something that’s hardly indistinguishable from real-life horse crap, and then slowly, but surely, you learn every single way there is to create said crap, that the only thing that’s left for you to try will result in you creating actual good stuff.

Although…

There’s no reason for you to go through it all by yourself.

Why not get the help from someone who’s been there, who tried all the ways to create horse crap? Someone who knows the way and who’s there to guide you.

And, well, that’s exactly why I’m here.

In fact, for the next 24 hours only, I’ll do something absolutely incredible. Something I probably shouldn’t do. Something any single business mentor or coach out there would curse at me for because it’s that much of a steal, but I’ll do it anyway, simply because I care and I want to give back to you and help you as best as I possibly can.

So with that out of the way…

Anyone who buys Email Valhalla in the next 24 hours will also get a free (Yes, totally FREE!) 30-minute call with me one-on-one where I’ll help you get started, show you how to get the most out of the course, give you the best ways to ways to grow your list, write your emails, sell whatever it is your selling, and make sure you’re on your way to building a great successful business (and everything will be personalized and tailored to your business, your market, your audience, and your preferences).

Long-time readers know I barely do consultation calls anymore (it’s been months since I did any) and when I do they’re about as cheap as a white guy’s sense of rhythm (that’s to say, not cheap at all—some people paid $500 for an hour of my time).

So I’m not exaggerating when I say this is an absolute steal.

Anyway, if you’d like to buy Email Valhalla and grab your free 30-minute consultation/implementation call, then buy Email Valhalla here in the next 24 hours: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

PS: People who previously bought Email Valhalla can also hop on this offer. Simply reply to this email to let me know you’re interested and I’ll get back to you.

Instead, more often than not, it’s about how you paint that offer.

Sure I could tell you about how I’ve got a 12-module course that’ll teach you the ins and outs of product creation, without any of the laborious and time-consuming task of doing interviews, surveys, or any of the nonsense ‘market research’ methods.

I could go on and on about how every module is written with simplicity and clarity as the main focus. And how it takes less than 3 hours to go through while covering all three different phases of developing and selling a new product (I.e., ideation, creation, and launching) without leaving not a single important detail behind—yet still making it so easy even a 10-year-old could do it.

I could say that.

But would that be as impactful as telling a story about how almost everyone who went through my course, no matter their skill level, whether they were a course creation master, or had no prior experience creating any kind of content whatsoever—let alone having written even a single article anywhere—and applied my teachings told me how much they learned from the course… and more importantly… how fast and easily they made back their initial investment ten times over.

I’ll take my chances and say that way of saying it would have a bigger impact.

Anyway, why we’re on the topic.

Why don’t you check out my Product Creation Made Easy framework out?

Click this link for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product

But before I can share it with you, here’s some context you need:

See, if you’ve been on my list for any reasonable amount of time, you’ll probably know I’m big on bouldering. I try to go bouldering at least once a week… unless I’ve got injuries and my physical therapist forbids me to.

Anyway.

Last week I finally got myself a hangboard—a wooden training instrument with specific sized holes to train yourself to hang on to small ledges with anywhere from all 5 to 2 fingers per hand.

A great and useful tool.

In my case, I mounted it above the door of my room where I work, read, sleep, relax, and more than occasionally waste some time—I’m in there a lot.

I also enter and leave a lot, whether it’s to get something to drink, to eat, to go to the toilet, to go on a walk, to the gym, talk to people, whatever it is.

So my new lifehack?

Simple.

Every time I either enter or leave through my door I have to use the hangboard at least once.

It’s the easiest thing ever. It takes all but 5 seconds and it’s always “on the way” to whatever I want to do.

The result?

I get tons of practice and training in without even thinking about it, let alone even realizing I’m “training”.

Now I don’t know how this might be useful in your life, but what I do know is that you could use this same strategy to force yourself to write a small opening line (or a subject line) to an email everytime you think of an idea and want to write it down.

You want to write it down anyway, so why not practice creating more curiosity in your writing?

Anyway.

Another way to learn how to create more curiosity in your writing and improve your persuasiveness is by checking out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla