Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

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Building a 3-hour-a-day business requires you to be productive.

And there’s no shortage of people on the internet who think they’re productivity experts just because they wake up 2 hours earlier and take cold showers. Yet these people also share all their rules and guidelines as pure fact.

Which results in an overload of awful and terrible advice for anyone wanting to actually be more productive and build a better daily routine for themselves.

Think about morning routines for example.

People will tell you to wake up, take a cold shower, skip breakfast, walk a marathon, take another cold shower, go to the gym, take another cold shower, meditate, do your gratification journalling, walk your dog, hop in the sauna afterwards, and finish it off with yet another cold shower session. And only then should you start your work day.

Don’t get me wrong. You can live your life however you want. But actually think about whether the advice other people give is beneficial to you.

One such things that I don’t see get spoken about often enough is the effect of personality on your ideal routine.

Here’s the thing.

Most people will tell you to do your work in the morning so you’re done by noon. Yet most of those people are introverts.

Why does that matter?

Well here’s the thing.

Imagine you have to split up your day into 2 different phases: the social phase, and the alone phase.

If you’re an introvert—meaning social interactions drain your energy—then you’d want to make as much use of the morning as you can before you drain your energy by attending meetings, getting on calls, or simply engaging with others.

So you’ll do your most important work early in the day, and the social stuff later in the day.

Yet that’s not the case for an extrovert.

These people get their energy from social interactions. If you’re an extrovert, you’ll be better off leaving your most important work for later in the day and scheduling the social interactions early, giving you a boost in energy, making it easier to get into the flow and be productive later on.

The great late Stan Lee had a routine like this.

He’d wake up and immediately go to meetings, meet up with people, make plans about future publications, get all the social stuff over with, and then only at 4 pm would he sit down and do his writing for the day.

So the next time you hear productivity advice without any context.

Think about it. How does your personality affect your optimal routine?

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P.S. Whenever you’re ready. Here’s how I can help you:

1. Hop on a Clarity Call with me: Remove all of your uncertainty. Get clear on what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how. Let’s get you on the right track to achieving the freedom you deserve.

2. Work 1-on-1 with me: We’ll determine where you stand and where you want to go. Then we’ll devise a roadmap to get you from A to B. And we’ll work on getting you there in the next 60–90 days.

3. Check out my products (free & paid): Ranging from every resource I ever read to everything I know about content creation. It’s all waiting for you to claim it. Start your journey to financial freedom the right way.

I wrote an article about the top 3 tips to pump out more content than 99% of creators 2 weeks ago.

Since then I’ve kept getting asked questions about my last tip. The one about listening to music while working.

More precisely.

I mentioned how I choose 1 specific piece of instrumental music and put it on a 3-hour loop. Many people read this and thought it had to get boring or distracting after a while.

But my own experience has taught me the opposite.

Whenever I hear this piece of music my mind immediately knows it’s work time. As if I’ve trained myself to relate this specific sound to a productive state.

Now whenever I turn this on, it’s almost impossible for me not to get shit done.

Even more.

I can keep on going for hours since there’s no distraction. The music becomes a trance-like background noise which helps me stay focused. So focused in fact that I don’t even recognize it most of the time if I’m really into my writing.

It’s only whenever a song ends and a new one begins or a specific piece of music suddenly changes dramatically that your mind perceives it as a distraction.

Remind yourself that this is for instrumental music only. Any music with lyrics or some sort of chanting in is automatically distracting because your mind will unconsciously try to understand what’s being said.

With that said, I don’t have a specific offer for today.

All I have to say is to think about the arguments I gave. Think about my experience and try it out for yourself. Select a piece of instrumental music, put it on repeat, and see what happens during your working sessions.

And if you don’t know what piece of music to select or you just want to know which one I use.

Then here’s the one I’ve been using for 90% of the time as of late: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1DhwM014vU

You know the drill.

I don’t enjoy writing these super short and straight-to-the-point “watch out for the deadline, little one” emails.

But apparently, they help remind people, often letting me know how thankful they are for it.

So with that said, let this be your reminder.

The price of Email Extraordinaire is increasing in less than 45 minutes from now.

Get it here for the way-too-low price of $49 while you still can: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

P.S. Make sure you follow these steps:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before tonight, December 1st at midnight CET (that’s in less than 45 minutes) to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code allows you to get the course at the original price until tonightt)

Here’s the link once again: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

2 years ago, when I was still a full-time university student with not a single dollar to my name, I was given a particularly challenging assignment.

Not challenging in terms of “Oh my god I don’t know how to do this.” But challenging in terms of “I sort of know how to go about it, but they’ve given me way too much time to get it done”.

I can’t explain everything about the assignment, I signed an NDA after all—super cool, right?!

But this was the gist of it:

A local bank we worked with gave us access to a dataset of people who applied for a loan between 2014 and 2018. The dataset had all kinds of information, ranging from where they lived, what type of household they were a part of, how much they earned, how much they were looking to loan, how long the loan would be, some more stuff I won’t bore you with, and the most important one, whether they fully paid back the loan in time or not.

Based on this the task was to create a machine-learning algorithm that could predict how likely it’d be for new applicants to pay back their loan.

So everyone got to work.

Except I of course. We had two months to complete this assignment, so why would I start now?

That’s just stupid, right?

Yeah, that way of thinking was stupid.

Turns out learning all the intricacies of how to build such a model and train it properly takes a while. I didn’t know that when I started this assignment the weekend when we had to finish it.

Yeah that’s right.

The deadline was Sunday at midnight and my dumbass started it that Friday.

Needless to say it didn’t go smoothly.

I didn’t do anything else except work on this single task for 2.5 days straight. I had to drop a bunch of stuff that I wanted to test and add in order to save time and get it done on time.

That said, I did work with an intensity and focus that I’d never seen before—those so-called ‘deadline superpowers’.

Anyway, long story short.

I did everything, including documenting everything I did and my reasoning for it in a 5-page paper, and finished right on time.

And when I say ‘right on time’ I mean, 11.59 pm when the deadline was '11.59 pm’.

So while you could say that I did succeed and so there’s nothing wrong with procrastinating because those deadline superpowers will come and save you.

Well yes, in this case, kinda.

But it would’ve been nice if I started earlier and had more time to do what I wanted, deliver a better product, and get better grades overall—with a lot less stress and pressure.

Also, imagine if something went terribly wrong. What would I have done then?

Anyway.

Why am I sharing this?

Well, tonight’s the deadline to get my Email Extraordinaire before the price increase.

And I’d advise you to be on time.

I get messages every single time I do a promotion or a price increase. Messages from people who tell me that their card isn’t working, they aren’t home at the moment, or their dog at their wifi, or some other just plain that they forgot and the deadline has passed.

And every time I try to help out as many people as I can.

But once the deadline is over that’s it. I won’t make any exceptions. Not even if you reached out to me before the deadline. I’m doing you a favor to help you out. If you decide to wait until the last possible moment to get out your credit card and buy the product, that’s on you.

Don’t blame it on me for not assisting you fast enough.

So take this to heart and please for the love of both you and me. If you want to get the product, please do it now and don’t wait another 4 hours.

Here’s the link by the way: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

P.S. Make sure you follow these steps:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before tonight, December 1st at midnight CET (that’s in 4 hours) to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code allows you to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

 

Today’s the deadline to purchase Email Extraordinaire in time for the 100% price increase.

And if there’s anything I learned in my 11 months of online business so far, it’s that people like fast and simple.

So here’s my fast and simple summary showing you only a handful of things you can find inside Email Extraordinaire:

• The greatest superpowers of email you need to understand to realize that email is forever and how learning this one skill will be beneficial to you for life no matter what direction you’ll grow in—and why there's nothing else that comes even close to it

• An easy step-by-step guide showing you how to create your very first email list/newsletter within the next 10 minutes after getting the product

• How to create your very first welcome email to help you set the tone, build an immediate relationship with your readers, and keep them coming back for more

• 6 of the best methods to grow your list and get hundreds of news subscribers monthly whether you just started or have a list of 5000 readers already

• How you can become better than 95% of people telling stories without having to spend months or even years practicing (and why it matters)

• The invaluable power of telling great stories and how you can use those to almost guarantee you'll make a sale regardless of what you're selling

• The secrets to writing high-quality subject lines that make your reader feel the need to click on them without even knowing why they feel so attracted to do so

• How to keep your readers engaged and force them to keep reading regardless of whether you're writing a 219-word email or a 1,739-word email

• 7 of the best and easiest ways to monetize your email list today that'll make it impossible not to earn back the investment of this product in 30 days or less

• The #1 email copywriting technique you need to get people to become emotionally invested in what you have to say and make a sale every single time you write an email

• A list of all the different approaches you can take and how to execute them regarding the frequencies of your email so you can make this work even if you don't want to send daily emails

• My revolutionary new email strategy combines the best of both worlds of long-form weekly emails and short-form daily emails allowing for the most optimal results with relationship building, sales, gaining authority, and growing your list

• The 10 holy and lesser-discussed email commandments you need to follow to ensure that you'll make more money than you could ever imagine

Finally, you’ll also get the opportunity to gain access to a bunch of other secret offers of mine such as a Secret Module titled How To Run Special Monthly Promotions To Make A Metric Crap Ton of Sales as well as a 1:1 offer which I don’t sell, nor advertise publicly. (and then some)

So that’s my quick summary.

To get Email Extraordinaire before the price increase you’ll have to get it today.

Here’s what to do:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before tonight at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code allows you to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

It’s been close to 10 months since I first spoke about bananas on Twitter.

Since then I’ve slowly been adapting it more and more into my brand and who I am as a person/persona.

And yes people online are personas, no matter how you look at it. You could be the most “authentic”, “honest”, and “true to yourself” person on Earth, yet you still portray a persona at all times.

Both online and in person.

But anyway that’s a topic for another time.

The point is. The banana is still raging strong to this day.

In fact, just the other day, I got sent a DM on Twitter from Joshua Snitgen, a digital nomad and email marketing agency owner.

The DM in question?

A picture of a mini banana his hotel gave him, as well as the banana wallpaper in his hotel room.

It doesn’t just end there though.

No no.

I regularly get free engagement from people spamming bananas-themed gifs, pictures, jokes, and outright bizarre messages on all of my content.

I even get harassed by so-called banana supremacists calling me out to be a fake banana emperor because I’ve never eaten a red banana—or any of the other 20+ varieties of bananas that exist, yet aren’t available to me as a European living in Belgium.

Needless to say.

I’ve created something special here. Something powerful. Something unique.

A place of belonging for my audience, as Dan Kennedy would call it. Or if you’re more of a Ben Settle fan, I’ve applied sociological world-building to my business.

Now, it doesn’t matter exactly what both of those mean.

What matters more is what they get me.

So? What do I get out of creating this literal banana cult?

I get a world of my own in which people immediately recognize where they are, where I’m unforgettable, and where it’s impossible to compete with me. People are so in love with being in this world that they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. They’re eagerly awaiting the next banana reference, the next inside joke, or the next product to be released, waiting to pull out their credit cards and happy to buy whatever I created just because it’s part of this world I—we created.

Now this whole topic is gigantic and too much to unpack—although I’ve got future plans of creating a full-sized product just about this topic.

But what I can already tell you is that almost none of this is possible without the power of my email list.

It serves as the hub of everything I do and everything people relate back to me.

So if you’d like to build your own world, your own empire, your own place of belonging where you don’t have to bother dealing with competition and people are happy to buy everything you create.

Then the first step for you would be to get your email game up to speed.

Which is exactly what I teach in Email Extraordinaire.

You’ve got 12 more hours to get it before the price increases so you’ll better be quick and don’t procrastinate any longer.

To get the full details on Email Extraordinaire do this:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code gives you the opportunity to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

 

A few days ago Ben Settle, one of the greatest email marketers alive, wrote an email about something called a “Go To Guy”.

It’s a term he heard being used in an interview with Gary Halbert where Gary asked the following question:

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Imagine you needed a task done where the stakes are enormous. Literally if this task couldn’t be done, you would be beheaded, or your baby daughter would be killed right in front of your eyes, or some other horrifying thing where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

And let’s say you don’t even know what the task is.

You just know it has to be done and you have to pick someone else to do it, and are not allowed to do it yourself.

You also don’t know if it’s a big task that takes a year and requires multiple deals and connections… if it means traveling across the world and hopping across multiple continents… if it requires lots of physical strength… or even if it means committing some kind of violence or outright killing someone (or several someones).

In that situation… who you gonna call?

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And this really got me thinking.

For one, I don’t think most people have a “Go To Guy” that comes to mind. The first things that came to mind were close friends or family members. But even then, most of them are more a “someone-who’d-do-some-more-effort-to-help-you-out-as-opposed-to-someone-else guy”.

Not exactly the same thing, are they?

Needless to say. I wouldn’t know who to call.

Maybe you do. Or maybe you know some people, fictional or not, who would be classified as “Go To Guys”.

What I know is that this could be an ideal to strive towards.

Not in the “oh yeah that guy likes to get his hands dirty” type of way. But more in the “That guy hasn’t ever let me down and I trust in his ability to get shit done with every cell of my body, regardless of how much shit hits the fan” type of way.

I hope you get what I mean.

Call me crazy for thinking like this, I don’t care. But that simple email turned into something that keeps me going.

Anyway.

While I couldn’t think of my own examples of a “Go To Guy”, let alone someone I know.

I do know a “Go To Resource” when it comes to learning how to write daily entertaining emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day—even if you randomly feel like talking about “Go To Guys”.

Which you should already know is an extremely biased opinion of mine, simply because it’s my own course which I’ve been heavily promoting for—almost—2 weeks now.

But I still stand by what I said.

I’ve obviously taken other email courses before. And I’ve rarely seen one executed correctly.

That’s something I wanted to change, and something I DID change, with mine.

Don’t believe me?

Check it out yourself at: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

P.S. I’m doubling the price for my course today at midnight CET.

To get the full details on Email Extraordinaire do this:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code allows you to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

Last month, daily email reader, fellow creator, and productivity queen, Elle Cheron, posted this tweet on her timeline:

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Deleted 136 people from my email list.

Why?

They didn't open the last 20 emails.

You don't need inactive subs.

Clear your list.

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And yours truly just had to pitch in.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to throw any shade on Elle or make fun of her in any way whatsoever.

She’s building something truly incredible and there’s so much both you and I can learn from her.

And I’ve spoken to her about this exact topic before, to which she listened open-mindedly, willing to learn more—a skill that seems to be rare nowadays.

Anyway.

While it’s true that you don’t need inactive subs. This advice—which I sadly see everywhere—of “kick the inactive readers off your list” is the worst action you could possibly take.

Some people even recommend having “re-engagement” emails where you’ll send automated emails to people who haven’t opened an email of yours in the last 30–60 days asking them to click a link if they’d still like to remain on your email list—which might be even worse.

The thing is.

None of this works the way you think it does, and it does more damage than it does good.

Truth be told, I used to do the same early on.

I probably kicked over 400 people off my list in total.

But that was a big mistake.

Open rates are highly unreliable (they can’t be trusted at all, trust me) and there's a good chance you're kicking people who read every single email.

I’ve made multiple sales to people who ‘supposedly’ only opened 5% of the total 100+ emails they received so far. How could this be?

Did they only open 1 in every 20 emails? And just so happened to read a wonderfully written email that got them sold on my products?

No of course not.

Here’s what happened: While their open rate might be 5%, their click rate was close to 100%.

Meaning?

Those 5% of “emails they opened” only registered because that's when these people clicked a link, something which is a lot more reliable—but still not 100%.

Now I’m far from an expert on email deliverability & tracking.

But I do know why, how, and when people buy stuff. And so I also know how to make money. And let me tell you that “kicking people because they don’t open my emails” is severely hurting the money you’re able to make.

So for the love of everything that’s bananas, stop kicking people off your list for that specific reason.

Does this mean you shouldn’t clean your list?

No. Far from it. You should clean it. But not like this.

You should clean it in ways that actually help you make more money, not less. Which is something I talk about in Email Extraordinaire.

Beware. It won’t be flashy, it doesn’t use any automation tricks that the big email service providers (who have no idea how to get paid writing emails) suggest you use. But it will work wonders, and it will make you more money.

So if that tickles your fancy, then learn more here: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

P.S. I’m doubling the price for my course tomorrow, Friday, December 1st (that’s in exactly 24 hours)

To get the full details on Email Extraordinaire do this:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code gives you the opportunity to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

A few weeks ago, I received the following testimonial from a long-time, daily email reader, customer, and independent game developer, Aaron.

Here’s what he said:

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Alex delivers gold nuggets of information and inspiration every day. I enjoy his authentic, direct perspective. He is really passionate about what he does. Walks the walk and puts in the work to grow.

When I first started on Twitter, I signed up for many copywriters’ email lists because who better to learn from than them. Over time, I vetted out creators like Glenn, Tatsuya Thomas, and Virgil Brewster. While keeping Kieran Drew and Alex.

Can't wait to see where he goes.

===

I can’t wait to see where this goes either.

I’m sharing this 1) to casually flex an amazing testimonial and encourage you to send me one as well, and 2) to dispel an immensely popular false belief I know most people suffer from.

A popular false belief that’s holding so many new creators back.

And that’s believing that you have to be some giant, well-known creator. Almost a larger-than-life character. Look at that last line of the testimonial again. “I vetted out Glenn, Tatsuya, and Virgil. While keeping Kieran and Alex.”

Kieran Drew aside, all of them are almost 5x my size if you’re talking sheer follower numbers on Twitter.

If you’re talking widely known/recognized, they’ll probably be 10, maybe 20 times more successful.

And good for them.

They know what they’re doing, they’re putting in good work. And they deserve it. And yet, they still didn’t make the cut when it came to who Aaron wanted to keep receiving (daily) emails from.

That isn’t a coincidence.

At the time of writing the testimonial, Aaron had already read over 160+ emails of mine. Glenn wasn’t doing daily emails back then as far as I’m aware. I doubt Tatsuya and Virgil were already doing daily emails back then (around June) but I might be wrong.

The thing is.

If you know how to write daily entertaining emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading, then your size doesn’t matter at all.

You don’t need to “offer value”, “engage 8 hours a day to grow 10k followers”, or do any of the stuff your mindless Alex Hormozi or Dan Koe fanboys would tell you to do to build authority.

All you need is to show up regularly in your readers’ inbox and you’ll immediately build a relationship.

There’s nothing more intimate than showing up in someone's inbox every day.

Glenn himself agreed when he told me, “I position you above people with many x your following because of your daily emails,” (paraphrasing).

Which brings me to the following.

I’m doubling the price for Email Extraordinaire tomorrow, Friday, December 1st.

I’ll teach you exactly how to go from zero, not having written a single email before, to hero, being positioned and chosen above other people 10x your size all because of your ability to write simple entertaining emails that keep your readers reading every day and get you paid.

To get the full details on Email Extraordinaire do this:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code gives you the opportunity to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

I’ve been reading George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones.

I first heard about it from Ben Settle, one of the greatest email marketers alive, who called it “one of the best biographies ever to come out that should be a must-read for everyone who does business.” (I’m paraphrasing).

And I must say it’s an amazing read and I highly recommend everyone to pick it up for themselves. Especially if you want to make something big and something worthwhile.

But more importantly, if you want to build something that’s truly yours.

Anyway.

As I was reading it a few days ago I came across this perfect passage. It’s something George Lucas said after a bunch of critics (who have no feel for the outside world and the common man) gave the first Star Wars an awful review, calling it the “infantilization” of film.

One critic even said, “What happened with Star Wars was like when McDonald’s got a foothold; the taste for good food just disappeared.”

Here’s Lucas’s response:

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“Why do people go see these popcorn pictures when they’re not good? Why is the public so stupid? That’s not my fault. I just understand what people like to see”

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Which brings me to my point.

Don’t get angry if your audience doesn’t “get” what you’re doing. Or it doesn’t see the value in what you’re promoting. It’s not your job to convert them—not directly at least.

It doesn’t matter if you know what your audience needs. They’re like a dog who needs to take their medicine. They won’t have any of it.

So what do you do?

You wrap it up in ham.

You need to understand your audience. To know what people like to see. Then give them exactly that.

And only then, can you give them what they actually need. By including the solution to their problem in the thing they wanted.

This is the same with email marketing.

And I’ll teach you exactly how to do this in Email Extraordinaire so people will start craving your solution. To the point where they take out their credit cards before you even mention buying anything.

Enough about this.

Click here if you’d like to learn more: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL

P.S. I’m doubling the price for my course tomorrow, Friday, December 1st.

Here’s what to do:

1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase

2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase

3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout

And make sure you see the price change before entering your info

(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code gives you the opportunity to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL