Last week I sat down with my phone in my back pocket. I cracked the glass over one of the camera lenses. I had to get it fixed.

I’m not a huge phone guy.

I don’t keep social media apps on my phone. I’ll install them for a while to check ads and then I remove them again.

Apple Notes, Google Maps and Spotify are the apps I open most. My phone screen time is often well under an hour a day.

And so I never feel the need to have the latest phone. I’ve bought my last few phones, refurbished from Swappie. I think it’s a great company.

But I still want my phone to work.

I hate when things don’t work and I hate having to connect different systems together. I think this is left over trauma from previously owning loads of old synths and music equipment. From the pain of trying to get them all to operate together.

So I only buy iPhones because they easily connect to my two MacBooks.

I guess this is all a long way of saying I have an iPhone 13. Lol.

Still, I had to get the camera fixed.

I brought the phone to a small repair shop in Marseille just behind the Vieux-Port. The guy told me he could fix it “no problem.” It would take an hour and cost 39 euros.

Perfect.

Except, after I walked out of the shop, I realised I had no way to tell the time and no cash to buy anything.

I don’t normally bring a bank card around with me. I take out a little cash each week for coffees and other small purchases where shops in France won’t accept card. For everything else I use Apple Pay.

It’s early July and it was hot, bright and sunny.

I found a little square with trees and some benches and sat down and zoned out for a while. I read a little of a French novel, going over some of the parts I had translated the last few days. I watched some guys teaching a group of kids how to do Parkour.

After what felt like 30-40 minutes I got up and started walking back to the store.

I made my way through some of the shopping streets in centre ville Marseille. I spotted a shop selling watches. Great, I can check the time.

However, when I got to the window, every watch facing the street on display was at a different time.

Maybe if you’re into watches you can tell me this is normal. But it seemed crazy to me. Why try and sell a watch that’s not set to the right time!

I walked off confused.

Two minutes later I saw a Swatch shop on the other side of the street. I crossed over to check. Every watch facing the street on display was at the same time. The right time.

Ok, some people may laugh at Swatch as a brand. But compared to the other watch seller it was obvious which one was more ready to make a sale.

And this got me thinking.

Just that morning I had decided to make myself look more professional for my copywriting. I’d bought a domain, set it up with a paid Google Workspace account and added this Substack to the domain.

I was glad I was more like the Swatch shop. I was ready for an opportunity that might walk past me.

And I also knew I had ten minutes to get back to pick up my phone.

This piece is rambly and somewhat personal.

Like a lot of people focused on improvement I like to keep consistent in my daily actions.

But as I’ve mentioned before, according to the astrology of Myers-Briggs, I’m an ENTP. This means I can be a little fleeting and impulsive. And so doing exactly the same thing at the same time everyday just doesn’t work for me.

Trying to keep to a regimented regime takes up so much of my energy that after a week or so I don’t get halfway through a day before it’s all gone to shit.

It’s why I don’t like offices and could never join the army.

But I also know that just following any impulse and not having consistency is deeply unsatisfying. So I focus on some core actions that need to be done everyday (except Sunday, which I have off). Even if they’re done in random orders at random times and in random places.

I tend to wake up early. I like the mornings. Sometimes it’s 5 am, sometimes 5.30 and even a little after 6 when I’m feeling fruity. I don’t use an alarm.

And that’s how today started. Pretty normal.

Except I had to make a phone call back home to my family in Sydney. It was personal and I won’t bore you with the details except to say it went well and there was good news.

Afterwards I was relieved and had a swim.

But I couldn’t get my day going. I had YouTube on. I scrolled Twitter. I got bored of both and put on a podcast. I checked emails. Then I drank another coffee and farted around some more.

Basically, I did everything you shouldn’t do on a Monday morning. It got to lunch time and my mind was a pile of drivel. I was frustrated.

What I needed was a reset.

So, I made a simple plan.

First, I identified one thing that was the most important thing to get done, and decided I was going to complete that.

I then looked at all the other things I was working on and decided how much of each was going to get done, even if it was only a fraction of the way to completion.

Sorry, you’re going to have to bear with me here. I don’t like writing in those “list” ways that people often use to give advice. Obviously, I find them easy to follow along, but I also think they’re counter to how the mind actually works. The mind is much more tangential. It often takes a “scenic” route rather than the most direct path. Like this article.

Back to the plan.

Once I had the list ready I broke nearly every rule and put my most important task third.

And step one was kind of big: the actual reset.

I tidied up and washed the dishes and vacuumed. Then I walked down to the Med for a swim. After I got back home I did a workout of core exercises followed by a routine of isometric leg holds. Then I showered and shaved.

I did them all unrushed. I took my time. Plenty of breathing.

I listened to spaced out synth music.

Then I wrote in my diary by hand. This was step two. I focused on ideal me, ideal actions and brought them into the present and aligned them with my plan for the day.

Done.

Now for the single important thing I identified for today that had to be complete. To write an article for Substack. I had no idea what to write. So I’m writing this.

Next will be a simple admin task. Proof of identity loaded onto a platform I’m doing some work for. Should only take about five minutes.

After that I have some more French Bureaucracy I have to do. They are relentless here. I remember from my days as a history student learning that the person who began the modern French bureaucratic state is Napoleon. You can see an army generals’ hand everywhere in this goddamn system.

However, I’m only going to complete the first five steps out of twenty-four for this procedure I need to get done. I got ChatGPT to break the whole process down into steps with only one action per each stage along with a link of where to go and what documents I need. This is something I love AI for.

Step 6 on my list is to do 60 minutes research for an email campaign I’m working on. It’s client work but it’s also speculative. It’s not 100% accepted to progress. But I want to get ahead and be ready in case we get the all clear.

Then it will 60 minutes divided between some translation of a French novel followed by copying out of a classic ad by hand — as advised by Gary Halbert.

And that’s it!

Some PS bullets:

• I’ve posted this article after the full schedule got done. What I think was most important was to first make the plan and then have the reset actions. Once I’d tidied up, swam, worked out and then showered and shaved, each of the other steps just flowed easily.

• This was NOT a perfect day. Instead, it was a day that got saved from being completely unproductive. One important win and a bunch of minor wins. I followed the philosophy of consistency - even if imperfect.

• I think it’s a valuable lesson for people like me who work for themselves as freelancers. Some days by nature have no immediate client work due. And they can be easy to let slide. But keeping the ball rolling on everything means I can sleep well tonight.

• Many days we can feel like we’re in a rush. And this can be double compounded by having an “off” morning. But today, after the reset, I just moved slowly and deliberately, and followed each step in the plan. It was well after dinner by the time I finished.

• After my swim, in the middle of the reset, I did the most ridiculous thing. I walked past the best gelato shop in Marseille and had “une boule de chocolat dans un cornet.” It was a delicious detour.

• Portugal is about to play Spain in the World Cup. I can watch the game with some peace of mind.

I can’t believe I’m talking about BAP again. Two days in a row.

It’s kind of risky.

This is a public facing platform for me. One that I let prospective clients and other copywriting opportunities read.

I’m not writing anonymously either. Aidan is my real name (after my grandfather on my Mother’s side).

And BAP’s a very divisive figure. Admitting that you’re a fan of him in polite company could get you into a little or even a lot of trouble.

Especially with deranged, blue-haired, online addicts and other commies.

But perhaps there is an upside too?

BAP is polarising. Openly liking him could both scare away the type of clients that are not right for me while also attracting those that are a good fit.

After all…

Part of my shtick is to not have boring advertising in general and god-awfully-dull emails in particular.

Having a target market often means also having to know the market you don’t want. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Because that’s the fastest way to end up boring.

So, what does BAP have to do with learning?

Well a lot if you like history.

But for today, I just want to briefly mention one little nugget of insight.

BAP has often spoken about how when you want to learn about a complex thinker, such as an ancient philosopher, it may be better to read one of his students or disciples first.

The reasoning is simple.

The disciple will have a good understanding of the master. But their own work and writing is nearly always a simplified version of the teaching.

It may lack some of the profundity but it can be more explanatory and easier to grasp.

BAP himself always claims that he is only a Nietzsche populariser. And having studied both, I can agree that BAP is a good entry into Nietzsche.

And this is where Ben Settle and copywriting comes in.

I’ve had Gary Halbert’s The Boron Letters book for quite some time. I got it back when I was still a recruiter and looking for ways to improve my messaging.

I read it and I liked it.

But only after diving into Ben Settle’s work did The Boron Letters start to make more sense to me.

Ben is a huge fan of Halbert and has him on his Mount Rushmore of copywriters.

And I could see through Ben’s work how a book about direct marketing and copywriting from 1984 made sense in the age of the internet.

I just finished re-reading The Boron Letters again.

This time everything was jumping out of the page at me.

Despite its very simple style, I could see just how deep the teaching really is.

I like BAP.

He’s not for everyone. I can understand that.

But he makes me laugh.

And I find the class of online people that think he is some kind of blend of Satan, Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan to be hilarious. I mean, he’s just some guy that writes and talks online.

That’s just the internet I guess. People love to yell and scream.

However, if BAP is your thing, then his broadcast radio show Caribbean Rhythms is some of the best history and politics infotainment going round. The delivery, the weird and obscure topics and the constant “attaqs” on his throat are all great fun.

Interestingly, BAP and Ben Settle (my favourite email marketing gooroo) both love Michael Savage. Personally, I’ve never listened to Savage. I was never much of a talk radio guy and I’ve never lived in the USA.

But it’s always curious to me to see how people I follow online in different ‘corners’ of the internet trace their influences back to the same sources. Maybe this just says something about my taste.

Anyway, what the hell does all this have to do with AI and marketing?

Well, yesterday, I posted about my own disappointment when going down a Carl Jung rabbit hole and having my YouTube feed become clogged up with AI generated content.

And then today I saw the below note in the TLDR marketing newsletter. You can read the article here.

I don’t think I need to trace over old ground. Except to emphasise that real people are not taking to AI content. And the big platforms are aware and making moves to stop the flood.

But this all got me thinking.

I remember listening to one of BAP’s Caribbean Rhythms shows a while back where he talked about AI. He made a good point that I think is relevant to marketers in general and email marketers in particular.

BAP’s point was that a lot of what was out there before the AI slop revolution wasn’t much better than AI anyway. Many people and brands were just putting out low effort work and copying what everyone else was doing.

Basically the opposite of being original or unique or interesting.

Which still has to be the major thing AI seems to be incapable of. I mean how could it be original? It’s literally just a model trained to spit out versions of what’s already been done by a actual humans.

I’ve signed up to many a company’s email list. 99% or more look identical to each other. Same subject lines, same content, same ideas.

And all of them boring.

As BAP says, it’s like they’re no different than AI.

Apparently my Myers-Briggs personality type is ENTP.

Now, not everyone holds much value in personality types like Myers-Briggs. I’ve heard it called Astrology for smart people. I think that’s a pretty funny line.

Yet, Myers-Briggs can be useful.

You don’t have to take it as Gospel. Instead, it can throw up ideas on how to manage your own behaviour.

As an ENTP one of my key characteristics can be excitement and bouncing around getting interested in all sorts of topics.

Some people might call this ADHD but I’m unsure if that has as much value as astrology either.

But I do tend to like learning about new things. And I can get excited. And sitting in the same place for hours and hours on end was always hell for me. Hence why I never liked working in an office.

So, whether Myers-Briggs or ADHD is only just astrology or not, I still could learn from them.

When it comes to working I’ve found that just moving around throughout the day makes me way more productive. 30 minutes at my desk, then a stretch. An hour lying on the couch typing drafts then make coffee. Back to the desk for editing. A quick walk and a swim. Then 90 minutes sitting at a cafe with my laptop.

That kind of thing.

I’ve also found it very helpful to have core activities that must get done everyday. Perhaps not at the same time in the same place. But everyday regardless. Exercise, writing, French novel translation etc etc.

I just be consistent in doing the right things. And I track them each day by hand too. Some in a dairy and others on index cards blu-tac’d to the wall.

It might sound crazy to some but it works for me. I tend to get a lot done just by making sure I work on the most important things every day.

Now the Myers-Briggs types are based on the work of Swiss psychologist and one time Freud protégé Carl Jung.

And as a good little ENTP, a while back I got interested in Jung’s work.

A shiny new piece of information to learn about ;)

ENTPs love to learn and that has always been the case for me. I’ve always been a reader. When I was a kid I’d sometimes just sit and read the encyclopaedia we had in the house.

But again, over time I’ve learnt the best way to manage this “impulsive” information seeking style.

I know that even though “new and shiny” was exciting, if I just stayed shallow on every topic I’d get dissatisfied. So on stuff I really liked I’d go super deep.

And the best way to find out what to go deep on was to try different things online. If I become actually interested in a subject, then I’d start buying books on it.

I really do love a physical book. I could go on and on about them but perhaps I’ll save that tangent for another day.

So, where were we?

ENTPs and Carl Jung.

I started by just watching longer presentations about Jung on YouTube. This was a while ago and I have since bought some books by him and his disciples.

However, over time, I started to notice that Jung himself was becoming a hot topic on YouTube. Any kind of ‘get to know yourself better’ philosophy always seems to be popular.

However, this was around the time that AI was breaking out big time.

And I started to see more and more obviously AI created videos. Most were short, yet many were long too, even up to three hours! But the voice over was very obviously AI and so was the information.

Similar videos on Jung and other related topics started to fill up my YouTube homepage.

I found it annoying.

There is something very unsatisfactory, I think, about AI generated content. Like it sounds great to begin with, but it quickly tires the mind out. A bit like sugar.

By reading the comments on these videos it became obvious that it wasn’t just me getting frustrated. Regular everyday people (or normies as they say online) were feeling ripped off by all the AI created videos.

And YouTube itself caught on. They started labelling videos as AI generated. I also heard that many were being demonetised.

Fair enough I reckon.

See, from 2020-2024 I worked in an AI software company (before this current LLM gold rush). They did social media management for large brands. AI was the central part of the tool.

And I myself was someone that early adopted AI into my work and life. I almost immediately stopped “googling” things and would instead ‘Perplexity” something (Perplexity was reading the net for answers before ChatGPT).

They’re very handy tools.

But I’ve never trusted them for writing. It’s hard to explain why except to say that the writing never sounded right to me.

And a while ago when people were saying that LLMs were gonna kill copywriting I knew this would be a good time to get into it.

My simple plan was I’d jut write like a human, warts and all.

I knew that the LLMs had their limitations from my long exposure to them. I’d seen all the comments on Youtube.

And now that I hear of kids and students doing all their assignments with AI I’m doubling down on human intelligence writing.

But it still seems like AI and copywriting is a hot debate online. Many copywriting job ads I’ve seen want people that know how to use AI to speed up their work. My guess is that writers who over-rely on AI though, will start to lose out over time. Subscribe to follow along and see if my bet is right or not.

P.S. My internet is down and the guy who came to fix it looked for every reason he could to do nothing about it. That was yesterday and now he is not coming back again till tomorrow. I also can’t use my hotspot at home because the phone reception is too weak where my apartment is. LOL. But I was rereading the Boron Letters (the physical book). I like how Gary in one of the letters tells Bond to just to keep pushing on with his work regardless of his situation. Given that Gary was in jail while he was giving that advice seemed pretty relevant to me while “struggling” with no internet at home. So, I’ve been writing offline. And now I’m sitting on a old stone staircase in the 7th arrondissement of Marseille around the corner from my house where I get reception so I can post.

The other day I spoke about how a friend could be a good lead when looking for freelance work in copywriting.

And my friend came through for me. She can get my foot in the door so to speak.

But it will be up to me to do the rest. To sell my self to the people that are gonna make the decisions.

It’s not something I’m worried about.

Still…

I decided to sleep on it and went to bed.

This morning, after coffee, I went out for an early walk.

The ideas of how I was gonna approach them started flowing. I had more angles than I knew what do do with. My Apple Notes was full of thought bombs and half written paragraphs.

Eventually I said that’s enough and went for a swim and walked home.

But the problems started when I sat down to execute.

I realised that a lot of what I was going to do to sell myself was very different to what they were doing for clients.

And by very different I mean basically the opposite.

So I paused. I procrastinated. I looked for a different angle.

I went back and I looked at their site again.

I looked at the people working there.

When you’ve done recruiting the way I did for ten years you can get pretty good at judging a business. I might not always be 100% right, but most of the time I’m pretty close.

And slowly, I started to admit to myself, this place was not what I was making a change for. It was what I was making a change to get away from.

I went back to one of my handwritten notebooks.

I read over what I had written on the types of niches I’m interested in and the kinds of people I’d like to work with.

This place wasn’t it.

Yeah, I could do with the money.

But sometimes it’s better to pass up on trying to suck blood out of a stone just because you’re getting hungry.

I think tomorrow I’ll write more on what I am actually looking for. To help better crystallise it for myself. It might also be interesting for you if you’re in a similar boat. Follow along by subscribing.

The other day I shared an idea I had for doing some business development. Something to reach out to a prospect with.

When scanning the ads Meta was feeding me I got one from Qomfort. They make Birkenstock like footwear but are supposedly conscious in their approach. You know, pay people fairly, good materials. That type of thing.

I thought they would make a good potential prospect for me. It’s within a niche I’d looked into to do email copywriting for.

But after only a small bit of research I uncovered that they weren’t what they had advertised. They were just a drop shipper with ‘Made in China’ knock offs. Read the post I linked to above for the details.

However, it gave me an idea. I could approach actual legit sellers and show them how their email game was no different to a scam.

So, I did.

I’m not going to write it off as not having worked yet. However, I did have a thought this morning when I was out doing my road work.

I’ve been listening to Ben Settle’s now defunct Ben Settle dot com podcast on repeat. I’m on my third run through of the 100 episodes. It totals about 36 hours or something.

Ben’s great for stressing principles. And that’s an approach to learning that I like. Focus in on mastering fundamentals and I think I can go a long way.

But maybe I was missing one of his core teachings with my business development:

Sell to buyers.

Now the companies that I was reaching out to, they do collect email addresses and mail to them. So, in that sense they are a fair target for me.

But they’re emails just look like everyone else’s. Hence why a company like Qomfort would also have the same style.

And what is that style?

Subject line with X% discount. A reminder that time is running out. Very little text in the email itself. Just links and pictures of products they want you to buy.

Basically, it’s like they just Frankensteined a few bits of their website into an email.

Could any company doing that really be a good prospect for someone like me that is a copywriter with email being a core focus? A company that only treats email like a nice to have. One that just reappropriates web content and shares nothing original. Just another transactional style email trying to catch a buyer (rather than a customer) in the promotions inbox.

Probably not.

I’d have to educate them on how email can be different.

And if I have to educate them, then it’s not something they are already buying.

P.S. You can still find the Ben Settle dot com podcast on Spotify. All 100 episodes are there. It’s a great principled based yet entertaining way to learn.

P.P.S. But as Ben says, his work isn’t for newbies. What I am doing here right now though is for newbies. It’s just me documenting some of the things I’m doing on my way into copywriting. Subscribe to follow along.

When getting into copywriting, it’s hard to not come across someone recommending you to read Gary Halbert’s The Boron Letters.

It’s good advice too.

Literally one of the best to ever do it, teaches his son Bond, how to become a Direct Marketer. And it’s done in a series of letters that Gary wrote to Bond when he was in Boron Prison. So it’s also kind of cool.

Interestingly, the first letter has nothing to do with marketing or writing.

Instead, the focus of the letter is Gary talking about the benefits of what he calls ‘road work’. Sixty minutes a day, first thing in the morning, of simply walking.

Why would Gary suggest this?

Well, in the letter, the reasons given are mostly for maintaining good health. No need to explain further on that. We all get it.

But I think, there’s another reason.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

Frederick Nietzsche

My favourite philosopher, Nietzsche, was also a big fan of walking. But as you can see from the quote above, he is more explicit on its intellectual benefits.

Anyone that walks a lot, like me, will tell you there is just something about it that seems to generate ideas. It’s almost as if it gives your mind time to settle down and let your subconscious get to work.

And then boom.

You’re walking along and a solution to a problem just arrives whole in your head. Or a new idea for a piece of work.

It seems almost magical.

It’s been many, many years since I’ve had to work permanently in an office. My last two full time jobs were in fully remote companies.

But back in the days when I was in an office, I always found them suffocating. Especially when it comes to any kind of creative work or problem solving. I found the whole office environment very counterproductive for large chunks of my day.

For me, nothing beats walking around in the fresh air for coming up with ideas and solving problems when it comes to working.

And when that fresh air also has some greenery and the Mediterranean…

Ok, ok. This isn’t a Marseille appreciation post.

Back to walking and ideas.

The only thing you have to do though, when an idea comes while walking, is to take it down straight away.

Don’t think you’ll remember it. You won’t.

And that’s where the world’s best app comes in handy.

Apple Notes. I fucking love this app.

Each morning when going out for my ‘road work’ I’ll start a new note and title it with the day. "Sunday Road Work” for example. Then anything that pops up while I’m out walking around gets jotted down immediately.

Personally, I later transfer the notes by hand to a little notebook. But this might just be a personal thing.

The point is though, that it’s hard to be without ideas if you do your road work everyday.

P.S. I’ve also heard Ben Settle talk about walking and idea generation. He pumps out an email a day PLUS novels, books, paid newsletters, courses, software companies and god know what else. Walking works. As I’ve mentioned before, Ben’s teaching tends to be aimed at copywriters who are more advanced in their career. Or those that want to be clientless. But how do you get to that point? Subscribe to follow along as I try and figure that out.

I like Ben Settle.

I don’t know him and have never spoken to him. This is not a paid shill.

But for learning about copywriting in general and email in particular he’s a great source.

However, he may not float your boat. And he’d be cool with that.

He preaches against boring copy. As far as he is concerned, having someone be indifferent to your work is the worst thing that can happen.

And yep, he picked the “indifferent” thing up from copywriting in the dating niche for guys.

Maybe check a Youtube interview or something of him before diving in more. See if he’s your type of guy to learn from.

Personally, I look forward to the day where it will be worth it for me to sign up for his paid print newsletter ‘Email Players’. But he’d be the first to say I’m not there yet. I’m still too much of a newbie.

So, what the hell does all this have to do with a learning hack?

Well, he reckons that for any book or writing or audio that is valuable you should consume it at least ten times.

Yeah, you read that right.

Ten times.

So far, I’ve read his Villains book five times. His Copywriting Cribsheet book twice.

I’m on my third run through of his Ben Settle dot com podcast. There’s a hundred episodes of about twenty minutes each. That’s like 33 hours.

And I’m starting to agree with him on the whole ten times thing. Although, I could just be getting brainwashed.

But then that is kind of the point. If you go through something ten times you really get to know it. It sticks in your brain.

Plus, it will make you more selective about what you are going to consume. If you gotta do it ten times you don’t want to pick something just because it’s new and shiny.

Earlier, I mentioned I’m still too much of a newbie to sign up for Ben’s ‘Email Players’ print newsletter. I’m still trying to get from nothing to something. If you’re in the same spot then subscribe to follow along.

I’ve jotted down in a notebook a few niches that I’m gonna try and sell into.

You know, stuff that interests me or that I know something about.

One of them is good quality and well sourced basic clothes.

Maybe I’m a hippy or something, but when I’m not buying second hand clothes (Marseille is sooo good for this) I like to try and get nice quality plain clothes and underwear that isn’t made by slaves in a sweatshop.

And I’ve had more than one girlfriend that is really, extra, extra into this.

So I reckon I know something about it.

Something about the market.

Anyway, I got this meta ad the other day and signed up for the 10% off thing you get when you give them your email.

I’ve done this for a few companies and I get their marketing emails in my promotions.

With this particular new company, I was thinking I’d try and target them as a client. But when doing a little research to find the right person to reach out to, I got a little suspicious.

Long story short, they aren’t at all what they are advertising.

But then I had a brainwave.

The emails these fake scumbags were sending looked exactly like those being sent by the legitimate companies.

So I screenshotted my inbox. In the picture were emails from the scammers and the actual good guys.

I found the CEO of the not fake 3rd world style scam job and sent him the below email.

I’ve hidden the name of the CEO and his company from the screenshot, but everything else is exactly as I sent it.

Let’s see if I hear back from him ;)

Subject:

Did you want XYXYXY emails to look the same as a scam company's???

Message

Hey XXXX!

Yikes! Your email game isn’t much different to a dodgy drop seller.

Qomfort Co. are running Meta ads marketing themselves as conscious makers of footwear similar in style to Birkenstock for a fraction of the price.

But when I looked a little more into them, it’s obviously they are BS

• “Founders” Danielle and Imogen never share their last names and don’t exist on the internet - crazy for young female fashion founders to not have interviews and their own social pages etc

• They say they are HQ in Sydney, Australia but their site is registered in Wyoming USA, there is nothing in Australia.

• There is no LinkedIn or anyone on LinkedIn associated with the brand

• They look like they have thousands of rave reviews. But if you dig you’ll find unhappy threads on Reddit and videos on Youtube. “Made in China”, “slow shipping”, “bad customer service”, “poor quality”.

It must be annoying for legitimate guys like you to have to compete for ad spend with the likes of these types.

However, you can see from the screenshot of my inbox, that their emails and yours are basically the same.

Even if Qomfort wasn’t a scam, are you standing out in someone’s inbox with your current way of doing email?

You’re going to all the effort of collecting email addresses and offering a 10% discount in return.

But then you’re sending the same transactional style emails as everyone else.

If you’d like an option to think differently about email and how to make it stand out, let me know.

Aidan

on the med in marseille

===> email copywriter

PS I was born in Ireland and grew up in Sydney, Australia. I live in Marseille now but English is my native language.

PPS If you check me out on LinkedIn, you’ll see I was a recruiter for 10 years. And now you’re probably thinking: what the hell does this guy know about email? Well, I was what they call a headhunter. I didn’t run the job ads and scan incoming CVs. I went out and found highly in demand people (mostly tech roles) and convinced them to speak with me. Mostly by email and other text messages. Just trying to think of the amount of emails I’ve written makes me dizzy.

I made the switch to email copywriting this year.

The other day I spoke about Cold Approach for new business.

I think it’s just part of the game for someone like me that is starting out fresh in copywriting.

Suck it up but also try to enjoy it. That’s the way I look at it.

And I also spoke about my past working days in recruitment and how this has given me a foundation for going out and hunting.

But it does take patience. It can be slow as hell. Especially at the beginning when you’re learning as you go.

Anyone that has done any kind of cold outreach will tell you it’s hard.

Enter, what I am going to call, Social Circle game for new business.

Social Circle Game just means tapping into the networks of people you already know. Friends, family, former colleagues, acquaintances etc.

People who know you at least somewhat well. They know something about your character and what you are like as a person.

Such as, whether you’re cool or a massive prick. This goes a lot further than a lot of us think.

Also, they’ll have an idea about your general competency and reliability.

It can help overcome a lot of hurdles

Such as, the not having experience hurdle.

Yeah, that dreaded word for a newbie.

And you’re at least more likely to get an answer. Even if it’s still just no.

I did a little social circle game myself yesterday.

I remembered a good friend who worked in an agency. We don’t live in the same city or even the same country anymore. But I also knew she worked remotely. It could still be worth a punt.

So I hit her up.

It turned out she had changed jobs…

She was now a Creative Project Manager in a business that embeds ready made marketing teams into businesses.

And that they are looking for freelance copywriters.

She was even on holiday and still wrote back to me….

Decent lead off the back of a simple message. It took about 30 seconds and minimal brainpower.

Subscribe to follow along if you’re interested in watching someone try and break through the first few major hurdles when making a change into copywriting. It’s hard to find really good advice on what to do. A lot of it is people talking retrospectively.

The original typed version of a note I hand wrote into the first few blank pages of American Tabloid.

Dear Moon,

Happy Birthday!

On first glance, you’re probably thinking why they hell have I bought you this book. And that would be a justified thought for you to have.

However, I think that if you read it in the spirit it is intended to be read you may actually enjoy it. A lot even.

First of all though, let’s just say what this book is not.

It’s definitely not some masterpiece artwork to be admired. No, sorry, this is no highfalutin, curly-haired, private-school-boy, fag-fiction.

It’s not for guys into philosophy and Czech new wave.

You’ll never hear a girl with blue hair and hairy armpits ever talk about this book. Hell, you’ll probably never hear any girl of any type ever even mention it.

This book and James Elroy simply exist in a different universe.

Why?

Well, because this book is entertaining.

It’s fun.

There’s drugs and guns and sex and violence and very, very naughty language.

It’s not some realist description of a refugee family or whatever.

There are still refugees. They just happen to be Cubans who traffic heroin, get drunk and murder each other while training to fight commies back in their homeland.

But I digress.

I guess the question now is, why might you enjoy reading it?

Well let me drop a few bullets that may seemingly contradict everything I’ve written above.

• History: James Ellroy doesn’t even think that he writes crime fiction / noir . He thinks he writes historical fiction. American Tabloid starts in 1958 and ends in November 1963. It presents a credible “potential” lead up story to JFK getting whacked in Dallas. It’s full of real people you know like the Kennedys, Hoover, Hoffa, famous mafia guys, and a bunch of lesser known but very Bapian types. The three central fictional characters that hold the story together are also apparently composites of real operators from the time. Deep research. He blends fact and fiction in a way that is hard to tell exactly where the divider is.

• Language: It might take a page or two to get into the style. But after that it may start to seep into your brain. You’ll be writing Slack messages à la Ellroy. It kind of makes you feel ‘in’ the story. There’s an interview with Ellroy where he explains how he came to his choppy, staccato vibe. An editor told him to lose a hundred pages from a book. Instead of cutting plot he just cut words.

• Morality: There are no good guys in this book except for maybe Bobby Kennedy and he ends up looking like a huge fag. Everyone else is either bad or real bad. Even if someone is good for a while, they’re gonna go bad. It feels very deliberate. Like Ellroy was just giving a big fuck you to everyone while he wrote it. I think you’ll find this refreshing.

• Literary: Shit, did I just drop the L word? American Tabloid came out in 1995 and it’s definitely po-mo. The narrative is always with one of the three fictional protagonists and told from their POV - in 3rd person. However, the book is littered with inserts that contribute to the movement of the plot. Hush Hush magazine articles, memos, private notes, transcriptions of bugged rooms or phone taps etc etc. Maybe a little like your mate DFW and his notes with notes inside the notes. It came out the year before Infinite Jest.

So, whaddaya reckon?

Hang on a sec...

Since I’ve talked it up a bit, I better pull it back down and remind you that it is still just entertainment.

Maybe even very good infotainment.

But it’s not perfect. Not without fault.

And this is the spirit in which to read it. A summer holiday novel that may send you down some tangential JFK rabbit holes when you’re done. Better read in the sun with your choice of accompaniments.

Your pal,

Aidan

P.S. I bought this off Momox, do you know it? I use the dot fr version but I think it’s a German site. Heaps of good quality second hand English books. Cheap shipping.

P.P.S. Speaking of shipping. I swear I put the shipping address in as your house but it ended up at mine. And that’s why you have ended up with this retarded note.

Robert A. Heinlein was an American science fiction writer born in 1908. As a writer he came up in the era of the pulps. Cheap magazines filled with fiction available at news stands.

Pulp writers got paid by the word. So, to make a living, they had to write a lot.

In 1947 Heinlein published what he called his business rules. And to this day, many fiction authors abide by them as a guide to doing their craft.

There’s only 5 rules and they are:

• You must write.

• You must finish what you write.

• You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.

• You must put it on the market.

• You must keep it on the market until it sells.

This morning, while on my walk, I was (re)listening to the Ben Settle podcast.

If you’ve spent anytime with Ben’s content it will be banged into your head by pure repetition his basic philosophy for his type of online business.

• Build a list.

• Email it everyday.

• Try to sell them something.

I don’t think I need to point out that the underlying basic principle of both sets of rules is very similar. Write everyday, get your work out there, and make money from it.

I love how they’re both so simple in their approach.

And if you need to have it spelled out to you, the lesson is be consistent.

Drop you’re email in the subscribe box if you’d like to follow along as I put these rules into practice. Starting from the point of absolute zero. No followers, no subscribers, nada. Will it work? Only one way to find out.

I think hunting is a good word to use when thinking about getting new clients for copywriting.

It’s got a nice ring to it.

It doesn’t sound gay. It doesn’t sound needy.

And it puts me in a fun frame of mind to start looking around.

Now, I used to work in recruitment. Both agency side and inhouse for tech companies. This maybe gives me a little bit of an advantage when it comes to hunting for new clients when compared with other writers.

I’ve had to call, email and get face to face and sell for years. I know that a lot of the people I contact won’t write back. Not even a no.

So my skins a little thickened by years of silence.

However, I have to admit, parts of the hunt get me down too.

When I go out and try to find a certain type of business in a particular niche. And then I try and find the right person to contact and do more research on them. And then more work to find a good angle to try and start a conversation. Meh.

It’s much more fun when I’m just cruising around, going about my day, but always with a trusty rifle hanging off my shoulder. Ready if a deer shows it’s head.

Like just before.

I saw a piece of content in a niche I was familiar with. An area I have bought in myself. I already knew about the company and what they did. I liked their vibe and their style. I knew they sent lots of emails, had a list, made offers etc etc

And I know that when this happens just act straight away.

The reach out email is easy. Just be myself.

I know what humour I can use and what bits of info to include.

Establish a little credibility and domain knowledge. Have a solution to a potential problem I can see. Have fun and send it.

It only takes a couple of minutes.

If I hear back great.

If not, it’s fine. There’s plenty of others.

And if I’m like this all the time, then I’m always hunting.

Unfortunately, for those that clicked with a dirty mind, this is not at all a sexual post.

Instead it’s about swimming.

Specifically about breaststroke. The gayest of the strokes.

But before going any further, just a word on the word gay.

I run with the MedGold definition. I can’t remember if it was in a tweet or in an article so I’m just going to paraphrase. His way of putting it is much better. Go find it when you’re finished here.

Essentially it goes something like this:

Not all homosexuals are gay. And conversely, plenty of heterosexuals are gay.

I think Med estimates that at least 70% of heterosexual men are in fact gay.

Ok, with that cleared up, back to swimming.

There are four main strokes in swimming. Freestyle, backstroke, butterfly (the hardest) and breaststroke.

And breaststroke is obviously the gayest.

I’ve always thought of myself as a freestyle guy. But recently, I’m really coming around to how good breaststroke is. I was doing it this morning and that’s when the name boobstroke came to me. I giggled as I sucked in air mid stroke.

So, what is so good about boobstroking?

• It’s just a really nice way to glide through the water.

• It’s a fun style to try and get better at. You get to mix both power and grace in a super satisfying way.

• It works the entire body with each stroke being a combination movement. Legs, arms, back and torso are all involved.

• It’s a great antidote to sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Not just for a break, but as a way to get all the built up tightness out of the body.

• It’s kind of meditative and nice to do by yourself.

• It can be done in the Med in the sun.

Big recommend to do some boobstroking.

I hate long articles online.

When I click on something that looks interesting and I see big blocks of text I’m already half checked out. And then if I start scrolling down for a glance and notice that the scrolling goes on forever I’m done.

I used to sometimes think I shouldn’t do this.

I’d even save articles or bookmark them for later. But ninety-nine times out of a hundred I never bothered getting back to them.

And now I know that I was instinctually right.

Writing online is best in short form text. Tweets, short articles, short emails or whatever. As Ben Settle would say, make your point and get out of there.

Instead, long writing is best suited to physical forms. Books, magazines, newspapers etc.

If there’s someone I like reading online and I see they have a book then I’ll buy it. A book is a good way to go deep. You can lie by the sea or on your couch with it.

Seeing someone glued to their phone while by the sea is about the gayest thing ever. But with a book it looks sublime.

The internet is great for information and learning. But it’s shallow. It moves fast.

Even if I do find someone that has written loads of interesting online articles I’d much rather just buy a book of them. There’s loads of interesting guys on Substack as well as other places that I’d like to read in more depth.

Can’t you just put your best stuff into a book. No need to edit. Even if it’s only like eighty or a hundred pages. I just want to flick through the pages as I read.

My tagline is on the med in marseille.

And that’s because, as obvious as it sounds, I live in Marseille in the south of France. It’s been a little over a year since I moved here.

So, naturally, I’m trying to learn French.

I say ‘trying’ because this is the second time I’ve attempted to learn another language. I lived in Lisbon for five or so years before Marseille. And outside of ordering food and drinks and some very basic conversation, I never actually learnt Portuguese.

Something better about Marseille than Lisbon though, from a language learning point of view, is that the level of English here is much lower.

For example, my apartment opens up onto a courtyard that is shared by five other apartments. The people that live in the other apartments are of varying ages. None of them speak English. The guy next door to me, André, I don’t think he would even know how to say ‘thank you’ in English. That is the level he is at.

Essentially, I have to learn French. Sink or swim as they say.

But I’ve learnt that languages don’t just come to me by osmosis. My aural learning is practically non-existent. And any language teachers I’ve tried so far, I didn’t like them.

And so, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to learn.

What seems to work best for me is to learn to read. I like books and I like reading in general, so I guess this makes sense.

The way I’ve been doing this, is to translate a short novel.

It’s a very old-school way to learn another language. But I’ve been doing it with a contemporary twist.

Enter ChatGPT.

My process is very simple. I copy out, by hand, a few sentences of the French text. I then type those same sentences into ChatGPT. I have a thread set up with some simple rules. The basic gist is, I want two translations. One that is as literal as it can be while still being sensical in English. And the second to be a natural translation.

I then write the English translation down in my note book below the french.

The object of having the literal translation is that it helps me understand the basic underlying structure of French and the mechanics of how the language works. I can see it on the page.

It’s working too. My reading is getting decent.

It’s allowing me to do other things too, such as watching French YouTube channels with the CC turned on. Help make sense of the sound of French.

But let’s get back to the point I was trying to make in the title.

I noticed that every few days, the supposedly literal translation that ChatGPT gave me would become less literal. It would start to look a lot like the natural translation that I was also getting.

I’d remind ChatGPT of the rules.

After a while of this, and me being periodically exasperated. I decided to ask GPT what the hell is going on.

The screenshot I used as the picture at the head of this piece is the summary I got ChatGPT to make of the answers it gave me after I quizzed it for a little.

As you can see, it simply drifts back to its original training. It won’t stay with the (very simple) rules I gave it.

And that got me thinking.

Would it do the same with writing tasks? Just revert to its training, despite whatever I told it I wanted it to do.

The answer is yes.