What does The Good Word include?
- Learn to read better via my private conversations with a book.
- Get access to my old but still legendary copywriting and reading newsletters.
- Members-only articles and forums.
- Get first notice of upcoming reads, articles, and more.
In 80 Words — What Separates A Good Word Reader From Most People.
Two camps offer us personal and professional advice. One camp, bases 1% of their business on marketing. This camp includes personalities like Mark Manson and firms like Amazon. The other bases 64% of their business on marketing. This camp includes personalities like Lewis Howes and firms like WeWork. Good Word readers know the philosophy behind the 1% and the bullshit behind the 64%.
The Good Word doesn’t suit everyone.
I’m not a self-development guru. I’m not “whale-hunting” copy clients. I’m not using my site as a “business card.” And it isn’t for someone looking to double their business. This site will rattle you if:
- You’re thirsty for marketing tactics, persuasion tricks, or success secrets.
- You use email swipes.
- You’re an email affiliate marketer.
- You’re not willing to question gurus like Tim Ferriss or Tony Robbins or Grant Cardone.
- You’re seeking tips to “optimize” your life.
- You believe an event that costs thousands of dollars that promises to triple your business — or a paid mastermind — fuels success.
A problem a Good Word reader sniffs out.
That’s the famed Ernest Shackleton Ad. Many consider it as one of the best ads ever written. Various sources say it swayed over 5,000 men to volunteer for an expedition.
Marketing experts and make-money-online gurus teach the ad. Certain marketing agencies base their mission on how they can deliver that ad’s potency to their clients.
Eager bloggers, marketers, copywriters, and businesses pay thousands of dollars to clutch the ad’s selling power. Some companies pay their full marketing budget to an ad agency who says they bottled the magic of the Shackleton Ad.
But here’s the thing… that ad never existed.
Shackleton never wrote it. It never appeared in any newspaper. The supposed 5,000 men — a myth. The only place the ad appeared, Julian Watkins, 100 Greatest Advertisements. That means, all the potent psychology, the persuasive copy — invented bullshit.
That also means umpteen start-your-own-business-online gurus, copywriting experts, make-money-online gurus, and advertising agencies, built their business on a myth. And that’s not the only myth they stand on.
Good Word subscribers understand how something like the Shackleton ad mutates into truth.
We question any method that promises an outcome.
Why?
Many marketing tactics, or secrets that claim to better your career, often hold no basis in reality. And applying those devices, at best it makes you look generic, at worst, and more often, it turns into something like a gambling addiction.
The Good Word unpacks the methods, how they came to be, and why some become popular. We know what’s real and what’s guff.
The same myths infesting marketing also plagues self-development.
Tim Ferriss claims he’s a Chinese Kickboxing champion and a Japanese cage fighter who massacred four MMA champions. He said he exploited a weight-class loophole to slaughter the champions.
But here’s the thing… like the Shackleton Ad, it never happened. After an extensive and exhaustive investigation — Tim hyped hot air. Should we trust his advice?
But a reason exists why he told that story. He follows a formula. A worn formula widely available to anyone, and he runs that formula better than most.
Today, gurus and influencers like Tim are everywhere. We can pick a guru or mentor to coach us in almost every element of our lives. We can find a business expert, a fitness expert, or a marketing expert. We can join a Facebook “community” or a paid “inner-circle.” Yet almost all those gurus follow a hand-me-down formula. And even the lessons they teach come from a hand-me-down script.
But the questions we ask at the Good Word: who are these people? What makes them qualified to teach anyone?
My Selfish Aim With The Good Word: Reading.
Reading isn’t a life-hack. I’m troubled by how some experts treat reading as a life hack or a business hack. Lessons like: just read the book’s contents, then find and read the three core ideas, then implement those ideas. Or seek a book’s “lessons.”
That advice misleads us to lesson hunt. And when you lesson hunt, you end up cherry-picking quotes that are, likely, a phrase giving a motivational boost.
Reading can enrich our lives. But when you strip critical thinking from reading and just hunt lessons, you throw away a book’s value. Reading works more like working out. You can’t hack your way to weight loss. You can’t skim your way to building muscle. You have to put in the work. And as you grow stronger, you must vary the lifting and diet to keep going. Reading works in the same way. It’s something you nurture, develop, and enjoy.
The Good Word talk’s a lot about books. I believe reading tailors to your goals, likes, career, and purpose. And I hope to inspire better reading that tailors to your goals, likes, career, and purpose.
Who The Good Word Is For.
The Good Word resonates with someone who refuses to cheapen their product with chintzy marketing. It clicks with someone who cares about sharpening their career skills. It lines up with someone who cares about their product serving people. If you find a sense of purpose in your work, you might like the Good Word.
The Good Word also resonates with someone curious about the marketing being done on them: Why does a guru send you emails like that? Why does that expert have a video pitch about joining a “community”? The Good Word takes you behind the scenes to show you what’s going on.
If you’re a reasonable thinker, you see your career as your purpose, and you’re at all curious what sits behind the marketing curtain, and you love reading — we might be a fit, or we might not, who knows.
It costs $9 a month. You can cancel at any time.