Sunday [3:43] PM
Dear Friend,
Life has kinda sucked lately.
Why?
I’ve been doing stuff I don’t want to do… mainly to make more and more money.
Did you know it ain’t that hard to make a million dollars with direct marketing?
(Big surprise to the rookies… but if you’re selling online, YOU are a direct marketer. I’m tired of explaining this to the clueless, but online marketing and internet-based businesses ARE “direct marketing”. They just rely exclusively on only one media. )
In the May and June issues of The Doberman Dan Letter, I revealed a step-by-step plan for making at LEAST a million dollars within the next 12 months.
I showed the whole enchilada…
1. The hottest niche to sell to…
2. What to sell them…
3. How to test on the cheap and almost GUARANTEE you won’t lose a dime…
4. The EXACT steps to rolling it out with as little risk as possible…
5. A little known secret 99% of marketers are clueless about on how to find the hottest, most “in heat” and most responsive segment of your market…
6. And EXACTLY what to do and what to sell to make the BIG money… and make maximum money from a small number of customers.
I crammed 20 years of direct marketing experience into two issues of my newsletter.
You can easily take what I revealed in those 2 issues and make over a million dollars in the next 12 months… even if you have very little capital to start with.
And that’s what I’ve personally been doing the past year or so… working really hard to make at LEAST a million dollars a year.
Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Making a million dollars or more per year?
Most people think that kind of money will make them happy and solve all their problems.
Actually, for many people… it WILL.
But ya wanna know something?
I have NOT been happy!
Quite the opposite. I’ve been quite miserable.
See, I like the creation process of starting these projects… but I do NOT like running a growing business of that size.
Some people LOVE that and live for it… running a large and growing business. It makes me miserable.
As a side note, ideally, I think I’d like to partner with a PWM (player with money) who likes running a large and growing direct response/online business. He or she could take care of all the administrative stuff that drives me crazy… and I’d be free to do all the marketing. I’d have the freedom to tweak and improve response from all the websites, ads, sales letters, etc. and develop new product ideas, new copy and ways to extract as much money as possible from the customer base.
I already know EXACTLY what to do to make maximum money from a direct response/Internet business… it’s just damn hard to do when I also have to manage the business.
Several times I THOUGHT I had potential partners like that… but it turned out I would have had to drag them along, do all the marketing AND be their personal psychologist while they whine, bitch and moan.
It would have been like trying to run a marathon while pulling a 200 pound sled behind me. It’s just easier for me to do it all myself than be stuck with a thumb-sucking partner who holds me back.
Man, if I found the RIGHT person, a real go-getter, who could catch my vision… and has the capital to allow me to do what I do best… I could make them richer than Midas. And all I want is a small percentage… and the freedom to create the stuff that keeps the money coming in… without getting bogged down by the administrative stuff that drives me crazy.
Alas, I’ve not found that person yet… but a girl can dream, can’t she? 🙂
Until then, I’m stuck doing it all myself. (Which is STILL better than being handcuffed to a neurotic, whiny partner I have to drag kicking and screaming to success.)
But this past week I had an epiphany.
Of all the projects I’m involved in right now, the only one I enjoy and am truly passionate about is my paper & ink newsletter.
I LOVE writing it because I’m revealing secrets that have NEVER been revealed in any other marketing newsletter on the planet… PERIOD!
There’s a reason for that.
See, The Doberman Dan Letter is not just a business or a way to make a side income for me. It is how I’m leaving my legacy to the marketing world. That’s why I invest a lot of time pouring my heart and soul into it… and am not afraid to reveal the stuff that other marketers and “gurus” are afraid to reveal… or in most cases, simply don’t know.
But everything else I’ve been working on has been making me miserable.
One of these projects has been making me a LOT of money… and also making me absolutely miserable.
I woke up on a Monday and said to myself, “F*@k it all. I’m just going to write my print newsletter and the hell with everything else.”
Then I remembered one of my favorite movies, What About Bob, with Bill Murray.
Bob was a neurotic, multi-phobic but lovable guy. He was constantly scared to death and miserable. But he had a little epiphany when a new psychologist (played by Richard Dreyfus) told him to “take a vacation from his problems.”
I had this same epiphany last week. Making a lot of money is great… but it sucks if you’re not enjoying the journey.
So I decided to take a vacation from my problems. I honestly don’t give a shit what happens with all these projects. The only one I’m going to keep focusing on and pouring my life into is The Doberman Dan Letter.
Everything else… whatever. (I’ve even been sleeping until almost noon every day since I went on “vacation from my problems.”)
But an interesting thing has happened so far.
The world hasn’t come to an end. Sales haven’t slowed down much in my other businesses… and nothing has fallen apart.
Quite the contrary.
Everything has pretty much continued “business as usual”… and…
The Money Keeps Coming In!
Wanna know why?
Because I didn’t build these businesses based on “grunt work”, totally dependent upon me. I built them on SYSTEMS that do the work for me.
See, when I declared my freedom from my j-o-b back in 1997, I engineered my life around being FREE.
Having to constantly do $10/hour grunt work to keep a business going is the OPPOSITE of being free, in my most humble but accurate opinion.
Sure, initially you may have to do some grunt work to test things and get things going… but it is a HUGE mistake to build a business based on you continuing to do grunt work.
So I decided to scale back my working hours to practically nothing, “take a vacation from my problems” and tell the world to go to hell.
Interestingly enough, all my projects just keep trudging along.
Yes, it’s true, they’re not going to grow this way and I won’t make more and more money… and I’m totally fine with that.
I know that any time I DO want to scale up and make BIG money (7 figures+ a year) I can do it. I just don’t want to do it right now.
I’d rather follow my REAL passion… playing music, starting a new band and finishing my solo CD. (It’s got several famous “A-list” musicians playing on it.)
When I DO decide I’m ready to start a 7-figure+/year business, it will be when I’ve found the right PWM partner like I described before.
Until then, I’m going to continue pouring my heart and soul into my offline newsletter.
That’s the ONLY place I share all my most effective jealously-guarded money-making secrets… and all the “underground” secrets I discovered working side-by-side with the late, great Gary Halbert. I freely reveal those secrets every month with my cherished subscribers… my extended family… the knights at the round table of my “Marketing Camelot”… the subscribers to The Doberman Dan Letter.
Until I find my dream PWM client who TRULY understands my vision… and has the balls (and capital) to follow it, everybody else can kiss my big “bubble butt” (from years of heavy squats) white boo-tay.
And I don’t think you can imagine how much better I feel.
Hey, if you’re still stuck in a j-o-b I understand you can’t really do this. I feel for you. I was a wage slave in a job I hated for 12 long years.
But if you’ve been working your butt off simply to earn more and more of the worthless fiat green stuff… and you’ve been miserable… I give you permission to…
Take A Vacation From Your Problems!
Tell the world to go f*&k off… and go do something you really want to do. Something you’re passionate about.
It’s wayyyyy better than some bullshit therapy from a pipe-smoking psychologist… or worse, resorting to some kind of drug to numb your feelings because you’re in a situation that is making you completely miserable.
If you knew you only had 6 months to live
would you be doing what you’re doing now?
Most people never have the opportunity to think about that. I consider it a blessing I was put in that situation. It was life-changing.
Problem is… I forgot about what was most important to me and got hung up making more and more money instead of living the life I really want.
Kiss my big white boo-tay, world! Doberman Dan is a slave to NOBODY… ESPECIALLY money. (If you REALLY understood the monetary system I bet you would totally re-engineer your life starting TOMORROW.)
Hey, if that’s what you REALLY want (make millions), I respect that… and can help you do it faster than you think you can do it. But you better be pretty damn sure that’s what you want… because it’s going to consume YEARS of your life.
So I’d rather help YOU do it (and get a small royalty based on a percentage of those millions I’m helping you make) while I’m writing my exclusive “player’s only” newsletter, playing with my band and recording music with A-list musicians. I’ll let YOU deal with the issues of a rapidly-growing multi-million dollar business… cuz I don’t want to do it anymore.
A final thought…
I’ve been on vacation from my problems for two weeks now… and I’m not sure I’ll EVER go back.
But even if you’re not in a position to take a long vacation from your problems… why not go ahead and take a week’s vacation from your problems?
Just get away from all the crap that’s driving you crazy. (And quit checking your stupid e-mail several times a day.)
Tell the world to take a hike and go do something fun or something you’re passionate about. Nothing is going to fall apart in only 7 days.
Even if you can only do it for a week, I bet you’ll feel a LOT better.
All the best,
