Wednesday, [12:28] PM
Dear Friend,
What I’m about to say might shock you.
It’s probably considered heresy for an online marketer.
But you’re wasting YEARS of your life and letting a literal FORTUNE slip through your fingers… and you’re completely unaware of it.
In fact, you THINK you’re being productive.
Quite the opposite.
Your productivity is being STOLEN from you… and even worse… you’re a willing participant in this heinous crime.
Since your attachment to technology has greatly lessened your attention span and I.Q., I need to cut to the chase and keep this post to under 500 words.
(Seriously. The more you have become dependent on staying connected via the Internet, text messaging, etc., the lower your I.Q. and attention span. Several major university double-blind studies have even confirmed a permanent change in brain structure from this addiction. The under 30 generation is the most affected. Most universities have even had to change their complete curriculum, schedule and teaching methods to deal with it. God help you if you’re trying to sell to this demographic. They’re broke AND stupid!)
Let me share a little story…
A few years ago I sent a fax to a former colleague congratulating him on the launch of his first book. (Fax was the only way to contact him. He doesn’t accept e-mails.)
I was going to be in his area and offered to take him to lunch to catch up.
See, I knew this guy when he was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie… and is now claiming to be one of the best copywriters in the world.
He even worked with my mentor for a couple weeks… until he couldn’t take any more of the chaos.
He had ZERO experience back then. Had never written a successful piece of copy, had never started a direct response business… but did show some potential as a decent writer.
Based on that, my mentor and I found it amusing when he left our little chaotic fold after two weeks and hung out his shingle on the Internet claiming to be one of the best copywriters in the world.
Even though he was “telling the truth in advance” (which is what the self help gurus call it when you lie), to this guy’s credit, he worked really hard, got some clients and actually finally DID have some success writing copy.
He also put up a lot of content on his blog and built a nice following online.
After my fax offering to take him to lunch, he answered with one of the most arrogant replies I’ve ever seen.
He said Halbert warned him that when he was successful, people would constantly try to get free advice and free copy from him… and he needed to guard against these intrusions.
I was somewhat taken back with this reply. After all, when I first met him, he was a completely clueless rookie and I had already started five successful direct response and online businesses at that time.
If I wanted to get free advice from anybody, he would be REALLY far down on the list. I just wanted to catch up with a former colleague and buy lunch.
For someone who claims to have a genius IQ, I was quite surprised he was stupid enough to actually believe his own publicity. (Something that can destroy even the most successful of men.)
Yes, I was surprised at his arrogance and… I have to admit… a bit offended, too.
But ever since I put up this blog…
I TOTALLY get it now!
It wasn’t arrogance and being stupid enough to buy into his own publicity… it was an automatic response to protect himself from “time looters.”
It was a self-preservation reaction to ASSUME (ASS-U-ME) I was one of those time looters. (He had no way of knowing my income was 10x’s bigger than his… and I had zero interest in any advice he could have possibly given me.)
See, once you have a public profile, people come out of the woodwork asking for help… for free, of course. And that was what this guy thought he was protecting himself against.
Many people believe they have some kind of claim on your time (your life) just because they exist and you’re successful. They really believe they’re entitled to your time and attention simply because you have a website… and they get really nasty if you ignore them.
They’ll write threatening messages and even slander you in public forums.
The most heinous entitlement attitude looters even have the nerve to attack and slander you on your own blog. That’s like them spray painting graffiti on your house right after you painted it. (They don’t have the balls to say it in person… but it’s safe for them to do it from the safety and comfort of where they live… their parents’ basement.)
See, they’re cowards… but the Internet provides them the safe distance and anonymity to do that stuff without the risk of being punched in the throat… which is the appropriate response, in my most humble (but accurate) opinion.
And how do most try to steal your time?
E-mail!
(This post has already gone WAY over 500 words… so I’ve now lost 95% of the people 30 and under. I don’t care. The smart ones are still with me. And if you listen to me, you’ll enjoy your life a LOT more… and make a LOT more money. Don’t have the attention span to read more than 500 words? Vaya con Dios! Stay broke and continue getting more and more stupid.)
What most people consider to be one of the most efficient technological breakthroughs in the entire history of business communications is actually one of the biggest wastes of time.
You may THINK e-mail is a blessing… but it’s actually a curse.
The very reason most people value e-mail… its immediacy… is exactly what makes it so insidious. Nobody actually schedules time for it.
Instead, they REACT like Pavlov’s dog… like a stupid dog without the capability of logical analysis… and treat it like it’s an urgent event.
No matter what they’re doing, they drop everything and respond right away.
Got news for ya:
E-mail is NEVER urgent…
and almost never very important, either!
In fact, it’s the very LEAST productive thing you can possibly do every day.
The more time you spend reading and responding to e-mails, the lower your income… and IQ, as the studies prove.
Many of the REALLY high earners I know absolutely refuse to even use it. They can pay some “lesser mortal” $10/hour to do that.
Or some of the PWM’s (players with money) have a private e-mail address they only give out to a small handful of people (like me) in their inner circle. And those of us who have access to them via this private e-mail realize it may be 2 to 4 weeks before they answer. If it’s something truly urgent, we call them on the phone. (Novel concept, huh? Talking to a real, live human being on the telephone!)
BTW, if you’re still personally handling customer service issue via e-mail that’s a very poor use of your time. It’s what Gary Halbert used to call LMS. (Lesser mortal shit.)
It’s actually COSTING you money to do it yourself. You can hire someone in the Philippines who speaks perfect English to do it for you ridiculously cheap… while you invest your valuable (and limited) time in high payback activities.
Here’s a little tip that will almost instantly make you more productive and stop the e-mail “time suck” you allow yourself to get caught up in, constantly frittering away your precious life:
SCHEDULE All E-mails…
So YOU Choose When To Handle Them!
Replying to e-mail is a TASK. And like any other task, it should be SCHEDULED.
But that’s not what most people do. They e-mail and respond to e-mails continuously throughout the day.
It doesn’t matter if they’re in the middle of a highly important and urgent project on deadline. As soon as they see an incoming e-mail… even if it has ZERO relevancy to their important project, they drop everything they’re doing, react like Pavlov’s idiot slobbering dog and respond.
What so many clueless people view as instantaneous and constant access is actually instantaneous and constant diversion and distraction… sucking away time that SHOULD be invested in MUCH more important activities.
Bottom line:
It’s a piss poor use of your time… the lowest payoff and worst possible use of your limited and precious life.
If all that isn’t bad enough…
Here’s The Thing I Hate
MOST About E-mail…
Almost everybody has now been conditioned to believe (thanks to the the mouth-breathing “Pavlov’s dogs” e-mail idiots)… and now has the unrealistic expectation that almost as soon as an e-mail is received, the recipient will respond.
If that’s how you treat your e-mail… you are a SLAVE!
I utterly REFUSE to be a slave to my e-mail… ESPECIALLY messages from people I don’t even know who erroneously believe they have some kind of claim on my time.
You may find this shocking because it’s the exact opposite of what you’ve been conditioned to believe:
There is no law that says
you have to respond to e-mail…
EVER!
And instantaneous reaction to ANYTHING other than an immediate life-threatening situation is not the highest and best use of your time. Giving the message a little thought and reflection (on the 2% chance it really IS important) would probably allow you to make a much more conscientious and astute response… something sorely lacking in most e-mail communication.
Here’s another shocker:
For many important and sensitive communications, e-mail is NOT the best choice.
I’ve been misunderstood many times and people were wrongly offended by an e-mail communication.
Why?
E-mail doesn’t allow for tone, inflection and emotion. It’s VERY easy to totally misread an innocent comment and assign it a meaning never intended by the sender.
Here’s ANOTHER reason e-mail sucks:
Just like everything else in this world, there’s an 80/20 rule in e-mail.
80% of business e-mails are low priority. Problem is, most people treat ALL e-mails with equal priority… usually based on how recently they’ve arrived in their inbox.
They think all messages have equal significance simply because they arrived electronically.
I ain’t no psychiatrist (thank GOD!) but I think most people’s Pavlovian reaction to e-mail is based almost entirely on that dreaded 4-letter word…
F-E-A-R!
You’re afraid you’re going to miss some important opportunity or deal.
Ya know what… there’s a 98% chance that’s simply not true.
They say addicts are the most zealous at proselytizing other addicts once they’ve gone through a 12-step program and have broken their addiction.
Maybe that’s why I’m so opinionated about you wasting so much of your life on something so unimportant.
Yes, I was an e-mail addict. Checked the damn thing 10, 15 20 times a day… or more.
I was FORCED to break my addiction when I had to re-organize my time to accommodate a variety of new projects.
And a few things happened…
1. My productivity went WAY up…
2. My income went up… almost immediately…
3. My stress level went down… WAY down…
4. I actually had a lot more time to get away from the computer and enjoy REAL life for a change. (You may find this hard to believe… but interacting with friends on Facebook is NOT real life.)
Breaking my e-mail addiction was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done… and it ain’t that hard.
I also realize the irony of this message. You probably found out about this blog post via e-mail.
That’s cool. I still subscribe to a few blogs myself… but my time for reading them is SCHEDULED… just like my e-mail time.
And frankly, I’ve learned the hard way e-mail is now one of the most unreliable media… if not, the #1 most unreliable media. If you depend on it entirely for business communication, that’s a BIG mistake.
That’s why anything important is still sent via snail mail, FedEx, UPS or private courier. (Or if you’re in deep doo-doo it’s sent via a Sheriff’s deputy.) Delivery rates and open rates are INFINITELY higher than e-mail via any of these methods. As close to 100% as you can get.
It’s also why I no longer share my most successful and important success and marketing secrets on this blog. Those are now shared offline ONLY to a small group of insiders via The Doberman Dan Letter.
Please listen to your old pal, DD… break your e-mail addiction… TODAY.
Schedule time to read, respond and send e-mails… only ONCE per day.
If you truly want to be free… get it down to once a week.
Do that for 30 days and your life will change in ways you can’t even imagine right now.
Stop being a slave. Break your e-mail addiction right now.
You’ll be much happier. I promise.
All the best,
P.S. If you have my personal e-mail for some reason and you send me some kind of e-mail… don’t expect an immediate reply. A 1 to 3 week wait is not unusual.
Don’t be offended. It’s nothing personal.
After reading this post, I’m sure you now understand.
If it’s truly urgent and/or important, then you’re obviously somebody in my inner circle… and that means you have my personal phone numbers. THAT is the best way to contact me. (Very, very few have THAT privilege.)
If you’re part of my exclusive little “marketing Camelot” (if you’re part of it, you know what I’m talking about) then there is a customer support ticket system at the “Contact Me” link above. Most customer service requests are handled within 24 to 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.
