Mails about Rebellion

I was at Sarah’s funeral. Standing there in my stupid suit, holding flowers I bought at a gas station because I forgot until the last minute. And all I could think was: “This is the third one.” Not the third funeral. The third client-turned-friend who disappeared from my business. Dead. Gone. Vanished. Here’s what I mean… Sarah was my dream client. €3,500/month retainer. Paid on time. Never complained. Loved my work. We’d have our weekly check-in calls that would run 90 minutes instead of 30....

I asked Claude to be my competitor. Then I asked it to tell me how to destroy my business. What it said made me €43,000. Fair? Last week. 3 AM. Can’t sleep because Marcus (my competitor) is crushing me. His SEO is better. His content gets more engagement. His positioning is sharper. I’m scrolling through his website for the 47th time when I think: “What if I just… asked Claude to BE him?” So I did. I copied all his content. Every blog post. Every landing page. Every social post from 6 months....

My LinkedIn post hit 50,000 views. You’d think I’d be celebrating, right? Instead, I felt like shit. Here’s why: I opened my analytics and saw something that made my stomach drop. 50,000 post views. 847 profile visits. That’s a 0.3% profile visit rate. Fair? For context, my worst-performing posts usually hit 3-4%. My best ones? 8-12%. This viral post? Complete failure disguised as success. It’s like that nightmare where all the ‘#1 Dad’ mugs in the world suddenly show real rankings. Imagine...

I landed in Cyprus last Saturday after three months in Berlin. (that's why iI am late this week) The first thing my neighbor said: "Jan! The SEO guy is back!" The second thing my business partner said: "How were the email marketing conferences?" The third thing my assistant said: "Ready to get back to those keyword strategies?" I just smiled and nodded. Because none of them have any idea what I actually do for a living. Want to know the truth? The Call That Revealed Everything This morning,...

I stared at the “Unsubscribe” button for 10 minutes. The email in my inbox was from the marketing guru everyone was talking about. The subject line: “Why Your Current Strategy Is Dead (And What’s Replacing It).” My finger hovered over the mouse. My current strategy was working. Slowly. Steadily. But working. But this new approach promised 10x results in half the time. Everyone in my network was talking about it. My competitors were switching. The Facebook groups were buzzing. I felt like an...