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One of my favourite marketers/guru’s are moments away from taking their group and nuking it.

Why? No engagement.

It’s all bullshit though.

Engagement exists.

It’s just been microwaved into a soggy, dopamine starved husk by the brain rot hordes.

(You know the ones. The “Why isn’t this free?” crowd.)

The “TL;DR” legion. The “But what about my feelings?” death cult.

This dude?

He was giving away gold. Actual, no bullshit, “holy fuck this works” knowledge.

For free. And still…

Crickets. The equivalent of a graveyard.

The thing is. They’re also the problem.

There’s this ego trap though.

1. He’s a genius. No, really. The man’s got receipts. His shit works. But…
2. He’s also a fucking tyrant. Someone posts something dumb? (And oh, they will and do often.) Instead of guiding them, he atomises them. A verbal smackdown. A “How dare you?” wrapped in a “You moron.”
3. Newbies? They don’t learn from that. They flee. They crawl back to their safe space echo chambers where everyone gets a participation trophy for breathing.

And look, I get it. You want to scream. You want to shake them by their slack jawed faces and yell, “THIS ISN’T PRIMARY SCHOOL. THE WORLD DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS.”

Although if you treat your tribe like idiots, they’ll either leave or become idiots.

THE RYAN HOLIDAY SOLUTION

• Ego is the enemy. (Yes, that book. Read it. Burn it into your skull.)
• Correction ≠ crucifixion. You can educate without eviscerating. (Wild concept, I know.)
• Newbies need scaffolding, not a guillotine. They’re babies. Soft, squishy, stupid babies. But babies grow. If you let them.

The hard pilll…

Changing platforms? Won’t help.

Charging for everything? Won’t help.

But in this instance the reactive, hair-trigger, “I AM THE LAW” bullshit and the inability to separate being right from being useful will slowly erode this group.

(I’m hoping he doesn’t close the group. It’s one of the rare ones I enjoy seeing pop up the feed when someone isn’t posting some dumb shit)

But there’s always a choice if you were found in this position.

1. You can keep being the smartest asshole in the room. (You’ll eventually be alone.)
2. Or you can learn to teach without turning every interaction into a fucking gladiator pit.

But they’ll need to pick fast.

Cause the clock’s ticking.

And the brain rot hordes?

They’re not waiting. They’re running around the internet with their umbilical chords out waiting to plug into the next great guru.

Stephen Walker

P.S. I’m not your next great guru. I’m a dude who writes email.

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Hey man. It feels like yesterday when we were going on about that stupid dress.

Now here’s another fun little debate that’s popped up on the ‘ol internets…

And Look, I know we usually talk about real stuff. Like your boss who is actually a hairball with a personality or my ongoing battle with existential dread at the grocery store cause I have to fight the old people for the milk at 8am, but I need you to focus up.

Because there’s a debate raging across the internet and it’s just silly fun.

What is it?

100 men vs. 1 gorilla.

Yeah. That one. The one that keeps popping up on Reddit, in group chats, and probably in the background of every failed first date in America.

I mean, this is it: The apex of human intellectual achievement.

Plato’s Republic? Pfft. Try Chad from accounting versus a silverback on a bad hair day.

Here’s the premise, in case you’ve missed the memes (in which case, are you okay?)

100 regular dudes. Not action heroes. Not guys with weird survival skills. Just…guys. The kind who think “hydration” means a third beer.

1 gorilla. Not just any gorilla. The kind of gorilla that could bench press your car and then use your femur as a toothpick.

And the question?

Could those 100 men, unarmed, actually take down the gorilla?

Let’s break it down. Because apparently, I have nothing better to do and neither do you.

Team 100 Men:

“Just dogpile it, bro. Simple math.”

“We’d use tactics, like ants. Or the Avengers, but with more sweat and less charisma.”

“Sheer numbers, man. The gorilla can’t punch everyone at once.”

Team Gorilla:

“Have you seen a gorilla? Google it and then apologise to the concept of hope.”

“One swipe and you’re a human Capri Sun.”

“The gorilla could probably unlock a car door with your ribcage.”

Real-world test?

Gorilla: Allegedly deadlifts cars.

Men: Deadlifts a pizza box if there’s motivation.

Gorilla: Pure rage. No taxes. No rent.

Men: Lose morale the minute someone gets a papercut.

Tactics?

“Zerg Rush”: All 100 men charge at once.

Half trip on their own shoelaces.

The rest become gorilla confetti.

“Surround and Poke”: Try to flank it.

Gorilla spins like a murder blender.

“Sacrifice a Greg”: Distract the gorilla with a Greg.

Greg’s last words: “Tell my memes I love them.”

Honestly, this isn’t Planet of the Apes.

It isn’t Home Alone with 100 Kevin McCallisters.

It’s Battle Royale meets Donkey Kong on bath salts.

So, who wins?

The gorilla. Every time.

The 100 men would realise too late that “strength in numbers” isn’t a cheat code for “immune to getting turned into a human smoothie.”

The only real winners are the internet trolls who keep this debate alive and everyone who gets to watch the chaos unfold from a safe, gorilla free distance.

Is there a moral to the story?

Don’t underestimate gorillas.

Definitely overestimate the stupidity of groups of men online.

And hey, next time I’m bored, I’m starting a “100 toddlers vs. 1 goose” thread.

(The goose is basically a winged demon.)

Alright, that’s my brain dump for the day, I’m out to go get some sun which is a rarity up north.

Let me know which side you’re on, or just join me on Team “Why Are We Like This?”

Stephen Walker

Interesting image for contextual numbers but probably won’t make a difference…

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Picture this… it’s midnight, I’m three cold slices of pizza deep (still greasy, still judgmental), and I decide to check out this new series.

The Bondsman. Why? Because Kevin Bacon.

Because I have a soft spot for undead weirdness and because my brain craves some weird shit because everything lately has been a snooze fest.

I’m trying to make this as spoiler free as possible, but also, you know me. No promises.

So here it is…

Kevin Bacon is a backwoods bounty hunter.

Who just so happens to be dead.

But not dead dead. Like the undead, but with a job and a questionable sense of style.

I’d say it’s like if John Wick got run over by a combine harvester.

Then woke up, and decided to keep hustling souls for the DEATH himself.

There’s grit. There’s blood. There’s a chicken that may or may not be possessed (Okay it’s not but I thought it would’ve been cool if there was.)

But here’s where it gets all meta and useful, because I know you always on the lookout for a way to make your writing less oatmeal and more, I dunno, spicy meat tornado.

Lesson 1: Character Agency Is Everything Even If You’re Dead

Bacon’s character? He’s got problems. Big, existential, death flavoured problems. But he chooses to do something about it. He doesn’t just shamble around whining about the afterlife like a sad sack of expired deli meat. He hustles. He fights. Sometimes he loses (spectacularly), but dammit, he tries.

Takeaway: Don’t let your characters be human shaped paperweights. Give them something to want. Give them something to do, even if it’s just revenge, redemption, or more pizza.

Lesson 2: Genre Mashups are your friend.

This show? It’s horror. It’s comedy. It’s a little bit Western, a little bit “what if the Coen Brothers made a zombie flick.” And it works because it doesn’t apologise for being weird. It just is.

Like, one minute you’re laughing at a fart joke; the next, you’re staring down the barrel of existential dread and a shotgun made of bone.

Takeaway: Don’t box yourself in. Mix genres. Throw in a curveball. Your story doesn’t have to fit in a neat little Amazon category.

Lesson 3: Dialogue. Make It Snap, Crackle, and Bleed.

The Bondsman is packed with dialogue that’s sharp enough to slice bread. Hell, sharp enough to slice you. Minimal tags. Maximum punch.

People talk like people. Or, at least, like people who have had a few concussions and a run in with the supernatural IRS.

Takeaway: Don’t let your dialogue die on the page. Make it do push ups. Make it bleed. Make it say more with less. If you can cut a tag, cut it. If you can make it weird? Even better.

Bonus Round: Writing Advice, Stephen style.

Write what scares you.

Write what makes you laugh and cringe.

If you get stuck, ask yourself: “What would an undead Kevin Bacon do?”

(Usually, the answer is: “Something reckless, something funny, and probably something illegal.”)

Alright, enough rambling.

Go watch The Bondsman.

Then go write something that makes you feel alive.

Or undead.

Or at least less bored than you were five minutes ago.

Buy yourself some pizza. You’ve earned it.

The Bondsman is here

Stephen Walker

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

I posted this on the old book of faces and thought it would be of value to my favourite people…

It’s also one of the most underrated ways to get higher quality people into your world too.

And as you all know email for the most part is just text. (Well. The way I do it.)

People who buy books are generally readers, right and I’ve always found that people who like to read are generally just better humans overall. Call me biased but it’s just the way it is.

So this is where Amazon can be the answer you need.

Yes it needs work.

No it’s not an over night fix, but when done right and consistently you can easily get a couple hundred new people onto your list every few weeks.

The more you do. The more you’ll get back.

Take a single idea or concept and write about it. Add your own sauce. It doesn’t have to be tens of thousands of words. It just needs to be done.

The next step is just prettying it up and adding a few sections strategically and this is generally how you’d want to do the thing…

Format the “book” and set the expectations straight up.

Make the cover look good/bad. Hell it doesn’t matter. Keep it on brand or whatever.

Let the reader know that this “book” is short, to the point and easily actionable.

Add a disclaimer page.

Create an introduction to who you are and what the purpose of these “micro books” are.

Put in an Opt-in link to your list with a little bonus/freebie. Think of it as a one page mini sales letter.

Content / meat of the one thing you’re sharing.

Closing additional thoughts.

Opt-in link to your list with a little bonus/freebie.

Final page where they can either buy other products or check out what other micro books you’ve made on topics that are tied into this one.

That’s it. Nothing magical. Nothing sexy. Just something that works if you put in the work.

Think of it as a fancy-ish blog post on steroids.

Pricing can be free if on kindle unlimited or you can start it at 99c to $1.99.

We’re not out here writing war and peace. We just want to get simple concepts and ideas out there for people to read, action and get some results on.

The reason we do this is if we can give them a quick win. They’ll get more of our stuff and then later on happily give us more money for being more awesome.

The wheels of commerce don’t have to stand still if you’re willing to put out unique to you content which get people moving whatever needle it is they’re struggling to move.

Here’s an example from my boy Ben Settle

Granted a lot of his stuff on Kindle are just transcripts from podcasts/interviews he has done. If you pretty up your writing and do what I’ve mentioned you’ll be able to knock out more of these and they’ll be high quality. Which will also naturally build your presence and authority out in the whole book writing world.

Non-fiction is great for introducing people to the way your mind works and how you overcome challenges and apply lessons and when you create that level of buy in, it doesn’t matter what you share in the future. You’ll have fans that’ll pick up what you do because they just like you. Just make sure you don’t steer them wrong and do right by them and you’ll be golden.

Stephen Walker.

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Sometimes you need to shut off and do a little of what the kids call bed rotting.

Stay in bed. Watch trash and eat pizza.

I’ve done a little bit of that today but when it comes to movie time. Tonight I’m watching The Amateur.

If you liked The Bourne films, this is like the nerdy hacker version with an all-star cast.

I don’t take cinema trips often but when there’s hot dogs, beer, popcorn and good movie in the mix, well today just needs to be one of those days.

I won’t bore you with the details but the weather has been ass and as a little treat to myself I made sure I do as little as possible today.

When’s the last time you treated yourself?

Here’s the trailer if you’re keen.

Now it’s time for me to vanish.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom