About me

Hey all. Linus here.

This page is a bit long, but beside some stuff about me, it’s got some important lessons, a wicked-cool quote, and I think you’ll like it.

A little bit about me

C-section’d out of Mom on April 22nd, 1994. Writing this on June 20th, 2011.

Born and raised in Sweden, around the western parts. Most places I’ve lived in are within a one-hour driving distance of Gothenburg, for those of you who know your geography.

Won’t bore you with the details of my upbringing… although if you’d really like to know, you can ask.

Sellin’ like a sailor…

As far as this direct-internet-info marketing thing goes, that all started when I was about 13. I found this crazy-ass wonderful sales letter promising the riches of the world. The internet lifestyle. Goofing off on the beach by the ocean all day without a care in the world. Right. Yeah.

I managed to convince my parents that this was a good idea, and, thank the Big Guy upstairs for supportive parents. The first product we bought was an “exclusive membership” to something called The Millionaire League, created by Brian Something-or-other. I forget.

It turned out to be a collection of PLR e-books that showed you how to make a fortune in everything from affiliate marketing to eBay-stuff. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize it was all junk PLR.

Clearly the goofing-off-on-the-beach life isn’t what the “internet lifestyle” entails… and as it turns out, that isn’t what people really want anyway – but it sounded good enough to get me started in this crazy-ass wonderful world of direct marketing… though, of course, at the time, I didn’t have a clue what “direct marketing” was or that that was the name for what I was trying to do.

In hindsight, these crazy-ass wonderful sales letters are indeed useful. They do have their place… that place being that initial kick-start people need to get in the game. Now, about 99.9% of those who start down this path give up in half of a millisecond, right after they realize that this isn’t gonna be quite as easy as they thought… or once they realize that their first website isn’t working… or whatever obstacle thrown in their faces gets them down…

The real entrepreneurs among us see the obstacles for what they are, and find a way through, over and above, under, to the side… or miraculously pull off some kind of quantum-transpo to the other side, by changing the rules completely… and once the next obstacle’s been busted down, they smile, grit their teeth… and rush head on into the next one.

“Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!”

Captain Ahab, Moby Dick

The above quote by Ahab, is probably my favorite quote… and I think the metaphor is eeringly fitting to the entrepreneur story.

Iron-railed stories

A while back, I read something by Perry Marshall, where he explained the entrepreneur.

The gist of if was that everyone lived in a story. Everyone’s life is a story, which is a fascinating and true idea in and of itself.

Every one of us, all seven billion-or-so of us could literally be the main character of a NY Times bestseller book, or the next Hollywood blockbuster… how cool is that?

Now, the defining characteristic that separates us entrepreneur-folk from the rest of the crowd… is that entrepreneurs are constantly trying to make their story better.

What’s that, you say?

Isn’t everyone trying to improve their lives?

Well, in my experience… everyone thinks they do, or everyone thinks they want to, at least. The truth is that most people are far too comfortable with their current circumstances to really want to change anything.

And that’s okay too. But that’s not how I roll.

Even though most people think they want to make their lives better… that defining characteristic that I mentioned above… is that an entrepreneur is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. See above quote by Ahab.

The fundamental rule of becoming successful… is that you can have whatever you want in life. Anything at all. No matter who you are or where you are, you can be who you want to be, where you want to be, with the people you want to be with… as long as you are willing to do whatever it takes to get there, and make all the necessary sacrifices in order to get there.

Like Ahab cannot be swerved from his pursuit of the white whale, an entrepreneur cannot be swerved from his. It’s the hero’s journey.

Or, that’s the way I see it, anyway.

Write, Write, Write

If you read all of the above 800-ish words, you might be able to tell that I kind of like writing.

And that’s how I get by these days. Nearly everything I do these days have something to do with writing.

I’m a freelance direct response copywriter. That basically means I write sales letters, emails, video scripts, websites and ads designed to get results. Results like a whole buncha’ sales, for example.

If you’re looking for one, I’m not the cheapest, but I get the job done. If you need cheap, there are plenty of Indian fellas on Elance who’ll do anything for 50 or 500 bucks.

I also probably won’t be available to work on your piece for at least a few weeks. But I’ll get the job done.

Anyway, other than writing for others, and being involved in other people’s businesses helping them get more money from their ads and sales funnels… I also write for myself.

I sell information products in a couple of different niche markets online… and soon I hope to launch my own e-commerce store too, selling physical things, because I think it’s a wicked cool thing to do. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, though. Perhaps by the time you’re reading this, I have a webshop somewhere, selling something cool.

And of course, I also teach other people about this whole crazy-ass wonderful marketing gig.

So that’s a little bit about me.

Now go kick some ass.

Linus