It’s an all too common problem …

A few years ago, it really wasn’t too difficult to create a successful business – offline or online.

A Facebook page, the odd email, maybe some SEO stuff for your website, and you were sorted.

These days?

It’s a different ballgame.

Increased competition, and other people’s increased knowledge of marketing can make creating a steady stream of customers or clients feel like you’re trying to push water uphill with a pencil.

Every single day feels like you’re waging a war.

Seeing others in your industry who seem to market themselves so easily makes your blood boil …

Influencers who are less talented than you, and who quite frankly, often don’t give a crap about their customers, with hundreds of thousands of followers …

That feeling of dread, every time you sit down at your laptop or pick up your phone.

Thinking to yourself –

“What’s the point?”

You’ve been told it’s all about creating consistent content …

… but every time you post to social media, it just feels like you’re getting ignored.

You’ve been told to get good at Facebook ads …

… but not only is this a whole new complicated skill to master, but when you finally do get your ads up, you just lose hundreds, if not thousands of pounds or dollars, and get a few measly new email list subscribers to show for it.

You’ve been told email marketing is where it’s at …

… but your open rates are going down, unsubscribes are on the up, and whenever you try to sell something, you’re lucky if you get more than a handful of sales.

Or you’re trying to get copywriting clients by cold pitching …

… but this just makes you feel sleazy, spammy, and you’re hit by waves of anxiety every time you hit that ‘send’ key.

It begs the question –

I know I shouldn’t say that …

But it’s true.

When you look at the costs of running a business …

The fact the average business owner works 50, 60, or even 70+ hours a week …

Hardly takes a holiday or vacation …

And is never able to fully switch off and be present with their loved ones …

It makes a 40-hour a week job with a steady salary and paid holiday seem pretty damn enticing.

But I don’t want that for you.

I want you to be able to sit down and craft a hard-hitting email that sells out your latest program in just 20 minutes.

To not just be fully-booked, but have a waiting list of perfect-fit clients who can’t wait to work with you.

To have total confidence that every single social media post you create will get sky-high engagement, fast-tracking you as an industry authority.

To be able to pick and choose your hours, so you can work just 4 or 5 hours a day … Or even take whole impromptu days off without asking permission.

To have the kind of business that allows you to travel the world, 100% on your terms.

To be signing up copywriting clients left, right and centre, commanding £5,000 + for a sales page or email sequence.

To be able to finally give that life to your family you always wanted, whether that means private school for the kids, those holidays you’ve always talked about but never thought you could afford, or even that cheeky sports car on the drive.

Whatever your version of time, locational, and financial freedom is, that’s what I want for you.

So if even just one of those appeals to you, then read on …

I was glad he couldn’t see my face.

Because the expression plastered across it was a mix of confusion, despair, and incredulity.

“Okay,” I said. “Talk me through it one more time.”

He then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes going through every single part of his current business model.

There were a dozen different Facebook ads …

2 email sequences.

A quiz.

A 90-minute webinar.

Multiple different up-sells, cross-sells, and different products.

There were sales pages and sales calls.

“Right,” I remarked, once I’d gained composure, feeling like I’d just had the inner workings of the superconducting magnets in the Hadron Collider explained to me.

“And how much money is this bringing in each month?”

“About 8 grand,” he shot back.

“And how much of that is profit?”

There was a pause.

I could sense he didn’t really want to say. After a few more seconds he croaked –

“Nothing.

Well, a few hundred bucks. If I’m lucky.

But pretty much whatever comes in, goes straight back out again.”

This was a conversation I had with a business owner about a year ago.

He’d paid my fee for a consultation, and we hopped on Skype to go through his funnel.

As you just read, it was complicated.

Actually, complicated is an understatement.

This funnel made Einstein’s Theory of Relativity look like “The Tiger Who Came to Tea.”

It was no surprise he wasn’t making any money from this.

After his ad spend, his fee for his Clickfunnels account and email software, the monthly fee for his tech guy, and the content writers he’d hired, any money he did make was just being eaten up again.

I felt for him.

I really did.

Because he’d been sold a pack of lies.

He’d fallen into the trap of believing he needed some super complicated funnel in order to have a successful business, when in reality …

nder my kilt.

And perhaps even the kind of stuff that requires one to part with a few pesos/ yen/ good old British pound sterling.

Well, that’s what we’ll discuss today …

We can talk about funnels all day long …

Or Facebook ads …

Or even email, or social media …

But none of this matters if you don’t have one key ingredient in place:

Communication.

Communication underpins everything you do.

There’s a mantra I love –

“Building a successful business relies on two things –

Doing a good job.
Making sure everyone knows about it.”
Now, I can help you a bit with the first one, but really, that’s your jam.

And if you’re reading this, I have no doubt you’re already a great coach, creator, consultant, or copywriter.

But do you excel at that second part?

Making sure everybody knows this?

Most people think simply being present is enough.

It’s the old –

“Well, I do a daily Facebook tip.

And I’m on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

And I have a list, which I email … When I remember.”

In truth, this is okay. Something is always better than nothing.

But in reality, most business owners and copywriters are great at putting out content, what they suck at is putting out content that makes people want to buy.

They don’t know how to really tap into their audience’s inner-most desires and passions.

They struggle with crafting the words that bring out people’s struggles, without feeling sleazy or nasty.

And while they think their offer is unique, all too often it’s just the same as everyone else’s, and so they end up charging less to try and get by.

They feel like they’re forever fighting amongst the noise.

Battling with their competition.

And like no matter how hard they try, they’re constantly ignored.

They assume you must need a big audience to make great money.

I’m sorry, but that’s bollocks.

You don’t need a huge following …

A massive email list …

Daily content …

Or to be on every platform …

You just need to know how to effectively communicate to your ideal client, and show them why they’d be stupid to work with anyone else but you.

And that is what I want to help you with.

The Coffeeshop Frontline is a brutally honest and transparent look into the life and times of an elite level copywriter.

It’s ideal for anyone who wants to tap into the shortcuts (and avoid the pitfalls) needed for a lucrative, freedom-focused business.

The Coffeeshop Frontline is designed for:

✅ Any bonafide copywriter who just wants some more goodies to add to your swipe file …

✅ A newbie copy cub who’s bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and just left the copywriting ‘den’ for the first time …

✅ An established online business owner, who’s maybe hit a plateau, struggling with increased competition, or just wants to do what we’re all striving for, and work less while earning more …

✅ A bit newer to the business game, who recognises that a solid grasp of the written word – not to mention storytelling, emotion, persuasion, and relationship-building – is integral to where you want to go …

✅ A 9-to-5-er who wants to break free from that corporate gig and get your own thing rocking and rolling …

✅ Or, you just enjoy laidback chat on all things marketing…
I’ve got you covered.

Each issue will include:

✅ Drag n’ drop templates, to make crafting your ad copy, emails, and social posts super simple, and set them up so your words effortlessly attract new clients and customers.

✅ Easy win strategies. These will be taken from either my own marketing, what I’m helping clients with, or from the work of my mentees. Let me make the mistakes so you don’t have to.

✅ Case studies: I’ll give you an insider insight into the life and times of other copywriters and marketers, so you can see how they work, what their best tips are, and basically have a good old nosey around.

✅ Product reviews. Let’s face it – Buying all these courses and books can be expensive, so why not let me fork out the cash first, so you can make sure you don’t waste yours.

✅ Simple strategies to boost your conversion rates, get more replies to your emails, more likes on your social, and more £££ or $$$ in your bank.

✅ Way more ‘behind the curtain’ and personal stuff than I share in my twice-weekly emails.

And much, much more.

Oh, and this ain’t just some grubby PDF sent via email each month, either …

’ll be frank here …

It pisses me off when marketers charge you for an ‘insider insight’ that’s little more than an extension of the free stuff they send out.

The Coffeeshop Frontline is nothing like this.

Each month, a crisp, clean, high-print-quality publication will drop through your door, ready to be read, annotated, and implemented.

Let’s face it – Getting Things Through the Post is Ace.

I’m just about old enough to remember when receiving snail mail was super boring, but getting an email was the highlight of your week.

Now, that’s done a complete 180. The average person receives around 121 emails a day, but we leap in delight when something drops through onto our door mat. (Provided it’s not from HMRC/ the IRS.)

I know that whenever I’ve subscribed to a newsletter or magazine, I’ve been genuinely excited to receive it. In a digital age, we all need a little old school physical stimulation from time to time.

And what’s more …

People Actually ACTION What’s in Print.

When you have a physical product, you’re much more likely to implement the strategies encased inside it.

It might sound a bit kooky, but I’d hazard a guess people will action more from The Coffeeshop Frontline, than they will from the latest £500 course they bought that’s hosted purely online. See, when you can actually hold something in your hands, and when you feel it in your fingers, it makes it feel more ‘real.’

And the best part?

I’m a subscriber to a few newsletters myself.

And honestly?

I enjoy them.

But one thing I do always think is –

This guy sure as hell has cut corners on production quality.

You pay 100-odd pounds or dollars for 16 pages of A4, that seems like it’s been printed on the cheapest paper possible.

And sure, we all know you pay for the information inside, not how fancy the paper is …

But I’ve made sure the Coffeeshop Frontline is genuine quality. It’s more like a glossy magazine than it is a typical marketing ‘snoozeletter.’

See …

I want The Coffeeshop Frontline to feel like you and I are sitting down over coffee for a couple of hours each month, with me sharing everything with you about what’s working now …

All my successes (and failures,) client case studies, quick tips, easy wins, hidden secrets, and giving you an insight into the life and times of someone who’s paid handsomely to make businesses a lot of money.

Not just that …

I won’t beat around the bush here, but my fees these days are expensive.

Without being crass, I won’t work on a client project for anything less than 5 grand.

My group mentoring students pay me £500 per month for my input on their copy.

And even an hour on the phone will set someone back £450.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s still a great deal, as people get multiple times their investment back …

But it is still a hefty financial investment.

And I realise that’s a barrier for a lot of people.

But one of my values is to help as many copywriters and business owners as possible.

I know the pain of going it alone.

The struggle of sitting down at a blank screen, and not having a clue what to write …

The anxiety as you hit ‘send’ on that email, or ‘publish’ on that social post, and worrying like hell you’re going to get nothing but hate …

The envy of other business owners or copywriters who seem to be crushing it, as you’re just about getting by …

Without going into some incredibly altruistic diatribe, and proclaiming how much of a Saint I am, this stuff sucks.

And it’s a big reason why I’ve started The Coffeeshop Frontline.

I’ll get down to the brass tracks of just how this is gonna work in just a moment, but first …

Without Mike I wouldn’t have started my copywriting business, cleared years worth of debt and given my family the life they deserve. His thoughts, guidance and expert knowledge are some of the most well respected in the industry — for goodreason!” 

- Connor Inch

Mike is one of the smartest marketers I have the privilege to call a friend. His grasp of copy and marketing, and his genuine passion to help others succeed, is what sets him apart from the rest.”

— Svet Dimitrov

I hadn’t seriously considered copywriting as a viable career choice. I assumed it was some mystical thing that would take years to learn and then more years until I could make money from it. Until I watched a free webinar Mike had put on…

Mike has a very down-to-earth and pragmatic approach to teaching copy skills and I thought “I can do that”. Fast-forward a year and I’ve had copy jobs for 11 out of the last 12 months, have made more money from this than ever before outside of my day job, and am confident that I can grow this to more than replace my salary over the next year. And it all started with Mike.”

— Rachel Jones

This time last year I was a magician, performing for drunk people at weddings and corporate events. Now… I'm a full-time copywriter, at a well-known agency, earning 3X as much as I ever did doing card tricks.

I'm not saying that to boast, I'm saying that to tell you how much impact Mike has had on my life. To say that Mike is largely responsible for this change wouldn't be a stretch. His course, support and guidance enabled me to change careers – and my life.

Mike actually practices what he preaches. More than that, he's always been totally honest and generous with his advice.

If I ever have a copy or business questions, he's the first – and only – person I turn to because I know that he's going to give me his honest opinion. There's never any sense that he's holding back the “real” gold for his “platinum group” or whatever.

He'll just level with you.

Without Mike, I wouldn't be where I am now…

… sat at home… typing this… at 8 AM… in my underwear..

Thanks, Mike!

— John Holt

Now, before I reveal the (surprisingly cheap) price you can pay to get full access to this monthly mentoring-in-print service, let me make you one solemn promise …

What would it be worth to have a skill you know will never leave you struggling for business?

How about the ability to confidently command equity deals, so you have true financial freedom, and get paid multiple times for every piece of work you do?

Or even just a nice little ‘side hustle’ that pays you more than most folks earn in a year.

I’ll be honest, for me, the money is almost secondary to the freedom and lifestyle you get when you can write persuasive copy, and know exactly where to find (and how to attract) the people who happily pay handsomely for it.

I’m sure you’d agree that’d be worth a lot.

And the bottom line is – Your investment in The Freedom Kickstarter is less than you can earn in one day as a high-end coffee shop copywriter.

8 hours at £350 each is £2,800.

I’m sure you’d agree that would be a fair price for this course.

Let’s be blunt, I think you’d say it’d be fair if access cost as much as you’d make in a week, which could be as high as £14,000.

But here’s the good news –

You can sign up now to The Freedom Kickstarter for just £997.

That’s roughly £5.47 per day, spread over the next year.

To put it another way –

• It’s what you’d earn in just under 6 hours when you’re charging £350 per hour.
• It’s around 50% of what most coffee shop copywriters will charge for a sales page. (Without including any equity payment.)
• It’s about 10 emails for one client.
• Or it’s 3-4 batches of Facebook ads for various different businesses.

When you put it like that, it should be clear to see how, with the right attitude and the right mindset, anyone who’s truly committed to the coffee shop copywriter lifestyle can get into profit on their initial investment, rather quickly.

More than that though, think about the kind of lifestyle this provides.

The freedom to travel …

The removal of financial stress …

The pride and excitement of picking and choosing your work, and getting amazing results for ‘big hitters’ in various industries …

The way friends and family see you, now you’re the one with the cool job, who treats their family, and who gets to work for themselves, on their own terms. Who never has to answer to a boss, drive to an office, and can earn thousands from their bed, in their underwear, if they want to.

It’s cliche to say, but it’s hard to put a price on that.

But, I want to go one step further, and –

Truthfully?

This isn’t that tough.

If you’re charging £1,000 per client or per product sale, then that means a 10x return on your investment requires just 1 sale per month.

(Whoops, kinda spilled the beans on the old price reveal there.)

If you have a course that retails at £200, then 5 sales would be over 10x back.

And if you’re charging mid 4-figures plus?

Well, you only need a sale every few months to do that.

With all the drag n’ drop templates …

The insider strategies …

The easy wins …

The case studies …

My product reviews, reports, and exposes on my own projects …

It’s going to be nigh on impossible to not turn a profit every single month on this.

So, seeing as I’ve already kinda revealed the price, I may as well show you exactly how much of a bargain The Coffeeshop Frontline is.

Now, bearing in mind my fees for done-for-you work start at £5,000 …

My group coaching programme is £500 per month …

And even just an hour on the phone is £450 …

You might be surprised to hear that –

That’s around $4.25.

I might live to regret this, seeing as each issue contains more insider insights, templates, and easy-to-implement strategies than most £500 courses …

But I’m making the Coffeeshop Frontline available, for just £97 per month for a Limited Time ONLY.

(For my US readers, that’s a shade over $127 at the time of writing.)

Now, there are a few reasons why I’m making this so absurdly good value.

For starters, this dispatch is a passion project for me.

Don’t get me wrong, everything I share will be super valuable, but I’ve wanted to have my own paper n’ ink publication for as long as I’ve been a copywriter, and I want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible.

That’s why I didn’t want price to be a barrier.

Secondly, I realised that £500 per month for coaching, or £5,000 for done-for-you work was out of most people’s budget.

Full disclosure: What’s in The Coffeeshop Frontline doesn’t give you the same level of accountability and support as my much more expensive offerings …

But what it does do, is give you the opportunity to get higher level insights, a courtside seat to my work, a tonne of templates, and ‘in the trenches’ advice, at a fraction of the cost of my other offerings.

What’s more …

You’re not signing your life away with a subscription to The Coffeeshop Frontline.

If at any time you wish to cancel, simply email me (contact details will be on every issue,) and I’ll cancel your subscription, right there and then.

No questions asked. No hoops to jump through. None of that nonsense.

I will need to know 48 hours or so before the next edition goes to the printer’s, but provided you get your request in before then, you won’t be charged a penny more.

Not just that, but unlike other copywriters, I don’t have a ‘no rejoining policy.’

Plenty of copywriters say that once you cancel your subscription with them, you can’t come back in.

I don’t like that.

I realise life often gets in the way.

You might have unexpected bills.

Or you just fancy a break.

Granted, if you’re implementing even just a fraction of what’s in each edition, cashflow should never be a problem …

But still, I’m not in the game of not letting people cancel and rejoin.

So if you need a hiatus, that’s a-okay by me.

The only thing I will say is, if you do cancel and the price for new joiners has increased since then, you will have to pay whatever the newer higher price is.

So please, don’t sign up now in the hope of securing your £97 rate, only to then cancel, and hope to join up at the same rate in 6 months’ time. The price may well be more by then.

It doesn’t work like that.

As much as I want to be flexible, I also value commitment and fairness, and this wouldn’t be fair to those who take action now, and stay the course.

All that said …

I’m not going to beg and plead to get you to invest in this.

That’s just not my style. Because, at the end of the day, you could (probably) do this on your own if you wanted to.

It’s not impossible to succeed without any help.

To create your own templates …

To make all those costly mistakes for yourself …

To go through the mind-numbing process of trial and error with your email list, Facebook ads, social posts, or whatever else you’re working on.

People have done it before.

But let me ask you this –

Without doing the whole cliched coffee comparison, £3.23 is about what I pay each day for my mid-morning large cappuccino, as I sit down in one of my favourite local coffee shops to do an hour of ‘creative work’ before I hit the gym.

Even if you look at it as a monthly investment, it’s about the same as a new pair of jeans for most people.

It’s about what you’d pay for a decent steak dinner with starters and a bottle of wine.

Or it’s a night’s stay in a mediocre 4-star hotel.

But, if you’re still on that fence, let me sweeten the deal even more …

This one email brought in close on £20,000, when sent to a list of just 1,000 people.

It took all of 15 minutes to write, and is incredibly easy to replicate.

When you come on board as a Frontline subscriber today, you get full access to not just that email …

But my notes explaining why it works do well, and a full hand thorough video going through every key needle-mover, showing how you can replicate this for your business. (Or your copy clients.)

Want to know how I write long-form sales pages that clients happily pay £5,000+ for in as little as 3 hours?

Or how I create sales copy I have total confidence will bring in home run results quicker than most people pen an email?

Or even what I used to help me craft this her letter you’re reading right now in the space of just 2 coffee shop visits?

‘Mike’s 22’ is a big part of that.

This is my fact-finding formula. 22 highly honed questions you can ask your copywriting clients (or yourself,) to dig deep into what your audience really wants, meaning not only do you shortcut the time it takes to write your copy …

But it gets drastically better results, too.

As copywriting legend Eugene Schwartz said, the best copywriters are not the best creative writers … They’re the best researchers. ‘Mike’s 22’ will allow you to do that quickly, easily, and stress-free.

The goal with these two bonuses is that even just 1 extra sale from using them could easily pay for 4-5 months of your Coffeeshop Frontline subscription.

Oh, I almost forgot to add …

The best case scenario is that you consume and digest every last word in each issue, multiple times over, and add £20,000, £50,000, or even £100,000 + per year to your business.

The worst case scenario?

You skim read it, pick just one measly thing each issue, spend 10 minutes implementing it, and at least break even.

I’ve done as much as I possibly can to make this as easy for you as possible.

If you can read …

And you care enough about your business to spend half an hour a month to try some stuff out – most of which I’ve done all the legwork for …

I guarantee you’ll make your investment back.

And if you can’t commit to that?

Well, I don’t know what to say.

I can’t do the work for you, but this is just about as close as I can get.

All that said …