"I've just thrown the only parachute out the door."

Was talking shop recently with Ex-Agora Senior Copywriter Thom Benny and his protege, Elmo Lehti.

Now you might think if you gather enough copywriters, the highlighters would come out and talk of strategies and techniques would dominate... but in all honesty, the conversation was about how to become a person capable of success.

Because when it comes down to it...

The business side of copywriting is just as important as the technique side.

And one of them is much easier to focus on than the other. You can sit in your little cave and study the old masters until you're cross-eyed, but Gary Halbert isn't going to go and land clients for you.

Recently, I've been going through what feels like a business metamorphosis by getting painfully honest with myself about what serves and what distracts. What is the biggest lever in my business, and why am I not pulling it?

I post daily on Twitter and send a daily email, and don't get me wrong, I've made money from both now...

But unpacking the limiting beliefs I have around outbound client acquisition has been a more valuable activity than either of those things.

It's cliche, but it really is just you vs. you.

I recently hopped into a "pay-what-you-want" Black Friday challenge set up by the great and powerful Derek Johanson (who you should check out if you haven't), who's obsessed with building email-only businesses.

The challenge was a course on launching newsletters. The minimum was $1, and I was intrigued, so I hopped into the Telegram group to see how each daily email lesson was landing with the cohort.

The course was perfect for beginners and genuinely helpful. Some of the feedback was that it would have been worth 50x what they paid... but being at a different stage in my journey made me realise how much of my knowledge I take for granted at this point.

Here was a group of hundreds of budding new creators, and the main thing holding them back was their belief that they needed to have planned their nine-figure exit before they'd even taken their first step.

It's something we're all guilty of - fantasising about the long term, the end goal, the dream.

Because if it's long-term, it means we don't have to get serious about the next step. We can sit and plan and tinker, and not feel bad if progress is slow or non-existent... because we've already resigned ourselves to our plans taking a long time.

We shy away from the biggest levers in our businesses, the ones that would really make a difference NOW, not because we're not yet the person capable of pulling them, but because we THINK we aren't ready yet.

When Thom said to me, "You can double or triple your income by March", a switch flipped in my brain.

My perception of my success timeline transformed.

Oh shyt... I could be winning by March?

And all it takes is changing which tasks I focus on, and my perspective on them?

"We're in a small, single-propeller aircraft, and I've just thrown the only parachute out the door. The quicker you jump out and get after that parachute, the better. That's the situation you've got to put yourself in. You can't stand there at the door going, 'Oh, maybe now is not a good time. Now is the only time.'" - Thom Benny, Ex-Agora Senior Copywriter

You shorten the timeline by becoming someone willing to jump out after that parachute.

For me, the parachute is client acquisition.

For you, my loyal subscriber, it might be your copy, your funnels, your email automations, your sales pages...

If you'd like to skydive together in 2026, send me an email with the phrase "PRIVATE CLIENT", and I'll be in touch with the details.

James Perkins

P.S. Bounties are still in effect. Refer me a client I work with in 2026, and you shall be rewarded with cold, hard dinero.