Tom Meitner

Coached 200+ writers on how to get clients on repeat through direct outreach. Want freedom AND stability? Get free tips every day to your inbox ↓

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

@NotKennyRogers One might say your second example is the opposite of the first.

[tweet davidson @andyreed]

pronouncing gen ai like forrest gump

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

X conversations are so weird lately. Everyone is in agreement that boomers hate seeing big families and criticize parents for having lots of children. It’s just accepted as fact and the replies to one of these posts are universal. I don’t know where these people live. Took my wife and 4 kids out tonight for dinner in a quite liberal suburb. We were seated at a table next to a rather old boomer couple. They spent over half an hour just staring at and smiling at our baby girl. When they were done, they stopped at our table to comment on her cuteness. The gentleman leaned over, patted my oldest son on the shoulder, and said to me warmly, “You have a great family.”

After dinner, half the family exited the restaurant and I hung back while my other son went to the bathroom. I was holding my baby girl and an older boomer couple at the bar turned around and were commenting to each other on how cute she is. I stepped over and struck up a conversation. When they learned I have 4 kids, they were ecstatic. They shared about their grandkids. The gentleman there told me several times, “These are the best days. Savor them.”

This is not a unique experience. Boomers react to us like this all the time. Where do all these bitter, child-hating old people supposedly swarm?

Maybe one negative experience you have isn’t indicative of a greater trend. Some people suck. That’s life. But most people actually don’t suck that much.

Reminds me of being stuck at a gas station with my family in the middle of nowhere summer 2020 post-Floyd with a literal gang of black bikers on their motorcycles. When race relations were at their “worst”, these guys were so sweet to my kids and super friendly as we waited out the rain.

We have an epidemic of people who suck. But many of these “groups” that are all pitted against each other get along just fine in real life. Not all. Plenty of suck out there.

But there’s way more good. You just don’t see it talked about. For a reason.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

I’ve listened to Dave Ramsey in the past and he ain’t perfect. But he’s getting piled on for some kind of double standard that ignores what has always been his consistent worldview: major relationship decisions are not financial ones. You get married and you can team up on the debt. You can have kids with debt and still work on the debt. Some decisions in life are not strictly financial, and if you view everything through that lens, you’re missing the point.

Dave has some bad takes and outdated advice. Some of his stuff really helped us, some of it really hurt us.

But this one is a whole lot of nothing. A lot of you just like to bitch about stuff.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

This past weekend, my kids wanted to play a quick game of Party Animals on our XBox (released in 2023).

The game forced them to run a 5GB update. They sat for nearly 20 minutes.

To update a game released 3 years ago.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

Nearly the entire copywriting industry is the first example, and that’s why I stopped bringing on new coaching clients. I can’t make anyone believe in themselves and got burned out by the negative, self-fulfilling whining.

[Zarak @zzarakkk]

You must know when to filter out advice vs when to take advice. Because beliefs shape everything about your reality.

For example - the struggling copywriter believes the industry is oversaturated and that AI is going to replace them. They believe clients don't want to pay premium rates. They believe getting a client is nearly impossible.

The successful copywriter believes that demand is higher than ever. He believes brands are desperate for his skill. He believes that if he puts in the work and learns the craft, opportunities will find him.

Another example:

Agency owner X believes his margins must shrink to accommodate scale. He believes that after $500k/month he can only maintain a 30% margin. He believes it's impossible to deliver a good service with 50+ clients. He believes his only option is to churn and burn clients to sustain revenue. He believes his only focus should be new client acquisition. He spends all day putting out fires.

Agency owner X takes home $150k a month on $600k revenue.

Agency owner Y believes margins expand with scale. He believes that after $500k/month he can maintain a 50% margin because his systems get better not worse. He believes 50+ clients is easy when you build pods that operate without you. He believes retention is the highest leverage activity in his business. He believes one retained client is worth five new ones. He spends his day reviewing strategy and building infrastructure.

Agency owner Y takes home $250k a month on $500k revenue.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

Why can’t anybody on X who writes about AI seem to know how to capitalize letters? What is this constant all-lowercase thing and why do they ALL do it?

[Zack Morrison @ZackMorrison18]

*Jim Carey-Ace Venture big inhale*

Studios spent all of the 2010’s chasing Netflix’s streaming model b.c their shows were making quick, loud splashes. It was cheaper to make streaming due to new media contract rules, but they ignored how these shows don’t sell ads, forcing them

[𝑴𝒐 𝑴𝒐𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒓 @MoMohler]

If I’m going back in time to warn every one of 9/11 there’s no reason I can’t stop at Arby’s for the 5 For $5 deal.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

@GrammarHippy Interested in where you’re going with this. Currently finishing up a new book as an entry point to my book ghostwriting services for clients. Hopeful this works in B2B as effectively as it does B2C.

[dr. z, esq. @zeynepmyenisey]

Being on your laptop outside is a miserable experience and im tired of people pretending it's not

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

Watch Jingle All The Way next Christmas. A great movie? No. But absolutely beautiful compared to current-day movies. Great cinematography, acting is on point, some genuinely funny moments, tons of effort put into the final product.

Like a breath of fresh air.

[J.T. Alexander @JTAlexander]

What I miss most about old films is the effort and sincerity.

Even some of the technically-not-very-good movies of the 90s and 00s still clearly had a lot put into them.

Almost every film today feels like theater kids just playing around in front of a green screen.

The Mummy, The Rock, Armageddon, and Broken Arrow:

These movies are—from a critical perspective—not very good. But as viewers, we love them. We don't love them like some people love The Room, but we love them for what they are at face value. They aren't fun-bad, they are so-fun-they-are-legitimately-good-even-if-campy-and-silly.

This is only possible because they take themselves seriously and present themselves seriously. It doesn't matter that the plot is absurd, it doesn't matter that the writing is campy. By taking themselves seriously, with the effort put in by the cast and crew, we can take them seriously, too.

There are so few movies coming out over the past decade I can seriously say this about.

[Kristin McTiernan @Kristin_Fiction]

There used to be editors. They were named Morty or Perry. They smoked cigars, and you knew you were in trouble when he staunched his cigar after calling you into his office.

“What the hell is this headline, [last name]? You know how many girls tried and failed to be where you are? Fix it! And don’t let shit like this cross my desk again.”

Morty was why we had nice things

[Dr Strangetweet or How I Learned to Love the RT @lone_rides]

The Left likes the Jesus of “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

They don’t like the Jesus of “go and sin no more.”

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

Fed test results into AI and had a long conversation about my 20+ years of IBS. AI diagnosed me with bile acid malabsorption.

Since then, symptoms are almost 100% solved.

Thought it was dairy or red meat or other causes. It was bile. No doctor ever went down that road.

[Nick | Gut Health @theholisticnick]

Many people with chronic gut issues never think about their liver or bile as potential factors.

They chase probiotics, fiber and elimination diets for years. But underneath a lot of the symptoms they're dealing with, disrupted liver function or bile flow is quietly driving things.

Bloating after fatty meals, light-colored or greasy stools, nausea, brain fog, hormone imbalances, skin issues that won't resolve.

These are often signaling liver and bile issues.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

I think after I had Kid #1, I had this realization about Tim Ferriss.

Smart guy doing interesting things but his life is just a laboratory. It’s barely “real” in a lot of ways.

Heck, his whole “give a woman a 30 minute orgasm” thing from The 4-Hour Body was a ridiculous process that no woman would actually want, it was so clinical.

These guys have great tips sometimes but remember where they are coming from.

[Jacob Edward @JacobEdwardInc]

Neither of these men are married or have kids.

Both are simply obsessed with their own personal perfection and optimization.

There is nothing impressive about a single man with no kids sleeping well and being fit.

Show me a man with young children, a full time job, disrupted sleep, who works out regularly, eats healthy, trains Jui Jitsu, with a muscular body…

THIS is impressive. THIS requires extreme discipline.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

I've told writers for years that client work won't go away because clients aren't going to fire a writer for AI (long term).

Clients don't have TIME. That's why they outsource to writers.

And AI - to this day, to this absolute minute - needs a freaking ton of babysitting. And it still gets massive things wrong, even with perfect prompting, etc. I get amazed by how bad it is sometimes.

Clients A) do not have the time or bandwidth to babysit AI to get what they need, and B) can't risk AI writing getting something horribly wrong so that they are either legally in trouble or will have wasted thousands of dollars behind the copy it generated (they need accountability - but you can't fire Gemini or sue Claude if their copy isn't compliant!).

There are dudes on here putting out stuff and saying, "You can't believe it's AI!" Ignoring the fact that you can absolutely tell, it also required weeks of testing and tweaking and prompting and correcting and re-prompting and notetaking and re-prompting just to get that one blog post or that one 20-second video clip to turn out decently.

AI is fine. But it's only ever going to be "fine". And clients can't afford to run with "fine".

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

I got this book for Christmas soon after it was released and read it religiously. Like, all the time. Until it fell apart at the seams. I miss owning stuff like this.

[Four Finger Discount @fourfingerpod]

The bible for Simpsons fans.

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

@IMJustinBrooke Skills

[Tom Meitner @MeitnerTom]

My wife and I the other day were saying we don’t need new movies, TV, or music. We have decades of stuff that is amazing and you couldn’t watch/listen to all of it if you tried. It’s still new to you. Enjoy it and ignore the new garbage.

[Templarpilled @Templarpilled]

This is the future of entertainment.

We have made so many movies over the decades we can just keep running them in theaters all over again, and it'll work.

The option to watch trusted, nostalgia-inducing old stuff will look appealing compared to AI slop and humanslop