Tom Ruwitch

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All Gain, No Pain. Here’s How…

By Tom Ruwitch

Yesterday, I vented about some dirty-trick marketers who signed me up for their webinars (without my consent) and added the events to my online calendar with “thanks for registering” notes attached. (Artist’s rendering of me: 😤) One of the things that got me really steamed about that: They gave one of my favorite marketing tactics…

Another Stupid Marketing Trick (Don’t Do This)

By Tom Ruwitch

I’m steamed. Now I’m gonna vent… …all about the latest stupid marketing trick. It works like this: Step 1: Set up an online event (webinar, workshop, whatever) on Zoom. Step 2: Set Zoom to automatically send registrants a “thanks for registering” email and an invitation that lands in their calendar software as a scheduled booking.…

Way Better Than Fingernails on a Chalkboard

By Tom Ruwitch

Here’s how a struggling business owner reacted when I suggested he send more emails to his list so he can get more clients. “I’d like to get more clients. But the idea of writing more emails seems worse than fingernails on a chalkboard!” (Ouch!) I asked, “What if we wrote the emails for you?” His…

RecomMONDAYtions ~ 2026.06.08

By Tom Ruwitch

Recommended Video A Plan is Not a Strategy Most people think confidence comes first and action follows. Kat Cole says it’s the other way around. In this short TED Talk, the CEO of AG1 shares a simple practice she calls the “Hot Shot Rule.” Imagine someone you admire stepping into your role tomorrow. What’s the…

The Secret Behind a $1 Million Email

By Tom Ruwitch

Quick story. Kim Krause Schwalm once added more than a million dollars in revenue to a sales page without changing a single word on the page. How? She wrote one email. Not a fancy one. A single page. But it was built on an angle she’d dug up doing the kind of deep research most…

Kim’s Crazy-good Offer Before She Retires

By Tom Ruwitch

On Monday I promised you a story and a link. Here’s both. My friend Kim Krause Schwalm has been threatening to retire for years. I’d believe it for a week. Then she’d land another control, launch another training, or mentor another copywriter to a breakout year. The retirement talk would quietly disappear. This time it’s…

I got slimed in Orlando

By Tom Ruwitch

Remember that scene in Ghostbusters when a “focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm” (a.k.a. “a class-five full-roaming vapor”) slimes Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray)? That’s how I felt — like Peter Venkman — when I stepped outside of the well air-conditioned Orlando International Airport yesterday evening. The heat (90 degrees) and humidity (85%) slimed me (SPLAT!) I…

Thomas Edison’s Loss… Your Gain

By Tom Ruwitch

The first thing Thomas Edison patented was a total flop. It was an “electric vote-recorder,” designed to speed up vote-counting in legislative halls. It worked like this: Each legislator had a switch at their desk to cast a “yes” or “no” vote. The votes were transmitted to a central device that recorded results immediately and…

RecomMONDAYtions ~ 2026.06.01

By Tom Ruwitch

Breaking News Legendary Copywriter Plans to Open Her Vault My friend Kim Schwalm is one of the best direct-response copywriters alive. She has beaten the legends. She has written controls that ran for a decade. She has quietly helped generate close to a billion dollars for the companies smart enough to hire her. And after…

“A Lot of People Who Don’t Say ‘Ain’t’ Ain’t Eatin'”

By Tom Ruwitch

Last night, Melissa and I heard novelist Virginia Hume talk about her new book Liberty Island (which I highly recommend). She said something every business owner needs to hear. The novel is set in 1910 America when contractions weren’t were not common. If she wanted to be historically accurate, Virginia would have written dialog with…