1026 – Spam can teach you: Tom talks Why I Love Spam

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Tom Antion shares why he actually enjoys receiving spam emails, seeing them as valuable instead of a nuisance. Beyond regular customer orders and inquiries, spam helps him:
• Stay informed – Many subject lines give him quick updates on current events.
• Spot internet trends – Monitoring offers and promotions helps him stay ahead in the digital world and mentor others effectively.
• Generate content ideas – Spam sparks topics for his podcast and other projects.
• Study marketing tactics – He analyzes subject lines, sales letters, and promotions to sharpen copywriting skills.
• Find deals – Sometimes spam alerts him to discounts from companies he likes.
• Identify trustworthy vs. shady marketers – Years of experience make him quick at spotting scams.
Tom processes hundreds to over a thousand emails daily, scanning quickly to find value. He also uses email to store links, receipts, and notes for easy retrieval. His advice: change your mindset toward spam and look for the lessons, ideas, and opportunities it can offer—because it has generated millions in business for him when used creatively.

===

Episode 1026 – Why I Love Spam
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1026 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today I'm going to tell you why I love spam and I do. I love that spam coming in. You think I'm kidding? Wait till you hear it. let's see. Hope you didn't miss episode 1025. That was called Vtubing or virtual YouTubing for yourself if you want it, but any youth in your in your arena, uh, may really take to it and you could help them out by helping them with it. Pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Make sure you get version 3.0. Because 2.0 is the one you probably have. If you've been listening for a while. So pick up 3.0 at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Check out my school at IMTCVA.org. It's the only licensed dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country. Probably the world certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning and you get a scholarship to that school. If you're in my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and you can give that, you can gift it to somebody in your life that you like, and you can give it to somebody you don't like. If you want, I don't really care, but it's a very valuable thing to give them skills that are in high demand in a very short period of time.

[00:01:58] All right. Let's talk about spam email. And I mean, I just love regular email to coming into my inbox because it has money in it a lot of times with orders and it has customer inquiries so I can make better connections with customers. And so the regular stuff. Yeah, I you probably know I really love email, but the spam email, most of you cry about it and complain about it and bitch about it. And you know, you're afraid to open your inbox because it's full of spam. I mean, there's ways to get out of that. But yeah, if you get a little different attitude about it like I have, maybe you'd think, maybe you think, hey, this is valuable stuff coming into me now. I never cry about it and I hardly ever unsubscribe from anything unless it's just clearly stuff that it's not helping me in any way. So I'm going to give you a whole bunch of ways that why I love spam and what it does for me. Well, one. And these are in no particular order. One of the things it keeps me up on current events. So I subscribe to things that the just the headline enough tells me, okay, what's going on in the world. And a lot of times they want to use clickbait. And I've identified once you start doing this a while, you see the people that are full of it, and it's not worth opening their email because their their subject lines are clickbait.

[00:03:24] So that's no good. That's a waste of time. But many of them that I know are reputable. I see the headline, and if it interests me, then I can open it up and quickly read and keep up on current events. So that's one thing. Also, this is a big one for me since I'm Mister Internet guy is uh, internet trends. You know, nobody on this earth knows everything about the internet. If some guru tries to tell you that they do guard your wallet and run because there ain't no way. I mean, I've been doing this 30 going on 32 years since the commercial. I mean, 31.5 years. Yeah, I think it is. Since the commercial internet started and I haven't scratched the surface on all the things you could be doing. All right. So but I keep up with stuff because I see the trends coming out. I think it was a year and a half. Two years ago, I started seeing I show up in my inbox since I started watching, started watching. In the beginning it was just worthless. Now I use it every day now so I can see. But I knew about it and watched it as it came up. And then when I knew it was valuable to me, I started using it.

[00:04:40] That was from spam emails from people trying to sell all kinds of BBS stuff. With regard to I, and also in my position as a mentor, I need to know about a lot of stuff. So frequently. I'll buy some of their stuff too, just to see if it's horseshit or if it's any good. Most of the time it's no good. It's like they tell you, oh, well, this is going to be $297 a month, but you can have it for $0.12 today. So that kind of stuff. All right. So internet trends. Hey this podcast I get ideas for what to talk about because of the trends I see on my spam email. So I know with my experience what is valuable to you and what isn't. So I get lots of ideas. And sometimes if I'm stifled, you know, we do three episodes a week. For how many years now? Look at this episode 1026. There's only a tiny, tiny fraction of podcasts that ever got to 1000 episodes. And we're pushing towards 1100 here, where he says so. So I get ideas. And if I'm sitting here and I can't think of something that that I should be talking about, I just open my email and then just go through it. And there's all kinds of stuff that I could talk about more than I could ever do.

[00:06:03] So that's ideas for podcasts. Also subject lines. If you've heard my email marketing stuff, the subject line is the number one most important thing. I mean, other than them recognizing who it's from that that'll get you deleted instantly if they don't recognize you. But the next thing is the subject line, and nothing matters past that. If the subject line is no good because they won't see it, you could have the best offer, the best product, the best price, the best deal. Doesn't matter if they don't open the email. So for 31 years I've been looking at subject lines. All right. So so that's why I love spam. And then the ones that really grab me, I might go through and look at their sales letter. I don't buy everything I couldn't possibly buy and evaluate every kind of piece of crap that comes across my desk, but I am a copywriting expert and I push that on my mentees. That's the number one skill in my entire career. Even though I let ChatGPT rough things out for me nowadays, I still finish them off myself because ChatGPT is not me and has not sold well. I guess ChatGPT has sold more than I have. But but for any one promotion, I'm the guy that's done it over and over and over for 31.5 years plus before the internet was even around. I've been in business for going on 46.

[00:07:38] Yeah, 46 years or 40? No, 48 years. Yeah. I lose track after about 43. You know, I look at sales letters and also for my favorite companies, they always send email sales. Sometimes they do text also. But I see. Hey, I've been watching that item for a long time and it's on sale, so boom, instantly I can go buy it and save some money. And as I mentioned earlier, as you do this long enough, you start seeing who's full of it and who isn't. You know, because like I said, you see these crazy things that tell you no work, no skill, no nothing, and you'll be rich. Well, and if you're that stupid to go along with that kind of stuff, you deserve to give somebody in Pakistan your your $7 or whatever they're trying to get out of you, because there ain't no way that that can be anybody with half a brain would know that it's impossible. Why would they be giving it to you if it was that easy? Now they could just be super rich and have yachts and everything. But no, they're just trying to to manipulate you, telling you that there's no experience, no need for work, no nothing. You know, you don't have to be like the old George Jetson and push buttons too much, you know. Get your fingers swollen up.

[00:08:59] Those of you old enough to remember that. Or, you know, been around a while. All right. So that's kind of why I, um, I love spam. And after all these years, I am lightning fast going through all my emails and and I'm talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds per day. Probably exceeds a thousand on some days, but I'm just lightning fast. Have my finger on the delete button, and I'm just scanning, scanning, scanning, scanning. And you will get better at it. But you gotta have the right attitude for it, you know? Look at me. I spend I don't know how long doing it, but it's doing me good for my business because I'm always learning, always learning, always keeping up on trends, current events and the whole thing and not spam related. But there are another reason I'm just all over email is I can email my stuff. Stuff I want to remember, so I just. Email, you know, if I see a YouTube video that I really like, I just copy the link to it, email it to myself, put a good subject line that I'll remember. Then I can search for the subject line and instantly get to that video. I'm sure YouTube, you know, has saved stuff, but I like email because I'm all over all day long, so it's just faster for me to have the link in an email.

[00:10:22] Also customer inquiries. That's what turns into money in business. So you have to keep on top of that. And receipts. When I buy stuff I always get keep the receipts for long periods. I mean forever kind of for stuff that I buy, because then I can just search out the company name and go back to the receipt if I need to see it for any reason. See, this is why I love spam. You know, like I said, current events, internet trends, ideas for the podcast, subject line, sales letters, sales from companies that I want to buy stuff from and who is full of it. All right. So so try to get a better feel for spam rather than just cry and delete it. Pay attention to see if you can learn anything from it in your business, and you will be much further ahead. It's done. Oh, umpteen millions of dollars for me because of ideas I got from spam. Except I did whatever I did. I adapted it and made it legit. There you go. All right, so check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school IMTCVA.org and save yourself a couple hundred grand and getting your kid a shit education and they they're competing for jobs at Starbucks after four years. All right. So check it out and I will catch you on the next episode. See you later.