Last night, a reader wrote in:
Hey Nick,
Loved your latest email—I’ve definitely felt that abrupt “switch to pitch” in other newsletters. But now you’ve got me curious. If you were the one writing about Zone Rouge (I had to look it up), how would you handle it without forcing the sales angle? Would you still tie it back to a marketing lesson, or do it more subtly?
Great question.
It’d probably look a little something like this…
The Place Time Forgot
It takes a lot to yank me from “deep focus” mode, but an article on Zone Rouge did the trick.
“Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible.”
Welcome to Zone Rouge, a 460-square-mile stretch of French paradise soaked in lead, mercury, arsenic, unexploded shells, rusting bullets, and untold scores of human remains.
In some spots, you could shovel a bucket of dirt… and 18% of that bucket would be arsenic.
In others? Up to 120 live shells—both standard and chemical—per acre.
To put that into perspective, if your average suburban American yard were in Zone Rouge, it might contain 30 unexploded bombs beneath your well-manicured Kentucky bluegrass.
Once home to thousands of miles of trenches, ammo depots, and chemical weapons plants, Zone Rouge was one of the worst stretches of the Western Front during WWI—a place where history itself seems frozen in time.
Experts estimate it could take 300 to 700 years before the land fully recovers. Even today, some areas remain completely barren, unable to sustain plant life.
The heirloom tomatoes in your backyard? The ones that can’t even survive a light rain without croaking? Forget it.
Your Own Personal Zone Rouge
Zone Rouge’s history reads like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. But while I was lost in its rabbit hole, something hit me.
I was supposed to be working.
Now, I love working from home. But staying focused? That’s another story.
Baby crying. Dog barking. Landscapers outside chasing mulch chips in a gale-force windstorm. And, of course, that dopamine-drenched abyss known as the internet—where the latest viral trend is always waiting to pull you in.
There’s a saying:
“Money loves speed.”
But I’ve got a better one for you:
“Money loves attention.”
You can’t go fast when you’re stopping every 30 seconds to watch teenagers with lip filler do the “Clorox Challenge” or whatever disaster TikTok is peddling today.
That’s, uh… not what I meant by ‘18% chemicals.’
Productivity isn’t just about getting things done faster. It’s about keeping your mental terrain clear—free from distractions, interruptions, and mental landmines waiting to blow up your momentum.
Your own personal Zone Rouge isn’t made of unexploded shells. It’s made of unfinished tasks, wasted minutes, and the constant pull of everything except what makes you money.
Clearing the Battlefield
Here’s how I keep my focus razor-sharp:
- Batch your distractions. Instead of checking email or social media throughout the day, schedule it—once in the morning and once in the evening.
- Create a sacred workspace. Even if it’s just a corner of a room, make it only for work. No scrolling. No distractions.
- Work in sprints. Use the Pomodoro technique or deep work blocks to eliminate mental drift and build momentum.
- Get ruthless with inputs. If an app, notification, or website isn’t directly contributing to your goals, cut it out.
And here’s the final salvo:
The projects I work on aren’t just about cranking out content or optimizing ads. They’re about results—the kind that make my clients a nice stack of almighty dollars.
That’s why I keep a waitlist—so every project gets my full attention.
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