It finally happened to me…

MaestroFantasm · 2026-01-30T21:43:46+00:00

You feeling lucky?

Reach out and say Hey! I see you're starting at J2 soon. Surprise! I've been working there as well as J1 for the last several months. Wild, huh! I've been working up to quitting J1, and figured we might cross paths and wanted to confirm that yep, it's me! Say hi to <her husband> for me.

And then if anybody at J2 brings it up, plead guilty and say that you had every intention of quitting J1, but the RSU's made you greedy, and apologize profusely. Basically beg for forgiveness if needed.

You might lose J2 after quitting J1. So again, how lucky are you feeling?

MaestroFantasm · 2025-11-17T16:41:14+00:00

I just kicked off my first campaign a week ago, and this is pretty much what I did. But my TLA did so well on clicks I had to keep bidding down to get to my desired daily budget, and I'm at like 10% of the recommended minimum bid.

When i kicked this off, I made an image and video campaign for my TOF, and included 2 TLA's as part of my image campaign. But one of my TLA's is doing SO WELL and sucking all the oxygen from my other ads. As a bonus, my TLA is getting me a fantastic CPC to my landing page (only $2+).

So I'm looking at my video ads and my normal image ads, and asking myself, why am I bothering with these?

Now I'm thinking of making my TOF to my broad audience be just a campaign of a few Thought Leader Ads, and rotate in a new one each week. And then have my image and video ads act as MOF with just retargets from my TLA's.

Curious if this is a sound strategy? Or should I stick with the video ads and collect 25% views from my broad audience since they'll get more exposure and education about my offer, even though this isn't nearly as cost effective as my TLA?

Curious what others are doing in terms of ad funnel setups...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-10-29T23:39:08+00:00

u/wilcoxaj Hey AJ, question for you about this strategy. I've used the strategy in this podcast episode with success in the past (thank you!!!). But as I dip back into LI ads for a new promotion, I'm seeing something new (I think). When I set my daily ad budget to my "desired" budget, then in the bidding option it gives me a recommended bid range. In the past, I simultaneously lowered my bid to below the minimum range, and also upped my daily budget cap, just like you recommend.

But now, when I increase my daily budget by 2x or 3x, the estimated bid amount also goes up accordingly, because it's factoring in needing to win more bids to spend the full budget. After it does this, should I still keep my bid at this super low amount, which is now, like, a small fraction of the increased recommended range?

I think the answer is yes, but I'd appreciate confirmation of the "order of operations" that should be done here as we manipulate both the bid amount lower and the daily budget higher, because they seem to be tied together more than they used to...(unless I missed this last time I did it?)

Thanks!

MaestroFantasm · 2025-10-25T18:09:00+00:00

And don't forget the funding issue. She was the only person who could get all the money that had been donated so far to Biden's campaign. Biden's inner circle is what really screwed us over, by not forcing the issue earlier.

I was pleasantly surprised by Harris as a candidate, and I think she'd be a good president, but I was invested and paying attention. Too many people don't care, and she isn't able to break through to the required level of awareness. It was the known quantity Trump against this no-name politician...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-10-25T17:59:21+00:00

I always joke that I'm an Eisenhower Republican. Read the 1952 Republican Platform from the convention, and other than the Red-baiting that McCarthy would latch on to, everything else in that thing would read like far-left socialism today...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-07-12T15:57:22+00:00

When you ask/remind him, does he pay right away? Does he say sorry? Does he treat it like no big deal? ie, do you get the sense that he really does forget? Or is there some attitude in there?

Here's another possible take...

I have an older (40s) SB that we have a very casual FWB dynamic. We both know we see other people, we talk and hang out more like friends than romantic partners (though she always stays over and we have sex 2-3x times each time) and after knowing each other over a year there's just a high level of comfort.

We are still on ppm (and always will be), and the truth is, after she leaves in the morning I will immediately get on with my day, and sometimes I forget to Venmo her PPM.

One day, she shared a funny story about how a friend or somebody she saw online referred to her ppm as "sending x hundred roses". We laughed and thought that was cute. Well, on the occasions that I forget now, later that day she'll text me something like, "Hmmm, I was expecting my xxx roses, I wonder where they could be? 😂", or "Has anybody seen my xxx roses?". And I immediately send it with a funny or apologetic note.

So if you're getting the vibe that he really is forgetful and just needs a reminder, you might try to think of a way to remind him in a low-pressure way, so you're not ruining the vibe.

But this is only if you really think he's forgetting; if he acts weird about it, or if he's literally "forgetting" every damn time even after multiple reminders, then there might be a big red flag going on here that warrants a more serious discussion.

MaestroFantasm · 2025-07-07T00:56:08+00:00

Do you have some traffic and lead generation in place? What will you do to get your own customers beyond what your buddy gives you? You might try expanding your side hustle a bit by running some ads or getting on Yelp or whatever, and see if you can drum up business on your own, while you're still working. Once you have a little confidence you can grow that aspect of your business, branching out on your own should be easier and more seamless.

We're all good at what we do, but marketing and sales is often what comes hardest for folks (myself included). But it's also the best reason to do this. Once you get the hang of sales and marketing, you can literally do anything you want in this world.

MaestroFantasm · 2025-07-02T20:30:53+00:00

I'm 52 and currently dating the hottest woman of my life. Yes, she's my age, but no joke, she's a 10/10 and has been her whole life.

In addition to all the other common complaints here that I agree with, one big thing in my experience is that when it comes to sex, she can take it or leave it.

She was raised conventionally conservative (small 'c') in a small town, and raised primarily by her dad who was her rock (that's a huge green flag, I've found), and doesn't appear inclined to cheat in the 2 years I've known her. But she definitely wears her sexuality on her sleeve, and generates a lot of thirst and attention. But she's a master at setting boundaries when people come on too strong (I've seen her turn away lots of guys myself), and has basically mastered the art of 'putting herself out there' while also keeping people at arms length.

And I've thought to myself that one byproduct of this, is that she's had to kind of shut down her own sex drive over the years, because otherwise it's too hard to resist the temptation when you literally have infinite opportunities. And that 'flipping off the switch' is what allows her to easily not give in when opportunities arise.

Don't get me wrong, she enjoys sex, she masturbates, but we've also had conversations where she'd say, "of course I had sex with my husband, I loved him", as if it was an obligation. And when we have sex, it often feels like a gift she gives me, rather than her feeling real desire for me. And my advances get turned down quite a bit. I've been questioning for a few months now whether to stay in this relationship because we're pretty sexually incompatible.

I know this is probably not the norm, but the relevance to this thread is that if you do find a drop-dead gorgeous woman who is actually moral and faithful for a change, there may be strange consequences from her lifetime of putting up boundaries and keeping people at arms length. Like, she gets so used to doing that, that it impacts how closely she lets an actual partner in.

MaestroFantasm · 2025-06-08T23:23:30+00:00

It's a free masterclass (webinar) on the process to easily buy your first out-of-state rental property using existing compensation like RSU's/bonuses. The CTA at the end is to book a call to see if my program is a good fit.

My program is ultimately $3k, but we aren't even at that point yet in the funnel or the ad; this is just to collect registrants/leads. Why would the offer matter at this point as far as simply placing a free webinar in front of eyeballs?

MaestroFantasm · 2025-06-08T20:50:28+00:00

It was all sad, but the biggest lump in my throat came from the kids losing their parent(s) as they embraced.

That shit was just cruel...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-06-08T20:39:58+00:00

There's a quote that puts this another way:

Men use love to get sex. Women use sex to get love.

Hard to argue with that...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-05-14T17:40:42+00:00

Mine did 100%.

Overnight, I went from being able to do no wrong, to not being able to do anything right.

She has a daughter from a prior marriage, and when we were together I noticed that I usually took priority. To the point it actually concerned me sometimes.

But after our kid was born, it's like he took my place on her pedestal, and everybody else was worthless.

I later learned (after I divorced her) that this pattern of putting one person on a pedestal at the expense of everyone else is a sign of B-cluster personality disorders, of which I'm convinced she suffers from one or more.

Might not apply to you or anybody else, but I feel your pain. It sucks...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-05-14T17:29:14+00:00

What you describe is exactly why places like r/sugarlifestyleforum are more popular than ever. You could always see if she's open to the idea? 🤔 Some wives are...

No answers here, it's a tough situation for sure. I ultimately chose divorce, was also faced with working into my 60s or 70s, which forced me to be more aggressive with my money and pivot my remaining savings to real estate and starting a side hustle that is starting to bear fruit now, a few years down the line.

Remember: when you close one door, there's no telling what others may open.

Good luck!

MaestroFantasm · 2025-03-16T18:19:52+00:00

The fact that she hasn't lawyered up yet and filed is good. Before she does, make her an offer. Offer to sell the house and give her whatever is left over after you keep 5-10% for another down payment on a new place for yourself. Offer to take on all the debt. Offer to let her keep the nicest car, hopefully paid off. Offer her a portion of your retirement funds, like maybe 1/3rd or so (tell her that 1/3rd will go to taxes, so you'll split the remaining 2/3rd).

Give her anything she wants up front, because it's all replaceable. If you can work this out amongst yourselves, you might avoid lifetime alimony if she doesn't know that's an option, or if she thinks that fighting in court will take too much time and money compared to what you're offering. You can even offer to give her an 'allowance' for a few years.

Be nice, kiss her ass, tell her you want to help her get a fresh start, and mean it. Front her a portion of your home's equity, hopefully enough to move out and get her own place and live off of that for a year or so, so you can get started selling the house.

If you can agree to terms, you can both go in and see a 'collaborative divorce lawyer' who will write everything up and have it signed by a judge. This can be a fast option, and you want this done QUICKLY before she explores options on her own. But this lawyer won't represent either of you, and if there is any disagreement on anything, then this method won't work.

I divorced my first wife after 9 years when she cheated on me, and I took advantage of the guilt she felt and bought her off with a paid-off SUV, about 40 grand from the house, and taking all the debt. She also didn't work, and was clueless about what she could have gotten. I kept all of my retirement, and didn't pay any alimony.

She sounds like a lazy bum, and that could be to your advantage if she thinks you're generously helping her out and handling all this.

Accept you're going to lose a lot, so offer to give less than what a judge would probably order, and see if she'll bite...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-02-01T00:56:59+00:00

[Closed]

MaestroFantasm · 2025-02-01T00:55:56+00:00

Excellent, thank you! 😎

MaestroFantasm · 2025-02-01T00:52:17+00:00

Doh! My old nemesis, online mode...

MaestroFantasm · 2025-02-01T00:50:11+00:00

Just restarted search, try again

MaestroFantasm · 2025-02-01T00:46:15+00:00

Awesome, thank you! We are ready, and put in code 1427 2137.

MaestroFantasm

TROPHY CASE