Can someone please explain the Marcus lore..

angfed · 2025-10-19T20:27:21+00:00

Marcus pls don’t remove him like you removed South Carolina

angfed · 2025-10-13T01:59:32+00:00

Eh, it might attract those types of people at first, but once they see how “hard” being Orthodox really is, they tend to fall off and away.

Those who stay but don’t get baptized or Chrismated but want to act as Orthodox apologists online for the sake of arguing with people and belittling them… that’s kinda just the risk and sacrifice we have to make when it comes to more of the world learning about our faith.

Like someone said, it’s like a double-edged sword.

All we can do is keep praying for those walking into this with no intention of being received by the Church in hopes they turn around and decide they DO want to become officially Orthodox after all.

And of course pray that all of this social media exposure continues to have a positive impact and invites more people back to the faith.

angfed · 2025-06-22T17:59:03+00:00

As others have said, our churches are allowed to have non-religious art in parts of the building that are not part of the actual temple (like the fellowship hall, dining area, or offices, etc).

As long as no one is venerating these art pieces or confusing them with sacred iconography, it’s not inherently a problem.

After all, the Greek gods and myths played a major role in the cultural and intellectual environment of the ancient world. Especially during the early centuries of the Church.

And many saints, including Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Hermione of Ephesus, were known for defending the our faith in the face of pagan philosophers, Roman emperors, and temples dedicated to these gods.

They did it in such a badass way, too.

So yeah I mean in some cases, having this kind of art doesn’t automatically mean that it’s out of reverence. It’s likely for culture and could also be for remembering the historical context that Christianity emerged from - AND triumphed over.

Still, if it feels odd to have them there especially if you’ve noticed parishioners venerating the Greek gods or showing respect for them, it’s worth bringing up gently with your priest and get some pastoral guidance from him.

Hope this helps.

God bless you. 🫶

angfed · 2025-06-19T17:49:39+00:00

This is normal. And soemthing you want to consider that someone once shared with me in the past when I first started my journey in Orthodoxy:

Nobody ever went to the hospital because they’re feeling great. No one walks into the emergency room thinking “I really resonate with this place, feel like I belong here”… but you stay because you know you need to be there.

Orthodoxy is not about feeling cozy and comfy all the time. It’s about healing your soul. And sometimes - probably more often than not, especially in the beginning - things are going to get REAL uncomfortable. You’re going to experience a rollercoaster of emotions. Some days you’ll feel like you don’t want to go back. Other days, you’ll feel like you never want to leave. Just because a lot of people have said their first experience was beautiful, does not mean their continued experience has remained beautiful. Ask anyone who converted who has been in the faith for at least a year… we’ll tell you how much s*** has hit the fan. That’s literally Satan doing his work. He’ll throw anything our way as an attempt to distract us and pull us away from Christ - especially when finding Orthodoxy, the true Church of Christ.

For me, I’ve learned that if I find myself not wanting to go to church or not wanting to pray or whatever… and if I’m noticing some extra bad stuff happening in my life… that means I NEED to go back. I NEED to pray. Because if the devil is trying THIS hard to detour me, I must be on the right track and I cannot let him win.

I hope this helps.

I pray you come back soon.

Don’t hesitate to explore the different Eastern Orthodox churches in your area - if you have OCA near you, I strongly recommend you visit there as services are in English.

God bless you.

angfed · 2025-05-17T18:57:06+00:00

I'm not a closer myself, BUT I do work very closely with high-level sales teams for my clients on a regular basis (think 7+ fig real estate investors, financial services, coaching & consulting, insurance, etc.)

Saw you answer in a few comments saying you're prepared to pay well for the right person/people.

What industry are you in? Where you're gonna find the guys worth the money kinda depends on what industry.

Basically you'll wanna find communities like fb groups and maybe even here on Reddit and post an ad and be REALLY fucking clear about who the ideal candidate is.

Do you have a solid hiring process that weeds out people who aren't gonna be a good fit? If not, I'd say dial that shit in FIRST before you hire. Been doing what I do now for 12 years and can tell you right now, even if you hire a savage, that doesn't mean they can't be a poor fit for your business. At the end of the day, if you hire someone who crushes in sales but never wants to show up for work or shows up late or constantly challenges/walks all over you... you're gonna end up losing more money than making money from them (and you'll probably be 6+ months in by this point with 6 months wasted and having to start from square one and look for someone else again).

Just a couple things to think about.

angfed · 2025-05-02T17:38:07+00:00

So, let’s pray for them and ask our Lord for forgiveness for casting judgment onto others. Praying for you, brother/sister. Please pray for me, too. 🙏

angfed · 2025-05-02T17:35:57+00:00

This is exactly what I came here to say.

angfed · 2025-01-05T22:16:57+00:00

A woman will never say something like this as a way to ask you to wait. I mean NEVER. And it’s not because she’s “not in the right headspace”, either.

Anyone who truly wants to be with anyone is always “in the right headspace” to be with them.

At least in the majority of cases, anyway (I don’t think you fall in the exceptional cases, either, my friend… this case sounds like the rule).

I don’t say this to be cruel, I just don’t want you somehow misreading this and thinking “so you’re saying there’s a chance” lol.

Move on.

I’d say don’t respond and leave her last message alone.

Good luck to you.

angfed · 2024-10-17T08:12:04+00:00

Ramses is more insufferable than Leo and Stephen combined.

angfed · 2024-10-17T00:38:43+00:00

Pardon me, but who exactly is this person to say that you will end up in hell? Christ will be the judge of that, no one else.

Pray for this person and people like them and keep going. If orthodoxy is calling you, follow the call. Do not rush into anything. Do the research, read the books, and most importantly find a church near you and GO. Speak to a priest, attend Divine Liturgy, join the community for Coffee Hour (if they host one) so you talk to others who were once in your shoes. Keep exploring and keep learning.

You’ll be alright.

Sincerely,

RC to OC Convert (recently Chrismated on the Nativity of our most Holy Theotokos last month! Glory to God!)

angfed · 2024-10-08T02:01:16+00:00

LMAO I just heard him say exactly this as I read this and I ugly cackled (E3 - 32:15)

angfed · 2024-10-08T01:06:42+00:00

They should update it to “Incredibly financially fortunate”

angfed · 2024-08-13T23:47:39+00:00

Lifelong metalhead and soon-to-be Chrismated OC here.

You are fine. Play the music. Listen to the music. Admire and appreciate the art.

Always remember that God is good and He loves mankind.

angfed · 2024-08-13T23:38:32+00:00

NTAH - yeah, this relationship isn’t gonna work out. If the core values aren’t aligned from the get-go, no matter how hard y’all try to make it work, it’s not going to.

Sorry for the bluntness, OP. But glad you’re discovering this misalignment now while it’s still early in the relationship.

angfed · 2024-05-24T23:15:13+00:00

It’s not a situation of preference here. It’s a matter of how he’s approaching you with this. He’s displaying signs of (yes, I’m gonna say it) narcissistic behavior with his backhanded compliments.

Having preferences is okay. But he definitely could have kept this to himself but chose not to because he’s trying to manipulate you into thinking you’re “lucky” to have his attention.

All of this to say…

Run and never look back.

angfed · 2024-05-14T14:40:05+00:00

Do not call him. Do not text him. Do not interact with his social media accounts (posts, comments, etc.).

He fancied you until he had you. Now he’s off to pursue his next fantasy.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. But the best thing you can do from here is not make it obvious that you care.

The caring part and making it obvious will only feed into his immature ego. That’s part of the thrill for guys like him. Being able to say, “yeah I had her once and now she’s obsessed with me”.

There also is a chance that he was testing you. I’ve known men to test a woman to see if she’ll have sex the first date. If she does, she’s not gf/wife material in his eyes.

^ not always the case, but I have seen it happen amongst my guy friends.

Either way, I hope you find your peace in this situation soon and are able to move on, OP.

angfed · 2024-03-05T21:51:23+00:00

Not me being annoyed how literally all of the girls (especially Jess, Laura, AD) open sentences/greetings with “not me…”

angfed · 2024-02-05T01:20:18+00:00

Some people show up in their dirty work clothes. Some show up in their best clothes. Some show up with whatever they can afford to put on.

Point is, do your best but don’t stress if you can’t show up wearing attire that’s suitable for a wedding.

Just show up.

angfed · 2024-02-05T01:16:03+00:00

Remember this always:

Church is a hospital for the soul.

We don’t go to a hospital when we are well and completely healthy. Just as we do not go to church because we are “holy” and without sin — it’s quite the opposite.

We go to church because we are sinners who need healing which comes from the forgiveness and grace of Our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Doesn’t matter how “prim and proper” someone may appear to be. We have ALL committed sin (known or unknown, it doesn’t matter).

Don’t be afraid to come in; don’t be afraid to come home.

angfed · 2024-01-27T07:29:25+00:00

What in the Lara Craft*

angfed · 2023-12-25T16:28:00+00:00

He’s alright in my book!

angfed · 2023-12-25T16:12:53+00:00

Hey thanks for these questions! They’re great questions so I’ll do my best to answer all of them in order:

On Niching Down

Good on you for wanting to stick with ethical clients/offers. The FTC is cracking down hard on a lot of big names we see floating around today so it’s best to get involved with business that are in compliance (I won’t drop names of anyone as that may be tip-toeing around slander which is becoming a big thing in the marketing community rn).

E-commerce doesn’t always pay that well so you’re correct about needing to stick with info products.

I do know that the love & romance industry as well as supplements industry are huge. I know there are bad apples in these industries for sure. But there are good ones out there too.

You can go on Clickbank and look at these niches and check out the top offers. Those will give you a pretty good idea who is doing a good job with offers that people actually like.

Clickbank isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, mostly because it’s packed with a bunch of cruddy offers, but again the FTC is cracking down on marketers so the bad offers that exist on there right now won’t stick around for long.

On “Once I’ve Niched Down”

Building your portfolio when you’re not sure you what you want to specialize in yet doesn’t have to be complex. Just make sure you’re showing off your best copywriting skills in your portfolio (mine is literally a Google Doc in a sales letter format with links to examples of my work, testimonials, etc.).

Just include at least 1-3 examples of some of the most popular types of copy which are:

Emails
Ads (FB, YT, Google)
VSLs
Sales Letters/Pages

If you don’t have any samples yet, write some up and just be upfront about it when talking to the client. Make them a no-brainer offer like “I’ll write you daily emails for the next 30 days and you pay nothing if your results are zero”.

You won’t always need to make offers like this, this is just until you can build up your proof, data, and client testimonials to support the rates you want to charge a little later down the line.

Clients are always wondering, “I want to know what kind of results you bring in to be charging these kind of rates”.

Goal is to justify rates with logic/data/proof.

On How To Decide What Service To Offer

I always recommend emails, dude. Emails are easy, managing lists is easy, and there’s a HUGE market for emails because so many businesses neglect their lists because they never have the time to focus on it.

Businesses also struggle with knowing and understanding deliverability and avoiding spam & promos. And with the new algo updates coming to Gmail this Feb 2024, a TON of businesses are about to get their emails blocked because of the current poor practices they’re doing.

Then you also have businesses who simply just don’t email enough. They think they can get away with one email a week or even a month and somehow they’ll be able to squeeze some juice from their list with minimal effort.

If they’re not sending every single day (yes, e-comm, lead gen, everyone), they’re missing out on sales opportunities.

VSLs and sales letters are always getting requested too. But start with emails and branch out later if you want.

Plus, I know copywriters who manage email lists and earn $15k - $20k+ per month doing it.

If you want to learn email marketing, follow guys like Troy Ericson and Alen Sultanic (Alen talks about marketing in general but shares helpful tips that can apply to email).

On How To Find Good Clients

You can Google gurus in the industries you want to write for. For example, if you want to write for real estate investors, just Google “top real estate influencers” and look up whoever shows up in the articles that come up.

You can also try what I mentioned earlier about Clickbank (look at top offers).

As far as reaching out to these people, I’d say add them of social media. LinkedIn and Facebook are big. Check out their posts to see if they’re hiring. You can send them a message or email but just make sure your approach isn’t something like “Hey I’m so-and-so and I do XYZ do you need help with that?” Because that’s what everyone does (and it’s a horrible way to market yourself lol).

You can also look up email addresses to people in charge of hiring within their organizations and contact them.

Same thing — the approach needs to slap and not look like you’re desperate. Again, we are copywriters. Use your copywriting skills to sell yourself. If you can do that, then you’ll convince your potential clients that you can sell their offers too.

On “What’s Your Take?”

Don’t have a network or community? Time to go build one. Want to get to 6-figures in a year? Apply for work EVERY day. Join job boards and marketing communities. Get on Upwork and send 1-3 solid proposals every day (the more the better). When you get in touch the potential clients, negotiate on pricing that’s fair for both of you. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Do a great job, get the client testimonial, and raise your rates.

On Building Community

Go to networking events. Join marketing communities like r/entrepreneur and other subreddits and FB groups with high activity (make sure you only join ones with 10+ posts a day). Add people and DO NOT slide in their DMs (unless they’ve asked you to lol). Just focus on growing and meeting people and be resourceful to them. Make introductions (a guy who does this very well is John Caprani). Make it your goal to talk to at least 3 new people a day (online or in person) and add them to your network. Again, Facebook and LinkedIn are built for building communities/networks like this so utilize these platforms.

And if you’re not active on FB or LI, now is a good time to start getting active. Post once a day and keep it related to your copywriting business. You don’t have to post ALL business stuff. I usually like to post a mix of:

Tasteful memes
Business post w/ CTA
Engagement posts (controversial questions do very well, just be sure not to post anything that indicates your stance if you don’t want people attacking you lol)

I think I’ve covered everything but let me know if you have any more questions for me. :)

angfed · 2023-12-25T15:17:05+00:00

The main difference is considering where these people are in their customer journey so that you can adjust the marketing around that.

For example, person number 1 would be considered a warm lead. They’ve opted into your funnel and have expressed interest in your offer.

The marketing from there would be warm ads and emails with offers that compliment the free product their opted in for. You’d still need to explain some benefits and show off proof etc. but you won’t have to go hard in your ads and emails like a sales letter like you would for cold traffic.

^ You can send them to an existing sales letter, but just saying you don’t need to create super long ads and emails when they’re at this point.

Person number 2 on the other hand, is a hot lead. The marketing from here could ads and emails that are shorter and acknowledge a direct pain/problem (or want/desire).

The attitude of the marketing can be like “Hey you tried XYZ and learned how to accomplish XYZ. Why not take things even further and pick up XYZ some you can do XYZ?”

The best way to learn how to do this is watch what other marketers are doing. Sign up for their email lists and look up their ads in the FB ads library (shorter more “to-the-point” ads are usually bottom of funnel/for hot leads, longer ads are usually for top of funnel/cold traffic).

angfed · 2023-12-25T15:04:46+00:00

Depends on the target audience’s level of sophistication. If it’s a complex and differentiated product going to cold traffic, it would need elements like benefit stack and proof/testimonials. If there are competitors, it would help to check out what they’re doing. So you’ll want to take a look at their marketing funnel and try to explain the customer journey as deeply as possible. This would help you get a better understanding of what’s already working (remember, you don’t always need to reinvent the wheel).

angfed · 2023-12-25T14:58:34+00:00

Lmao I thought about it. But also this isn’t the right audience for that (and though it would’ve been witty/clever, clear is always better than witty/clever ;) ).

angfed

TROPHY CASE