Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

Sometimes, being an immigrant SUCKS.

Picture this:

I came to the USA five years ago.

I’m all alone.

Not even a reliable emergency contact.

I keep to myself.

And I work.

My nose is always on the grindstone.

I used to party up to seven nights per week.

Now, I’m too tired to be out on a Saturday night.

Because I have two jobs.

On…

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Friends,

The time has come.

And there’s no time to waste…

Become a paid member of Permission to be Powerful for just $1 per month.

Subscribe now

Come on this journey with me.

I’ve priced membership at just $1 per month.

For perspective:

Substack’s minimum monthly price is $5.

I have to give you a lifetime discount of 80% just to offer you this price.

And it won’t stay $1 fore…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

My readership has grown very gradually.

This means most of you have been reading my work for months, if not years.

I imagine you like the material I put out.

Maybe something I wrote changed your life.

Or maybe I just entertained you for five minutes while you were sitting on the toilet.

Either way, my work means somethin…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

People say they’re not gonna pay $1 per month to read Permission to be Powerful.

A lot of people will say no.

That’s okay.

Because this is not really about the people who say no.

I’m looking for the people who say yes.

This is me creating a filter.

This is a social experiment.

See, I’m thinking about this publication...

And…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

Permission to be Powerful is changing.

Starting today, every new article on this publication will become available to members only.

I want to explain exactly why.

Because if you’ve been reading for a while, you deserve to know what is happening.

And honestly?

I think you’re going to love where this is going.

I’ve been wat…

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I don’t talk about this enough.

It’s my secret weapon.

I call it my Magic Voice.

What do I mean?

I spent 15 years mastering the art of written persuasion.

I studied the craft so deeply it got into my bones.

At this point, I’m unconsciously competent.

I’m not even fully aware of what I’m doing anymore.

You just experience it.

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

Ten vacations are currently open inside the Vacation Vault.

Some disappear in a matter of days.

Here’s what you can still enter to win:

Las Vegas: First-Class Flights + $2,500 Cash

• First-class flights for two

• Two nights at a four-star hotel on the Strip

• $1,000 wardrobe

• $750 dining allowance

• $2,500 cash

• Deadline: August 12, 2…

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I’ve lived a strange life.

I didn’t fully realize how strange until I wrote the whole thing down.

I always knew I would write a memoir.

After Tony Robbins fired me, I couldn’t do much of anything.

I was burnt to a crisp.

In no position to take another high-stress job.

So, I wrote Hell and Paradise: An American Odyssey.

Wh…

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Hell and Paradise is the true story of one man’s impossible journey from the Caribbean to America.

Not the Caribbean from the brochures.

The real Caribbean.

The one tourists rarely see.

You’ll step inside my childhood in St. Lucia, where breathtaking beauty and brutal reality exist side by side. You’ll experience the people, the culture, the humor, the chao…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

This publication is getting out of hand.

When I started Permission to be Powerful, it was just me...

Now?

This thing is starting to feel like a real publication.

A place you can wander around for hours.

We’ve merged Vacation Vault into Permission to be Powerful.

• There are multiple newsletters.

• Two serialized stories.

• A mem…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

I recently merged my Vacation Vault with Permission to be Powerful…

And I’m thrilled about the results.

I think the vibe makes my Substack feel more like a fancy publication…

And I love that.

I wanted to take the time to tell you more about the Vacation Vault…

So you understand precisely how much fun you’re missing.

Out o…

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This all happened to one person…

…in one lifetime.

This serial grabs you by the throat, and it never lets up…

Light spoilers:

Whales swim past my classroom

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To celebrate this year’s Fourth of July, I wanted to do something special.

I’m releasing the first 5 chapters of my new monthly memoir serial, Hell & Paradise, for paid members today.

You can become a paid member for just $1 for the first month.

You can get all the details by clicking the button below.

Join The Hell & Paradise Serial

This is my Comi…

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Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

Could You Pass This Citizenship Test?

Go.

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Don’t skip this.

You wouldn’t leave a dying man alone out in the cold to die, would you?

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I’ve been building a Patreon that’s picking up steam.

It’s called Tony’s Vacation Vault.

In it, I curate a steady supply of real vacation sweepstakes for you to enter.

Puerto Rico

Costa Rica

Cancun

Cozumel

Italy

Barcelona

The Maldives

Turks & Caicos

Mexico City

Budapest

Bermuda

Vietnam

Ireland

Bali

The Greek Islands

Even the Galapa…

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Tony V. here.

You already know if my writing works on you.

You read it.

You feel it.

And you come back.

That’s not an accident.

I’ve spent 15 years as a copywriter, writing for some of the biggest names in the industry.

Tony Robbins.

Ramit Sethi.

Neil Patel.

Agora Financial.

Millions of readers.

High stakes.

Every word is judged…

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My email list is real.

90,000 subscribers…

Built in a little over a year.

Not bots.
Not scraped junk.
Not click farms.

Mostly Americans.
Heavily women 40–60.
Actual humans who open, read, and reply.

I moved the entire thing to an open-source platform.

No middlemen.
No surprise throttles.
No ransom disguised as “features.”

Same list.
Same emails.
Just fewer ways …

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I don’t mean to alarm you, but…

We are friends.

Right?

You value my work.

Right?

What do you like about Permission to be Powerful?

What made you subscribe?

I want to know who my real friends are.

So I’m asking outright.

Are you a real one, or not?

Not to be confrontational.

I’m asking because I need friends right now.

Real ones.

The kind who help in smal…

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How are we liking my hot takes on the Epstein files?

Genuinely curious to know.

I also wanted to take a moment to ask for your support.

Either by becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack…

I have big plans for the paid subscription that I’m working on right now…

I’m highly trained in the art of persuasion.

I also built …

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