This is a favorite. Go buy this.
I was a hard-core slacker for the first part of my adulthood… and things didn’t change until I woke up one day on a friend’s couch with the blinding realization that if anything good was gonna happen in my life, I needed to be the instigator. No one esoulse was going to help.
You need to learn to enjoy it on your own, however. Your friends, for the most part, will resist your efforts to change. They’ll feel threatened, with good reason. Because, when you start taking responsibility, and stop making excuses, then things start happening, fast and furious, in your life. And you suddenly have very little left in common with your dullard buddies who remain content to blame their lack of progress on everything but their own laziness.
However, avoiding going THROUGH the process of creation — either by drinking, or procrastinating, or pretending it’s not there — will doom you to suck on sour anxiety for the rest of your days. The pro knows what he has to do… and just gets on with it. The wannabe will eat himself up from the inside out… never knowing how much the anxiety recedes when you move forward and just face the beasts that scare you so much from a distance. There’s an ironic side-story here, too. The wannabe often will know more ABOUT the process than the professional. Because he studies it (instead of doing it).
So write this lesson out and tack it on the wall somewhere: Never take advice from anyone who hasn’t been there. No matter how sensible it may sound, or how fervently they insist it’s true.
And stop cutting unnecessary deals with your customers. You give your stuff away for free, or for cheap, to someone (no matter how good their sob story is), and it affects you on levels you can’t even measure yet.
Listen carefully: People are not sitting around desperately hoping for a marketer like you to come into their lives and sell them something. Mostly, they resent your presence. They resent you having something they want. And they resent, most of all, you giving them an itch that can only be scratched by buying what you have.
Most people don’t really want to be a writer. They want to have already written something, and enjoy the rewards. Minus the work.
Get your hands on a copy of the SRDS. (That’s Standard Rates and Data Service, if you’re among those who also have avoided using the shortcuts I’ve advised.) These are the phonebook-sized catalogs of all mailing lists available to rent, and all magazines that take ads. This is the book that — once you take a few minutes to understand it — will heap massive wealth and reward on your head. Because this is the book that instantly tells you which markets are hot, and which are not. What’s more, if you’re too cheap to buy the service (sign up at www.srds.com and they will send you a brand new updated version quarterly), you can check the SRDS out for FREE at your local library. It’s in the resource department.
John Reese said something that is still resonating with me. He has his sister call each and every new customer… just to make sure their package arrived all right. He’s doing a fairly staggering level of business, mind you. And it’s his sister doing the calls. “Nobody calls anymore, except for moronic telemarketers reading from a script” he said. “And people appreciate an honest call with info.” It’s brilliant.
In my entire life, there aren’t more than a handful of days I wouldn’t happily relive. I wasn’t aware of it most of the time… but I was waking up every single morning to another chapter of a grand adventure. It was a BIG DEAL to finally realize this. And stop obsessing on the party I felt I was missing out on.
First… the reason I believed, as a kid, that everyone else (both adult and fellow child) knew vital secrets I didn’t… … was because I had assumed their smug confidence and bravado had to be based on something real.
Now, I know the truth: They weren’t thinking thoughts that I wasn’t privy to. Nope. They weren’t thinking at all. Most of the time, there wasn’t a single thought in their heads. They were coasting on vapor.
Second… the only reason the party I wasn’t invited to seemed so much better than the party I was at… was simply a twisted version of the grass being greener on the other side. As Halbert says, “I know exactly what I don’t want in life… and it’s always what I already have.”
When you’re truly successful, you’re the party. If your life isn’t vibrant and stimulating right now, then changing that condition is a big part of your current job. Remember — most people don’t get to do this. They’re stuck in normal jobs, numbed by television and caged by their own refusal to risk breaking out of their comfort zone. And here you are, smack in the middle of the most exciting and urgent part of the business world.
If you got the goods, man, don’t hide behind false humility. Stand up and claim what’s yours.People follow leaders with balls and chops.
I also have little notepads all over the house. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a burning idea that needs to be written down. And I know I MUST write it down immediately, or lose it forever.
None of the great writers I know EVER “turns off” the mental machinery. When we’re on a job, we’re on it 24/7, essentially. We may look like we’re watching TV, or staring at the wall, or playing golf. But we’re always a heartbeat away from a breakthrough concept or tactic or idea.
Remember this: One of the great secrets of great salesmanship… is secrets.
And that means you must be MORE a part of the world than your customers. They can go about their lives half-asleep, unchallenged, snuggled into the familiar. You, however, must gobble that fruit from the tree of knowledge, and embrace it.
And that means you must be MORE a part of the world than your customers. They can go about their lives half-asleep, unchallenged, snuggled into the familiar. You, however, must gobble that fruit from the tree of knowledge, and embrace it. A couple of very cool things will happen when you do this.
First, you will discover that the world really is a land of wonders and adventures and romance and things you never dreamed of before. You will actually feel your soul expanding. It’s good for you.
And, second, you will “arm” yourself with potent bonding tools which will instantly put you in touch with the deepest desires and needs and fears of the people you reach with your advertising. You will eventually come to know your customers better than they know themselves. Because you are consciously examining the world.
You can sell by inflaming the dreams of others… but you cannot sell from inside your own dream.
There was no purpose served by me reading that letter (he wasn’t required to give any explanation to get his refund) … and, worse, as a result of reading it, I was in a bit of a lather for the rest of the day.
Time wasters get you twice — the time you spend reading their drivel is wasted, and the time you spend stewing about it is wasted, too. You aren’t writing new ads, you aren’t finding new customers, you aren’t performing Operation MoneySuck.
He insisted we “owed” him this treat (he loved to talk on the phone and avoid letting the curtain rise on any project) because he had paid our fee. So Gary sent him his money back. “We’re not going to work with you,” he said, simply. “Here’s your fee back. Don’t call again.”
It matters. Waking up means not using the boob tube as your window to the world… and actually taking the time to watch clouds for an afternoon… or listen to birds and breezes instead of your iPod… or just sit with someone on the porch and not say a word, instead of being a bobble-head ADD distraction junkie.
However, there’s another side of greed that is totally controllable… and even necessary for getting things done. It’s not “I gotta get mine first”… but, rather, “I will establish myself first, so I can help you later.” It sounds like a justification for being selfish… but it’s actually the way things get done.
Truly successful people never use their bank account as a measuring stick. There are other things more important.
Second Revelation: Craig also mentioned something that hit a nerve with me — in his long experience with real success, he realized that he was happiest when dealing with just two or three projects. This was immediately echoed by Richard Rossi, another ridiculously successful businessman from the east coast. Richard has earned a fortune helping kids realize their dreams, and he’s kept a close eye on his own progress. He actually kept his project list to one or two things at a time. This is seriously important stuff here.
Basically… he told me to grow up. It’s immature to believe you can “have it all”, or increase your happiness and success by spreading yourself thin, trying to be all things to all people at all times.
Basically… he told me to grow up. It’s immature to believe you can “have it all”, or increase your happiness and success by spreading yourself thin, trying to be all things to all people at all times. He wasn’t referring to growing up physically, or even emotionally. He was referring to the very difficult act of establishing yourself in the world. Our early dreams of success are often scattered and unrealistic… and need to be trimmed down to what can actually happen.
I looked at his chart, leaning against the far wall, in horror. I’d done the same thing myself, back in my office. Put up a bulletin board, and crammed 3×5 cards on it, each representing a new “opportunity” I simply had to eventually take advantage of… as soon as I had the time.
No Tail, Shithead. I’m the shithead, by the way. That note was a reminder to me NOT to take on projects that went on and on and on, so that I was nailed to the office to fulfill commitments. A “tail” is a commitment you have in the future. No matter what you do today, no matter how brilliantly you handle the project right now… … there will be another vat of sewage waiting for you down the road.
As a copywriter, you need to develop the ability to toss The National Enquirer and Weekly World Globe into your shopping basket without blushing… to sit calmly through the occasional Oprah estrogen bath… to read brain-gagging popular novels… to care about Brad and Jen (just for a second, though)… and to immerse yourself in Joe Sixpack’s and Susie Homemaker’s worlds of fluff and inconsequential inanity. All without pretending this isn’t the core reality of the world you’re trying to sell stuff in. C’mon. You don’t want to be like those clueless GM suits in Detroit, never bothering to walk the plant floor for fear of getting specks of dust on your $900 Gucci loafers. You know — the guys who still don’t know why the Japanese are cleaning their clocks in the automobile market, and who just suffered the indignity of having their stock reduced to “junk” status.
Because fun, for me, is the key to enjoying my job. When I talk to Gary Halbert, or Dan Kennedy, or any of the other “insiders” I know in this business, the conversation is loaded with stories of trials and tribulations that would crush our souls if we couldn’t laugh about it. Life is cruel and unfair, and so what. Roll with the punches, learn your lessons, keep moving. It’s the learning part that keeps you progressing. It’s the fun part that keeps you sane. That’s why I’m urging you to stay wired into the culture… and to have fun doing it. Don’t think of it as part of your job. Instead, think of it as part of the fun of having a job where you get to observe the world in all its most weird and fascinating foibles… and the more you observe, the more you’ll earn.
Take out the specifics and you get: “How A [blank] Accidentally Started [blank]”. (Actually, the Power Word “accidentally” is so key to the headline working that it should be taken out too. Other verbs — powerful verbs, not boring ones — can be introduced that will radically change the tone of the story. I could have used “amazingly”, or “suddenly”, or even “belligerently”… each offering a different nuance.)
And for the second ad: “How Does This [blank] Still [blank] In [blank] By [blank]?” Each choice in the phrases used to flesh this headline out was crucial. I labored over every detail for a very long time, using the information I had gleaned from my research. My research, of course, was deep and done with a nose for the incongruous and compelling. The skinny genius never said he was skinny, and probably never considered himself so. But he is slender, compared to most Americans. Certainly thin. Skinny carries more “weight”, copy-wise. The accident? He was fooling around on the range, experimenting, and couldn’t believe what he’d done. Repeated everything, and hit another long blast. Launched an official 425-yard drive during a long-drive championship competition. On television. I don’t make ANY of this stuff up, folks. I don’t need to. When you do your research correctly, you’ll find it. (I suppose I’ll need to spend a Rant talking about being a sales detective here, soon.) So… while I’m not writing about UFOs causing people to suddenly become great golfers… I do keep those tabloid tactics of hooking and grabbing readers in mind while I craft my headline.
The lesson: When you’re with friends, and you’re having fun… acknowledge it to yourself. Don’t take it for granted. Cuz things change, fast. This kind of “grabbing the moment” is one of the first steps to waking up completely. I’ll bet you’ve had great times before, and not even realized how great they were… until long after the fact.
Here’s one way to work this “grab the moment” attitude into your daily life: People ask me all the time for shortcuts to becoming a better writer. My advice is simple: Writers write. So, write more. And you can help yourself wake up along the way. Keep a journal. Try it — at the end of each day, just log a few thoughts. But write well. Really focus on getting your point across. No one needs to ever see this journal. In fact, I suggest you keep it a big damn secret… so you can really cut loose, and write without censoring yourself. Heck, you have my permission to burn incriminating pages, right after you’ve written them. But try it out for a few weeks, regardless. Fully wakeful people notice stuff that slips by everyone else. Great writers are great observers.
And I advise you not to read anyone’s reasons for requesting a refund, either. No matter how off-base or insane they are, their comments will take root in your brain and grow like some alien weed, eventually occupying every square inch of your consciousness. And you’ll waste outrageous amounts of time crafting your response… countering every nuance of the refundee’s argument, and detailing all the ways they are wrong and evil and basically the scum of the earth.
A great salesman can still sell tons of product online, using NONE of the cutting edge technology available. Done right, an embarrassingly-simple sales letter slapped up using a share-ware template on a $6 URL from GoDaddy with a generic link to PayPal… can still bring in a fortune. To the right list, sold the right way. Yet, a geek wizard can employ every single bright new tech-heavy feature viable… and not sell a single prospect, if he ignores the raw basics of good salesmanship. The perfect storm, of course, is a new animal I call the Geek Salesman. Hip to the ancient sales dance (and a devoted student of human behavior)… and wired into the Grid. The result: Damn good sales pitches, as long as they need to be, making use of appropriate new technology to keep a prospect hooked while you take him on a wild ride that ends only when he sits back with smoke coming out of his wallet.
Remember my analogy from the “Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets” manual: If Marilyn Monroe, in her prime, gave you her phone number… … you wouldn’t care if she scrawled it in smeared lipstick on a dirty bar napkin. I feel like Marshall McLuhan here — it’s not the medium, it’s the message that counts. Are we clear on this? Good. Let’s keep it a secret from the competition.
Lisa actually is a minor celebrity in this niche (scrapbooking). But she’s a celebrity because she appears on television shows as an expert… someone who can show you how to do cool things (if you consider scrapbooking cool, which millions of women do). And, yes, this can be seen as an example of using personality to create a bond with your audience. However, I’ve checked with women who are in this market… and they’re definitely underwhelmed with the opportunity to watch Lisa drive from her home office to a meeting downtown. This is a virus from Hollywood, infecting the vulnerable parts of the entrepreneurial world.
The world is crammed with stories. Alfred Hitchcock would glance at a broken-down motel on a desolate road, and the possibilities for a truly wicked plot line would bloom. Jack Kerouac hitchhiked across America eating apple pie, drinking with disillusioned intellectuals and howling at the moon… and realized a good tale was engulfing him day by day.
Most people live in gray worlds devoid of stories, because they are too self-contained and unaware to see the action swirling around them. They are bored, sad to have missed out on the party, and convinced all hope for a better life is lost. Then YOU arrive… and yeah!… suddenly here are tales to get their blood moving and their imagination fired up and their dreams rekindled. That’s what good writers do. Translate the world back to the great mass of zombies struggling in shackles of their own making.
Life isn’t a ride that’s kinda exciting for a while, and then mellows out until you take one last yawn and die. Not if you’re paying attention. Life is a banquet… and most poor suckers are starving to death.
BE that go-to-guy who has shaken himself awake, and help translate the ongoing stories of life well-lived to your prospects out there who are desperate for any sign of honest adventure. A great sales message is a promise of a better life, another shot at the brass ring, once more into the breach and damn the torpedoes. Spotting that moment of pre-rutting behavior in that airport bar made my day, and I’m still buzzing with the memories and observations it brought up.
Just don’t start believing no one else has noticed when you discover a market that forks over cash in bundles for the right promise. The good people in your life will congratulate you on your success. Everyone else will line up to shovel out the grief and heat. So stay frosty.
If you can’t get the product into their hands very quickly (say, a matter of days in the mail or — with downloadable materials — a matter of minutes), then you should seriously consider dropping them a “stick letter” first. This letter, or email, is intended to make the sale “stick”. You reinforce their decision to buy, and rekindle the fire under their ass. Remind them how exciting their life is about to get, how much money is now headed their way, what grand adventures await. In other words… do a little cuddling, for God’s sake. They’ve just heard you out, gotten deeply involved in your world, and sent you money. They’ve trusted you more than they trust some of their closest friends. Stay involved with them. Because the deal ain’t over until the check or credit card clears the bank.
Far too many marketers are ungentlemanly cads. They high-five each other after the order is taken, and promptly move on to the next conquest. Big mistake. That first order from your new customer is the initial round only. Your goal is to make them a customer for life — so you continue the bonding, reinforce their buying decision, and make them feel welcome, safe and warm in your arms. And sure, you’re doing all that with your other customers, too. But as far as each individual knows, they are the only apple in your eye.
So it’s not: “Have you ever wondered, as I often do, where nails come from? My experience with iron nails is extremely fascinating…” No, no, no. It’s: “Do you use nails in your business? If so, I have critical information that will save you stunning amounts of money, and even shorten your workweek by ten hours…”
Stories aren’t interesting just because you’re telling one. In fact, there are three simple rules to follow to make sure you don’t put anyone to sleep: 1. You must involve the listener. You do this by anticipating questions an involved person might ask. So, it’s not “Hey, I saw Madonna at the grocery!” Instead, you anticipate the question “Really? What was she doing? Anything weird?” And bring those questions into your story before they are asked. 2. A good story has inherent interest, or even shock value. So, yeah, while you’re getting over being startled at simply seeing Madonna in the flesh, look for details that can support a little drama, or tragedy, or mystery, or humor. “She was in the produce section, squeezing cucumbers in a really filthy manner. She looked kinda heartbroken.” 3. Finally, have a point. A good story opens up new avenues of conversation and thought. “I’ve heard she has a fancy condo nearby, but it’s still a thrill to see someone so famous up close and personal. Have you seen any celebrities like that?”
The illusion of celebrity is just as good as the real thing… as long as you have the right details.
Do you feel like you know Joe a little bit now? I didn’t describe his physical traits at all — you couldn’t pick him out of a line-up if your life depended on it. But I did deliver a whole boatload of information on the substance of his life. And I did it in a way that lets you get to know him. The same facts, delivered in list form, cold and without embellishment, would give you an idea of his work resume… … but wouldn’t give you much insight to the person. Almost every time a rookie writer tries to credentialize someone in their copy, they get hung up on trying to mesh the facts with the humanity. And that makes the copy difficult to read, like slogging through deep mud. Most readers won’t do it. You lose your audience when you numb them with figures and facts and bland details. But if you turn those facts into a storyline, you can hold interest. And get your point across.
Storytelling is mostly a dead art in our culture. That’s an “in” for savvy marketers, because people love good stories, and it’s the best way to get your message across in a way that sticks. Your biggest blunder will be boring your reader. So focus on delivering your story using the three rules: Be pithy, stay in your reader’s pocket, and have a point.
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