Our guest today, Chris Haddad, sent shock waves through the copywriting world 10 days ago with the launch of his much-awaited online training program called “The P.I.G. Method.” “P.I.G.” stands for “Punch in the gut” and I would say that’s a fairly universal description of how Chris’s copy in his video sales letters affects viewers. When you watch one of Chris’s promotions, or read his copy, you go on an emotional roller coaster ride that’s right up there with what you experience with a blockbuster Hollywood thriller. Chris does have a background in theatre and film. But his greatest accomplishments, I would argue, have come in the digital marketing space. Chris has created products and promotions for them which have brought in millions of dollars and caused quite a stir in the marketplace. However, The P.I.G. Method is the first time, as far as I can tell, that Chris has revealed his secrets of how he puts the promotions together. Which is something a lot of people have wanted to know for quite a while. On today’s show, we covered the product creation process, which is especially tricky for a copywriter or anyone else who has to reverse-engineer their own method and techniques. Not quite like doing brain surgery on yourself, but, it is a challenge because for most people, especially high performers, actually figuring out your own process and spelling it out for others is difficult. That’s because so much of the information is intuitive, or what is frequently known as “unconscious competence.” Chris also gave us a sneak peak at a few of the gems inside his P.I.G. method.Download.

Today's podcast comes from a handful of idea generators I found in "The Copy Book —How Some of the Best Advertisers in the World Write Their Advertising." I found out about this book from our friend Sean Vosler, who's been on the show before. It's over 500 pages long, and while it's interesting, most of it does not really apply to direct response copywriting, which, after all, is what this show is about. Nevertheless, there were a few gems I found that are great idea generators for all copywriters. So that's what we're going to focus on today. We've got seven idea-generators, coming from four different copywriters. I'll mention their names as we get to each one. Obviously these are people who know their way around writing advertising. And, like I said, I carefully selected each idea generator because I can see how you can apply this to what you're doing when you're writing copy yourself. The Copy Book https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/graphic_design/all/43914/facts.dad_the_copy_book.htm Download.

We have an extra-special guest today, and I will tell you about him after I tell you about his book. Nine years ago, someone -- and I’m sorry I can’t remember who it was -- told me about this amazing book called “The Micro-Script Rules.” I went crazy when I got it and have been recommending it to people ever since. Fast forward to earlier this fall. My client Billy Broas emailed me, having recently spoken with the author of that book, Bill Schley. He wanted to introduce the two of us. Long story short, Bill is what I would call an expert in branding that sells. In fact, he’s the only person I know who has a pretty foolproof system for creating branding that rockets companies to the top of their niche. He’s been doing that for about 30 years -- companies of all kinds. I was able to get him to come on the podcast and talk about that. Normally we direct marketers are a little hesitant to listen when anyone talks about branding, but I promise this. You’ll want to hear what Bill has to say. That’s because he’s worked in New York City at Ted Bates and Company, where legendary branders came up with household names that are still around today, decades later. Bill was a part of that process, but like a lot of young people in New York at the time, he never got a clear explanation on how to do this. He was just supposed to watch and “get it.” Lucky for him, he did, and that led to him doing it successfully over and over until he was able to figure out consciously what he was doing intuitively. It all starts with the Big Idea, and Bill has some insights and how-to’s about that which are clearer and better than anything I’ve ever heard before. When he worked at the agency in New York, he was just supposed to watch and “get it.” Lucky for him, he did, and that led to him doing it successfully over and over until he was able to figure out consciously what he was doing intuitively. And that’s the first thing we talk about on the show, where Bill gives us some revolutionary perspective about branding and the Big Idea. Then, we go on to talk about The Micro-Script Rules, one of my favorite marketing and copywriting books of all time. For everyone besides Bill, here’s a hint as to why I like it so much, and it’s the little quote above the title: “It’s not what people hear, it’s what they repeat.” And the subtitle is, “How to tell your story (and differentiate your brand) in a sentence… or less.” Pretty powerful ideas. Finally, the special surprise. Bill tells us about something coming in a few months that everyone should be interested in. Link to Bill’s book, The Micro-Script Rules https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JMWD9GZ Download.

We’ve got a very special guest today, Kenneth Yu. I really want to thank him for staying up very late to join us. As we’re recording this, it’s the middle of the night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Ken is based. He’s going to tell us about what he calls “the most persuasive story structure on Earth,” and he has a point. He calls it “the scalable parable,” and this refers to the way religious stories are structured. Now, from a sales point of view, the Holy Bible had sold five billion copies, according to the Guinness Book of world records, and that was 1995. More than any other book in the English language, and almost certainly more than any other book in the world. Scalable parables are great in religious texts, but what about in copy? We’ll find out today. Ken is going to tell how he used this religious story structure to get the number one biz-op Clickbank offer last year. More important, he’s going to tell you what you need to do to use this same structure in your own copy. Ken’s got some amazing copywriting street cred. He’s written for big online publishers including Agora and Mind Valley. He’s also worked in the big corporate advertising markets with the Ogilvy agency, and picked up a handful of international awards for his work. Here’s what I asked him: Could we start with what you did on Clickbank that worked so well for you? I’m very curious to know, how did you discover this holy grail formula, the scalable parable? Ken, why is storytelling more important to a company’s revenues than most people think? When you say, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” which we’ve all heard before, you have a special meaning for that phrase. Could you tell us about it? What’s different and more powerful about religion-based storytelling? What are the steps to creating a holy grail story? Please tell us how this all fits into creating a “tribe of customers,” and how to do that? Finally, how can people find out more about The Scalable Parable? Link to Ken’s site: https://scalableparable.com/garfinkel/Download.

We’re back with an episode in the Old Masters series -- four Old Masters, in fact. These four people are the co-authors of the book “The Principles Of Advertising,” first published in 1915. I ran across it while tracking down something else I had learned about from Copywriting Historian Sean Vosler, who has been on this show before. The authors are: Harry Tipper, Harry L. Hollingsworth, George Burton Hotchkiss, and Frank Alvah Parsons. It’s interesting to see how much has changed and how little has changed in the last 100 years. Of course the world has changed and the channels of communication are different. But people are pretty much motivated by the same things they always have been. And what works in ads hasn’t changed that much, either. So the book we’re going to look at today was published over 100 years ago. It was written as a textbook and that should scare anyone off. But the good news is, two of the authors are ad professionals, and two are professors. The language is a little old-fashioned, but the information is practical and clearly comes out of real-world experience. The book has 33 chapters! Far more than we could cover in one podcast, or even two. So I selected two big-picture chapters and three chapters about copy, and we have some of the most important and usable points from each one. Now if you’re a copywriter, you might think the big-picture stuff isn’t really necessary or relevant. And strictly speaking, it’s not. But look at it this way: If you were a skydiver, sure, you’d want to know how to put on a chute, how to jump out of a plane, and how to open your chute well before you hit the ground. But it would probably also be a good idea to get a general understanding of how gravity works, and that falling objects pick up speed at 32 feet per second every second. Same idea here. Besides, all this general context stuff will directly help you, as a copywriter, get more sales from your copy. Not the skydiving stuff, but the advertising stuff. The book is out of copyright now, and available free as a PDF download from Google Books. Here’s the link: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Principles_of_Advertising/vFdCAAAAIAAJDownload.

When you need some good advice for your business, who you gonna call? My way of looking at is pretty simple: You need someone who knows it, not only because they’ve studied it, but because they’ve also done it. Successfully. In the best of all possible worlds, more than once. For instance, if you wanted to take a cooking class, would you choose a class given by someone who has read all the cookbooks… watched every episode of “Master Chef”… and knows where you can get the freshest ingredients in town… but has never cooked a meal for anyone besides himself? Of would you want to learn from someone who has a decent education in food preparation but has also cooked and served hundreds of meals to happy customers, friends and family? Me, I’d choose the second one. Because he’s not only a teacher, he’s a doer. Now, you may know Nathan Fraser as the announcer and co-confabulator on Copywriters Podcast, but today you’re going to discover another side to Nathan. He’s also an experienced entrepreneur and copywriter who has gone through the trials and tribulations every successful businessperson goes through before they find out what really works. Just a few weeks ago, Nathan released a new book called Start-U Cheat Codes: Success Shortcuts For Your Start-UP (Or Small Business). I rushed to get a copy as soon as I found out about it and I was floored. By how simple it was. By how powerful it was. And by how had nuggets for ANY business in it. While it is pure gold for a start-up, it’s also a can’t-miss diagnostic tool for any business of just about any size. I talked Nathan into discussing it today. You probably think I’m kidding, but at first he thought I was kidding when I asked him to do a show about it with me. I wasn’t. You’ll see why in a minute. I told Nathan: I truly don’t know if you realize how much pared-down wisdom you packed into that book. It reminds me of “Obvious Adams,” a simple, short book that we talked out previously on this show. The reason it does is, it covers the basics so well, so simply, so elegantly, it’s hard to miss the essentials when you read it. And that’s rare among business books. I was wondering if we could talk about your own history as an entrepreneur. Your experiences, in a nutshell, and what got you to where you are today? So, as I see it, your book sets out to solve a lot of problems start-ups and small businesses face all the time, and they don’t really know how to solve them. Could you talk about the problems you see, both with start-ups, and with small businesses that are only performing at a fraction of their potential? You’ve also seen people who solved some of these problems, starting with yourself. Could you tell us how you discovered the path to success, and how you’ve helped others do the same? There are a couple of key things in your book that really stood out to me, and I was wondering if you could talk about them. The first one is the idea of the “Genius Zone.” I think that’s so important for people to understand. The other thing is multiple streams of income. Someone with a job usually has just one. Many business owners have only one. Could you talk about having more than one and what that looks like? Finally, tell us more about the book. How have people responded, and how does everyone else get a copy if they want it? And they should! link To Start-Up Cheat Codes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HRPXFGRDownload.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is the last part of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not you tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is still: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going to take it from a different angle. Up to now, we’ve talked about what your product can help them do, gain, and save. But this time, it’s what your product will help the prospect be. This is different and may in many ways go deeper than before, because this is about identity. So here’s what we’re going to do today. We’ll go over seven things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can help them be. I’ll show you how and why. We’ll cover some examples you are probably familiar with in general, like product categories, or in specific, like promotions you’ve probably heard of. Again, let me remind you that Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. Everything here is based on testing and very scrupulous observation, with an eye towards what stimulates inquiries and what generates sales. From the eye of a master. That’s because Ad Age magazine called Schwab “the greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” In 1941, he wrote a series of five articles for Printers Ink magazine and titled the series “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” In 1961, he expanded that series into the book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” The book is so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own way as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. Also, a quick reminder: Everything in this and the other three podcasts in this series come from page 47… the first half of the page. That might seem like a lot of podcast based on very little information, but remember, he spent 44 years testing and tracking ads and reviewing other top-performing ads. So it’s condensed practical wisdom. The book and the link: How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/ Download.

The market research company Ipsos recently did a poll that found 46% of Americans believe in ghosts. I found that annoying because they didn’t ask Americans how many of them believed in monsters. It’s so important which words you use when you’re taking a survey. Ipsos also found that 7% of Americans believe in vampires, and 6% believe in zombies. With Halloween coming up, I thought this would be a good time to do a show about monsters. Specifically, the Five Monsters of Copywriting. Especially for all the copywriters who can’t go trick or treating because they are locked in a room on a deadline. Now, look. The Ipsos poll also found that 88% of parents eat their kids’ Halloween candy. So I guess being a copywriter on deadline isn’t as bad if you’re a parent. But let’s talk about these Monsters. They are the very things that keep us from writing. I saw this sad plea for help on Twitter on in late September, from newspaper humor columnist Alexandra Petri. She wrote: “Friends if you see me on here next week, please bang a rolled up newspaper on a table nearby. So that I get startled and scuttle away. I am supposed to be working on my book.” Imagine that. She thinks that her friends can scare the monsters away from her by banging a rolled up newspaper on the table, miles away from wherever she is at the moment. Well, what are these monsters, anyway? Everybody knows about these monsters, at least vaguely. Everyone at least has an inkling. But we’re not afraid to talk about things other people are afraid to talk about. Even if we are afraid of those things ourselves. You know, they say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem. That may be as far as we get with some of these monsters. Other ones, we might have a solution or two so you can scare that one away WITHOUT having to get someone else to bang a rolled up newspaper on the table. These are monsters all of us face every day. Some of us have learned how to deal with them some of the time. A few of us deal with them well almost all of the time. You’ll want to listen to see how many of them you recognize, and maybe get some new insights on what you can DO about them!Download.

We’re back with a special Gold Edition of Copywriters Podcast. The reason it’s a Gold Edition is because we are taking a deep dive into the gold mines of copywriting history. The two men who invented copywriting as we know it are Claude Hopkins and John E. Kennedy. And the man who hired them was Albert Lasker. I came across this book, The Man Who Sold America, which has information I’d never seen anywhere else before. That was probably because one of the authors, Arthur Schultz, is the former CEO of the ad agency Foote, Cone and Belding — which gave him and his co-author Jeffrey L. Cruikshank access to private papers and other information that was not available to anyone else. You see, Foote, Cone and Belding used to be called Lord and Thomas. That was the agency Albert Lasker ran when he hired Claude Hopkins and John E. Kennedy. I probably never would have even known about this book if I hadn’t been told about it by Brad Nickel, one of my mentoring clients and a previous guest on Copywriters Podcast. It’s a big book, so I’ve selected a handful of key highlights from more than 400 pages that go deep into Lasker’s life, and his experiences with the two copywriters. This podcast contains three sections, and each section is focused on one person. First, Albert Lasker… then John E. Kennedy… and last, Claude Hopkins. We look at how their lives and careers intertwined. I think it’s very interesting that all three of them got to where they were and did what they did through some personal connections. In the case of Kennedy, a personal connection he proactively created himself. Here’s the book this information was taken from, and adapted considerably for today’s show: The Man Who Sold America, by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank & Arthur W. Schultzhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SNJYTYDownload.

We’re back with Mike Pavlish for part two of $10-million-plus sales letters, especially in the supplement industry. As we mentioned last week, Mike is a superstar copywriter. He has written promotions for health supplements for some of the most successful supplement companies in the world, including Agora, Dr. Al Sears, Healthy Directions and many others. Mike has also written for smaller entrepreneurs who sell supplements online. All told, Mike’s sales letters and VSLs have sold more than half a billion dollars worth of supplements. Half a billion dollars. Last week, Mike shared with us some incredibly valuable information about how to prepare before you start writing, and some insider tricks for getting your copy read and acted upon. But there’s so much more he has to share that we asked him to come back for a second show, and he agreed. Today talked about a new set of really valuable techniques and ideas, including: • How to use stories to draw in your prospect • TWO types of mechanisms (first we’ve ever heard of this) • The best ways to present proof • How to maximize the perceived value of your product • How to get a high average order value Plus, a LOT more! Mike’s website: https://www.mikepavlish.com/ Download.

Get ready for a master class in creating eight-figure sales letters, from a copywriter who has done it… over and over and over again. I’m really excited that today, we have Mike Pavlish on the show. He has written promotions for health supplements that have in many cases brought in more than $10 million apiece. And he’s done this for some of the most successful supplement companies in the world, including Agora, Dr. Al Sears, Healthy Directions and many others. Mike has also written for smaller entrepreneurs who sell supplements online. All told, Mike’s sales letters and VSLs have sold more than half a billion dollars worth of supplements. Half a billion dollars. It’s not often we get someone at this level of accomplishment on the podcast. Mike shared with us how he does what he does… in considerable, incredibly valuable detail. That is, how to develop and write supplement promotions that bring in $10 million or more. Here are some of the things we covered: • How to know if your niche is good • What to look for in a product, if you want a big success • What your research should focus on • What’s different (that copywriters need to know about) today, compared to even the recent past • Mike’s deceptively simple but super-powerful way of writing irresistible headlines! Mike Pavlish’s website: https://www.mikepavlish.com/Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is part 3 of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not your tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is the still: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going to take it from a different angle. Up to now, we’ve talked about what your product can help them do and help them gain. But this time, it’s what your product will help the prospect save. Some things will be familiar, but I suspect you’ll hear some things you’ve never thought of before. So here’s what we’re going to do today. We’ll go over all seven things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can help them save. I’ll show you how and why. We’ll cover some examples you are probably familiar with in general, like product categories, or in specific, like promotions you’ve probably heard of. Again, let me remind you that Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. Everything here is based on testing and very scrupulous observation, with an eye towards what stimulates inquiries and what generates sales. From the eye of a master. That’s because Ad Age magazine called Schwab “the greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” In 1941, he wrote a series of five articles for Printers Ink magazine and titled the series “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” In 1961, he expanded that series into the book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” The book is so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own way as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. Also, a quick reminder: Everything in this and the other three podcasts in this series come from page 47… the first half of the page. That might seem like a lot of podcast based on very little information, but remember, he spent 44 years testing and tracking ads and reviewing other top-performing ads. So it’s condensed practical wisdom. The book and the link: How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

I’m thrilled that our guest today is Daniel Throssell, a very unconventional and highly successful copywriter from Perth, Australia. He’s the driving marketing force behind the blockbuster bestselling book The Barefoot Investor. Daniel has a slew of very impressive testimonials on his site, to give you and idea of what other top people in copywriting are saying about him: Our friend Ben Settle calls Daniel, “One of Australia’s top copywriters.” Andrew Campbell, Harmon Brothers Ad Agency, writes, “In my role, I work with some of the best writers in the world. When I saw your copy, I knew you were one of the best, too.” And our friend Justin Blackman characterizes Daniel this way: “A wacky, wacky man of tremendous talent.” There’s one more person I’d like to mention in this intro, and that’s Copywriters Podcast subscriber Stuart Marmorstein. Stuart reached out to me personally and recommended Daniel. Stuart also helped us get in touch, and thanks for that. Stuart was particularly impressed by Daniel’s Parallel Welcome Sequence, which kind of takes the first emails someone gets when they join your list -- and turns it on its head. That’s the first thing he’s going to tell us about today, along with some highlights from his tremendous book launch. Daniel shared with us what he learned from the Barefoot Investor launch, and how it led to his Parallel Welcome Sequence… and how he uses a contrarian approach to “warm up” his own new subscribers, instead of cooling them down. Plus, he shared more email tips that every copywriter and company can learn from… and use! Daniel’s website is https://persuasivepage.com/. He also revealed how be broke an ironclad rule of copy -- which is, don’t use humor -- and turned entertainment into a marketing plus for his business.Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is part 2 of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not your tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is the same as last time: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going into entirely new territory than we did last time. First let me say that this show is the Old Masters Series because it comes from a very special book: “How to Write a Good Advertisement,” by Victor Schwab. And I’ll remind you: Schwab identifies four categories of things a prospect wants a product to do for them: 1) help them gain something, 2) help them be something, 3) help them do something, and 4) help them save something. Last time, we talked about what your product will help them do. This time, it’s what the prospect will gain. And you might be surprised some of things old Mr. Schwab came up with. So here’s what we’re going to do today. First, we’ll go over all seven things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can do. It doesn’t have to do more than one, and, as we’ll discuss, it may not even have to do one of these seven, but these are all proven winners. I’ll show you how and why. We’ll cover some examples you are probably familiar with in general, like product categories, or in specific, like promotions you’ve probably heard of. As for our source of this list of eight things: Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. Ad Age magazine called Schwab “the greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” In 1941, he wrote a series of five articles for Printers Ink magazine and titled the series “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” In 1961, he expanded that series into the book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” The book is so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own way as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. Today, we’ll look at how you can use one or more of these seven things in your copy. Now, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to use one of these. But, your odds are usually a lot better if you do. But we’ll look at how you can use the general idea and adapt it to something else, if you think that will work better for you. Also, a quick reminder: Everything in this and the other three podcasts in this series come from page 47… the first half of the page. That might seem like a lot of podcast based on very little information, but remember, he spent 44 years testing and tracking ads and reviewing other top-performing ads. So it’s condensed practical wisdom. And a link to the book, How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

We’re back with Craig Dave Carbol and today we’re going to really dig into his secrets about writing exceptional copy for eCommerce landing pages. Craig was with us last week. He has written for such well-known clients as Jon Benson and Mind Valley. But what really sets him apart are his accomplishments in eCommerce, where he has written for big brands in consumer markets like apparel, athletic gear and outdoor living. His copy has raked in more than $33 million in sales in the last year and a half. Craig has come up with a system for writing copy just like he’s writing. The system is teachable, and it’s called Cashvertorials™. He’s told us about it today and walk through a promotion he did using this very renegade and very profitable form of copy. To get free access to Craig’s course, go to: https://www.cashvertorials.com/Download.

As some viewers have noticed, I wear a Pinky and the Brain hat. In the excellent cartoon where this comes from, when the Brain bonks Pinky on the head with a big hammer, it’s just another event in the day. No harm, no foul. The action continues like nothing happened. We’ll get to why I bring this up very soon. But I think you are in for a jolt of a very different sort with our guest today, power copywriter Craig Dave Cobol. He specializes in copy for eCommerce sites and his copy has racked up an astonishing $33 million in sales for his clients over the last couple years. He’s done this using a system he developed called “Cashvertorials™,” which is based on some carefully researched and tested neuroscience and persuasion material that he’ll share with us today. I should also mention that, like Nathan and myself, he’s a musician. One thing that sets him apart is he speaks Swedish, as does the world’s current top songwriter, Max Martin. Craig shared with us a slightly frightening and totally compelling account of his journey from being a “regular” high-powered copywriter to becoming a true renegade, with his new system. With innovative techniques like polarizing product reviews, cognitive ticklers, and product transformation, he shared with us a new way to galvanize prospect attention and bring in big sales numbers. You can learn about Craig’s free course here: https://www.cashvertorials.com/ Download.

So, you’ve probably heard the old but very true saying that goes like this: “Writing is rewriting.” And you must know by now that it means, you rarely get it 100% right on the first draft. All well and good. But the question is, how do you know what to rewrite? How do you even know what to look for? That’s what we covered in last week’s show, but we only got through half the list. Today, we’ll get through the other half. You see, I realized, every time I critique copy, I look for the same things. There are certain things that any piece of copy needs to have -- certain tests it needs to pass -- if it’s going to work in the marketplace. Previously, on Copywriters Podcast, we covered these first five qualities of copy you must look at. Now, we’re going to cover the last six. A lot of what we talk about today has to do with your prospect’s experience reading your copy. We get into three factors that keep people engage. But we’ll also cover three factors that are crucial in deepening your prospect’s understand of what your product can do for them. This, in turn, deepens their desire. And you know what happens next? That magical sound: ka-ching! Finally, I’ve helped people in more than 100 industries with their marketing, and my critiques have added a lot to their bottom lines. What I told you are the first things I look at. There are other thing that I didn’t have time to get into today. If you’d like me to critique your copy, just go to this page on my website and fill out the application. It takes just a few minutes: http://garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiqueshttp://garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiquesDownload.

One of the things people ask me for the most is copy critiques. Whether it’s an A-Lister with multiple controls for a big publisher… a B-Lister gunning to become an A-Lister… or a business owner who wrote their own copy, I look at the same things. It’s interesting, because the better the copywriter, the harder I have to look. The guys who are really good make everything appear to be smooth and perfect. There’s usually a handful of tiny, almost hidden flaws. Once those flaws are fixed, the copy gets supercharged to a new level. Even so, no matter who wrote the copy, I look for the same things. There are certain things that any piece of copy needs to have -- certain tests it needs to pass -- if it’s going to work in the marketplace. Today I’m going to share five of those things, and show you how I look at them, so you can do the same for your own copy. I’ve got six more, but they’ll have to wait until we do another show. So today’s episode is not about how to write a sales letter or a VSL. Either you already know that, or you can get my book, or Nathan’s book, or listen to a number of our other more than 200 podcasts for that. Plenty of good info out there on the writing phase. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase: The total is greater than than the sum of its parts. It’s a powerful idea. Once you put copy together, you’ve got a number of moving parts, working together. If one or more of them gets out of true, you could end up with a big problem. So this is not about how to write your copy. It’s how to go over it after it’s written. I made an effort to spell out my own thought process when I do a paid critique. What I did was mentally walk through what I look at along the way. I came up with 11 necessary things that need to be right, to make sure the copy as written stands a good chance of making the maximum sales. We’d have to rush through all 11 to fit them into one show, so I’ve broken the list into two shows. Today’s list is of the first five, and we’ll do the remaining six on a future show. To book me for a copy critique, go to: http://www.garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiques/ Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this topic is so big and so important that we’re going to take four shows to do it. The question is: When your prospect starts to read your copy, what is the one thing your prospect wants to know, more than anything else? I won’t keep you waiting. The answer is simple. What your prospect wants to know is: What will your product, or service, do for me? It sounds like a simple question. Maybe even a stupid question. But it is neither stupid nor simple. Because the answer you give, and the way you put your answer together, will make all the difference for how long your prospect keeps reading. And, at the end of the day, whether or not your prospect actually buys. This show is in the Old Masters Series because it comes from a very special book: “How to Write a Good Advertisement,” by Victor Schwab. I’ll tell you more about the book in a few minutes. For now, Schwab identifies four categories of things a prospect wants a product to do for them: 1) help them gain something, 2) help them be something, 3) help them do something, and 4) help them save something. Today, we’re going to drill down on the things your prospect would like to know that your product will do for them. And you’ll see how you can use this information in your own copy. So here’s what we’re going to do today. First, we’ll go over all eight things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can do. It doesn’t have to do more than one, and, as we’ll discuss, it may not even have to do one of these eight, but these are all proven winners. Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. He took his fund of knowledge and organized it into this book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” It’s so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own was as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. After we review the eight things, we’ll take a look at a few examples of how they show up in well-known ads. Then we’ll look at how you can use one or more of these in your copy. Now, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to use one of these eight. Your odds are usually a lot better if you do. But we’ll look at how you can use the general idea and adapt it to something else, if you think that will work better for you. And finally, we’ll look at what else you need to think about to really bring your prospect off the fence, once you have told your prospect what the offer will do for them. How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

We’ve got a very good show today, because our special guest is Thomas Dean Donnelly, an experienced Hollywood screenwriter. He’s also a teacher of writing all across the country, ranging from back east at Long Island University to here out west at the University of Southern California. The Hollywood Reporter ranks USC as the top university in the world for studying film. But Tom’s screenwriting credits are even more mind-boggling. He’s been at it for over 25 years, and projects he’s written for have grossed in excess of a billion dollars around the world. He’s worked on franchises ranging from Marvel’s Doctor Strange to The Walking Dead. He’s adapted the classic works of writers including Ray Bradbury, Stan Lee and Robert E. Howard. So it’s a bit of an understatement to say that Tom’s been around the block and he knows what he’s talking about. Today he’ll share some of his adventures in the film world with us… give us a few powerful screenwriter story secrets… and reveal the best single solution for writer’s block I’ve ever heard. Tom started by telling us about a chance connection he met through his work with the Boy Scouts that made him familiar with the copywriting world -- and a lot of what he talked about on today’s show is very relevant to copywriters. He gave us the insider’s view of writing hit movies for a living. This is information that would be hard to come by for anyone not already in the business. But perhaps the most stunning revelations he made were about story. Now, we're talking about storytelling a lot on this podcast, but Tom’s point of view is unique, and he’s got the track record -- and deep knowledge -- to back up everything he says. You’ll get tips that will help you with every story you write from now on. And I love what he had to say about writer’s block. I’ve never been satisfied with explanations I’ve heard about it, or solutions to get through it, until I heard what he had to say. This information may save you from a lot of grief and wasted time. Thomas offers private consultations. You can find out more about that on his website: http://sevenminutescreenwriter.com/ Download.

Elmer Wheeler may have been the best-paid copywriter of all time, on a dollars-per-word basis. In the 1930s, Texaco paid him $5000 to come up with the question “Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?” In 2021 money, that was the equivalent of about $95,000 — for nine words. Or, more than $10,000 for each of those nine words. But those nine words had some other dollars attached to them as well. Texaco estimated gas station attendants who asked customers that question ended up opening one-quarter of a million car hoods — and, you can bet, selling lots and lots of extra motor oil soon after they did. By 1938, Elmer Wheeler had worked out tested selling sentences for 5000 products, according to an article about him in the New Yorker. One of those sentences, for Barbasol shaving cream, reportedly increased sales by 300%. In 1940, he wrote a book called “Sizzlemanship: More than 2,000 Successful Selling Pitches to Command Instant Attention and Buying Action.” It is out of print today, but there’s a Kindle edition available on Amazon for a few dollars. He’s definitely one of the most interesting and, I’m sorry to say, overlooked Old Masters in copywriting. But we’re going to do something to correct that overlooked part today. I have a hard copy of the book and I pored over it to find a few examples of his tested selling sentences we could look at today. Now remember there are more than 2,000 tested selling sentences in the book. Even if we were to read them without saying anything else, that would take several podcasts. So what I’ve decided to do is find five categories of sentences that would give every copywriter a real edge, once this information is incorporated in their thinking and their copy. Elmer Wheeler was way ahead of his time, nearly 100 years ago. But we can all benefit from his timeless, market-tested wisdom. And that’s what we cover in today’s episode. Sizzlemanship, by Elmer Wheeler https://www.amazon.com/Sizzlemanship-New-Tested-Selling-Sentences-ebook/dp/B01M691BVVDownload.

We’ve had really good responses for our Old Masters Series shows, where we look at one important copywriter from the past, and people were literally falling all over themselves when we brought on Sean Vosler a few weeks ago to talk about the founding fathers of copywriting. We had to send out the special writers unit of the Copy Patrol to pick those people up off the floor. But my friend and client Jason Parker made a suggestion that kicks things up a notch even higher. The idea involves finding the best single idea from the greatest copywriters, that we can all use today. I really appreciate Jason’s suggestion and want to give him a shout-out right here and right now. I should also say that I spent a lot of time mulling this over, and today’s show is what I came up with. We’re going to look at five “keepers.” A keeper in this case is an idea you want to carry with you for the rest of your life, because it’s so good. Five keepers from five of copywriting’s greats. They range from the early 1900s to the last 20 years. The way I chose these five keepers was by asking: What’s one thing that not only worked when the copywriter introduced it, but works just as well today? Also, what’s something simple enough that we can talk about in just a few minutes, and everyone will understand it. With one exception. One of these concepts, from Gene Schwartz, really takes a while to make it your own. I included because it’s so important, and so rarely understood, that it was worth breaking the guidelines to get you started on it if you don’t already know it and use it. Besides Gene Schwartz, the other four copywriters are: Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, John Caples and Gary Halbert. Links: breakthroughadvertisingbook.combreakthroughadvertisingbook.com thegaryhalbertletter.comthegaryhalbertletter.com Download.

We’re really lucky today to have Marissa Morgan as our special guest today, and you’ll see why in just a minute or two. I met Marissa as a guest on her show earlier this year, and you’ll hear more about that in a few minutes. But that show is only the latest chapter in Marissa’s very impressive resume. Before we get to the highlights, let me share the one reason you should pay very close attention to everything she says and does today. It’s that that Marissa excels at two of the most important skills to have at this time in history. - Being on TV, and - Selling on TV. Marissa has more than $25 million in sales to her name on Home Shopping Network and other TV shopping channels. Personally. But wait, there’s more. A lot more. As an actress, she’s been on TV shows including Ray Donovan, Fuller House, and Bixler High Private Eye, just to name a few. Most of the time, she gets cast as a news anchor or a police officer. She’s done stand-up at The Comedy Store and The Improv in LA. And while she still appears on ShopHQ TV today, she’s also got an exciting new role that’s really relevant to online entrepreneurs with a startup called ngagge, which she’ll tell us about in a bit on today’s show. Here’s what I asked her: 1. Marissa, welcome and thanks for joining us. I’m a big fan of yours and I’m also a big fan of the Showtime series Ray Donovan. You got a role very few people get to have in acting, because you “played yourself.” Could you tell us about it? 2. So let’s talk about Home Shopping Network. I know it’s only one of several TV shopping channels where you have hosted, but it’s definitely the best known to most of our subscribers. Tell us about how you got started… a memorable experience or two… and what your learned in your training. 3. OK, so, moving into the world of the online entrepreneurs and copywriters, what can you tell us about selling online when it’s just you and your computer rather than a whole studio setup? What are people doing right? What are people doing that’s not quite right? What do you notice most frequently that people can do to improve? 4. And this brings us right up to the present. You have a show on ngagge, where I was fortunate enough to be your guest. Tell us about the company, what you’re doing, and what opportunities there are for our listeners? https://www.ngagge.com/Download.

One thing that’s new to you when you become a copywriter, unless you’ve owned a business, grown up in an entrepreneurial family, or been in a business-like music or acting, or professional sports -- That one new thing is risk. It’s not that risk doesn’t exist anywhere else; of course it does. It’s that there are unique kinds of risk in copywriter that will be new to you. I haven’t heard anyone else talk about this before, so I wanted to give you something you could really dig your teeth into. And that’s what we did today. So here’s why we tackled this topic. It’s because risk is here, and most people in copywriting don’t know how to deal with it in a way where they end up winning most of the time. I’d like to help change that. I put this show together to: - encourage you to take some of the risks you’ve been reluctant to take - help you start to weigh upside and downside in any risk you are considering taking - and give you a framework to look at risk, since it’s such a big part of copywriting in so many dimensions. There are many kinds of risk a copywriter faces — as does a business owner whose marketing is based on direct-response copy. We covered many of them briefly. What we zero’d-in on and spent more time on was what I call “internal risk.” That is, going beyond who you think you are now to do the things you really want to do! In that area, there are certain kinds of risk I believe you need to take, in order to grow — and one particular risk you should NEVER take, as doing so will constitute not being true to yourself. Also, we covered where to get advice about taking a risk you’re thinking of taking, as well as the two kinds of people you really shouldn’t ask at all! Download.

Today we’re going to take a deep dive into neuroscience, which is basically the study of how the brain works. Now, deep breath. This is not a med school class. In fact, to the great disappointment of my mother, I never went to med school, and I never will. Sorry, Mom. No, this is about how the brain works when you’re reading the written word. It’s very specific and it applies to how people take in, and accept or reject, what you’ve written. So it’s narrowly focused, and great for copywriters. It’s from a book called “Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence,” by Lisa Cron. She really knows her stuff when it comes to stories. She’s worked with major publishers and movie studios. Plus, she teaches at UCLA Extension in the Writer’s Program. Again, what she says for novelists and screenwriters is also hugely important for copywriters. Because as writers, we all face the same problems — how to get people to start reading, keep reading, and buy into what you’ve written. We’ll dig into some great details in a moment. So, let me tell you a little about this book, because it has a strong copywriting connection, right from the start. Eight years ago a big name in copywriting told me about the book, but he made me promise not to tell anyone else about it. I kept my promise and a couple years after that, he said it was OK to share the info with others. Four years ago, I mentioned it briefly on a podcast in a group of books I was recommending copywriters to read. But we didn’t go into any detail at the time, like we’re going to do today. Recently I read it again, and there were tons of things I saw in it that I hadn’t seen the first time. The book didn’t change, so, it must have been me. This isn’t complicated or technical. After all, the neuroscience has already been processed by a writer in a book for writers. But I think it opens up some new possibilities for writing easier and coming up with much better copy. What today’s show is about is, how the brain processes information when it gets ready for you to buy something. I’ve seen bits and pieces of this info here and there. But this is the first time I’ve seen it all in one place, in a writer-friendly format that’s ready to use. After you’ve heard the show, you might want to get the book. It’s available on Kindle. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-Sentence-ebook/dp/B005X0JTGIDownload.

For many copywriters, there comes a point where you know you have the basics covered. It’s always good to review them regularly, but what you’re looking for really is an edge here and an edge there. Stuff that gives you an advantage when you use it. These aren’t always big things. Sometimes a strategic word or phrase can give you a bump in conversion or average order value, all by itself. I’m not recommending you depend on these little things to make a big difference for you, without also covering the basics, like good headlines, stories, hooks, offers and things like that. But experienced people know: Sometimes to get a prospect off the fence and into the “customer” column, all it takes is one or two emotion-charged moments during the course of otherwise very good copy. We’ve got a grab-bag of stuff for you today. The main thing they have in common is they are all designed to keep your prospect’s curiosity and engagement high, from the first word of your copy to your final call to action. I call our first section “similes that sparkle, similes that sputter.” You can think of similes like adjectives on steroids. They usually have the word “as” in them. They’re not always adjectives, but they’re usually descriptive and they do it by making a comparison. You could say something is “beautiful,” or you could enhance it by saying something is “beautiful as a sunset.” That phrase is a simile. Our second part is two short quotes about planning and preparation. I think you’ll find you’re taking a new look at these activities after you hear what I have to say. And our third part is 10 magic words. These word work wonder in headlines, stories and offers. They’re all battle tested and just one of them may give you the edge you need in the next copy you write. Here’s a link to the book I used to find the good and not-so-good examples in the first section of the podcast: Happy As A Clam, and 9999 Other Similes, by Larry Wright https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671874748Download.

Our guest today is a copywriting historian and eight-figure practitioner of direct response copy. His name is Sean Vosler and I’ve wanted to have him on the show ever since I saw some of his detailed, comprehensive mindmaps connecting the early pioneers of advertising to the world of today. He’s also the founder of Increase.Academy and author of the best-selling guide “7 Figure Marketing Copy.” He specializes in helping business scale to seven and even eight figures. We’re going to talk about a bunch of things today, including how he scales businesses with direct marketing copy. But just as important is his unique and penetrating research back into the 1880s and 1890s, where he is on a mission to find out how we got to where we are today in the world of direct response marketing. Of course, one of the reasons Copywriters Podcast got to where we are are today is the following: Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims... and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity... you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. On today’s show, we heard some wild tales about: -Why Sean is so eager to get to New York - The great copywriters of the late 19th Century, and how their influence stretches from Claude Hopkins to all of us today - How he got into becoming such a prodigious copywriting historian - His new book, 7-Figure Marketing Copy You can find out more about the book at: Sean.co/copywriterspodcastSean.co/copywriterspodcast Download.

Every marketer has their favorite books and experts. One of mine is Dr. Robert Cialdini, who wrote “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” It’s a classic and I’m sure many of you have read it and found it incredibly useful. That’s not his only book, though. Dr. Cialdini got together with a couple of friends… a prof and consultant from the UK, Steve Martin -- no, not THAT Steve Martin -- and a prof from the UCLA biz school, Dr. Noah Goldstein. They put together a neat book called “The Small Big.” It’s unique as far as I know because it lists tiny little things you can do, or changes you can make, that turn a no into a yes. For some reason it was very hard to find when I got my copy a few years ago. Luckily, today it’s really easy to buy on Amazon. Even as a Kindle. OK. So what we’re going to talk about today is a little different than what we usually talk about, or what I’ve heard anyone talk about in the area of copywriting. This is not about hooks or bullets or storytelling., Or smart hacks to make an upsell bring in more revenue. Now before we get into this, I want to point out that these little hacks, by themselves, are not designed to make money for you. They’re not. Instead, these are what I would call “strategic tactics.” By that I mean, little things that can turn the tide. What’s so appealing about them to me is that they have all been proven through research experiments AND they ring 100% true to repeated experience on my part. These tactics were not originally developed for copywriting, but for persuasion at large — often in large organizational settings. But it’s easy to see how they can be transformed into powerful boosters for any copy that’s fundamentally sound to begin with. Here are the tips we explore in detail, with easy ways to apply them to copy: 1. Creating Maximum Credibility for an Expert One small thing you can do to massively increase your prospect’s confidence in the expert in your copy — or, if you’re writing the letter for yourself, boost confidence in your own expertise. 2. How to Keep ’Em Keeping On This tip gives you a way to maximize getting other people to take action and follow through. It’s useful not only in sales copy, but also in online courses and live trainings. 3. Getting People To Join The Group of “Rebel Individualists” This one’s pretty cool, because it takes advantage of two contradictory aspects of human nature: Going along with the crowd, since we are, after all, herd animals; and, being an individual, not a sheep. -- Plus, a surprise bonus tip on one simple thing you can do to instantly increase your creativity! The book we talk about on today’s show: The Small BIG: small changes that spark big influence — by Steve J. Martin, Noah Goldstein, and Robert Cialdini https://www.amazon.com/small-BIG-changes-spark-influence-ebook/dp/B00HQ2N5CK/ Download.

Today we return to our Old Masters series, but this one is really different. We’re going to look at some of the best specific advice from two people who weren’t copywriters. One was a teacher of writing who really had a big influence on playwrights and screenwriters. The other one didn’t even teach writing at all. At least not writing as we know it. We’ll get to these people in a minute. What they had in common was, they had mastered how to create works that really reached people emotionally in a way that most writers, including most copywriters, only have at best a vague way to do. When you apply what I learned from them to what we do, I call this “to-the-bone” copywriting. Because it reaches deeper into your prospect than even some of the most successful sales letters. And by doing so, it will make any sales letter even more successful. You’ll have to take a leap of faith and see if you don’t agree once we get knee-deep into this “to-the-bone” stuff. So when we get to the phrase “the art and science of copywriting,” today’s show is about the art part. Not art for art’s sake, but some modified artistic ideas and techniques for pragmatic purposes. Copy that connects better; reaches people more deeply when they’re reading it; and, converts better as a result. We’re taking from the works of two Old Masters, and you may never have heard of them before. That’s alright. They come from fields other than copywriting. But they had such an overwhelming influence on major art forms in the 20th century, where emotional connection and meaningful audience experience are the coin of the realm, that I was sure I could dig out some ideas and shape them usefully for copy. Our first old master was a man by the name of Lajos Egri. Originally from Hungary, he came to the US and wrote a book for playwrights called “The Art of Dramatic Writing.” Many writers and directors in Hollywood have used his ideas for putting films together. “The Art of Dramatic Writing” is really too heavy-duty for copywriting purposes. But Egri also wrote a book that is out of print today and very hard to find called “Your Key to Successful Writing.” This was almost a for-Dummies version of his original book. Very solid, but pared down to the basics. I found a couple of to-the-bone secrets in there that are nearly ready-made for copywriting. Our second Old Master is very well known to students of classical music and almost invisible to nearly everyone else. But, she is almost solely responsible for American concert music starting to be taken seriously in the rest of the world, starting in the early 20th Century. Her name was Nadia Boulanger, and she lived in Paris. Americans including composers Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Burt Bacharach and Quincy Jones are among the people she taught, and she influenced all of American and European music tremendously. She was also a composer, conductor and performer, but most of her work was her teaching. Now, she was a music person, not a words person. Very literate and educated, but everything was music for her, writing music, analyzing students’ music, talking about music. The book we’re drawing from is called “Mademoiselle” and it consists of reconstructed conversations she had. This book is also out of print and hard to find. The reason I chose Lajos Egri and Nadia Boulanger for today’s Old Masters Series show is, they helped writers and composers make a deep emotional connection with their viewers and listeners in ways few other teachers were able to. So what they have to say will be very useful to copywriters looking for their next edge.Download.

Our guest today has taken copywriting knowledge over the paid-content platform Patreon, and he’s the first person I’ve heard to do this. Eddie Shleyner started out writing copy for some large business websites. Meanwhile, he kept some notes to himself as he was figuring out copywriting in a hectic corporate environment. One thing led to another, and there have been some pretty interesting developments, which you’ll hear about today. Here are the questions Eddie answered: 1. You’ve taken a different approach to copywriting from anyone else I’ve come across. Could you tell us something about the results you’re getting -- in terms of clients and income? 2. You’ve told me about your career path, and it’s definitely different. Could you share the highlights of how you got to where you are today? 3. What mistakes did you make and what did you learn from them? 4. And what were the things you tried that worked out really well? 5. So you have 20,000 subscribers… which is pretty awesome for any copywriter and really, more than most online businesses have. What would you say, from a content creation point of view, are the most important things you did that built up your subscriber base? 6. Please tell us more about your subscription service for copywriters on Patreon? Eddie’s Patreon page: Patreon.com/VeryGoodCopyDownload.

Among those of us who watch cable television, everyone’s favorite copywriter bad boy is Don Draper of the show ‘Mad Men.’ Along with his secretary who became a copywriter, Peggy Olson, Don Draper is the reason this is the first edition of the Fictional Old Masters Series. Yes, they are fictional characters. But a lot of factual research went into creating these characters, And I was able to pluck out a few gems from the hours and hours of dialogue they spoke on the show. My goal today is to make this useful as well as maybe a little entertaining. So to talk about ‘Mad Men,’ we really have to begin with Matt Weiner. The show was his brainchild. Now Weiner was not an ad man, much less a Mad Man. In fact, he was a cable TV drama writer. He wrote the pilot for ‘Mad Men,’ on spec, in 1999. David Chase, who was doing ‘The Sopranos’ for HBO at the time, was so impressed with the script that he hired Weiner to write and executive produce that show. Weiner joined ‘The Sopranos’ team and had a lot of success. Eight years later, in 2007, Weiner got his show with ‘Mad Men.’ The first episode launched six weeks after the last episode of ‘The Sopranos,’ but on a different cable network, AMC. ‘Mad Men’ won tons of awards, and continued to 2015. I bring up all this history because it leads to an important question: Consider it was fiction, how authentic was Mad Men, compared to real Madison Avenue advertising? To answer that question, let’s turn to the acclaimed high-drama film producer Alfred Hitchcock. Weiner has said that Hitchcock was a major influence on him. And Hitchcock was a much stronger believer in facts that most people would expect. In the 1967 book ‘Hitchcock/Truffaut,’ Hitchcock muses, “What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out.” So he was pretty much saying drama should be close to real life. But not like real life, because drama should never be boring. And Weiner seems to have adopted that attitude. The scenes from ‘Mad Men’ were artistically enhanced, for sure, but they weren’t from a different universe than the one we live in. Weiner did a lot of research, and he acknowledged in interviews that the character Don Draper was based in part on the famous Chicago copywriter Draper Daniels. Here’s something Draper Daniels wrote: NOW… AT LAST… THE NEW AMAZING Gem of genius slowly blazing. The one man who, without a doubt Knows what this business is about. The man who screams, when words are changed, That all the changers are deranged. Still, were he quieter or politer, He wouldn’t be a copywriter. So, finally, before we dive into the takeaways, let me introduce you to our two Fictional Old Masters. Don Draper begins the show as a creative director and junior partner of a Madison Avenue ad agency in New York. He’s a hard drinker and a chain smoker. He has some deep secrets in his past and he has a lot of sex partners besides his wife. Not what you would call a boy scout, back in the day. He was also what we call a genius copywriter. He had an uncanny knack for coming up with really good advertising ideas. We’ll be focusing more on his copywriter chops and less on his lifestyle. Peggy Olson started out as Draper’s secretary and moved up to becoming a copywriter, where she got her own office with a door that closed. It may sound trite now. But I worked in a big Rockefeller Center building in New York very close to the fictional Mad Men office, and I had an office with a door that closed. Some of the other writers I worked with didn’t. Not only was it status, but it made a huge difference when you needed to concentrate and write something. Draper was always pushing Peggy to be better. For as broken a man as he was, in that era, his behavior would be called “supportive,” at times. When he switched agencies, he asked her to go with him. In her character in the show, you can see how difficult it was for women at the time, but even so, how it was possible to grow and succeed. In the show, we then proceed to the five takeaways.Download.

I am thrilled to announce our returning champion, Ted Prodromou. Ted’s known as America’s Leading LinkedIn Coach. He’s the best-selling author of The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business, and the Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business. We had Ted on the show not too long ago, and with all the changes going on over at LinkedIn, it was time to bring him back. He’s founder of Search Marketing Simplified, a social media marketing firm. Besides Copywriters Podcast, Ted has also been featured on Entrepreneur.com, The New York Times, CNBC and Forbes. I don’t see any reason to wait a minute longer, except to say this: Here’s what we asked him: Let’s start with you telling us what’s new on LinkedIn? How are people using marketing on LinkedIn these days, and what kind of results are they getting? What are some LinkedIn marketing techniques most people don’t know about, or don’t use, or are using wrong? If someone’s brand new to LinkedIn, what are the first steps? What are the most common problems your clients come to you with, and what can you tell us about what you advise them? Ted’s books: The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-LinkedIn-Business-million/dp/1599186403 The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Twitter-Business-Characters/dp/1599184494 Reach out to Ted: www.YourLinkedInCoach.com Download.

I’ve been reading a book called “Hackers and Painters” by Silicon Valley philosopher Paul Graham, who’s also a painter. He has a PhD from Harvard in computer science, and co-founded a startup that sold to Yahoo for about $50 million. Plus, plenty more accomplishments. Smmmmart guy. In the book, he makes a comment that really sounds simple-minded when you first hear it. But when you think about it for a little while, you realize it’s profound: “Nearly all great paintings are of people, because people are what people are interested in.” After all, the Mona Lisa wasn’t a painting of a BUILDING. Well, you might ask, what about copy? I would argue the same thing applies. The copy that sells the best is mostly about people. An obvious example is the Wall Street Journal sales letter, which has been tracked to sell more than $2 billion in newspaper subscriptions. No other copy has ever been tracked to come anywhere close. It starts out: On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future. All about people. It just doesn’t get much more human than that. Today we’re going to talk about why what I’m calling “human copy” sells more for you, and three ways to use the power of human copy. Including some things I bet you’ve never heard before. We’ll cover three areas: 1. How ‘Human’ Copy Increases Your Prospect’s Confidence In What You’re Writing About 2. Why ‘Human’ Copy Glues Your Prospect’s Eyes To The Page (Or Screen) 3. What ‘Human’ Copy Does To Connect You And Your Prospect At A Deep Level Books from the show: Hackers and Painters, by Paul Graham https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-Computer-ebook/dp/B0026OR2NQ The Art of Readable Writing, by Rudolph Flesch https://www.amazon.com/Art-Readable-Writing-Readability-Formula/dp/006011293X The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, by Joe Sugarman https://www.amazon.com/Adweek-Copywriting-Handbook-Advertising-Copywriters-ebook/dp/B008O5K0JEDownload.

So, for today’s show, I’d like you to imagine you could get on the Copywriters Podcast Time Machine and travel back 31 years to 1990. Location: Key West, Florida. One of Gary Halbert’s legendary week-long seminars. Let’s take this one step further. After you get off the time machine and onto the ground, you find out you have been selected to write copy, on the spot, under Gary’s watchful eye, for people who attended the seminar. What an opportunity! Well, since all that is all imaginary, you’ll be happy to know we have someone who’s actually been there and done that… and is going to tell us all about. He’s our guest today — Richard Dennis. Richard’s going to share a lot of his experiences from those exciting early days for many of us in direct marketing copywriting. And at the end of the show, he’ll tell you about an intriguing offer where you can get use of some of his copy at no charge. Here’s the link he referred to in the show: www.LinkedLeg.com/Download.

Today we’re going to look at copywriting from an unusual angle. Not so much how to do it or what are the new developments, but what specifically does advertising do that makes it increase sales. This is part of our Old Masters Series. We’re taking from a book by the great copywriter James Webb Young, who also wrote the classic “A technique for Producing ideas,” which we’ve talked about on other shows. The book we’re talking about today is called “How to Become an Advertising Man,” originally published in the Mad Men era, in 1963. About one-third of the book is about the five ways advertising increases sales, and that’s what we’ll talk about today. I’d like to point out that this book was written for people who create paid advertising, including direct response copywriters. And though in some ways it is a more general advertising book, the author looked at what we do from a direct marketing perspective. Now, you can use one or more of these five ways that advertising increases sales in any piece of copy you write. But if you’re doing content marketing, you need to use at least one of them in every piece you write. We go into detail on each of the five ways, with a few examples and guidelines for each one.Download.

We’re back with the Sherlock Holmes of marketing, Meron Bareket. He’s put the recent and planned future actions of Apple through a “Marketing MRI” and all I can say at this point is, fasten your seat belts. Big curves in the road ahead! I’ve known Meron for a few years, since he became my mentoring client. His powers of observation and analysis have always impressed me, and there have been times where I’ve had to really concentrate and think deeply just to keep up with what he’s saying… as I have told him myself. He’s a delightful and very perceptive person — and quite an effective copywriter and marketer. As our returning champion, Meron revealed: - Just exactly what Apple is doing that’s having such a big effect on Facebook ads - The difference between what you can do now and what you won’t be able to do in the future, on Facebook - What Google’s doing that will reduce advertising options even further - What mistakes you should avoid at all costs (as a result of the changes) - What you CAN do to remain productive as an advertiser Meron’s web page: SaveYourStats.com Download.

Today’s show is a new chapter in our Old Masters Series, with wisdom from someone who people I know knew and knew about. Brian Kurtz wrote an intro to this Old Master’s book, and Denny Hatch raved about the book in his newsletter, which was called “Who’s Mailing What.” Now one of the great things about the kind of copywriting we cover on this podcast is that, unlike with a lot of other forms of advertising, with direct response copywriting you can measure sales results. You can’t do that accurately with a billboard or a Superbowl ad. As direct marketers, we determine our results through testing. And the dean of testing is not as well known as famous copywriters of his era, like Gene Schwartz and David Ogilvy – but he was just as important. His name was Dick Benson, and we’re going to cover some of his best testing secrets. He wrote an excellent book, Secrets of Successful Direct Mail. But lucky for you, I also had access to something I call The Private Direct Marketing Archive adjacent to Lincoln Center in New York City, also known as the PDFMAALC/NYC. Others like myself who have had the privilege to visit this valuable resource in person also know it as Don Hauptman’s extensive, custom-built filing system in the West 60s. Nice! Don raided the archive for me in a systematic, organized way and Fedexed about 10 articles and photocopy sets, ranging from the 1996 obituary for Benson in the New York Times to a three-page spread in the broadsheet trade newspaper Direct. Special to Copywriters Podcast. Lots of information you won’t find in the book, or nearly anywhere else, but, of course, you’ll get the best of it here on the show. From all of this research — one book, and 10 supplementary pieces — I pulled out seven tips and rules on testing, each of which can make you extra money. Benson worked with many large publishers and even founded the first direct-marketing ad agency, in 1961. He was widely regarded as the authority on testing for decades. Now, at this point, you could easily say, “I don’t do direct mail. Postage stamps, commercial printers and mail carriers have nothing to do with my marketing.” or, you could say, “There’s a tremendous amount of high-value, battle-tested science accumulated from direct mail testing. I wonder what I could learn from it in 2021 that would supercharge my own online marketing.” Yes, you could say that. And it is from that point of view that we looked at the seven brilliant discoveries of Dick Benson. Dick Benson’s book, Secrets of Successful Direct Mail https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Successful-Direct-Richard-Benson/dp/0844231789 Download.

Our guest today is Troy Steine, and what he has to say will be of interest to every copywriter! He’s going to tell us how to close more copywriting deals. Now Troy is a soft-spoken guy, but make no mistake — he is a sales powerhouse. He has sold and helped others to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of offers and products. Today, Troy specializes in working consultants, coaches, copywriters and online entrepreneurs. He’s the head sales advisor at PeacefulProfits.com and works with people who are looking to launch, grow and scale their businesses. Full disclosure: Troy is a former mentoring client of mine, and that’s one reason he understands the business of copywriting so well. On our show today, Troy covered: • What he has discovered speaking to dozens of copywriters and business owners over the last 12 months • How his experience in many types of sales has led him to what he’s doing today • This one’s especially important! The big reason people who have a conversation with prospects never end up getting that person as a client • A framework for successfully getting sales • How you can best position yourself to get the most business Troy is willing to take follow-up questions from Copywriters Podcast listeners. His email is: [email protected].

I met Josh Rosenberg in Las Vegas a few years ago at Mark Ling’s mastermind. We had a very animated conversation at dinner, and then all of us headed over to one of the wildest and most memorable parties of my life. It’s a fitting memory, because Josh takes a bold approach to copywriting and marketing, and he’s going to share some highlights today. Josh got into copywriting in 2008. He had a corporate job he hated. He learned copywriting and web marketing from the ground up, and as his career took off like a rocket, he became a much happier camper. But he’s about as unconventional as you get. For example, when he’s working on a piece of copy and he asks his friends to review it, if they tell him it’s “good,” he’ll tear it up and rewrite from scratch. He won’t actually start to use the copy until his friends stop complimenting him and start demanding to buy the product. Josh’s work has generated over $100 million for businesses in almost 60 industries. And he prides himself on getting paid far more than most other copywriters do. Here’s what I asked him: 1. Where do you find clients who can pay you top dollar for your work? 2. Okay, so now that you know where high paying clients what do you actually say and do in order to get their attention so they’ll agree to get on the phone with you? 3. With so much competition out there in industries like info products and eCommerce, how do you stand out from other copywriters? I’ve heard you comparing how clients pick which copywriter to hire very similarly to ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant. Can you tell us what that means? 4. So you’ve set yourself apart from everyone else, got a potential client on the phone, what do you say when they ask about your rates? 5. I know you’re very proud of the fact you’ve figured out how to get paid upwards of $25,000 before you even get hired or are asked to do any work. I’m dying to know, how does this work? Josh’s Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritersclubhouse Download.

We recorded today’s show a few days after the Superbowl, and I’d like to talk about the most admired and most hated athlete in America, Tom Brady. People seem to run very hot or very cold on him. Personally, I like him. He lived in my part of the country earlier in his life; he graduated from the same college I did; and he used to come back here summers to work with Tom Martinez as a personal quarterback coach. Martinez was also the football coach at the College of San Mateo, where legendary coach Bill Walsh once played. Football royalty. So, you have every right to ask, what in the WORLD does this have to do with copywriting? Well, I know about Tom Brady’s secret frustration. And what I know is not from any inside information, but just from a fact of life which also affects copywriters. Tom Brady’s work ethic is not the only reason for his incredible success. It’s also his patience, when he worked and worked and worked and worked and worked without seeing any progress. And then one day - shazaam - a breakthrough. There’s a brick wall he kept running into. A brick wall we ALL run into, if we really want to get really good at something. Then one day, the door seems to magically open, and you break on through to the next level. We talked about the brick wall today and I laid out the formula for getting through it. What you need to know to get to the next level of copywriting. The brick wall I was referring to before has a technical name, among those of us who study it and those of us who coach people for performance improvement. It’s called the plateau. When you’re climbing a mountain, there are stretches of the path where you are moving upward. And there are stretches of land on your path that are flat. You have to move across these flat areas to get to the next part where the path continues upward. In geography, the flat area is known as a plateau, and that’s where the term comes from. We talked about George Leonard’s book Mastery a few shows ago. He has a chapter in the book titled “Loving the Plateau.” In that chapter, he writes “The achievement of goals is important… We are taught in countless ways to value the product, the prize, the climactic moment. “But even after we’ve just caught the winning pass in the Superbowl, there’s always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If our life is a good one, a life of mastery, most of it will be spent on the plateau. If not, a large part of it may well be spent in restless, distracted, ultimately self-destructive attempts to escape the plateau. “The question remains: Where in our upbringing, our schooling, our career are we explicitly taught to value, to enjoy, even to love the plateau, the long stretch of diligent effort with no seeming progress?” It’s a good question, the one that George Leonard asks. I’ll hazard a guess. Most people aren’t taught to value or even love the plateau. And when it comes to copywriting, that may be the number one reason people give up on trying to get really good about it. Yet you’ve got to. Put in the darkest terms, I’ll quote Winston Churchill: “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” It’s amusing, and it’s easy to focus on the word “hell.” But I’m here to tell you today to focus on four other words instead: “going through” and “keep going.” Now, to get a little clearer on the concept: A plateau is not writer’s block or burning out. No, a plateau is where you keep working on what you’re doing, and it seems like you’re making no progress. We talked about what that looks like… what you need to know about plateaus that will help you keep going and realize all is not lost but, to coin a phrase -- and that’s really what we copywriters do, you know, coin a phrase -- the best is yet to come. Books referred to in this show: Mastery, by George Leonard https://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Keys-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment-ebook/dp/B01ND0X91Y Peak, by K. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise-ebook/dp/B011H56MKS Atomic Habits, by James Clear https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break-ebook/dp/B07D23CFGR Download.

Today we’re back at it in the Old Masters Series. We’re going to talk about how to make a fortune during a recession. Now a lot of people think now is the worst time to make a lot of money, but it all depends on your perspective. People who are good at spotting opportunities learn how to adjust the way they look at things depending upon the environment. When the storm clouds of recession and depression show up, they use it to their advantage. Not to take advantage of helpless people, but to recognize the opportunities in the changed circumstances. Bill Benton was such a man. He was 30 years old when the Great Depression hit in 1929, but he didn’t let that get in his way of becoming a millionaire by age 35. He saved companies with his unique ad strategies. And he even bought one for peanuts that later was earning him $2 million a year. Now let’s talk about you. Times are tough and you have to make a choice — do you want to go along with the doom and gloom thinking of the naysayers, or see this as a legitimate opportunity? Now, to be sure, things aren’t easy and right now a lot of people are in such bad shape that they can’t take advantage of opportunities, or create new ones. If that’s you, I understand. But if you even see a glimmer of possibility for building business during hard times, today we’re going to look at someone who did it and see what lessons we can draw from his amazing story — and use today. That person is Bill Benton. He founded his own ad agency just before the great crash of 1929, and emerged very wealthy and powerful, right in the middle of the Great Depression. In an interview Studs Terkel’s great book “Hard Times,” Benton refers to what his friend the economist Beardley Ruml said: “In all catastrophes, there is the potential of benefit.” We’ll look at how you can do that in today’s show. I’ve boiled down what I’ve learned to five principles of how Bill Benton did so well during the Great Depression, and we take a deep dip into each one: They are: 1) Ignore the doom and gloom 2) Feet on the ground, eyes on the future 3) Use the power of great content to multiply the results from advertising 4) Make direct response advertising your foundation, not your skyscape 5) Imagination really is more powerful than knowledge — but first you gotta have the knowledge. Books referenced in the show: The Lives of William Benton, by Sidney Hyman https://www.amazon.com/Lives-William-Benton-Sidney-1970-04-20/dp/B01FELATKU Hard Times, by Studs Terkel https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Times-History-Great-Depression/dp/1565846567Download.

Rocky is an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, and the creator of a program called Platinum Path, where he helps people reinvent their expertise and shift into a high-priced, lifestyle-friendly business model. Over the last 20 years Rocky has helped his clients bring over 100 million dollars in training and info products to the market. He's consulted on over 3000 projects for clients ranging from billion-dollar brands like Pearson, Wiley, and Macmillan, to experts, authors, and entrepreneurs in 7 countries and over a hundred different markets. But he’s accessible. You can hang out with him every day in his free Facebook group, called The Power Persona Project. Rocky talked about how and when personal branding is a plus for a copywriter, and some inside secrets you can use for yourself or your clients. Effective branding requires inner and outer work, Rocky says. He gave some great tips and benchmarks to give you a fuller working understanding about personal branding. Rocky’s Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/powerpersona Download.

We are back with another show in the Old Masters series. Today it’s How I Learned The Secrets of Success in Advertising, by G. Lynn Sumner. Guy Sumner originally published the book in 1952, and it was recently reissued. You can get it on Amazon now. We’ll put a link in the show notes. I only heard about this book from friend of the podcast Don Hauptman. The author Sumner was really an Old Master -- here’s an article about him from the New York Times of May 15, 1940, announcing he was re-elected as president of the Advertising Club of New York. That was 81 years ago! There’s one secret that’s particularly important, as important today as it was when the book was written. It has to do with the one thing that separates ordinary copy from blockbuster copy, and that’s imagination. Sumner has some great ideas about how to develop it, and that’s what we’ll talk about today. A lot of people believe that imagination in advertising is just coming up with some wild and crazy idea… throwing it up against the wall… and then hoping and praying it will stick. The problem is, sometimes it does, but almost all the time, it doesn’t. Let’s talk about how to vastly increase your odds by using your imagination to increase sales. We’ll start with an important question: What is creative thinking? Some creative people truly believe creative thinking is a magic thing you can’t describe, learn or teach. And for them, that may be true. A lot of people who haven’t learned how to think creatively yet think the same thing. So what follows from this is the idea: “Creativity — either you get it, or you don’t.” Guy Sumner doesn’t see it that way, and neither do I. Sumner says, “It is taking known facts, known elements, known functions and arranging them in new patterns.” He admits this is not easy, because it requires focused thinking to do this rearrangement. Now, what about creativity and copy? That’s where Sumner talks about another important quality, imagination. If creativity is the lab where new stuff gets designed, imagination is the art department where it gets put together in the most appealing way. Stated another way, imagination is what you use to make your creativity add value to your copy. Sumner talks about watching his mother make a cake. The flour, sugar and eggs would just sit there in the pan. The flour, sugar and eggs were the creativity. Then, his mom would in that magic ingredient, baking powder. Then, when you put it in the oven, the ingredients would rise and form a delicious cake! Sumner goes on to say that imagination is the “baking powder” of copy. We go on to detail the four steps of feeding the imagination that leads to blockbuster copy ideas. I know from personal experience, and the experiences of my clients, that these are as good today as they were in the 1940s and 1950s, when Sumner was writing about them. Here’s the link to Sumner’s book: How I Learned The Secrets of Success In Advertising: https://www.amazon.com/How-Learned-Secrets-Success-Advertising/dp/0981643213 Download.

We all need a lawyer sometimes. But haven’t you ever thought: “Wouldn’t it be great if there were a lawyer devoted to copywriters and other creative professionals -- not only that, but she put together customizable contracts especially for people like us?” Well I’ve got two pieces of good news for you: There is such a person. Her name is Amy Nesheim. Secondly, she is our special guest today and she will give us some important information about Copywriting and the Law. Amy explains some things you might never find out about otherwise, unless it’s too late: The kind of mistakes copywriters make all the time that puts them at legal risk (so you’ll know not to make them) Do copywriters need to worry about whether their copy is legally compliant? Or is that all on the client’s shoulders? What kind of claims should copywriters worry about in their copy? Do you see anything frequently on sales pages that you think could be problematic? What can a copywriter do to protect themselves from potential liability? What Artful Contracts is, and how copywriters can take advantage of this website. https://artfulcontracts.com/ Download.

Our guest today has a curious connection to copywriting. Though he is not a copywriter or even a traditional entrepreneur by trade, he is one hell of a copywriter anyway. His name is Dickie Bush and he describes himself as a macro investor. I’m not sure what that means but I think it has to do with hedge funds and numbers with lots of commas in them. Dickie caught my eye on Twitter because of an online writing program he has called “Ship30for30,” which gets people from all walks of life to write something every day, for 30 days. It’s a paid program he had to learn how to write copy to sell it. He did, and he told me yesterday he’s getting 10% conversion on his sales page. That’s a skilled copywriter, no matter how you look at it. Dickie is a keen student of, and I would say expert in, growth of all kinds. How people grow, how systems grow, how businesses grow. This of course is very closely related to what we do as copywriters, since a good copywriter will help a business grow tremendously. There’s more, and covered a lot in our freewheeling conversation. Dickie’s online program: https://ship30for30.com Download.

Our guest today is Roy Furr, a top copywriter and one of the best thinkers about copywriting I know. Roy’s been at the top of the game for over a decade. Perhaps he’s best known for writing the sales letter for Brian Kurtz’s legendary Titans of Direct Response event. He’s done many seven-figure promotions for clients and coached, trained, and mentored other copywriters. Glad to have a great copywriting coach on the show! Roy has also published his daily Breakthrough Marketing Secrets newsletter since 2014. Today he’s going to tell us about “The #1 Most Underrated Copywriting Skill.” I agreed with Roy about this skill and I couldn’t wait to hear what he has to say about it. His point was important: You can have … the best headline … the best hook … the best stories … the best bullets … the best offer … and the best all-the-rest, but if you don’t have a solid, sense-making, easy-to-follow structure to put it all in, then, it’s all for nothing. He’s right, of course. What’s great about what Roy says is he gives you lots of ways to make sure your structure is good, and also gives you access to free and purchasable resources to help you more. Here’s the link to follow if, after you listen to the show, you’d like to go further with this very important topic (and many of Roy’s other great tips, courses, and services): https://www.BreakthroughMarketingSecrets.com/garfDownload.

I don’t know how controversial what we say on Copywriters Podcast is, because I don’t have much data or gut feel on the subject, one way or the other. But I think I can say with great certainty something that nearly everyone would agree on. And that is this: The single hardest part of writing copy is getting started. The terror of the blank page. Where do you start, anyway? I mean, after you’ve done all your customer research, your product research… after you’ve written all your bullets… after you’ve brainstormed and schemed and planned… you’ve got to finally grab the beast by its lapels and get started. And you know what’s really hard about getting started? Finding your hook. Now, I can’t do that for you here today. But what I can do is offer some guidance and a few trampolines to get you going. I’ll give you three specific ways to create a hook… and tell you about the one way too many people default to, way too often, that really doesn’t work. So here’s the deal. Whatever you say in the beginning of your copy has a hugely disproportionate impact. It’s not just copy, really. It’s any communication. What you say or write at the start sets the tone, frames the conversation, prepares your reader or your listener for what’s next. People have these unspoken, often even unheard, questions in their mind. Not only “What’s this about?” but “Does this have anything to do with me?” and “Can I trust the person who’s saying this to me?” Whatever answers to those questions pop up will determine the frame of mind in which your prospect will hear or read what comes next. Again, this usually happens below the threshold of conscious thought. And ultimately, we’re talking about the level and quality of their engagement. Is it open, curious, receptive? Or is it skeptical, cautious, even bordering on hostile? Your hook -- your headline and the words that come right after your headline -- will determine that. Because your hook is what starts everything off. When you start right, you’ve got a shot. Start wrong, and you’ve pretty much blown it. We’ll start with the one thing a lot of people do that they shouldn’t, because it kills their chances. And then we’ll go onto three other things that give you a much better shot. Download.

So, I’ll start with this question: If you had the most powerful persuasion method ever developed at your fingertips and you didn’t use it to persuade yourself to live the life you really want -- what’s up with that? I saw a quote on Twitter that said: The problem with the rat race is if you win, you’re still a rat. It’s a real problem for a lot of us. Not the rat race so much as trying to fit in and do what we perceive everyone else thinks of as “normal” -- as opposed to going for what you really want. Now, to be sure, you’ve still got to make a living and if you’re the breadwinner in a household, provide for others. But I think it’s tragic if you believe you have to torture yourself to do it. One way to stack the odds a little more in your favor is to take the tools of copywriting and turn them on yourself. Use copy skills to “sell” yourself on getting what you want. That’s what today’s show is about. Now, a quick note: This is not a sermon about the Law of Attraction. Too many people put way too much focus on the first part -- “Attract” -- and don’t pay enough respect to the second part of the word, which is, after all, “action.” You have to do more than just think about something to make it so. But… you can use copywriting combined with taking action to make things so you might not have thought possible before. The premise - figure out what you want - maybe you’ve been afraid to dream this big - maybe you were willing to do this before, but you didn’t know how - The two biggest problems with most goals getting achieved are - lack of motivation on your part to take the action you need to take to achieve the goal - lack of belief that it’s possible, that it makes sense, that it’s the right thing to do - What we’re going to talk about today takes aim at solving both of these problems -- getting these obstacles out of the way - we’ll use the copywriting techniques of creating compelling benefits to help you with your motivation - we’ll use the copywriting technique of reason-why to help get those doubts and lack of belief out of the way - So the idea is very simple, and it’s familiar to everyone who writes copy. Take what you’re going for and turn it into benefits, like - bullet points - stories - slice of life scenarios (“imagine what it’s like when you have a personal tattoo artist who will show up at your house with the press of a button,” for example) - Then, come up with one or more reasons-why - why what you want is important and necessary - why there’s every reason you can have what you want - why now is the right time for you to get/learn/develop these new things - Now, in what you’ve created, you have the two missing elements that most goal programs are lacking. - Next step is to write yourself a VISION SALES LETTER - For four reasons - to really sell yourself on getting what you want - to get motivated to get started on it - to actually get started - to keep going To recap, two reasons this could work better than anything you’ve tried before 1. It harnesses your imagination in a very powerful and unique way, with all the benefit statement -- unique because the benefits are vivid and specific 2. It convinces you to “buy” (meaning: “buy in”) to your goals and vision with a level of confidence that’s rare or nonexistent among other forms of goal-setting. So we look at three ways of using this Dream Bigger technique today: 1) in copywriting 2) in your business as a whole 3) in all of your lifeDownload.