📚 The world's highest-paid copywriter, $1,000 giveaway, and more.

A&B #194

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

PS: Check out this giveaway from Penguin Random House…

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “The Boron Letters” by Gary Halbert.

Gary was the highest-paid copywriter in history. His legendary sales letters generated over $1 billion in revenue. While he was in prison (long story but basically his partner screwed him over), he wrote several letters to his son about copywriting, sales, and general life advice.

His son put those letters together to make this book.

Here are a few key lessons from it:

📖

1) The Secret to Making Big Money

Here’s Gary’s advice to his son on how to make big money:

“Money, in my opinion, is most often a by-product of enthusiasm. If a person, secretly in his heart, wants to be an architect, he shouldn’t go into selling real estate, just because he has heard that that is where the money is.”

Gary goes on to say that when he’s selling a product or hiring a person, enthusiasm is the most important trait to look for–that’s because enthusiasm is contagious.

If someone truly believes in their product, the customer is more likely to buy it.

One of my favorite sales tips related to this comes from Alex Hormozi.

His advice is to read recent customer testimonials before writing a new ad or hopping on a sales call.

This works because if you believe in your heart that your product can truly benefit a person’s life, you’ll be more excited to talk about it and share it, and that energy will rub off onto others.

(PS: I’m rereading the testimonials for the Art of Reading course as I’m rewriting the copy for the landing page so stay tuned for updates on that 😉)

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2) Collect, Copy, Then Create

One of Gary’s top tips for new copywriters was to read the ads in magazines, direct mail, etc., and collect the best ones (this is often referred to as a swipe file).

He would then go through his swipe file, pick out an ad he really liked, and write it out by hand (this is often called copywriting).

By copying the ad word for word, he was able to get into a more creative and persuasive mood. After he was done, he would start working on his own ad.

This may sound silly, but it’s a practical and useful strategy that has been used by writers for centuries:

  • Hunter S. Thompson famously typed out F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” and Ernest Hemingway's “A Farewell to Arms” to study their writing styles.

  • James Joyce copied out passages from Henrik Ibsen's plays to study their rhythms and structures.

  • Benjamin Franklin copied articles from publications like The Spectator because he admired their excellent writing.

As the jazz legend Miles Davis once said, “First you imitate, then you innovate.”

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3) The Formula For Masterful Copy

Here’s Gary’s advice for writing great copy:

Write the first draft even though you know it’ll probably suck. Accept that fact and write it anyway. “All first attempts are sloppy and lame…the first attempt is almost destined to fail,” warns Halbert.

For every great sales letter, Gary says he wrote 20 crappy letters.

His reminder: "In this history of written communication, nothing has ever been published that is 100% perfect."

Once you have your first draft, read your copy out loud. When you do this, you’ll notice a lot more mistakes in your work:

“What happens when you read your copy out loud is that you will verbally stumble over all the places that are not smooth.”

Now comes the final and most important step.

Once you’ve marked up all the typos in your work, spend time rewriting it until it’s smooth and you can read it without any verbal stumble.

“Advertising writing needs to be the best writing of all. It needs to flow from start to finish without a bump or a bubble,”

These steps may seem incredibly simple, but the truth is that most people won’t even get past step one.

"Most people will quit after their first experience with things that don’t go so well,” writes Halbert.

So remember that the first draft of anything is hot garbage, but keep going anyway: “Everyone wants to climb the mountain, but the big difference between those at the top and those still on the bottom is simply a matter of showing up.”

Be one of the few that show up and do the work.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Before writing a new ad or jumping on a sales call, read some customer testimonials about your product/service:

  • Doing this will make you more enthusiastic about what you’re selling, and that positive energy will shine through to potential customers.

2) Collect, copy, then create:

  • Collect ads that love in a swipe file (or visit this website).

  • Copy those ads by writing them out by hand.

  • Then create your own ad or sales copy.

3) Follow Gary’s writing formula:

  • Write a crappy first draft (anything is better than nothing).

  • Read the draft out loud to find all of the typos.

  • Rewrite and reread it until it flows smoothly.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Podcast: My First Million has released a ton of amazing podcasts recently, here are a few great episodes:

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Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.

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