Hey there, Alec here…

Here’s a lesson I’ve had RE-learn recently about dealing with clients, but it’s a lesson that’s useful any time interacting with human beings is involved.  Here it is:

If you have to push somebody to do something they’re not on board with —- or worse! —- something they’re lukewarm about and pay lip-service to, you will have to keep pushing the whole way until the job is done, or until one party walks away (usually the latter).

A few months back, a client and I got on the topic of the importance of regular communication with customer lists.  I had written some successful promotions for this client over the past year or so, but he was doing nothing to build and maintain relationships with his customers on an ongoing basis in between promotions.

I suggested he start mailing a monthly newsletter to his customers.  He could build hype for future events, share interesting personal tid-bits that would give his business personality and character to bond with, and then work in more promotions as he goes along, to a list that already expects to hear from him regularly…

“Sugar with the medicine”, if you will.

He said, “Great, I love it.  But let me think about it for a month, that seems like a lot of time and energy to invest.”

I said, “Great, I love it.  I’ll follow up in a month.”

Now, something you should know about this client… He is completely addicted “Industry Incest”.  He just can’t get beyond his desire to do exactly what other people in his industry are doing… Just slightly better.

He loves the feeling of “one-upping” his peers in the industry, even if it’s not the best thing for his business and his customers.  This guy is the perfect model of trying to market from your own ego instead of “entering the conversation already going on in your prospect’s mind”.

So when I followed up the next month, he said:  “OK, you’re gonna love this”, (pretty much guaranteeing I’ll hate whatever is about to come out of his mouth) “I called a few people, and we can do these glossy magazines without doing any of the work.  They will contact your vendors and just fill it up with these nice images and ads that are done really professionally.  I mean, they do great work.  They look like professionals magazines.”

Sigh.  I wish this wasn’t common.  

The original conversation I had with him was all about creating good content that customers would look forward to each month.  It was about incorporating his personality into the monthly letter, to create bonding, relationship, and loyalty to him and his business.  It was about maintaing personal connection to a large group…

… And somewhere between that conversation and the month-later-follow-up…

… He went back to his “Industry Incest” to make sure he was doing “what everyone does… just slightly better.”  And was now excited about SPAMMING his customers with mindless nonsense.

So, he wanted me to oversee  the putting together this shiny magazine (with no articles, just lots of ads and images), and “maybe put some of your good copy in there where you can fit it in”.

I tried to calmly explain that this wasn’t at all what we had discussed, and he might as well flush his $10,000 (the cost of the magazines for 1 month, not to a very large list, and not even mailed to the whole list) right down the toilet.  Or burn it.  Or urinate on it.  Or all of those in reverse order.

In the end, I had to just bite my tongue and politely decline to “oversee” his shiny toilet paper.

A few weeks later, he called me, and decided he wanted to go with the newsletter we’d originally discussed, and he “had some ideas for good content”.

My gut said “just say no”, but my mouth said something stupid in the affirmative.

I work in his industry regularly, so I put together a 1st draft fairly quickly (4 pages of articles, news, appropriate personal tid-bits adapted from his Facebook feed, etc.) and sent it over to him.  It took a few hours, and then came the flurry of emails asking for changes…

… And every change he asked for involved inserting more images, more logos, more stupid image ads from vendors, and ridiculous “25%-off-this-or-that” promotions.

Basically, he wanted the slick magazine that he’d wanted all along —- But he wanted ME to do all the work.

Now, here’s the point to take away from this story:

I should have trusted the consistency of this guy’s past behavior, and not the shifting sands of what he was saying just to get me to take a job.

But I said I would do the job, so…

… After a few emails back and forth about the type of newsletter I was wiling to create, he told me that he saw my point, and he wanted to do the newsletter my way, but that I needed “to chill a bit about this stuff”.

(I wonder what he would say if I told him to “chill” about his quality standards? hmmm…)

I calmly told him that I’m not “un-chill”… But that we would do the newsletter my way, every month, or he needs to go back to his $10,000-per-month-shiny-toilet-paper-idea.  And I would have no part in it.

Listen: If you’re reading this, and you deal with clients as a consultant/coach/professional service provider, then you’ve had this happen to you (or you will).

I’ve known this guy a long time, so I gave him some wiggle-room on being stubborn.  But I didn’t back down and let him tell me how to do my work.

He’s paying me for my expertise.  For the ability to do things, and know the right answers, and see overlooked opportunities that he can’t do/know/see on his own.  If he could do what I do, he would have done it already.

So you have to stand your ground.  When a client starts pushing you around and trying to call the shots… Don’t be surprised, because business owners are used to having supreme authority over their “kingdom”… But it doesn’t help either of you to give in to being micro-managed by someone who doesn’t know jack-squat about how to do what you do.

Work with clients that trust you enough to actually do the job they’ve hired you to do.   And be prepared to fire those clients that don’t.

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

I was driving over to my favorite local coffee shop to do some writing when I passed one of those free-standing cubes that people drive into to get their car’s emission levels tested.

There was a guy, obviously really bored, standing there with a sign that read:

“Free Pizza With Emissions Check”

Now, without a doubt, there was some moron sitting in his office thinking “I need to get more cars in my stations”… But why in the hell would you try to make PIZZA your incentive?!

People DO NOT want to get their car’s emissions tested.  It’s a necessary hassle you have to get through, to go on to an even bigger hassle at the DMV to fill out necessary paperwork.

You could say “Free Porsche With Emissions Check” and you’d still probably get so-so response at best.  People go to these places only when they absolutely, positively HAVE TO.

But I was thinking about my early experiments with direct response marketing, and I made this mistake too (in a slightly less stupid version of it).  

Because you hear direct response marketers talk about using “Free Bonuses”, but the temptation is to make the starting point… “I need more customers”.  Then go to… “Here’s this thing I want to sell”.  Then go to… “Here’s the thing I’ll give away for free to bribe people into buying from me.”

And when you go about it this way, you end up with an offer even dumber than the sum of its parts… WHY?

The “marketer” that thinks this way is completely ignoring the most important ingredient in marketing.  The ingredient that separates effective direct response marketing from “branding” and mindless stabs in the dark like “Free pizza with emissions check”…

… That ingredient is what Robert Collier described as “entering the conversation already going on in the mind of your prospect”.  The brain behind “Free Pizza With Emissions Check” didn’t stop to think, “Why do people get emissions checks in the first place?  What do people dread about the whole emissions check, Motor Vehicle Department, process?  What kind of incentive would matter to me if I had to go through that process today?”

The next marketing level of that would be “How can I get in front of people who are going to need emissions testing in the near future?”  People moving into Bernalillo County from other counties that do not require emissions testing, for example.

And, damn it, here’s the bad news:  Thinking about what OTHER people need and want is hard work.  There are a lot of business owners who would rather use “free pizza with emissions check” (in some form or another), and then shrug at the end of the day and say “Gosh, we tried.  This marketing stuff just doesn’t work.  People don’t listen to advertising anymore.”

WRONG-O BUCK-A-ROO!  Customers and prospects won’t listen to crappy advertising from lazy advertisers, who don’t take time to hear their needs and wants.  People love advertising and sales that makes them go “That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!  That’s for me!”

If advertising doesn’t get that reaction from the desired prospects, it’s not the media’s fault… It’s not that “marketing doesn’t work”… It’s not that the advertiser doesn’t have enough facebook friends…

… It’s the advertisers fault for being lazy and not stepping into his customer’s shoes.  Period.

Till Next Time,

Alec

P.S.  If these concepts tickled your brain and you’d like more info like this, check out ILoveMarketing.com .  I’m very sad and excited to tell you… it’s completely free.  You can subscribe on iTunes.  As of this writing, they have 28 podcasts up, with other great content in between podcasts.  Why am I both sad and excited to tell you it’s free?  

First, because I’ve paid lots of money for info products and books that didn’t provide the easy, put-it-to-work-now instruction these guys (Joe Polish and Dean Jackson) are giving away.  

And second, a lot of people are going to undervalue this podcast because it’s free.  If you listen to the interviews with Dan Kennedy and Tim Ferris, the 2 podcasts about converting leads, and hear Dean Jackson’s talk on “more cheese, less whiskers”… and you STILL can’t make some money…

Well, there is no hope for you :)  Head over there and start listening.  Here’s that link again:

ILoveMarketing.com

Hey there, Alec here…

I was just sent my affiliate link from the Information Marketing Association.

I buy a TON of information products and get these affiliate links all the time, and up to now, without exception…

… I ignore them.  Seriously.

I make my money selling MY expertise to my clients, and I like to keep it that way.  But after my last post about “how to make yourself a guru”, I thought this might be a helpful resource if that post resonated with you.

I just can’t say enough good things about the IMA, and recommend it highly for anyone in information marketing —- Or anyone curious about getting into it.

Here is the pre-canned affiliate message they gave me: ;-)

_____________________________________________________________________

I saw something I thought you’d enjoy.

I’m a member of the Information Marketing Association. It’s a great association for everyone who packages information into products, conducts coaching programs and/or offers monthly subscription programs (or wants to).

The IMA president, Robert Skrob, recently recorded a video that outlines how several info-marketers create new products and make them available quickly.

You can check out the video here:
www.infomarketingstartup.com/a16680 (Yup.  It’s an affiliate link.)

When I saw this, I wanted to bring it to your attention because I’m a member of the Information Marketing Association, and I get a lot out of the newsletters and monthly teleseminars they do. I thought you could benefit as well.

On this site you have the opportunity to grab a copy of “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Startup Guide to Information Marketing.” It’s a great book that gives you an overview of creating a successful business selling info-products, delivering coaching and/or offering monthly subscription programs. The book is only $9.95, which is even cheaper than Amazon.com.

Plus —- When you invest in the book through the Information Marketing Association, they’ll give you a free 2-month trial membership so you can experience membership for yourself. All of the bonuses and info you’ll receive is worth over $682.57. So, it’s a great value for your $9.95 investment.

Here is that link:
www.infomarketingstartup.com/a16680  (Yup.  This one too.)

I think this is something you’ll enjoy.

Best wishes,

Alec

_____________________________________________________________________ 

I just finished reading “the official get rich guide to information marketing” and it’s killer.  If you’re in the business of selling yourself, your expertise, a skill or service… At some point you’re going to want to get into/explore info-marketing, because it puts nitro-boosters on acquiring more clients and raising prices —- Not to mention the revenue from selling info-products flat-out.

Anyway —- The video offered (registering for the video is free) is going to be awesome with marketing legends like Dan Kennedy and Yanik Silver being involved.

I highly recommend you go check it out now.

Here’s that link again:

www.infomarketingstartup.com/a16680

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here… 

This is one of my favorite topics in copywriting.  And here’s the short answer:  

Write and Speak.

I’ll get into some details of copywriting and information marketing in a moment, but first, let me offer a case study…

I’m from a small town in New Mexico.  But when I moved to Albuquerque, a friend and I started a blog called New Mexico Digest, and we started reviewing restaurants, bars, events, etc. in our spare time.

Now, I like to write, so it was something I did once a week as a change of pace to writing ad copy.  And it was easy.  I’d go out, spend too much money on food and drinks, snap a few pictures with my cell phone… and then write about what I ate and drank, what the prices were like, what the atmosphere felt like, how nice the staff was…

… That’s it… 

… brain dead, stupid easy. 

(NewMexicoDigest.com, I highly recommend you go take a peek to see how easy this is —- I’ve since moved on to develop another blog, but you’ll find about 20 articles by me under the name “Gregory G.”)

So, after I’d written about 10 or 15 posts, I started telling waiters and bartenders that I was a “co-founder and lead writer” for New Mexico Digest… You should have seen the reactions I started getting!

A bartender that was indifferent toward me before was now eagerly giving me an expanded tour of the menu… Checking on me regularly to make sure all was satisfactory… “forgetting” to add a drink to my final bill… Inviting me behind the bar to see that all of their margaritas were made with fresh lemons and limes cut and pressed to order…

… And I got this everywhere.

Marketing directors of beer festivals started reaching out to me if I had a negative comment about something… And then sent me advanced notices of all future events.

I went from lowly customer to “respected expert” almost overnight —- because I was “a writer”.

And here’s the magic part:

Most people think of being an “author” or a “writer” as being somebody GOOD at writing…

… This couldn’t be further from the truth.

You simply have to DO IT.  When you write things that are available for the public to see, you are a “writer”.

And… When your writing makes people feel like it can give them something they WANT, or better, something they desperately NEED… Like the chef or bartender WANTED a good review from me…

… You become a “guru”, an expert, and a “micro-celebrity” within that little niche.

And here’s the final point worth making:

This can be done in virtually ANY niche.  For example, after testing this for myself and finding how well it worked, I am now working with a client applying this in his business.

I am ghostwriting information products for him that transform him from “business-owner/salesman” that people don’t want to feel pressured by… Into an Expert/Authority/Guru, and people now WANT to be influenced by him, they WANT to be “sold” by THE expert.

It’s whole different world.  And you can manufacture it at will.

By the way, this goes hand in hand with the topic a few posts back about working harder than anyone else on that ONE thing.  Work your butt off to become THE expert in a niche you can dominate and money and status start chasing YOU. (If you missed it, go read it now, here)

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

OK, maybe that title is a little dramatic —- Let me explain:

Learning new things is necessary.  Knowing more than the next guy makes you a “guru” to some extent —- “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” kind of thing.

But at the end of the day, all you get from knowing more is an inflated ego.  In copywriting and marketing, the money that ends up in the drawer at the end of the day is the only real measure of your competency.

And a tiny amount of knowledge that gets tested and implemented is far more valuable than a vault of knowledge never used.

But here’s the thing about learning more and more —- It DOES inflate your ego.  And it becomes addictive.  Pretty soon you get comfortable in your big stupid tower of knowledge, and you haven’t actually written a line of copy, or sent out one campaign…

… here’s the kicker…

… When you let your ACTION muscles get weak and flabby, you hit a point where learning more and more… Actually makes you dumber and dumber.  Because you’re not speaking from knowledge grounded in reality —- You’re just repeating other people’s words.  

Like a kid in a crappy community college getting high-and-mighty about the physics of time-travel.

Your knowledge can’t be trusted.  You’ll know it deep down.  And anyone you work with will know it.

Here’s the point of this soapbox rant:

When I was first learning to write copy and develop marketing pieces, I would have told you that “the most important thing about writing copy is…” something like a powerful headline or strong close or a compelling offer…

…And those are all REALLY important…

…But what’s THE most important ingredient in marketing?  

Doing SOMETHING.

The courage to act and accept the consequences.  Having the spine to get back up and try again after a string of miserable failures.  The fearless courage to stop talking, and send your copy into the real world and have it measured by the tangible results it brings in… Or doesn’t.

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

I just got done at the 2011 JCK Las Vegas jewelry convention.  It’s one of the biggies for the jewelry industry, and I’ve been coming to it since I was 5 or 6 years old.

Even though I’m not a jeweler, I’m not a “buyer”, and I’m not a showroom salesman…

… I still write copy for my family’s business, and I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the industry, as it were…

… Plus, I jump at any chance to go to Vegas like a bulldog after fresh meat.

Anyway, I’ve had the good fortune to see an industry evolve over 2 decades… and… more importantly… I’ve had the opportunity to see the luxury end of the retail world struggle for the past 2-3 years.

But here’s the thing…

Even though the general attitude at the convention was “things are getting better”, there was a dearth of individuals talking about actively improving their own situation.  Life is still about “…survival, at the mercy of the market…”

And here’s what I noticed…

… After hearing hundreds of jewelry suppliers make their pitches to retailers, the suppliers that were writing the most business were saying “This item has been selling for my clients, here’s why other consumers bought it, here’s why it will sell for you, here’s what I’ll do for you if it doesn’t…”  All service.  All benefits to the retailer.

While the self-righteous jewelry designers are whining about how the economy needs to improve, so the world can be restored to a position where it can once again appreciate their art…. etc. etc. ad nauseam… gag me… puke… shut up.

And the truth for most products in general is the same.  Your product or service is not “different”.  It’s another thing that does the same thing.  Deal with it.

Service, experience, marketing, salesmanship… These are the only things that matter.

But wait!  You have to have a good, quality product.

… True, true.  Amen…

…BUT…

The fact that you have a good, quality product that does what you say it will do…

… IS A GIVEN in today’s world.

But to actually sell the damn thing and keep your edge on your competitor comes down to service, customer experience, marketing, and salesmanship…

That’s true in jewelry.  That’s true in carpet cleaning.  That’s true in women’s clothing or landscaping.

The quicker a business person can accept that beyond basic, acceptable quality… their product don’t mean jack…

… And start becoming a serious promoter/marketer/seller of that product…

… The quicker the gap widens between you and all other “competition”.

In a world where the internet makes nearly everything a competitive commodity… Service, experience, trust, and personal salesmanship reign supreme.  And don’t you forget it…

… Jack.

Till Next TIme,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

It’s been a little while since I wrote last, and there’s a good reason…

My brain has been dangled upside down and molested for a 2 weeks straight… and what’s worse…

… I asked for it.

Some of the ads I’m about to write demand a solid understanding of what motivates middle aged women, the 45-60 range.  And for a 25 year old young copywriter all men, that’s a damn tall, often down-right horrifying, order.  

(I’ve been reading a good deal of Hunter S. Thompson over the past 2 weeks as well, so I couldn’t resist using the headline I did ;-) )

Anyway, I figure the quickest way to start getting into the mind of my target is to watch what she watches… Listen to what she listens to… Read what she reads…

… And I bet you can imagine the scene as checked out at the book store…

A 25 year old guy stumbles up to cash register with an ungodly heap of Cosmopolitans, Redbooks, Vogues, Sex and the City seasons on DVD, Desperate Housewives, Twilight (this, I was horrified to find out, was in the top 5 books middle-aged women would take to a desert island given the choice of ONE book…), the most recent Danielle Steel…. etc. etc. etc. etc…

The kid ringing everything up tried to keep the awkward glances at the freak standing before him to a minimum… And failed miserably.

I stared at my wallet until he was finished.  Paid.  And went home to cry into a glass of Scotch.

OK, sob story aside…

… This was one of the best things I have done for my understanding of human psychology.  I feel traumatized, no doubt.  But…

… After my crash course in pop female entertainment, I started having conversations with women, and eavesdropping on woman-to-woman conversations where ever I could…

… And I had one of those magic “Ah Ha!” experiences.  My brain is still mush.  So it’s hard to put my “Ah Ha!” into a nice, neat explanation.

But I will say this:

When you study what drives a middle-aged woman —- the insecurities, fears, and desires that move her decisions —- middle-aged men come into focus as well.  If I had to take a whack at narrowing it down, I’d say that middle-aged women are the key to understanding ALL consumer purchases.

And this has been said before by market analyst “gurus”, but I think it has little-to-nothing to do with MONEY.  And you can’t really “get it” by looking at statistics of female spending patterns.  It’s more complex…  More relational…  More terrifying :)

… This is about to turn into directionless rambling, so maybe I’ll write another post in the future when my brain isn’t mush.

I’ll leave you with this, to my fellow male copywriters…  Don’t be scared to take this same journey, it will change your life.  And in the words of Hunter S. Thompson:

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

And probably equally applicable here:

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

This is going to be a quickie, and it’s something I learned working with my family’s business.

My brother is the showroom floor manager there.  For the most part, I write the copy that brings people in the door and him and his team finish the sales job.

The other day I was hanging out, eaves-dropping on sales presentations, when I had a realization…

…Advertising Is Salesmanship.

(True.  True.  Amen.)

I realized that many of the psychological tricks and “talking points” that were going into my copy came directly from listening to thousands of sales presentations, over many years, literally growing up in that business.

But I also realized that the words from MY copy, MY sales letters, and MY sales insights were being used by the live sales team…

Now here’s the point:

When you have a live sales team and a trained copywriting working together…

… Something crazy happens.

They begin to mutate together!

The sales presentations that work in writing influence the live sales team.

The presentations that work in live, belly-to-belly sales influence the copywriter.

And the end result is synergistic “1+1=3” kind of situation.  

“The Synergy of Salesmanship”, if you will.

The business starts to pick up an unstoppable momentum that is ALWAYS driven by selling.

Not bureaucratic bull crap.

If you’re a business owner that lacks a well-trained sales team…

… Or a business owner that isn’t using a well-trained, competent copywriter…

… Or, if you’re not using both together…

You (and this is no exaggeration) have literally NO IDEA what you’re missing.

How much freedom you’re missing out on…

How much money you’re letting walk on by…

No business owner gets into the game thinking “I want to barely scrape by.  I want to struggle for as many years as possible, and then shut down shop with my tail between my legs…”

Business owners get in the game wanting to create an Unstoppable Super-Mutant Sales Beast that helps them reach their personal goals.

That’s what a salesmanship (copywriting) driven business is, and does.

Till Next Time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

There is a line in AMC’s series Mad Men.

One of the head honchos of the ad agency walks into an ad man’s office and says this:

“I’ll never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like you’re doing nothing.”

I LOVE this line because…

… I get this A LOT from people.  Friends and family that, even after I’ve tried to explain it, still have absolutely no idea what I do.

Copywriting is, for the most part, a solitary activity —- And you do, for long periods of time, what looks like absolutely nothing.

To anyone on the outside looking in…

…it really does look like many copywriters do nothing all day.

While the rest of the world is busily working their “real job” from 9-5 (or longer if you’re in retail) —-

I’m sleeping till noon, getting massages, laying on my couch reading mystery novels, taking naps whenever I feel like it…

But here’s what people DIDN’T see:

Reading over 63 (and counting) books on marketing, advertising, and copywriting…

Eating ramen noodle and mac n’ cheese for months to afford $1,000 training programs…

Countless nights, working from 10:00pm - 5:00am:

Rewriting headlines…

Perfecting bullet points…

Rephrasing introduction sentences…

Adding more “umph” to a closing paragraph…

Tailoring old copy to new medias…

Hand-copying other writers’ 8 and 16 page sales letters… (word for word, line by line)

Now Here’s The Point:

After 6 months of that grueling “bootcamp” that I put myself through…

… I doubled my income… AND… I doubled my free time.

My skill level in copywriting has arrived at a point where businesses can call on me to solve a problem for them… 

Get new customers for them…

Get old customers to buy more often…

Increase attendance to events…

Whatever they need.

And I can sit down, write a sales letter, script, newspaper ad, website —- And make money and customers “magically appear”.

I now get paid big on the RESULTS I bring in…

… And I no longer get paid based on the HOURS I put in.

And I can now be unapologetically lazy when it comes to stuff I simply don’t want to do.

Or more to the point…

… I flat out refuse to do anything that takes me away from the skills that bring the money in.  For example, when working with my parent’s business…

… I don’t answer phones, I don’t wait on customers (my brother does a stellar job training staff to do that), I don’t take out trash, I don’t vacuum floors, or clean showcase glass.

I’m happier doing what I’m good at.  My clients are happier with the results they get.

Now let’s broaden the scope:

I have a friend who worked for a well known company in women’s clothing retail.  She hated it, worked there for a few months.  She just couldn’t see the point of working her ass off for some manager that knew jack crap about fashion OR business.  She quit.

But she loved fashion, so she positioned herself as a costumer for the film industry and started picking up jobs on low-to-no-budget movie sets.

She read a few books on how to sell (and I don’t mind telling you… Consulted me on how to sell herself and market the skill sets she wanted to use)…

… She also started a fashion blog and started posting in-depth, how-to, fasion content.  If there was something she didn’t know about clothing and fashion, she would find out about it, then teach others about it through her blog.

After a few months, another retail manager she’d met was BEGGING her to come to work for her.  My friend reluctantly agreed.

She came on board… and… in less than 1 month, she was being offered promotions that other people in the company had been waiting years for.

How does that happen?

She worked harder on that ONE right thing (that one right thing for her) than anyone else, and refused to do the same task-oriented crap that was bogging everyone else down.

She put in the elbow grease to transform herself from a wage-slave into a “fashion expert”.  And now she’s reaping the rewards.

What is your ONE thing?

Are you working harder than anyone else to be THE expert in that area?

If not, you’ve got no right to be disappointed about any of the results your getting or not getting in life.  Find your ONE thing, work on it till your fingers bleed…

… And forget the rest.

Till next time,

Alec

Hey there, Alec here…

Almost 100 years ago (in 1923 to be exact), a man named Claude Hopkins wrote a book called “Scientific Advertising”.  It is a gem, and a Must-Read for anyone getting into advertising.

In this book he talks about advertising being “Just Salesmanship”, which is true, and a MASSIVE wake-up call to anyone who thinks that advertising should be about being cute or entertaining or artsy.

He says that advertising should not be taken lightly because you’re writing to people about “…a serious matter.  The matter of money spending.”

True.  True.  Amen.

But there’s another side to that…

… and that is the fact that the best salesmen (or women) know a lot about human psychology.  How people think, react, behave…

… And to learn more about that, you often have to get in the mud and the blood and the beer of HUMANITY.  And humanity is freakin’ weird.  All of us. (Yes, you.)

If you do the same things all the time, talking to the same people, going to the same places…

…It may be time to embrace your inner weirdo.

(Here I was attending a Robot themed party, complete with video game contests, Terminator posters, foil hats, glow sticks, black lights, Iron-Man chest pieces, etc.)

Now listen: If you try to write copy from an Ivory Tower, from a stuffed up office with nothing but business jargon filling your head all day…

Your copy is going to suck.

Shift your perspective on people and life in general, and you’ll have a more balanced perspective of YOUR customers.

Whether it’s volunteering at your church, or going to a new community meeting, or taking a weekend road trip, or attending a seminar that you wouldn’t normally go to… but your customers DO, or doing something totally bizarre like going to a robot theme party, or learning a musical instrument…

…Get out and do/see/be/hear/smell something new.

Cause here’s the thing:

Embracing, enjoying, and fully living life IS weird!

If you go out of your way to understand how OTHER people think, you automatically put yourself in the tiny minority vs. how most people live their lives.

…And…

…This isn’t some fluffy, namby-pamby, cheerleader speech on “making the most of every day”.  The fact is, it WILL CHANGE the quality of your copy at a cellular level AND…

… You will CONNECT with people on a deeper level when you finally do sit down to write about the “serious matter of money spending”.

Till Next Time,

Alec