Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Here's one that hasn't been mentioned
and I think is worthy.

It has to do with the fire in the belly and a negative emotion
that pours petrol on the fire.

John Carlton has mentioned it on numerous occasions
and I've experienced it myself recently.

That fuel is payback for being ridiculed by someone.

John talks about a woman who said he wouldn't be able to
be good at copywriting and blocked his path for getting better.
He ended up stealing her book on advertising.

And the rest is history.

A consulting client came to me for help because she wanted to buy
a boat which was going to be for her tourist business.
Her never-to-be-anything lawyer husband continually poured cold water
on this woman's dream. Boy is she fired up to show him up!

I know of a woman who set about losing weight to show off to her ex abusive husband.

See the common thread here...

A person who puts down another's ambition or self esteem
which causes a fights back to prove a point.

You might call it a negative drive,
but man-oh-man it sure beats the hell out of wishy-washy positive thinking.

Best,
Ewen

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Interesting take. Sales trainer Tom Hopkins has said for years that most high achievers he meets are trying to prove themselves to someone:

"1. A Burning Desire to Prove Something to Someone
A professional in any type of business has a strong reason for wanting to succeed. My reason was to prove myself to my parents. I quit college after 90 days, knowing that formal education wasn't for me. My parents had high hopes for me and were quite disappointed. My dad told me, "Your mother and I will always love you, even though you'll never amount to anything."

That was my first motivational talk, and it kindled my desire to become the best and prove something to my parents. What are you trying to prove? And to whom? You must know why you've chosen your particular business."

business - Become a Sales Pro | Entrepreneur.com

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Hey Jason,

Maybe they were not even thinking on getting any level of skill...
They were interested in making some bucks to pay their bills :)

Anyways, I think the "trick" to really turn the BEST is stop looking for a trick, it's not even transcribing copy like holy Gary said (which helps a lot) but it's more about ANALYZING the context of each offer you put out and using ALL the ideas, knowledge and experiences you've got to make the best sales letter "this time"... so next time you have a better understanding of what it is.

Like novel writers. There's a lot of GREAT writers world famous guys who really didn't know how to write. But they started to write every day until they started to improve and they continued in that way for the rest of their lives.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

To be the best, you have to study the best...and do what the best do.

20% inspiration 80% perspiration.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Are there any books or courses you guys would recommend to begin learning?

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

I think they got there by primarily doing 3 things:

1. Studying other great copywriters
2. Taking LOTS of action
3. Testing, testing, testing, testing x10000

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Jason, I don't think that the best copy writers in the business really thought of themselves as the best, well... with the exception of Gary Halbert, but it wasn't a lie, now was it? Gary, knew what he could write in order to persuade thousands of people to buy his products. Some say it was luck, but was it really...luck?
I have read and studied and still study to this day all of the Halbert letters at his website. Listen to his audios, interviews and probably most of his videos that he has out there, even the special two hour ones that a good friend and colleague of Gary Halberts, places delicately up on his website and invites his list to watch them every so often.
There are two things that I have found that Gary did very, very well... and did before he ever wrote a word.

Do you know what those two things are?
How much are you seriously willing to pay to find out what those two things are that Gary had done in order to make
*$98,000 dollars in a few short hours with one simple email?
* How A 1 Page Space Ad about "Perfume" caused a frenzy mob of thousands of
"Scent Whores" to flock an up-scale L.A. Hotel, Grid Locked 2 City Blocks, Almost Forcing City Fire & Police Officials on Riot Alert... All while making Sells that would have Apple Envious
There will never be another Gary Halbert.
However, I will give you the secret to Gary's success because there really isn't a price you can place on these two things, yet they are so basic and yet many veteran Copy writers forget to do these 2 steps successfully.
If you want to know the rest of the story and Gary's 2 Step formula for success send me a PM

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

^ You are about to create a pm frenzy with that post ;)

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

What is this, the WSO forum?

The BEST OF THE BEST sure as hell don't get there by "two things". That's a suckers mentality. A lazy, microwave mentality that the internet has helped cultivate.

Mastery is a process; it requires time. Shortcuts are an illusion. Persistence. Years of persistence. In copywriting, this translates to lots of writing. Analyzing results and market feedback (which is 100x more valuable than any mentor's feedback) and continuing to move forward - especially when encountering failure. Testing, testing, and more testing.

Yes, of course God given talent. That's a given. You have to have the aptitude. But we can't control that. We can control our commitment and what we invest.

Time and persistence. That's how you master anything in life. Thousands and thousands of hours invested with the intention and belief that you will achieve your desired outcome.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

That's a great point, Ewen, and the desire to prove someone wrong is a huge motivator. However, it is a motivation of circumstance (not everyone has been beat up or put down over their abilities)...

And I've always found that negativity breeds negativity. I've done a lot of things in my life simply to prove other people wrong. When I did prove them wrong, however, nothing really changed in their lives. They didn't care. They didn't want to see me succeed -- it was the negative energy that brought them happiness.

In the end, I wasn't trying to find success and happiness in my achievement, but in trying to "show" someone that they had underestimated me. Once I started asking, "Why should I care what these people think?" I discovered that I had been doing a lot of things that didn't really bring me happiness at all, just to so I could "show" other people. It took me a while, but I realized the only person I needed to prove anything to was myself.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

@Robert_Rand...
Ok, duh... and Gary Halberts 2 Step Formula for Million Dollar Copy Writing Success

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

The secret is Sex Panther. 60% of the time it works every time.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

This isn't how to become world class, but according to Gary Halbert, it was how to become better than 99% of all copywriters in 30 days or less... I just remembered this: The Gary Halbert Letter

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Personally...

I've stepped away from the more cerebral side of copywriting (e.g. the borderline obsession to mimic the proven giants of slinging sales copy.)

Sure...

There's massive amounts of information to digest out there from the greats and gurus.

And while I own tons of books, most of which I've read thoroughly...

...I've forgotten most of it.

Ultimately...

What's empowered me to make a passive living selling my own products and pimpin' out other people's stuff is one thing: The ability to observe.

It's in my comprehension to intimately understand WHY people make decisions, in every conceivable market, that is singularly responsible for being able to position myself as a copywriter...

...when I'm absolutely surrounded by living legends (in their own minds ;-)

From my perspective...

If you want to become one of the best copywriters, perhaps ever, you've got to cultivate and nurture an extremely acute awareness about emotion and basic, fundamental human nature.

You've got to know what makes people tick.

And while the circumstances that prospects experience, in different markets/niches, can be massively different...

...the emotions that you ultimately have to connect with to fully capture people's attention and seduce their imagination are really mind-numbingly simple.

Fear.
Hope.
Desire.
Anger.
Empathy.
Jealousy.
Doubt.
Insecurity.
Blah Blah Blah...

That's why keeping sales copy conversational is so important.

You don't necessarily want people to think.

You want them to FEEL.

And when you can easily tap into and trigger people on a purely emotional level, you have the potential to literally hold prospects in the palm of your hands and usher them to the destination you've determined to arrive at.

So put down the stuff you're studying from Gary Halbert, John Carlton... or even the Vin Montello's out there...

...and start learning about emotion.

Start with yourself.

Develop your own mindset.

Become a person who can envision a sales letter, from start to finish, just by mapping the critical emotions you KNOW people are experiencing and associate some simple circumstances to bring them to life.

As I redundantly say to people who want to achieve something they NEVER have before (and I'll modify it for this conversation:)

"You Can't Take Who You Are, RIGHT NOW, With You - If You Want to Achieve Copywriting Greatness!"

That means...

Just assume EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG...

...and keep going deeper, moving forward and always striving to get just a little closer to The Truth of what people are REALLY feeling.

My Take.

Mark

By the way...

I think Ric Flair may have said it better:

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

A similar thing happened to Clayton Makepeace:

You’ll Never Amount to a Hill of Beans | MakepeaceTotalPackage.com

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

John and Clayton's experience's gives clues as to my point
on why "the best became one of the best."

Not how we can become the best, or whether it had negative tones,
just a neutral observation from what they have said and what
Tom Hopkins has observed of peak performers he knows.

Thanks Joe.

Best,
Ewen

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

Only perfect practice makes perfect. Practicing something imperfect trains you to do it imperfect.

I think the chops have to be there, no doubt about that. Experience is a factor too. But then on top of it all, is serendipity.

Re: How do you think the best became one of the best?
 

I think it's a combination of natural talent + killer work ethic + the right connections. I want to especially emphasize connections. Without the right people hiring, exposing, and noticing Gary Halbert he remains some guy doing direct mail from his house that we would've never heard of. I think a lot of us overlook the fact that there is tons!!!! of talent that you've never heard of and probably never will that are possibly better than today's considered 'best."

I think natural talent plays a big roll in who edges out the rest, because we all study the same information for the most. Yet someone of us are able to attain greater success with that info than others. Someone's inner ability to craft messages that resonate with their target prospect on a truly deep level surpasses their seminar attendances, home study course purchases, mastermind memberships, etc. Once any one person masters something in a competitive space what separates the greats from the mediocre who've put in equal and in some cases more work...is their natural knack for the skill.

For example, take Michael Jordan. Every player in the NBA went through training camp, practiced, learned the playbook. Other guys could do amazing dunks, make crazy jump-shots but what gave MJ that extra edge was that internal knack or insight into the game of basketball that enabled him to do the same things others did but just a little bit better and retire the legend he is.

I say that to close with this; copywriters like Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton, etc. Stand out because of that essential trio that "the greats" in all fields seem to share.