A-list weener envy

Published: Mon, 07/02/18

“Now he's worried. You cut him! You hurt him! You see? He’s not a machine! He’s a man! You want it more than he does!”

— Duke
“Rocky 4”


Back when I was but a wee copywriting lad I remember getting john thomas envy (so to speak) over world class copywriter’s ads. I’d see a Gary Halbert ad… or a Gene Schwartz ad… or a Gary Bencivenga ad… or any world class ad… and I’d think to myself, “how the hell am I ever going to be this good? What is the point? This is ridiculous, I might as well go back to the 9-5 world…”

I struggled a lot in the early days.

Just couldn’t get things the way I wanted them.

(I even once had a client and her team giggle at my sales letter because it was so bad.)

Then, one day, I saw a video from a Yanni concert at the job I worked at the time.

(I duplicated VHS tapes back then…)

And, it was of his orchestra doing their own version of Vivaldi’s “The Storm.” (Not a big Yanni fan, but I have always been a huge Vivaldi fan — always considered his work the highest level you could achieve.) Anyway, Yanni had his two top violinists do Vivaldi’s The Storm in his own style.

And, to this day I still think it is way better than the original.

Yes, I know some music purists will disagree.

But, that’s not the point.

The point is, I finally realized even the best people at what they do (especially copywriters) *can* be beat.

They *can* bleed.

And, you *can* win over them.

They are not immortal.

They are just as flawed and screwed up and plagued with insecurities over their work as the rest of us — even if they make it look easy.

The point?

Ever since then I have never had A-list copywriter john thomas envy.

And, after reading this, neither should you.

I don’t care if you are a brand spanking new newbie fresh off the turnip truck… or if you are a seasoned pro trying to break into the ranks of the upper echelons of copywriting. If you have the talent you’re going to break through the wall.

Like Red Skelton told Johnny Carson:

"Nobody helps you get started.
If you've got talent, they can put you behind a brick wall,
you'll come through, so that's what you have"

All right, enough Ramen Noodles for the soul.

Speaking of copywriting, I got this email a while back from Copy Slacker customer Jim Fry:

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While client work sucks, the results I recently generated for someone gave me the confidence to really go for it with my own biz.

I wrote all the copy (FB ads + email series) for this client. Their program costs $1,300 to attend. We brought their cost of acquisition from $1200+ down to $212. In other words, they're actually profitable now. Previously they were using investor capital while they "figured it out".

Of course, the idea, copy etc. all came directly from THE MARKET. I'm sure if copywriters would just stop trying to be fancy with their writing and actually listen to the market they'd get similar results.

The other big take away from copy slacker was just lay down the copy, get it DONE. Doesn't need to be Earth-shattering if you listen to the market. Any strokes of genius I had came directly from the market.

I did this under someone else's agency so using the client's name could get me in trouble, but feel free to use my story/results any way you can.

Thanks Ben!

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To see how Copy Slacker can make you more sales by spending less time writing copy, go here:

http://www.EmailPlayers.com/slacker

Ben Settle