My wife, Kellie, and I, circa 1994 (So ridiculous!)
Here are 15 weird, personal, or mildly interesting things about me I rarely talk about:
(1) I grew up in New Jersey and was doing the Jersey Shore thing long before Snooki, The Situation, and Paulie D made it "cool".
(2) I was diagnosed with a learning disability in the sixth grade.
(3) I scored a whopping 850 on my SAT's.
(4) My first car was a pimped-out white Pontiac Grand Am with jet black tinted windows, one of those black car bra's, and the words Pump Up The Bass absurdly labelled across the windshield.
(5) I used to wear a fanny pack. Unfortunately, still take one on vacations with me. My wife hates it.
(6) On my Spotify playlist you'll find everything from KRS-One, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond, all the way to the Commodores, Rick James, and the soundtrack from Hamilton.
(7) I used to play a mean game of NHL on the Sega Genesis.
(8) I was a national-level competitive bodybuilder in my twenties.
(9) One of my all-time favorite movies is Scarface (with Al Pacino). Say hello to my little friend!
(10) My favorite cheat meal is pizza. Usually with mushrooms.
(11) I put ketchup on my hot dogs. I don't get the mustard people.
(12) I used to frequent clubs in my early twenties. And love busting a move to hardcore house music.
(13) My pops passed away seven years ago April 15th. I miss him everyday, and would give anything to spend just an hour more with him.
(14) I'm an extreme introvert and have social anxiety. My wife is the complete opposite. Not good.
(15) I'm only 5'5" tall. And I've had people approach me after speaking at conferences and say, "I thought you'd be taller." They're all dead to me now.
With that, let's get to this week's goodies...
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MY FAVS THIS WEEK
- Why Marketing Flywheels Work
I'm a big fan of the flywheel approach to business and marketing models. We began using a flywheel model in this business about two years ago and haven't looked back.
This is a good little article on the topic. - 10 Simple Ways To Refocus a Wandering Mind
If you're anything like me... your mind often jumps from idea to idea, task to task, responsibility to responsibility, random thought to random thought.
Anything which can help with that... I value. - Adding is Favored Over Subtracting In Problem Solving
Problem solving is at the root of what it means to be an entrepreneur. It's our chief role, our main job.
Sadly, problem solving isn't a skill taught in most schools. It wasn't something I learned when I was younger. Likely, you either.
This article gives an insightful review of one aspect of problem solving: adding or subtracting from what's being done.
ODDITY FROM MY LIBRARY
This past week we had Kevin Hogan spend some time with us on our TOP ONE Mastermind™ Experience.
Kevin is widely considered to be one of the foremost authorities on persuasion.
What I like about Kevin's stuff is how actionable it is. It's not theoretical or conceptual. It's practical.
And with Kevin's background in sales, he understands how to use ethical persuasion to lead people to feel good about a buying decision.
Kevin's written 30 books on the topic. I believe he has another one in the works.
Of the three which I read, The Psychology of Persuasion was the one I got the most value from. It's solid and jam packed.
Definitely worth a read... if not two.
WHAT I'M TELLIN' MY TEAM
This week on our internal Team Marketing Training...
I walked the guys through the rewrite I did for our Copywriting Workshop Notification List page.
For context: This page is just there so folks can get on the waiting list to learn more about the Workshop as it gets closer later this year.
I wanted the guys to see the flow of the message and how I structured the page with a focus on only five main chunks:
(1) What this is about
(2) Why this is big news
(3) Why I've decided to share this stuff now
(4) Why my stuff is different from everything else
(5) Why it's valuable to get on the Notification List
I know, for this type of page, these are the only chunks of copy needed.
I also wanted the guys to see how the copy reads just like I speak. From word choice... to sentence flow... to grammar and punctuation, it's all my words "on paper".
It's important to remember when writing copy... it should read like the spoken word, not the written word.
It should also feel conversational and authentic. Not staged and manipulative.
And finally, I wanted the guys to see how I created more and more momentum the further you go in the copy.
Ideally, you want your marketing to build-up in energy and excitement... and peak with a crescendo at the call-to-action.
TEAM TAKEAWAYS IN THREE BULLETS:
- It's super important to get clarity on the aim and objective of any piece of copy before we start writing it. There should be a purpose behind everything we say, show, do, present, etc. We need to know what that is before we write anything.
- When writing the first draft of any marketing piece we want to aim for speed. Our focus should be getting our ideas down on paper as quickly as possible. The polishing is done during the editing phase, not the writing.
- Good copy prods the prospect's emotions. We need to identify the primary emotion we're going to trigger in the headline and lead. And we need know what deeper emotions we're going to prod throughout the marketing message. All of these need to be determined in advance... before we write a single word.
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MY ADVICE
A question posted inside the E5 Nation Facebook Group...
Below is my response:
Video sales letter are definitely the default I recommend. Since they can be used for every type of offer.
However, I like traditional long-form sales letters for ultra-low ticket offers. Trip wires, free-plus-shipping, etc.
Video sales letters are great when your offer is higher priced... where you need to build a case first (i.e. present your marketing argument) before the prospect sees the price.
Long-form sales letters are great when the price is low enough that you don't care if the prospect sees it before they read or watch any part of your marketing campaign.
In fact, in many cases, when you have an ultra-low priced offer... having the prospect see that upfront is a good thing. It helps with conversion. So a long-form, or even short-form, sales letter is perfect.
***
NOTE: If you're not in the E5 Nation Facebook Group with us yet, you're missing out on the opportunity to have me answer your questions. Not too mention, some killer content and live streams only shared inside the Group.
Go here and join us inside the E5 Nation Group (it's FREE!).
ROCKSTAR RESOURCE
Clayton Makepeace was my friend...
And he was also one of the greatest copywriters to ever put pen to paper.
Carline Anglade-Cole is probably Clayton's most successful protégé. She's been the master behind some of the most successful health promotions.
Last month, in tribute to the one year anniversary of Clayton's passing, Carline put together an incredible line-up of copywriting experts to share their wisdom.
Folks like Gary Bencivenga, Bob Bly, Parris Lampropoulos, David Deutsch, Brian Kurtz, and many, many more.
Carline generously posted the entire Tribute on Youtube.
It's well worth watching.
PIC OF THE WEEK
For years I had these two picture frames on my desk.
They were reminders for me.
"What's next?" was there to ensure I never stopped thinking about what was the next piece of value I was going to offer my tribe.
"Procrastination is fatal to the entrepreneur" was there to ensure I stayed focused and did what I was supposed to do each day.
Having them on my desk ingrained these two ideas into my head.
What daily reminders do you need which you can put front and center on your desk?
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