The CyberTruck buzz reminds me of the iPhone launch: 
- Everyone thought it was partially stupid (no keyboard was a VERY big deal back then). 
- It's so drastically different than the norm it felt like it could take over the world or totally flop.
- At the same time, EVERYONE wanted to see one in person!

Was on a phone call with @PaulYacoubian (CEO of Copy AI), he's recently started using a mechanical typewriter more often and found these benefits:

"Each word comes with an effort penalty."

"Everything that's in your brain comes out but with less words and less bloat."

I do agree that there's something very pure about writing with no electricity. It inspired me to buy a bunch more of these "cow notebooks" to fill up with notes:

 

It was ChatGPT's 1st birthday yesterday!

So ChatGPT is only 1 year old....

This reminds me of the dawn of the internet:
- At first it was fringe and hard to use (GPT-3).
- Then it became pretty good and useful (GPT-4).
- Then it became very easy to use (ChatGPT).
- Then it became SUPER easy with mobile phones it took over the entire world (???).

The future of people working with their brains will become very interesting.

Me and some friends went to a "Game Show Birthday" where you compete on different games:

I think this video would better explain it:

Props to @nickgraynews for the editing on this birthday reel. https://t.co/5Y2WfHjF1U pic.twitter.com/15rHv1V2Xj

— Cathryn (@cathrynlavery) November 28, 2023

It was actually REALLY FUN and highly recommended!

In November 2023 these are the number of accounts reached from each tentacle of Copywriting Course:

• YouTube: 124,000
• CopywritingCourse.com: 87,922
• SwipeFile.com: 42,517
• Instagram: 51,000
• TikTok: 258,000
• Email: 58,650
• Total: 622,089

I have noticed social media is faaaarrr eclipsing organic SEO.

I'm not 100% sure yet, but I THINK I have a plan to reverse that in 2024 where reliance on social platforms is decreased.

Our community is so fun and awesome, and I want to expand it (without ruining the good vibe).
 

These are better than drugs...

One of my all-time favorite products on the planet are: Soft ear plugs!

I use them to sleep every night, and I use them to get deep focused work done.

I keep a pair in my bedroom, my desk, and my laptop bag.

I re-use each pair many times but they are essentially disposable.

I can use basically any old ear plugs for a while, but if you wear them all the time some brands hurt your ears. These also block 32 decibels of sound.

I like this brand because they're "softer" than traditional ear plugs.

Maybe these would be a cool stocking stuff for someone you know! I use these things every single day and love them 🙂

This billboard is simple and totally brilliant!

Plot Twist: It’s not real, it was just a fun Reddit thread, but this billboard would probably work well IRL (although it would need some contact info on it)!

A $2,200 laptop, used ~8 hours a day, after 3 years costs $0.31/hour.

Totally worth it!

I dropped $3,000 on a new iMac M3, the previous iMac was great, but the new one is so fast it saves seconds doing many small tasks and saves hours rendering videos. 

Divide that cost by usage and it comes to:
Year 1: $1.25/hour
Year 2: $0.63/hour
Year 3: $.42/hour

If you can....always spend the extra money for a machine you work on 8 hours a day!

 

What do people want to work on in 2024??

I asked this question in this newsletter, here's the most common answers:
• Start a side hustle
• Create an online store
• Create a blog
• Write a book/eBook
• Build or scale a business
• Create a website
• Sell a digital product
• Build a course

I was surprised to see how high "build an online store" and "build a blog" still rank!

Checkout this awesome retro advertising for an AppSumo promotion! This is emulating the box of Windows 95….except with a taco 🌮

This whole Sam Altman getting fired by the OpenAI board drama has been fun!

• It’s like nerd version of Kardashians.
• Everyone is following along together.
• The story unfolds more every hour.
• We all have a personal connection to ChatGPT.
• “Guilt Free” drama bc not about a war.

Since everyone in the world now has hyper-personalized entertainment (YouTube Channels, people they follow on social media, streaming anytime), it's kind of fun when a news story un-furls live for everyone!

Did you know...
That right this moment....
You can get my Copywriting Course for 50% off + 2 Free Months??

This is by far the lowest price we've ever offered in our history.

The Copywriting Course for 12 months would normally cost $750...but...

If you use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY right now, you'll get it for $375 for FOURTEEN MONTHS (that's 2 months to slack off, then 1 full year to utilize us to build/rewrite/learn)!

This is a pretty dang awesome deal (best in history), so grab it now!

I mean this is a no-brainer if you were thinking of buying and waiting for the best price. Offer ends tonight!

What a cool advertisement displaying the value of learning English:

If you use a Mac, snapping windows sucks, but here’s how to solve it:

Download "Rectangle."

Now you can snap windows sideways, up, or any angle you set.

It’s free. It’s open source. It’s amazing.

See it in action here:

 

I did an interview with Nathan Barry

where we talk about who is making money with newsletters. Also: 
- Setting up “Creator Flywheels” (important!) 
- ConvertKit marching towards a billion dollars 
- Tectonic shifts in SEO in the last 3 years 
- Best platforms with the best audiences

 

This is the paint equivalent of good copy: Slightly modify where the paint is (and isn't) changes up the whole thing:

I understand over zealous management killed off WeWork, but I am a bit saddened by the WeWork collapse because I've had WeWork offices all over the place and loved them.

Lots of fond memories and connections created at WeWorks...

WeWork's always represented to me:

• A place to go with friends when you didn't want to go to a bar.
• Work late nights.
• Go to events.Get free food & drinks from said events 😬
• Acted as a "3rd Place" where everyone knew your name.
• They always were kept super clean.
• Internet was always fast. Great bathrooms.
• Good coffee. 

Sucks they crashed and burned.
 

What if I were to tell you we're having a quick flash sale, at THE lowest price in our history for Copywriting Course

....oh and you'll get 2 free months so you enjoy the remainder of 2023 and use it all of 2024?

Get 50% off and 2 months free right now →

 

Your business will fall to the level you tolerate.

 

Correct these aspects in your company to create a good work environment.

 

You probably didn’t imagine this about Walmart

 

Firing is hard, but even harder is being frustrated because an employee doesn’t change.

 

These are the two things that happen when you encourage your employees to solve problems.

 

As a boss, you should be careful not to have too many monkeys on your back.

 

 

These are the two levels of delegation that will make you wealthy.

 

 

This would be such a cool experiment to try out. Walk around in public with a QR code and see how many website visits you get!

When an industry dies, it doesn’t just disappear into oblivion right away. It slowly shrinks, then shrivels, then consolidates, then becomes a small niche. Think:

•Gas lanterns.
•Vinyl records.
•Horse carriages.

The people who survive an industry collapse are the ones who are the most adaptable.

The ones who constantly learn new skills.

Are there any skills YOU are learning for the upcoming 2024 year?

Great chart by @asmartbear shows how cash in the bank affects your lifestyle at different levels.

• $1,000 = “I can’t lose my job.”
• $100,000 = “I can own my house.”
• $2,000,000+ = “I can have freedom.”
• $50,000,000 = “I only fly private.”

I went to The Sphere this weekend in Las Vegas to see U2 and it was so damn cool, here's a mini-tour (with videos): →

From far this is what The Sphere looks like: A big ole light up ball

In the daytime you can still see it, but it's slightly "washed out" with direct sunlight:

From far it looks like sharp and crisp

The screen does different things:
- Acts as a giant projector.
- Sometimes just showed ambient background color
- Looks like a background for different scenes

This is the first show they did with The Sphere, so I can't wait to see what other cool sets they come up with!

Check out a bunch of videos of the concert and the cool effects of the Sphere on my twitter:

 

 

The "Pareto Principle" states 20% of activity will account for 80 percent of results.

You can see it demonstrated here on certain consumer products.

Things like detergent, chocolate, and toilet paper are used by almost everyone...

...but things like cigarettes, beer, and soft drinks are consumed mostly by the top 20% of users.

You will notice this in many areas of life:
20% of your clients will account for
80% of your revenue.
20% of your friends will account for 80% of time hanging out.
20% of taxpayers will account for 80% of the tax paid.

 

We're about to do a giant Black Friday sale at Copywriting Course this month.

What would make it an ABSOLUTE NO BRAINER for you to join Copywriting Course for a year?
Reply and let me know!

This is the simplest and most effective demonstration of sugar content I’ve ever seen.

Seeing a Coca-Cola label say “39g of sugar” doesn’t have the same bite as SEEING this giant bag of sugar:

Looks matter!

This guys AirBnB revenue went up after painting his rental house black:

This was in Mt Hood, Oregon...and the simple act of touching up the rental made it more profitable!

My dream marketing experiment would be to put a QR code on the Las Vegas Sphere and see how many people click it!

Side Note: I am flying to The Sphere today in Las Vegas see U2!

I love U2, and am 40% excited to see them....but 60% excited just to see The Sphere in person!!

I'll post some pics on my Instagram.
 

Yesterday I met up a bunch of popular Twitter peeps IRL (In Real Life) for some pizza! I already knew half the people, but it's fun when you go from following someone online to meeting up in person!

Pic: @aymanalabdul → @KHendersonCo → @ryandeiss → @nickgraynews → @PaddyG96 → @sweatystartup → @_hunterhammonds → @thejustinwelsh → @nevmed → @SievaKozinsky

 

 

The gym I go to has “recovery center” with sauna, cold plunge…plus like 10 other things for recovery.

This one is an “EWOT” (Exercise With Oxygen Therapy).

The big bag is filled with pure oxygen and you suck it in through a hose while huffing and puffing on a bike:

You have to wear this mask so you inhale only pure oxygen.

I've done it twice...I'm not sure if this stuff works or if it's just interesting and fun to try.

This other "treatment" I recently tried is a bed and chair with electric nodes that shock you and make your muscles twitch.

I've done it twice and I think I'm gonna stop, it just scares me.

I used my AirPods/iPhone while on it and they both started glitching from the electric currents 😳

Like I said....I have no idea if any of these things actually help a ton, but they are fun to try!

 

 

These NuoBell 80lbs dumbbells are the most commonly used thing in my home gym:

One twist of the handle and they switch weight from 5lbs up to 80 Ibs, so it's easy to do multiple sets with different weights and not a lot of time adjusting the dumbbell...

The downside is they are more expensive than other adjustable dumbbells and they're a little more delicate. I won't "drop" these abruptly like you can with regular dumbbells.

However it's great to have a full range of weights that take up little space and look cool!

At a conference this guy found out if you place a stack of flyers on a table, no one takes them.

…but if you splay them out in circles like this, people keep taking them and they have to replace them every few minutes!

“Risk is a type of fuel.”
- Random phrase I read in the Walter Isaacson Elon Musk biography, visualized with Dall-E3:

 

There’s an amazing subreddit called /r/fatFIRE which is full of people trying to be F.I.R.E. (Financially Independent Retire Early)

The "F.I.R.E. Movement" indicates retiring early and living very frugally.

But “FAT-F.I.R.E." means they want to retire early, but in luxury style.

So instead of having a nest egg that pays $50k/year they want it to pay $500k+/year.

I was leaving the house when I got a random delivery on a pallet from my friend @noahkagan. I was leaving the house so I couldn't open it.

Any guesses what it is?? Peloton for scale:

I'll wait for you to try to guess:

?

??

???

????

?????

??????

???????

????????

?????????

??????????

????????????

??????????????

????????????????

??????????????????

????????????????????

??????????????????????

????????????????????????

::TIMES UP!::

It’s a super fancy Toto Japanese toilet!

I have one of these in my master bathroom and it's awesome.

If you've never experienced a full cleaning with a Japanese toilet you're missing out 😏😏😏😏

 

Whatever "some weirdos" are doing now....versions of "that crazy thing" will be normal in 10 to 20 years:

Year 2000 vs Now:
• Organic food is for hippies -vs- Everyone eats organic.
• Weed gets you arrested -vs- Weed sold everywhere.
• Internet is for fringe nerds -vs- The world runs on internet.
• Electric cars were golf carts -vs- Electric cars are best/fastest. • Flying was for planes -vs- Buy autonomous drones for $200.
• Online dating for losers -vs- Most relationships start online.

In 2003 (20 years ago) around 700 million people were on the internet. Now it’s nearly the entire planet.

Many people in 2003 felt they missed their “big shot” after the Internet Bubble collapsed a few years before that. Turns out most of the money was made after that….

…which industries look like the “First Website” now? AI, AR/VR, crypto, web3?

Maybe it’s industries where the numbers are like:
• 10 million BTC wallets
• 20 million defi users
• 30 million active VR users
• 100,000 people have medical chips implanted in their brains.

…where these numbers go to billion:

I'm doing an "UpWork Experiment" in our Members Area (**ahem** last chance to grab a monthly sub), and so far from two weeks ago it's made exactly $4,000 (minus $400 in upwork fees):

• 8 x 1 hour consults
• 8 x 10 minute reviews

To do this I made a "Product" on UpWork like this to accept orders:

I'm more and more convinced that if someone was industrious and reached out to company gigs for 1 hour a day on UpWork, that could easily be a full time living with freelancing.

I've been documenting this inside our community "Get 100 reviews, 100 clients, and $100,000 on UpWork."

"Before & After" images seem to have the highest density of information transfer of any form.

Here’s a montage set of before/afters from Commit Action promoting their coaching:

Simple before & afters can tell the story of an entire transformation in one image.

Wow…the ChatGPT voice feature is incredible.

In the shower I can say, “I’m preparing for a podcast interview, give me some tips.”

Or on a walk with AirPods I can chat back and forth with it without touching phone.

First AI demo I’ve seen in a while that’s made me go “whoa.”

It’s like having a customized podcast with you on any subject. Amazing.

Enable in your ChatGPT app:
 

Settings —> New Features —> Voice

Did you know that while I have a YouTube channel, almost all the content I create is actually not public, but only for members? 

Here's 5 "Member Only" lessons from the last 4 weeks:

This room in my house quadruples as: 
• Home office 
• YouTube studio 
• Co-working space for 6 
• Overflow guest bedroom. Check it out!

Watch this under-2-minute video tour of my setup -->

 

Some screenshots from the video:

 

Open AI just released their "Dall-E 3" image generator. I've been playing around with it, re-doing pieces of my own marketing for fun!

Book

Email banners:

Logos:

Web layouts:

This is another AI feature I've been loving using!!

We are removing the Monthly option for Copywriting Course and this month it's gone:

The Monthly Plan is:
• A great way to test out Copywriting Course. Let us prove it's amazing.
• You can upgrade to a full year anytime, and your $97 gets applied.
• A low-commitment way to try, then leave anytime.
• There's a one-click subscription cancel if you don't like.
• You get EVERYTHING included in our Yearly Plan, nothing is excluded, including access to our weekly Office Hours and private feedback forum.

If you've been on the fence about trying us out on the Monthly Plan, now is the time to buy because we're removing it:

hmmm

Keeping inline with AI being a big part of this newsletter, I'll attempt to let Dall-E 3 sell this (notice how it still gets text wrong sometimes)!

It's still not perfect, but it's so neat the AI can do this. Jump on that monthly plan now, and say hi to me inside the community!

Client: “It’s hard to get attention for a roofing company.” 

Copywriter: “Hold my beer.”

Around college I would crash parties to network with rich people.

Here was my toolkit to get into ANY of these parties: 
✔️ Flask with wine 
✔️ Cheap Wal-Mart wine glass 
✔️ Cocktail napkin 
✔️ Tux or suit 
✔️ Random lanyards and wristbands
 

To walk into a party right past security, the goal was to look like YOU WERE JUST INSIDE ALREADY! 

So I'd fill the wine glass, wrap the cocktail napkin around the stem, wear a lanyard under tux (hopefully sort of matching what they give at the event), then walk into the party while on the phone.

If you're a security guard and you see a tuxedo-clad person holding a drink they just ordered at the bar....you'd 95% likely just let them back in 😏
 

This is an interesting "industry size" comparison by keyword in terms of size:

Copywriting → Content Marketing → Digital Marketing → Make Money → Sales

"Sales" is what allllllll the industries actually do, so it makes sense "Sales" would be the largest parent keyword.

As an experiment a few years ago I bought a billboard for Copywriting Course. It was on a decently busy street and it cost $904 total (printing + posting):

The funny thing is: If no one buys the billboard space at the end of the month, they don’t spend money to tear yours down...

 

...so this billboard stayed up for 4 months for just $904!

One of the first reasons I moved Copywriting Course to a community model was so people could share their hand-copied advertising. 

It's something so simple yet so impactful. Yet only 2% of people will do it.

For example, here's 3 exercises we had members do:
#1.) Gary Halbert Family Crest Ad
#2.) Volkswagen "Lemon" Ad
#3.) The Man In The Hathaway Shirt Ad

Simply writing out by hand well-written ads is called "CopyWork" and it teaches you to "think" like the person writing it.

Buy a 10 minute review of your copy/marketing from me, or a discounted consult if you go through UpWork:

In our members area I'm currently doing an "UpWork Experiment" where I'm trying to:
✔️ Get 100 clients. 
✔️ Get 100 reviews
✔️ Make $100,000 in freelance revenue.

The goal is to become an "UpWork Rising Star" and I need your help. If you've got a lot of value out of my content or newsletter over the year, but never purchased a Copywriting Course subscription, maybe this is a way you can give back: By purchase a review or consult hour.

During the experiment I found on UpWork you can offer "tiered products", and I just made one today - Check it out here: 

If I were a newbie copywriter, I'd make a product setup like this people could choose from:

• Starter: $100 for a 10 minute video review.
• Standard: 1 hour consult
• Advanced: 2 hour consult

The goal of this is to get the holy grail of any marketplace: 

REVIEWS!

I provide a good service for people, they like it, they leave a good review.

Go buy one right now for this discounted price!

**Let me know if you have any issues or improvement suggestions on the profile.
 

This is like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Luxury Bags. It’s broken down by: 
- The Supremes 
- The Legacies 
- The Classics 
- The Contemporaries 
- The Accessible

A cool marketing experiment for a brand would be to make images and “research” like this and put your brand at the top so people go “whooa who’s that” and Google you 😏

A few SWIPES emails ago I accidentally found a way to improve the email reply rate:

By misspelling "snacks" as "snakes" 

I immediately got a flood of email replies from ya'll going:
"They had SNAKES in the green room!?!? 😂"
 

 

This is a cool chart showing the 9 different types of humor. I’ve never seen them listed out like this, super cool!

This is Mochi and he’s my work buddy whilst writing this email 🙂

I am dogsitting Mochi for a week, and have about 400+ photos of him on my phone already 😂

Here he is working out:

I took him to Whole Foods:

Here he is playing with Sid:

Here he is recording a podcast:

Here he is getting Lion King'd 😂

I'll spare you 400+ more photos and end there 🙂

Inside our members area we've been talking a lot about audiences and communities, and the difference in them. 

My buddy Sam said recently:

The CEO of NetFlix Marc Randolph recently shared how they picked the name “NetFlix” from a list of names based on if the domain was available.

They actually didn’t like the name at first! He said:

“We didn’t really like the name Netflix. It sounds like we were doing X-rated films. But it was the best we could do.”

This is the message Apple would send to all of it’s new employees to encourage them to be a little crazy and obsessive over the products they create:

"The 4% Rule" roughly states you can withdraw 4% of your savings per year for retirement.

 

There's an easy formula to calculate this:

So if you want to withdraw $100,000/yr, you would need $2.5m in savings:

$100,000 / 0.04 = $2,500,000

Cool huh!

People pay money for things that: 
- Saves them time. 
- Supports a cause. 
- Improves their status. 
- Teaches them new info. 
- Gets them access to info. 
- Satisfies a need or desire. 
- Solves a specific problem.

Can your biz answer these questions??

There’s something so brilliantly easy to understand about this ad. By showing a “long pencil” it demonstrates how this mechanical feed pencil can last much longer than a regular pencil.

I LOVED mechanical pencils in middle school, so this one hit me!

I was listening to the Danny Miranda Podcast and the guest @justinkan listed out 6 "relationship filters" for finding a partner I've never heard in this particular order:

Filter 1: Is this person attractive?
Filter 2: Do I want to spend time with this person?
Filter 3: Does this person fit in with my friends, social group, family.
Filter 4: Do we have compatible life goals and lives.
Filter 5: Is this person gonna be a good partner to build a family.
Filter 6: If we grow in our lives, will we still be compatible in many years.

Thought this was cool! Taken from my Apple Notes doc so many not be verbatim.

LEARN FROM COPYWRITING COURSE!

Stick all of this knowledge inside your head, so you know how to market super well for Q4:

All the biggest "spending events" of the year happen in Q4:
🗓 Halloween: Tuesday, October 31, 2023
🗓 Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 23, 2023
🗓 Black Friday: Friday, November 24, 2023
🗓 Cyber Monday: Monday, November 27, 2023
🗓 Christmas: Monday, December 25, 2023
🗓 New Year’s: Sunday, December 31, 2023

Oh yeah...we even help you implement this knowledge in our forum and Office Hours:

Going through everyone's questions and optimizing sales processes, copy, pages and more.

Some results:

Join this instant and use code LEVELUPYEAR at checkout for 30% off Copywriting Course!

37Signals posted this awesome copy on once.com (awesome domain name), and it explains how they’re charging only ONCE for their software and not the standard subscription-style that’s become so common:

I love the honest and simple way they wrote this!

This one might sting a little for some (including me)....but this chart shows the college majors people most regret getting, usually due to a lack of opportunity the major gets vs the amount of effort/cost to acquire it. 

Do you regret any of these??

“How do I make money?”  This graph has answers! 

Just glancing at it you’ll discover a ton of different services you probably didn’t even know about for making some side money:

The eye tracking chart:

1 year ago to this day: 
"Let's go paint balling and dress up like we came from the office." 

....only one person did 😂

Nothing can get more complex than explaining economic ideas, but having a slick image can do it in 1 second. Here’s some examples:

This graph shows allllll the different excuses to sell over the last 15 years.

It explains a simple-yet-complex concept to hold very long term, and ignore short term fluctuations. This is what Warren Buffett has been preaching for 50+ years!

Here’s a graph explaining inflation, and how “$1” is worth far less over time.

This one is super cool, instantly showcasing the concept that it took Google a whole slew of successful products to get where they are today:

This graph shows that “timing the marketing” can be very profitable…or a total loss 😳

This graph gives a range of income to be considered “Middle” Class” in different areas:

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Question for you:

What have YOU learned the most from me in the past years?
A.) Copywriting
B.) Digital Marketing
C.) Making money
D.) Sales

Reply with your answer! I read all of them!

Did you know there's a whole industry dedicated to re-doing restaurant menu's to sell more?

Especially if you go to a large chain restaurant, 100's of hours have been put into subliminally directing you which food & drinks to buy:

Here's a very plain menu:

...and here's one that's been optimized like crazy:

The photos actually direct people to the menu items they want you to choose.

Having done this many times across many email lists, I can tell you it's healthy for the email list in the long run, but a massive hit to the ego in the short run!!

On one email list I removed 70,000 people.....it's a big blow to the ego for sure. 

On a clients company we removed a whopping 350,000 emails in ONE GO 😳
Quality of Audience > Quantity of Audience.

Today this simple desk setup could be made for $100, and the video and audio you make at it could be distributed for free to the entire world.

In 1970’s that type of power and distribution was reserved for only a few dozen people on the whole planet: 

 

Me and a few friends took a quick trip to Boston this last week to go to Inbound 2023 hosted by HubSpot. Here's the story!

We headed to Boston earrrrlly in the morning. Here's @thesamparr passed the f out across the isle from me with some crazy eye mask 😂

We couldn't checkin to the hotel so we changed in the back of a van taxi and got to the convention center (yes Sam is tall):

The Inbound conf took up the entire Boston Convention Center. About 12,000 people. It was pretty huge.

This was a quick trip, so we tried to meetup with everyone we could. Bumped into all sorts of people we hadn't met in person before @jayclouse and @KAL79.

Soon after we arrived Sam hosted this Shark Tank style pitch competition where a million bucks (I think) was being awarded:

The two winners of the pitch competition were: @ArjunMahadevan for @doolaHQ and @qfav95 for Tavus ....also there was a unicorn presenting the award 😂

We wandered around the conference for a while. We tried to steal this cart to get around but were unsuccessful (probably for the best) 🤔@nickgraynews

Then we went to see @hubermanlab speak. I took this video to show the sheer scale of this room. It had ~10,000 seats 🤯

Walking from the back row to the front row took minutes.

The room was like an optical illusion with how big it was!

Walking from the back row to the front row took minutes. The room was like an optical illusion with how big it was.

The last talk wasn't a talk....but a comedy set from John Mulaney! I listen to a lot of comedy podcasts, and they usually say corporate gigs suck.....but John KILLED IT!! He did crowd work, roasted the conference, roasted the CEO's....it was awesome. 

Then afterwards me + Sam + Nick had dinner with the HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh.

What a cool guy, and such a special way to end the first day!

The next morning was a talk with Sam about community and Hampton. I was moderator. 

We went backstage and saw the crazy setup they had back there:

They had a fulllllll on professional production going on backstage. 

They even did hair/makeup for us 😂

The whole production was so well run, and it's really neat to see behind the scenes. They had 5 green rooms with snakes and drinks. Me and Sam were going over some last minute prep. Also it was super helpful to have Nick there for this (First because he's our buddy and we love hanging, Second because he took some fun pics, and Third because he's so on top of his stuff)! 

It was fun looking at the technical stuff behind the scenes, I love that stuff. There were so many video streams and switching equipment and A/V stations. It looked really neat.

Up on stage:

Up on stage with @thesamparr:

Then right before leaving Boston @nickgraynews managed to squeeze in a sweet JFK Museum tour for us!

That's a wrap on our quick fun trip to Boston!

 

 

“Constraints Create Creativity.” 

If you add a constraint to a task, you’ll likely think of a way to finish it by then. 

One of my favorite questions to ask for a task is:

I had a to-do list the other day that needed completing....I didn't do most of it.

Then I had an event to attend so I only had 30 minutes left. I FINISHED ALL THE WORK IN 30 MINUTES 🤔

This is because there was a constraint.

So if you give yourself a constraint you can often finish stuff way faster!

Here's a cool chart from Lenny on how long it took each of these companies to:
▲ Launch a live product
◼ Get their first customer
⚫️ Get Product Market Fit
I’m not the biggest fan of the symbols they used (a little confusing IMO) but still cool!

I thought this was a cool ad for cufflinks that not only looks great, but also shows off their entire collection + pricing:

You can see in the eye trace how people's eyes scan through each one!

There's a great phrase:

Quote

"Writing is thinking."

The act of "writing" is usually hard because it involves a lot of thinking and brain power. 

But writing things down can help:

• Clarify your thoughts.
• Remember material better.
• Help with decision making. 

I use this thing called a "Boogie Board" to write stuff down on all the time...you press a button and it permanently erases everything. 

It's such a cool tool to brainstorm with:

Whoa…this pie chart shows how 3 companies own 93% of the entire soft drink industry 🤯

This past weekend I escaped the Texas summer heat and went to Malibu. 

We stayed at an awesome resort called Calamigos and it was amazing:
 

I enjoyed the nice weather outside:

Took an outside dunk 😬

Hung out by the pool:

And saw a lot of beautiful landscape around Malibu:

In lieu of an essay today, can I ask you a question? 

Why (or why not) did you join Copywriting Course? 

Example responses:
- I wanted help on some marketing.
- I wanted to learn about a specific subject.
- I wanted to get help in the Office Hours sessions.

Or would you want to hear...
- More about starting a freelancing businesses (not just copywriting).
- Digital Marketing in general.
- Agency work.

I would love if you respond, even if it's short, and I will keep the responses private. Thank you 🙏🏼
 

Wow…this graphic shows a surprising conclusion:

When Nike sells a $100 shoe, they make only $5 in profit!?!

This is a cool “social proof” ad for Good Year Tires that shows alllllllll the cars for 57 years that used Good Year Tires as their stock tire. It’s like showcasing all the companies that use your product.

Not only is this a good use of social proof, but also just a beautiful frame-worthy ad!

The eye tracking charts show it goes for the tire first then people glimpse at the individual cars:

We can all relate to this….you plan all this stuff for the morning, and you end up working on a “little of everything” and end up getting nothing done 😬

This is called a “Productivity Trap” where you start your day, but get caught up in a whirlwind of tasks that seem productive but are all over the place 😵‍💫

This is an awesome example of “Testimonial Judo” (using a bad review to show why the product is actually awesome).

Checkout the "bad review" of this ski mountain:

The person is complaining it's "too advanced" which actually makes it desirable to advanced skiers:

I've got "birds nest" balcony on my house and sometimes I just hang out here in the morning or evening and watch the sun rising or setting:

Best is when drinking coffee and feeling the caffeine buzz come on while up there ☕️

This is a super cool word-of-mouth flyer I saw at a friends event that had all the right elements for a referral:
→ A polite request for recommendations. 
→ Explains what the company does. 
→ Shows social proof. 
→ CTA to text the founders.

FRONT OF FLYER:

BACK OF FLYER:

This is my PSA to the world:

When trying to schedule a hangout with someone, a 45 second call is way better than 15 back-n-forth interspersed text messages!

Few understand this:

Yes texting is awesome in many cases....but if there's conflicting schedules or complex plans, a quick call is far better to hash it out quickly!!

The Tesla showrooms show that after a $7,500 federal credit a Tesla Model 3 is technically cheaper per mile than a Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, or BMW 3-Series.

Comparing your pricing to something else is a popular tactic (i.e. “This software is cheaper than buying a coffee everyday.”

[YOUR SERVICE] → Compared to something relatable:

1. "Our monthly subscription costs less than a gym membership."
2. "You can get our product for the price of a movie ticket."
3. "Our service costs less than a daily newspaper subscription."
4. "For the price of a Happy Meal, you can get access."
5. "Our pricing is comparable to a cup of coffee."
6. "You can get our product for the price of a couple of cups of tea."
7. "Our annual subscription is cheaper than a night out at the movies."
8. "For the cost of a pizza delivery, you can have our product for a whole month."
9. "Our pricing is equivalent to a single ride on public transportation."
10. "You can get our service for the price of a magazine subscription."

Who is REALLY your target audience? Find them and sales become easier...sometimes it's not who you think:

Many people sell to the wrong audience for years (I did). Here’s a way to figure out who is REALLY your target audience, and to find out where they hang out so you can grab em.

AI thinks I’m the 8th best copywriter. I’ll take it 😂

 

Nadeera ChatGPT'd about copywriters and saw this!

It's kind of interesting: Maybe the new form of "SEO" is being mentioned in generative AI results.

Ironically the way to do that is by being ranked high in the search results (which AI learns from).

Around 1999 British Airways was the main sponsor of the London Eye, and they had problems “erecting it” on time. Richard Branson…ever the provocateur…took advantage of this and got a blimp to say “BA CAN’T GET IT UP!!” resulting in a ton of attention for Virgin Airways 😂

I started consulting years ago when UpWork was a small platform for small freelancers. 

But now it's a top 1,000 site on the planet with ~50m visits/mo:

I was thinking: 

If start consulting again today, I would start on UpWork FIRST. 

There seems to be major benefits to doing consulting on a platform such as:

It brings new customers to you:
People searching UpWork for copywriting or digital marketing would find me, and many times wouldn't have found me any other way.

If people don't buy consulting, they may buy other products.
There's been a few times I've searched on UpWork, and while I didn't hire the person I found the portfolio or website interesting and started following them.

**Reviews** This is a major one...perhaps THE reason to do it:
I've done consulting for hundreds of companies big & small, and it doesn't get published (or proved) anywhere. That would change if it were all logged and rated on a platform. 

For example here's just a fraction of the companies I've worked with:

...but you'd never know it.

Imagine if I'd been logging all these consults (with reviews included) for the last 10 years.

If I did an UpWork Experiment, would you be interested in buying a 1-on-1 consult for a greatly reduced price?

Reply to this email with your:
- Name
- Phone number
- (Optional): What you'd like to talk about.

I would pack the schedule with consults in exchange for reviews. Also these calls are awesome, we can talk strategy, or just do work on the spot (my favorite)!

 

I’m assuming there was a marketing meeting where they showed a chart of the best sellers in a gas station, then slapped this product together 😂

I was at a gas station when I took this pic....and something about the "SNICKERS" logo just instantly grabbed (maybe bc I used to eat them all the time 😬), so I ran it through an eye tracker and confirmed that's generally the first thing people see!

The next David Ogilvy cleary lives in India, checkout this solid copywriting 😂😂

What do you think is a better pricing structure?
• Monthly payments?
-or-
• Yearly payments?

There’s clearly pro’s and con’s to each one:

My personal thought is that both of them work together. We often see people “dip their toe in the water” with a monthly payment, then upgrade to yearly payment to save money. 

What’s been YOUR experience with monthly vs yearly pricing?

I love different ways of “showing data” and I’ve never seen this style before. 

It shows the movement in size of different economies over 20 years. It displays less information than a traditional line graph, but DOES show information easier and more attractively.

Our friend built a cold plunge and sauna setup....and she was out of town for a few weeks, so me and a buddy have been jumping the fence to use it all the time. 

She sent us footage of us breaking in...it's like the Burglar Olympics 😂

Who do you think won??

• I jumped the fence slower, but opened the gate faster.
• Sam jumped over faster, but opened the gate slower.

Tough decision 🤔

Using images to display info is often much better than trying to explain with words!

The best combo is using an image to convey the initial concept, then using copy to back it up or tell stories. 

For example this image of "inflation" visualized:

Explain "unbundling" is easily conveyed in this graphic showing the unbundling of Excel Spreadsheets:

Or what about this classic image of unbundling Craigslist:

Imagery works especially well in health. Checkout this image which educates you on calories in one glance. A chart like this is what made me realize how bad some foods were compared to others:

This image visually shows how people who take notes move faster towards wisdom than someone who reads-and-forgets:

And ultimately if you can't use a good visual, then use an analogy like this!

Moral of the story: I think good copywriters should also know how to make images!

This wild looking metal ball embossed with letters was the innovation behind the IBM Selectric Typewriter (13m+ sold).

Normally people don’t care how something works, but this mechanism was so unique and interesting looking it because the main highlight of this print ad:

You can see a slow-mo gif of it where in milliseconds it: Recognizes the letter you hit → Moves the ball to the correct letter → Punches the page

When I wrote this post, I IMMEDIATELY WANTED ONE OF THESE FOR OFFICE DECORATION! 

So I went on eBay and bought 4:

Here's the funny thing....I didn't know they were so tiny! I thought these things were heavy and the size of billiard balls. 

In reality each one is like an inch long and super lightweight 😂
It looks big here:

But it's actually crazy small:

Anyways...lesson learned....and they're still kinda neat 🙂

Do you know what a "Brand Board" is? 

It's a simple guide for your website that contains all the common colors, fonts, layouts, and imagery to keep your brand consistent. 

Here's the typical structure of a brand board:

Here's a couple of examples of filled out brand boards. You can see the "mood" of each board created by the different colors and fonts:

I'm personally going to get a Brand Board designed for Copywriting Course and Swipe File and implement a similar brand/look across them:

  

If anyone does this professionally, I'd be interested in engaging with you! Email me back.

**BONUS POINTS if we can mock up the styles directly in Chrome DevTools with CSS to see it live.
 

The goal of great copywriting is to take what’s in your brain, and transfer it to someone else's brain in the most efficient & sticky way:

This is a really high-converting email signup pop-up on Copywriting Course to get people to the weekly newsletter. It’s a pretty simple structure: 

• [Headline] 
• [Fun GIF] 
• [3 Bullet Points Why To Sign Up] 
• [Email Enter]

Email pop-ups don't *always* need to be complex!

I like how this one image represents a complete style-guide for a 1920’s era man with this simple chart. 

A bunch of information is easily displayed through this chart!

A few years back I hired a stylist who bought be a whole “men's basic wardrobe.” 

It was clear I had no idea how to put together an outfit, so she made me a visual style guide:

Checkout this trend chart for these different terms:

🟦 = “Conversion Rate Optimization”
🟥 = “Copywriting”
🟨 = “Digital Marketing”

It's surprising how much larger the term “Digital Marketing” is over the others!

This is because "Digital Marketing" is a general term describing any marketing that happens on the internet. 

If we were to break it down it'd probably look something like:

Generally the way to "break into" a big industry like digital marketing is to get pretty good at 1-to-3 of the skills that make it up. 
 

Maybe like:
• Be 75% good at copywriting.
• Be 55% good at social media.
• Be 80% good at making a Shopify store.

Daisy-chaining several skills together is an extremely powerful way to be "good" at an industry.
 

Want a piece of copy reviewed by myself and other professional writers?

We have an intake form here:

The form creates a thread where myself, the writers, and the community give you feedback on what to improve, and re-do whole sections if needed. 

It's like a factory for getting specific pieces of your digital marketing re-done: