RAW TRANSCRIPT:

ANDY: So if somebody is listening to this like, “Huh, you went from eight grand in a year to 180 grand that year two letter. Like I want to get into copy.” We should they start?

FLETCHER: It’s always a hard answer for me. Because I think it depends on… You can call it an obsession level, but I think a better thing is, if you call yourself a copywriter, what do you want to be able to get out of it? And, at what level do you want to be able to compete?

And so at the real estate level, you don’t got to be a very good copywriter to out-compete everybody else, because nobody else even knows what copywriting is. I mean if you are running an ice cream shop, again, you don’t need to be that sophisticated in your copywriting. You could just put together a great offer, and you can get the impulse buy. Most people don’t even have an offer of any kind shape or form.

And so, I really think you have to, first, identify what it is that you want to get out of being a copywriter. Some people say, “I don’t ever want to do it,” like I feel this way about Facebook advertising and other menial tasks. It’s just like, “I don’t want to do it. I want to hire that done.” And so what is my highest and best use? And so in that case, if somebody is really wanting to do the copy then they should learned enough to be knowledgeable to be able to recognize whether somebody else if they hire that person is proficient at Lee’s, “Are they getting my message across?”

Now my take on this has changed over a period of time. When I first got into writing copy I believed heavily in studying Dan Kennedy, and the Gary Halbert’s, and the John Carlton’s, and all the people you would typically call copywriters, if you want to put quotes around it.

Over time though, I have realized there is a major difference between selling something to a customer and creating an evangelist. And so I have shifted, and I have shifted from writing copy to sell things, to writing, or telling influential stories, to create a religion, and it sounds weird, but if you think about Rush Limbaugh. Or Glenn Beck These are people who have religions within their audience.

If you think about Dan Kennedy to a certain extent, and you get past the sales copy, into his newsletter copy, you can deconstruct that. And I think it’s more powerful. And so I became obsessed really, and I keep going back to this “obsessed” word, because I don’t know if you can see behind me but you can see like…

ANDY: Oh yeah.

FLETCHER: And I’ve got another 20 feet and 12 sheet of shoe shelf in my house. But I really find it fascinating like how did Hitler, with what we know about what he did and how heinous what he did, how did he get all these people to follow him?

See, that’s a fascinating question to me because all of your moral judgment says, “This guy should be avoided.”

ANDY:    Yeah.

FLETCHER: And yet he got almost this massive millions and millions of people to carry out his vision. How did he do it? And so I would read Mein Kampf and I will begin to deconstruct it. Or how did Mussolini or how did Stalin or how did Barack Obama for example, go from being an inexperienced senator to now a two time re-elected president? And it all came down to their marketing. And so, I really just think, when it comes to copywriting, you’ve got to figure out and identify what you want out of it and from the most basic level, you study those people who will give you some shortcuts.

But I think the most powerful line that I’ve ever read in terms of learning copy was a phrase that Dan Kennedy wrote in a sales letter which was, “All of my secrets are in plain sight except invisible to the untrained eye.” And so most people, they think about learning copywriting and they go, “Gosh, I’m going to be a good copywriter when I can afford that $2000 course.” “I’m going to be a great copywriter when I can afford that $200 course.” “I’m going to be a great copywriter when I can buy the next course.”

The reality is all of the greatest copywriting techniques that they are using, they are using on you. So if you just open your eyes and pay attention, and really understand the psychological principles, so that’s where Cialdini comes in, that’s where understanding Hitler is doing, if you read the book, “True believer,” it will deconstruct Hitler and people who have created movements. Because people who create a charitable movement, or Obama or Hitler, the tactics and strategies are far more similar than they are different, they are just used for different purposes.

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