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Learning Copy in the Trenches

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Testament

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(TLDR: I'm learning to write copy and wanted to share my sticking points and resources that I come across. Feel free to scroll down to the section of this post where the broken lines --------- begin if you want to skip the backstory. )

Hey all! Hope you're all learning valuable lessons and getting that ever-amazing experience.

So recently, I've been focused on writing short and punch copy for a new project my mentor has taken on. It's been a few weeks that I've been on it without having to switch off to another skill, so I figured that since I'm still pretty green with writing copy, putting up a progress thread that could detail everything I'm learning and the sticking points I'm dealing with would be really beneficial to myself and hopefully to others who are going through and learning how to write copy right now.

Until my other progress thread was mentioned in my recent thread about my worst interview ever (or anyone's I think), I hadn't really looked through my original progress thread, "Learning Marketing in the Trenches," (which actually wound up being more like learning PR/email outreach instead of pure marketing, but I digress). Mars posted asking if I could share how I got my results with PR, and I had to go back through my progress thread and actually take another look at it to make sure that it actually outlined the process I was using to learn and shared resources that could take others through my own learning process and provide value in that way.

As I was reading through it, I realized how much of my learning was actually solidified and strengthened through making it like that. It was my own personal journal that others who could teach me could also comment on, a way for the masters to launch knowledge bombs all over my brain. And I've been told by a few people now that it really helped them in their own new campaigns, so it was an easy way for me to also provide value.

I hadn't posted in it for a while because I've been so scattered in what my mentor has been wanting me to do for him the last few months, I feel like it would've just read like a confusing and ADHD shotgun blast of random business skills after a while, and would've really diluted the usefulness of it as something others could gather value from. So that's why I'm creating a new one - to have a focused thread on one topic I'm learning that can be a guide for others as well.

So stay a while and listen, friend. :)


---------------------------------------------------------

At the moment, I'm having a very difficult time with that dreaded specter of budding wordsmiths the world over - writer's block!

I keep looking at the landing page my mentor's team has created, and reading it over and over trying to figure out something to put in that's good. It's been almost a week now since the last time I was able to come up with anything I didn't immediately delete. The deadline for the first draft of the lander is coming up in the next few days, and I'm starting to get a bit worried that I won't make it.

With that in mind, I started reading 3 separate books to help me in my endeavor, and hopefully get me to be able to finally write something good - Ca$hvertising, The Ultimate Sales Letter, and Running Lean.

I also dug up an old post of mine where I got a lot of helpful advice and feedback, and want to offer that as the first resource so far - https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-to-write-copy-to-your-demographic.56363/

I'd almost completely forgotten about it until I remembered I wanted to watch the video that was posted in there again and remembered. I'd say that post is a solid snapshot of where I am at the moment, interestingly enough. Although reading competitor's sites so far has proven just about fruitless - they're all pretty terribly designed/written, so I haven't been able to glean much from them. As an alternative, I've been reading questions posted on Quora and their responses to try and get a clearer picture of what exactly our customer persona is like as a person.

The main thing I'm keeping in mind at the moment for whatever I write, is a sentiment that I keep reading but forgetting easily, but that was really driven powerfully into my memory in this post by Sinister Lex -

"https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/,"

That's being focused on whoever the customer is and writing to them and how you can solve their problems, instead of writing your copy (or whatever contact you have with your customer) focused on yourself. So far, I've been noticing that about 99% of the landers I see in the field ours is going up in are focused exclusively on what that company does and how great that company is and why you (the customer) should be excited that you could become a customer at said company.

Like I said, awful stuff.

Anyway, to try and bring this overly-long intro post to a close, that's pretty much what I'm intending with this progress thread and where I'm currently at. Thank you for reading and see you on the next update!

-Testament

EDIT: I just realized that the video The Truth posted has been taken down. I was able to find another copy of it though linked here -
 
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Testament

Bronze Contributor
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Dec 11, 2013
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Hey guys. I spent the better part of two hours last night rewatching the video above, and man was it great! I didn't really understand it the first time through, but this time around it really hit me how great the content of Frank's talk was.

I figured that not everyone would have the time to go through the above video with a fine-tooth comb like I did, so I made some pretty detailed notes on it and thought I'd post them here for anyone who wants the quick version of Frank's talk. :)

--------

CORE INFLUENCE:

  • Step One: Know what you REALLY want and who you REALLY are.

  • Step Two: Know what your market REALLY wants and who they REALLY are.

Weird Science:

  • Most people have two versions of themselves

  • The shell identity is the first, that’s the identity they walk around in every day.
    • the dude who’s a banker who’s walking around saying, I’m bob i’m a banker, i originate loans and stuff, i do banking things, whatever they may be. i do them. seriously.
  • #2 the identity that they REALLY want to be (the rockstar)
    • He’s daydreaming about being a rockstar, or being on the beach, or being the leader of a drug cartel, or whatever that may be. That’s his core identity - who he really wants to be. That's his deepest core desire.

Do you think that Bob envisioned his life as being a banker when he was 5 years old? Or did he dream of doing something like flying planes?


Everyone’s core identity is held captive by circumstance and a lack of knowledge.


If Bob wants to be a millionaire playboy in monte carlo, he may be held back from that by something like not having money.


What is Core Influence?

  • Most influence is done on the surface, “Surface Influence”
    • I speak to you, you hear my words, and you brain uses logic to comply or not. Your response is based on logic and emotion.

    • We make a surface level connection
  • How CORE INFLUENCE Works:
    • Second level of communication is the CORE level

    • The lasting influence comes from a core connection
      • That experience is really going well and you have a great bond with them and you immediately connect with them, that’s the core communication that’s going on right here - it’s just an unconscious thing that happens there.

      • To communicate on that level, your subconscious speaks to their subconscious
        • Your true person and your true intents are showing and they’re speaking to what that person ultimately wants
  • Infinite Power. Use Wisely.
    • You can’t really control your subconscious, you can only guide it.

    • With proper guidance, your subconscious will create a NEW core identity for you and this identity is what will speak to your market on a CORE level

    • When we identify that core level, and become congruent with what it is and who it is that we truly want to be, THAT is when effortless influence occurs

    • When you identify the core identity of your market and you communicate with it, you will have more power and influence than you ever thought possible
      • Mother Teresa - her core spoke to everyone else’s core, no matter who they were - it spoke to the core of their wanting to be a good person.

Step 1: Discover Your Core Identity (Wake Up.)

  • Our deepest core desires give clues to our real identity

  • Why are you here watching this video?
    • The truth is, we all want to create and perpetuate experience. Goals and things are meaningless in the context of this whole CORE IDENTITY concept.
      • When a guy wants a ferrari, want he really wants is to be like James Bond, or whatever internally that ferrari means to him.
        • He wants the ferrari for the significance.

        • The big lie is that if you have the ferrari, you’ll be like James Bond.
      • What we REALLY want with all these goals and things, is the experience. The experience of having heads turn and feeling like a rockstar.

Effortless Transformation:

  • This exercise will immediately give you focus, direction, and it will literally lead to replacing your shell identity with the REAL you.
    • It turns off the beer commercial and turns you into what’s real.

    • When you communicate from this CORE place, you are centered, stable, and focused.

    • This total clarity magnetically attracts “matches” and causes you to be exponentially more persuasive. Specifically when you attract a match.
      • A match is someone whose CORE identity is similar to yours.

      • They will subconsciously be attracted to you because you’re in the place that they want to be.

  • Goals and things are irrelevant

  • Our brain tries to convince our subconscious that these trivial things matter

  • this creates an internal struggle that completely inhibits your ability to really get anywhere
    • If you’re trying to sell “I’m a nice person, you should be healthy!” but you really just wanna live in Vegas and do a bunch of blow with hookers and stuff, it’s going to be really difficult to sell the I’m a nice guy stuff. It’s an extreme example, but it’s easy to understand.
  • What we want to do is align our brains with our subconscious.

Here’s How It Is:

  • E + I = L
    • E = Experience. We do not really want the stuff. We crave the experience the things give us.

    • I = Identity. Our experiences, beliefs, and values create our identity. You can actually have those experiences externally, such as “I’m now playing baseball” and all that stuff, or you can have them internally like playing the beer commercial in your mind.

    • L = Life. Our experiences and identity work together to form our life.

    • WHAT WE ALL REALLY WANT IS A NEW LIFE.
      • We don’t want the stuff, we want the new life.

      • When a family buys a new home, they’re not buying brick and mortar and carpet and shingles, they’re buying a new life that they’ll experience in the home.
        • This applies in some fundamental level to every single thing that is sold ever. Some part of your brain is saying, “Is this going to move me toward, or away from, my core identity?”
  • How to Create a New Life:
    • Good news! You’re dying!

    • If we all live an average of 40 more years, we’ve got 14,600 more days, starting now from today.

    • Your life is made up of individual days.
      • You get the experience from every single day.

      • If we want to find out truly what this core identity in ourselves is and how to identify it in other people, we have to create the ideal day = we have to identify what the perfect day in our lives would be.
        • It’d be like, what do you want your ideal life to be? And you’d say, oh I’d have a ferrari and live in a big house, etc. And that’s okay, but what you really want is what goes on in an individual day.
  • The one question that will change you forever:
    • If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your perfect average day look like?
  • What this means:
    • Limitations: If we had no financial, health, limiting people, etc.
      • Your perfect day, you wake up on a beautiful beach in Hawaii, you have all the money you want, if your ideal is to get away from limiting people let’s just say you’re away from them.
    • Consequences: Stuff that you could get “into trouble” for.
      • Realistically, stuff that could get you killed, arrested, etc., would probably not be in your average day. “My perfect day involves waking up, drinking a litre of vodka, racing my formula 1 car with a bunch of hookers,” - not average.
    • Average: You could do all this stuff every day and not die or get sick of it
  • Mining for gold:
    • It’s important not to think about stuff when you think about this perfect day. You’re going for EXPERIENCE. That’s why it’s framed around a day, when you think about a life you think of stuff generally.

    • Where would you live on this perfect day?

    • What would your house look like?
      • Would it be clean inside? What would it smell like?
    • What time would you wake up?

    • What would you do in the morning?

    • What would you think about in the morning?

    • What would you say? What are your first words of the day, your first thoughts of the day?
      • Took FRANK 4 hours to do this, about 11-12 pages
    • what would you have for breakfast?
      • Have a thing you like to eat? A specific place you’d like to go for breakfast?
    • What does the mundane stuff look like? (taking kids to school)
      • What are you thinking about when you’re taking the kids to school? When you pick them up? Etc.
        • The more detailed you get about this, the more clear you become, and the more profound your outcome will be.
    • What would you spend the first half of your day doing?

    • What would you have for lunch?
      • Who would you eat with?
    • What would your friends be like?
      • Possibly rewrite the behavior of your friends
        • “We have a healthy lunch at a good place, it’s got fresh food that we enjoy. Our conversation is not about idle gossip, but more of a celebration of the fun we've had earlier in the day and since the last time we saw each other.”
    • What would you do for personal fulfillment?

    • What life purpose would you strive towards?
      • Might find that your answer is dramatically different than what your life is now. If that’s true then you’ve got a mismatch and it’s going to come through in every presentation you do.
    • What would your business be?

    • What time would you start work?

    • What would you actually DO at work?

    • What are your clients like?

    • What is your relationship like?
      • With your spouse and your family

      • What do you and your kids talk about, what’s that like?

      • What does your spouse like about you?

      • What do your children like about you?

      • What do you like about them?

      • Just imagine you have to live this life every single day
    • What do you have for dinner?

    • Where would you eat?
      • What would you talk about?
    • What would you do at night?

    • Who would you do it with?
      • Where?
    • What would your thoughts be as you went to sleep?
      • What would you think about those last conscious moments of the day? Where’s your mind? Do you go to bed worried about stuff? Thinking about where the next sales are going to come from?
  • Example:
    • “India [Frank’s wife] and I wake up with the sun and laugh about funny things our children did as we watch the daybreak over the ocean.”

    • In the morning, we are excited to get outdoors and exercise. I look forward to this and view it as fun. It is not a chore or a mundane task, but a source for continued fulfillment and well being. It is fun ...and I’d do it even if it wasn’t good exercise.”
      • - Frank hated exercise at the time of writing this, he wrote it down because in his ideal life this would’ve been in it.
    • “After exercise, I take a shower. Our shower is huge and made of marble and glass. It has a bench to sit on and lots of jets so we can both get in there.”
      • - Frank said not to focus on things, but if something comes up like this then write it down.
    • “My business is fun and easy. My main function is to simply come up with cool ideas that help me and my clients make tons of money without being obnoxious about it. It works so well that i am able to generate a huge income from only a small amount of sales. “

    • “My customers are cool, fun and low stress. I actually enjoy interacting with them and if i were to encounter them on the street, I’d be happy to see them and i would not want to walk the other way.”

Shell Vs. Core Identity:

  • My shell identity: Motivated by things, goal driven, status driven, get the money get the money GET THE MONEY!!

  • My CORE identity: Leave “Normal” society, live at the beach and cultivate ideal lifestyle, get paid to have fun...and contribute to others by doing so.

  • What’s this got to do with making money?

Find out who your market REALLY is:


Empathy: You must know how they feel, think how they think, at least convince them that you do.


You must genuinely identify their core identity, know what their REAL desired outcome is, and know what life they REALLY want.


You HAVE to figure out that core. This is critical, none of this will work if you don’t do this: You must actually give a damn, and you must actually help your prospects and customers move toward that core identity.


The Instant Bond Method

  • Person - To Person communication is the most effective way to sell, in terms of a closing ratio

  • When marketers design campaigns, they usually market to a “group”

  • To be REALLY effective, you must design everything as if you’re communicating with ONE person specifically

  • That one person, “Core Customer”
    • If you could manifest a single person who would be the typical embodiment of a classic customer in your market, what would they be like?
      • Gender?

      • Age?

      • Married?

      • Instead of typical demographics, we want to think about the LIFE of this person, typical day to day stuff, not as a buyer but as a person - because we COMMUNICATE as PEOPLE

      • Do they have kids?

      • What’s their spouse like?

      • What does the spouse think of all this foolishness?

      • What’s the relationship with the children like?

      • What would this person be wearing?

      • What do they do for a living?

      • What is their biggest frustration?

      • What is their biggest SURFACE desire?
    • Meet Bob.
      • Bob is 45 years old and sells insurance. He is married with two children who drive him crazy. His wife thinks he’s an idiot for trying this internet stuff. He’s about 25 lbs overweight and wears glasses. He wears a short sleeved buttoned down shirt which is white, and wears khaki pants with it. His shoes are brown leather, his biggest desire is to make enough money to quit his job, which pays him 45,000 dollars a year.

      • If you were going to a typical internet marketing seminar back when Frank was doing this, that’s who you’d see. Lots of Bob’s at those.

      • Who is my Bob? I need to identify my Bob.

      • When I identify who bob really is, I know that bob is drawn to the big paycheck images, he wants the new car, he’s at his insurance job that makes him miserable, he comes home and his kids drive him crazy, he’s confused, he’s scared, that’s what he wants right now.
        • When we know that stuff, we can influence Bob on the surface level.
      • 99% of everyone communicates on the surface level.
    • Grand Slam: BECOME BOB
      • The real money, contribution, and significance comes from CORE influence.

      • Now that you know who Bob is, step into his shoes and run the effortless transformation exercise as if YOU WERE BOB.

      • We need to know the MUNDANE things about Bob - what his kids are like, what he wears, what he does for a living.

      • We don’t CARE if he has an american express card with 10,000 dollars on it, we don’t CARE about the marketing data

      • Running the effortless transformation on Bob lets you know who Bob really is, you know what Bob REALLY wants. When you do this, you’re speaking from your core to Bob’s core.
    • The REAL Bob
      • SIGNIFICANTLY afraid of loss and embarrassment and doesn’t want to openly admit it.

      • Wants a LIFESTYLE more than things

      • Wants SIGNIFICANCE and CONTRIBUTION more than bling

      • Bob wants RESPECT and CREDIBILITY

      • Bob wants to be YOUNG AGAIN
    • Everything you do matters
      • Every piece of marketing matters, everything you do, say, think or write to your market MATTERS. EVERYTHING.

      • It ALWAYS needs to validate their CORE IDENTITY and move them closer to it

      • Sometimes you need to get the surface level attention at first, then go straight into speaking to the core
 

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