The Case of the Disappearing Copywriter

Issue #2069

WEALTHY: 2 ways not to make money in the stock market (Charles Delvalle)
HEALTHY: An alternative to "incurable" (Dr. Al Sears)
WISE: Confucius on helping others

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

The fundamental principle behind a good life and a successful career (Michael Masterson)
Feedback Friday: Our readers weigh in on being badmouthed at work
It’s Good to Know… about tracking spacecraft from Earth
Add "denouement" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

I Will ‘Pay’ You $500 to Start Your Own Internet Business – But The Clock Is Ticking On This Offer…

I’ve already given you dozens of great reasons for starting your own online business next month at ETR’s Internet Business-Building Conference, including…

Getting our complete, step-by-step model for starting and running your own profitable home-based Internet business derived from our $300 million reproducible blueprint.
Building your own “live” website right on the spot with our team of Internet Business-Building masters looking right over your shoulder. (Your site could be collecting cash before the event is even over!)
Learning dozens of specific and actionable ways to attract massive traffic to your website… and then convert those website visitors into dollars.

And now… as if building the foundation for your online empire in five days isn’t enough… I want to “pay you” a $500 “bonus” just for getting started!

For just a few more days, you can get $500 off your stay at our beautiful host hotel in the Rocky Mountains. Sign up before 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday, June 18 and it’s almost like we’re paying you a $500 bonus.

But the hotel discount deadline is fast approaching – you can check the exact amount of time left at our countdown timer here.

So if you are interested in owning your own Internet business by the end of July, it’s important to get going right now.

- Patrick Coffey

Willy Nilly Nellie and Fred the Fearful

By Charles Delvalle

It’s not hard to access this ATM machine known as the stock market. All you have to do is (1) research it, and (2) try it out. While may be just common sense, you’d be surprised by how many people fail to take these two simple steps.

One type of misguided investor makes her decisions based on no research whatsoever. She jumps headlong into any investment she likes. She gathers her entire life savings and dumps it into one stock that the media is high on. Over time, the overly hyped stock moves down and she loses her nest egg. If this hasty investor had just subscribed to a handful of advisories that would do the research for her – or even read some basic investing books – she’d have a system for making smart choices and getting out of a losing investment before watching her savings slip away.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the investor who reads everything. He reads for years and years. He’s loaded with information about the market – but he hasn’t made any money, because he’s too insecure to trust the knowledge he’s gained and try to use it.
.
Bottom line: If you have solid research to back up your investment decisions, there’s no reason not to jump in and start making money.

[Ed. Note: Charles Delvalle is a contributing editor to ETR's Investor's Daily Edge newsletter, and a regular contributor to INCOME. INCOME lets you in on the safest high-dividend-paying companies, with the goal of providing you with a total return (dividends plus capital gains) of at least 14 percent per year.]

"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own."

Confucius

The Case of the Disappearing Copywriter

By Michael Masterson

I received an interesting letter last weekend.

The envelope was hand-addressed in blue ink. The letter itself was 12 pages long and printed on quality, cream-colored, individual sheets of paper. At the end of the letter was a signature, also in blue. I recognized it as the name of a copywriter I had once met at an AWAI seminar: Brice K.

So far, it looked like a personal letter. But, unlike a personal letter, it began with a headline, followed by a salutation that was both generic and plural: "Dear Friends."

Normally, I would have dismissed this letter as an amateurish effort and tossed it. But the headline, though misplaced, did its job. It intrigued me:

The Amazing True Story of the Incredible Disappearing Copywriter… and How You Are Helping Him to Reappear

As a rule, I abhor commonplace intensifiers like "amazing" and "incredible." But in this case, they worked. Perhaps it was the way they enhanced the sentiment of the headline’s promise – that I was about to hear an old-fashioned kind of story. (Everybody likes a good story.)

That certainly wasn’t the best headline ever written, but it was good – good enough to get me to read the first paragraph of the letter:

"My wife is ‘pist’ [sic] as we say in Dallas. You’ve probably been there. Ticked off your spouse or someone else close to you. Then wished you’d never done it."

Now that was intriguing too. What an odd combination of technical sophistication and clumsiness! Brice was clever enough to begin his letter without a transitional sentence linking the headline to the story he was going to tell. (Something like, "Hi. My name is Brice, and I used to be visible.") Instead, he puts the reader in the middle of an unexpected, emotionally charged situation. He forces the reader to relate to him ("You’ve probably been there. Ticked off your spouse…") – and, therefore, care about how he was going to get out of the proverbial doghouse.

I continued to read.

"It started with her brother. I can’t stand the guy (and, yes, I’ve got good reasons; just about everyone does). But my wife is one of those ‘blood is thicker’ and ‘oh, he had a horrible childhood’ types.

"So she forgives him.

"I don’t. And today I lit into him, telling him to stay out of my life and away from me. I think I finished it off with ‘… and you’re a waste of space.’

"I did this in front of my wife and other relatives. As you might guess, the rest of the afternoon was a bit tense."

I wondered whether Brice was aware of how this made him look. Did he realize that his behavior seemed selfish and rude and uncalled for? Did he understand that his reader was not sympathizing with him, but with his wife?

I wanted to find out, so I read on. But the anecdote that had pulled me in was quickly dropped and replaced with another one (a sophisticated copywriting trick). The second story concerned a copywriter that Brice had met back in 2003.

"Both [of us] were well educated. One held a Master’s and Doctorate in Education. The other had degrees in Finance and Marketing and a Juris Doctor in Law. Both were men who had tried other things in life. One, an ordained Rabbi, had taught school, served as a principal, and owned a successful weight loss center… the other, who had once considered the seminary, had worked in newspaper, radio, and TV advertising… [and] became a trial lawyer."

This is a version of a classic Wall Street Journal lead. And the usual way this lead works is to have the hero of the story, the underdog, triumph over his stronger adversary. That’s what I expected. But that’s not how the story went:

"Each took a separate path. One became renowned and financially successful. The other, almost just a short blip on the radar. [I] flashed onto the scene and then, well, disappeared… I set out to become the next big thing in copywriting… But it didn’t happen for me…"

To my surprise, Brice – the hero of this story – turned out to be a modern, comic, Willy Loman type of fellow. Instead of discovering the secret of copywriting and achieving success, he flounders and eventually founders, while his colleague became "one of the copywriting masters of the universe."

That’s a good twist. Brice had been both a successful journalist and a winning trial lawyer – and those are excellent professions for understanding the art of copywriting. Yet he somehow failed. How was it possible that a schoolteacher had surpassed him? He gives us some insight into the mistakes he made…

"I started missing deadlines. In one case, I just abandoned the work and stopped answering the client’s e-mail. In another, I took so long putting the sales letter together… I blew the window of opportunity… I began to fall apart… Depression, which I had battled in the past, swept over me like a dark wave in the black of night. I stopped working. I literally stopped."

He had no idea why he couldn’t finish anything. Finally, he consulted a psychiatrist.

I read on to learn that the problem was "a monster" inside him, a psychological ogre that was eating up his soul and sabotaging his success. And that monster was bipolar disorder and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

There is something disappointing about a monster that turns out to be as common as acne. Nevertheless, I kept reading.

"Then God threw me a rope… I knew what I was fighting… So I began a year long odyssey to find some mix of meds that would allow me to function normally… and I became the ‘disappearing copywriter’ as I went in search of a cure."

Convention would call for a denouement at this point, the discovery of an elixir that would reverse his bad fortune and bring him back into the copywriting world. Once again, Brice surprised me.

After getting a few good jobs, he got into a car accident, cracked his head, broke his pelvis and seven ribs. He dropped all his jobs once again – and then, seven months later, announced that he was back to work.

"Only the recovery dragged on… And the work got further and further behind… and my ribs still hurt… and I began to slip into the old pattern of not getting things done…"

And then, just when I was about to give up on our ne’er-do-well hero and throw his letter in the trash basket, he announced, "Something is working!" A combination of drugs, omega-3 fish oil, and "some other natural supplements" kicked into gear and he is now, "for the first time in years, focused and working [his] tail off."

Well, I didn’t feel too confident about that as a durable solution to his problem, but I was happy for him and eager to know his reason for telling me this long story. He obliged:

"I plan to quit my day job by June 15, at the latest… but before then I have to line up a stream of work… And no, this letter isn’t about sending me work… Although I probably wouldn’t refuse it… It’s more about telling you how you have helped me recover from my disappearance… This letter is going to a select group of people who’ve affected my copywriting career… Thanks… and a bit more…"

Then, "in no particular order," he listed 19 people in the direct-marketing industry who had helped him, and he mentioned what each had done to help.

He started with me:

"A few years ago I sent you a letter asking you to mentor me. You refused and chastised me for the lousy letter I wrote asking for your help. You were right to do that, and it was a kick in the butt that I now appreciate. (By the way, ETR remains must reading for me every day.)"

That did, indeed, sound familiar. I remembered that he had written to me shortly after meeting me at that AWAI seminar. He said he believed his career could be accelerated by having me help him. I couldn’t argue with that. But to persuade me to invest my time in him, he did not offer me anything in return.

This is the most common mistake made by those asking for help – any kind of help. Enveloped by their world of self-centered needs, they can’t focus on anything else.

Brice had made it clear, during our brief meeting at the seminar, that he intended to become a successful copywriter. So I took the time to answer his letter and try to explain to him why writing it about himself was a bad idea. I don’t remember the exact words I used, but my message to him was something like the following:

"I won’t be your mentor, but I will tell you the first and most important principle of persuasion.

"If you learn this well, you will have learned something very useful – not just in your chosen profession but in all aspects of your life. Understand this principle and you will understand half of human psychology. Master the skill that is associated with this principle and you will become a very persuasive person.

"It’s this: You will never be an effective copywriter, a successful businessperson, or an attractive and powerful human being if you continue to focus on yourself. The art of persuasion is ultimately the art of sympathy, not of self-pity.

"You can gain temporary favors by displaying your needs and asking for help, but when you do so you show yourself to be a beggar. The secret to happiness, power, and wealth lies in providing benefits to others, not in seeking them for yourself.

"Good salesmanship is not and never will be about you, your problems, your desires, or even about your products and/or services. If you want to have good, long-term relationships in your life (in business and personally), you have to focus on the other person and his wants, needs, and beliefs."

When I wrote that letter, I knew it would sting. I don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, but sometimes you have to risk doing that to help them. In Brice’s case, I believed a bit of tough love could wake him up and turn him around. I believed that if he understood the simple truth of what I was telling him, he could eventually become what he wanted to be: a successful copywriter, a high income earner, and a smart and happy businessperson.

However Brice felt about my criticism when he got it, he seemed to have decided it was what he needed. That’s what I’d hoped for. And that’s what happened. At least partly.

His "Disappearing Copywriter" letter was 300 percent better than the first letter he wrote to me. He made some mistakes – like addressing it to "Dear Friends" and being unaware that he was coming across as a jerk in his first anecdote – but, it was technically sophisticated, emotionally engaging, well paced, and cleanly written. It marked him as a copywriter with first-rate potential.

It was especially good at achieving its main purpose: evoking sympathy. It was textbook "feel sorry for me" copy, but not at a whining, easy-to-dismiss level. There was such a tone of genuine ruefulness in the letter, such a willingness to admit mistakes, and such earnestness in his promise to reform that I couldn’t help but commiserate with him.

But the letter was still just a little too much about him. Not only that, but the only benefit he was offering me was the good feeling I might get from helping someone in trouble move on to a better life.

This was a problem. A serious problem.

To become a true master of persuasion, you have to do more than tell engaging stories that satisfy the other person’s emotional needs. You have to provide useful benefits that will satisfy his mind.

To come up with benefits that would work for me and the other people he sent his letter to, Brice would have had to think long and hard. He would have had to come up with an offer that would be tempting enough to overcome all the skepticism he has created by having flaked out so many times in the past.

If he’d done that, he could have written a very strong, persuasive letter. As it was, he wrote a compelling letter that didn’t close the deal.

Until now, Brice has exhibited a self-destructive pattern: demonstrating need, seeking sympathy, receiving help, and then screwing things up. His "Disappearing Copywriter" letter is a clear indication that he has recognized this pattern and intends to change it.

But there’s something else he has to do before he can do that – something we’ve been talking about for a long time in ETR: He has to learn how to get his mind outside of himself and focus on helping other people. If he can’t do that, he won’t be able to achieve his stated goals. If he can do it, I think he could accomplish great things.

I don’t mean to imply that Brice isn’t a good man or that he doesn’t help his friends and family. The only thing I know about him comes from a brief meeting that I have pretty much forgotten and his two letters.

Based on those letters, I have come to a conclusion: that he is using his considerable intellectual and emotional skills to persuade everyone around him to focus on what is good for him. If he can stop doing that and begin, instead, to focus on other people’s needs, several things will happen:

His copy will become even stronger than it already is.
He won’t have to worry about disappointing anyone anymore, because he will be spending all his working time being super-productive.
His psychological problems could disappear, which often happens when you stop thinking about yourself and pay attention to other people and their problems.

That would be a great outcome for him.

Even though Brice’s letter did nothing to convince me that helping him would, in some way, help me… I still want to help him. And I think the best way for me to do that is to do the same thing I did the first time he wrote a letter asking me for help: point out what’s wrong with his letter.

But this time, instead of replying to his letter with a letter of my own, I’m doing it in the form of this essay. I know he will see it, because, as he said in his letter, he reads ETR every day.

Brice has already started his personal transformation, and I hope it will continue… perhaps as a result of reading this.

[Ed Note: For more of Michael's insights into becoming a persuasive writer, pick up a copy of AWAI's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting]

== Highly Recommended ==

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Another Example of Modern Medicine Limiting Women’s Choices

By Al Sears, MD

I just received a popular medical journal, one that circulates to thousands of doctors nationwide, saying that endometriosis has no cure – that it is a problem women have to learn to live with.

I couldn’t disagree more…

When you have endometriosis – a common condition among women – the cells that usually line the inner walls of the uterus begin to grow inside the uterine lining or on the outside of it. The result is chronic pelvic pain. Some women experience pain in their lower back and abdomen too.

I look at endometriosis as just one sign that you have too much estrogen.

Estrogen plays a key role in endometriosis, but most doctors overlook this fact. You see, the cells inside the endometriosis lesions carry a lot more estrogen receptors than average cells. This makes them sensitive to high levels of estrogen in your blood, and the resulting build-up of estrogen creates a never-ending cycle: High estrogen levels continually make the endometriosis worse.

But there’s a simple supplement that can gently and naturally cleanse excess estrogen from your body: DIM (diindolylmethane). Derived from cruciferous vegetables, DIM is completely safe. It’s one of the reasons broccoli and cauliflower are so healthy.

Take 100 mg of DIM once a day to help restore your estrogen balance and eliminate your symptoms. DIM is available at most health food stores and on the Internet.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]

Feedback Friday: "How to Handle Being Badmouthed at Work"

How do you deal with an employee who’s talking trash about you behind your back? In his article "How to Handle Being Badmouthed at Work," Michael Masterson said that it’s best to simply ignore it. Many readers were surprised by this advice. Here’s what some had to say…

"Confirmation of one’s actions/philosophies can be a great energizer. Just a little earlier this evening, I was starting to doubt my handling of my ‘Ellen’ situation. After reading Michael’s article, I think I will stay the course.

"A couple of months ago, I purchased a small, established service company to merge with and help jumpstart my brand-new company. The owner of the purchased company – which now has a 5-year employment/no-compete agreement with my company – is ‘Ellen’!

"Thank you for this timely article."

- Ray Miller
Bakersfield, CA

"After all the slights Michael endured from Ellen (not her real name, I’m sure), he chose to keep her in his organization and re-direct her talents and energies to a different job. Such is the stuff of articles in The Harvard Business Review and musings in arcane management journals.

"Forty years of working for corporations of all sorts have taught me that there are no enlightened businessmen, that power and paranoia are the name of the game. It’s that lesson which finally persuaded me, with the help and support of AWAI and ETR, to go out on my own as a copywriter.

"I’m neither cynical; nor am I ungrateful. And I’ve had bosses who have given me some opportunity and helped me acquire skills, knowledge, and confidence. Still and all, I never had the good fortune to encounter a developer of people like Michael Masterson. To a man (and woman), every executive I have ever known would have put Ellen out to pasture. Truth be told, I probably would have done so myself.

"I’m sure Michael feels he was simply using good pragmatic judgment in retaining Ellen, bad attitude and all. Through his anecdote, though, I sense that he’s somehow unaware of how atypical and brave his decision was.

"I salute you, Michael Masterson… a rare breed of executive."

- Louis J. Wasser
East Stroudsburg, PA

[Ed. Note: How has reading ETR helped you - maybe even changed your life? Send your comments to ReaderFeedback@gmail.com. Include your name and hometown... and we may print your e-mail in a future issue.]

It’s Good to Know: Tracking Spacecraft from Earth

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 11:31 a.m. Eastern Time Sunday, June 17. For a few minutes Sunday and Monday nights, amateur skywatchers will be able to see the two spacecraft moving away from each other, looking like points of light on the same path.

New Yorkers should mark Sunday at 9:52 p.m. and 11:25 p.m., as well as Monday at 10:12 p.m., on their calendars. Chicagoans should be ready Sunday at 10:24 p.m. and Monday at 9:10 p.m. and 10:43 p.m. San Franciscans should look skyward at 9:54 p.m. and 11:28 p.m. on Sunday, and at 10:14 p.m. on Monday.

You’ll be able to see this with the naked eye – no telescope needed. With any luck, viewing conditions will be perfect where you are (not a big moon, clear skies, and away from city lights).

Check spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ for the ideal viewing times in your area and tips on which part of the night sky to look at.

(Source: NASA)

== Highly Recommended ==

How I Went from Working in the Sub- Sub-Basement of a Bank in Minneapolis… to Living on a Small Island in Maine in the House of My Dreams!

Money in the bank, the house you’ve always wanted, and the freedom to enjoy it all.
That is the “American Dream”!

Can you still achieve it?

Absolutely… The best way left for you to achieve that dream is by starting your own business.

But how do you get started? What do you do?

We hear questions like these daily. So here is what we did. We’ve done all the hard work for you.

We’ve researched hundreds of the best businesses out there and we report on only the best. The ones that make real money and are the easiest to start.

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It couldn’t be any easier. Click here to read on…

- Patrick Coffey

Word to the Wise: Denouement

"Denouement" (day-noo-MAHN) – from the French for "to untie" – is the final resolution or clarification of a dramatic or narrative plot.

Example (as I used it today): "Convention would call for a denouement at this point, the discovery of an elixir that would reverse his bad fortune."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

The Case of the Disappearing Copywriter

I Will ‘Pay’ You $500 to Start Your Own Internet Business – But The Clock Is Ticking On This Offer…

Willy Nilly Nellie and Fred the Fearful

The Case of the Disappearing Copywriter

Ultra-Safe Strategy Gives You Healthy Gains Month-After-Month, Year-After-Year GUARANTEED!

Another Example of Modern Medicine Limiting Women’s Choices

Feedback Friday: "How to Handle Being Badmouthed at Work"

It’s Good to Know: Tracking Spacecraft from Earth

How I Went from Working in the Sub- Sub-Basement of a Bank in Minneapolis… to Living on a Small Island in Maine in the House of My Dreams!

Word to the Wise: Denouement

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