Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Sales letter tips from a 6 year old 

In 1482 Leonardo da Vinci wrote a letter to get a job.  

Da Vinchi said things in his letter like:

I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy.

Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry.

I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them.

This is some PT Barnum shiz-nit right here!  Most people call this a “resume”.  I call this a sales letter.  Any kind of letter that persuades someone to do something is a sales letter. Some people stress over them but even my daughter wrote one when she was 6 or 7.  

She asked The Tooth Fairy for money in exchange for her tooth.  That’s a sales letter baby, because the Tooth Fairy can say yes or no or give my daughter less than the $105 she’s asking for.  There is one more simple thing that my daughter could have added to her letter.  Let’s take a look at da Vinchi’s example.

“I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy.”

Unlike my daughter da Vinci added what his bridges would do for them.   This is important because it helps people visualize the end result.  A dentist can write an ad or email copy about fixing cavities but that’s boring.  Better to talk about how you’ll feel afterwards with no pain or how you can eat apples again…

Yes, I know Pfizer isn’t launching a new cholesterol med with a few sentences of type like this.  Their sales letter might be 30 pages long but the rules are the same…  You need to answer these three questions:

Who you are, what do you have, and why should they care?

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

PS  Here’s a link to the whole letter:  https://gizmodo.com/leonardo-da-vincis-hand-written-resume-will-make-you-fe-1684441362

Proof I’m not a guru :(

I’m on a copywriter’s email list.  Today’s email had this line:

“Copywriters are NOT writers! We are marketers. We are strategists. We are salespeople in print.”

She said that quote was “every copywriting guru’s favorite line in the world”.

I thought not only have I not used that line before but I’ve never heard or seen it before either.  

See, and just when I thought I was one of the cool kids…

I do agree copywriters can be strategists and we are certainly salespeople in print.  

That first part bugs the hell outta me though.  It’s like wearing only a furry itchy wool trench coat in the middle of summer.

And I live in Phoenix by the way…

When we use the fire emoji here it’s cause it’s 114 degrees, not because we think something is cool.  

Anyhoow, back to copywriters are not writers.

This is why there is so little creativity in marketing nowadays.  If you rely on formulas and short sited tactics your marketing will stop evolving.  And then you’ll take another course and learn one more thing.

You’ll keep living your life and running your business off borrowed time.  

Albert Einsten said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

This is why studying some of the old direct response marketers can be so effective.  NO, you don’t want to model most of their ads but you DO want to learn how they think.  

Read about Claude Hopkins, Rosser Reeves, John Caples, or Robert Collier.  And plenty of others.

Also study good writing.  You can learn just as much reading Michael Crichton or Mark Twain.

Good writing is good writing.  

Not only will your marketing get better but you will develop your own voice.  

Your own approaches.

Your own techniques.  

That’s when writing your copy and emails gets easier.  And you start to enjoy it.

You still will have to start with a blank screen when you write.  But at least you’ll reduce your urge to jump out of your office window.

Want less stress when you write?  https://adamstreet.net

Adam

Beating Entrepreneurial Fibromyalgia with 1%

When my mom was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia her doctor gave her a cheery little nugget of wisdom.   

He said something like…

You will have pain everyday for the rest of your life.

Well, that was harsh I thought…

But he wasn’t doing it to be crass, or to be a dick.  

He was doing it because to him, that was the reality of Fibromyalgia.  And he said if she could internalize that now, it wouldn’t be as bad.  

This doc’s philosophy goes against my overly Pollyanna-ish like nature but I get it.  

This is also why I tell entrepreneurs and service pros that marketing is hard.

Copy writing is hard.

Figuring out your product, your message, and the best media for you is hard.  

This is why Swipe and deploy and copying ads have a tipping point.  They work and they’ll get you started but you almost never see the success of the original.

Eugene Schwartz said it best.

“Each and every formula is simply the written solution to a particular problem that occurred in the past.  Change even one part of that problem, and you need an entirely different formula.  That’s why memorizing theories won’t make you a scientist…or rewriting somebody else’s headlines won’t make you a copy writer.”

I could steal all Lebron’s moves and the Laker’s wouldn’t be calling me anytime soon.  

Great teachers help you learn and understand foreign and complex ideas.  That’s what makes them great teachers.  

That is what I aspire to do.  

That’s why I do what I do.

That’s how I’m wired.

But I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it’s easy.   Or that if you take my course you’ll become the next David Deutsch and 10x your income in six months.

But when you KNOW it’s hard.  All you have to do is little things.  

Like get 1% better everyday.  

The compound effect of daily improvement will make you an entrepreneurial bad-ass.  It might take 6 months it may take 6 years.      

But it WILL happen.  

Better to put your faith in that than some mamby pamby hocus pocus course.  

If you need a little “Riddikulus”:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam “Expelliarmus” Street

Don’t break the trance

If you use TikTik you may have heard a song called Bored in the House by Tyga and Curtis Roach.  My wife even used this song to make a goofy little video of my son, The Peanut.  

During lockdown The Peanut was definitely bored in the house!  

I usually only hear the song in 15 second increments but this week I finally listened to the whole thing. 

It’s descent.  It’s a fun song and I get wrapped up in it.

Until I hear…

“Ayy, married to the money dressed in tuxedos (Yeah) 

I could show you mine like I’m Magneto”

As a life long comic book geek, that last line doesn’t jive with me.  All I can think is, if he really KNEW Magneto he wouldn’t say it like that.  

Why do I bring this up?

Because this is what happens when your message isn’t 100% dialed in.  Your reader/listener gets in a trance.  And then, you break it with the wrong words.

It’s like hitting a speed bump at 30 MPH.  

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say your product or service helps people with depression.  You could say:

“Have you had an increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior?”

This is ok, but it may break the trance.  

How about this?

Have you ever been out with friends, having fun, and suddenly think “I wish a car would hit me.”

This is an actual situation and not a clinical definition.  It’s far more relatable!  The reader will go deeper into your message.  Deeper into your trance.

You need to internalize this because if someone hits a speed bump they may stop reading.  Their attention wanes just enough.  

And then—.

An alert on their phone buzzes.

A new text comes in.

The phone rings.

And, they’re gone.  

So how do you make sure you don’t break the trance?  I read my copy 5-10 times. 

And I read it aloud.

That way you can look for the speed bumps and get rid of them.  

Wanna write in a more captivating way? https://adamstreet.net

Adam

Sharpening your ax

One problem I have with the epilogue of the Harry Potter book series is what happens to Hermione Granger.  I think she would have been a fantastic (and probably famous) witch.

I say that because she was a great student. 

Dumbledore was a great student.

Tom Riddle [Voldemort] was a great student.  

When I saw Lebron James when he was young I knew he was going to be really good when I saw how  SERIOUS a STUDENT of the game he was.  

And being 6’8’ and 240 didn’t hurt either…

Keep in mind when I say study I’m not talking about merely reading or watching videos.  Lots of people do that.  Studying is reading/watching, applying, and taking account of your results.

And doing this on purpose.

That’s why copywriters that I respect like Gary Bencivenga said 40% of his day is research.  Ken McCarthy gave a similar ratio, and so did Eugene Schwartz.

Like these greats did, STUDY your craft.

STUDY your customers.

STUDY your marketplace.

It’s like the famous Abraham Lincoln quote.  “If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” 

Sharpen your ax.

For free daily tips and insights on how to ‘sharpen your ax, sign up for free at https://adamstreet.net .

Adam