I got the following earnest question a few days ago:
“Among all of the A-List direct response copywriters that you’ve been able to meet, who was the nicest and most genuine? And did he/she share a golden piece of advice that made a difference in your development as a writer/marketer?”
As for the one golden secret whispered to me by an A-list copywriter… there was none. I studied the same stuff that’s available to everyone, much of it for free or in affordable old books.
But as for that nicest and most genuine part… well, let me tell you a story. I’ve told this story before, but it seems to need repeating.
Some time ago, I found myself in a semi-private setting with a successful online guru. I won’t say who he is or what he sells. But I will tell you he is a genuinely nice guy. Warm, cheery, helpful.
And not only that. He’s also very clean-cut. A true family man, very devoted to his faith.
So in this private setting, I listened to this guru tell his origin story.
It was dramatic, inspiring, and really ideal for that setting. I won’t retell it here because I don’t want to identify the guy. But let me compare it to the first time the Joker tells his backstory in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight:
“You wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a fiend. And one night…”
A few days later, I heard a recording of a different semi-private event. One I had not attended. It featured the same genuinely nice, clean-cut guru telling his rags-to-riches origin story.
Again, I won’t retell it here. But it’s comparable to the Joker saying a bit later in the movie,
“Do you wanna know how I got these scars? So I had a wife who tells me I worry too much…”
In other words, the story finished in the same place. But all the details, big and small, leading up to that point, were different.
A completely different origin story. Incompatible with the first version I had heard. But again, perfectly fitted to this second environment.
So what’s my point?
Rather than spelling it out, I’d like to invite you to draw your own conclusion today.
But if you really want to know the unsettling lesson I take away from the story above… well, I’ll share that with you in my email tomorrow. You can sign up here if you’d like to read that.