Last year, while writing the sales page for my Copy Riddles program, there came a time in the copy when I had to talk about myself.
I shifted in my seat, coughed a little, and shrugged my shoulders.
“What exactly would you like to know?” I said to the blinking cursor. “I’ve been working as a copywriter for several years now. Each year, it’s been getting better and better. And that’s pretty much it.”
If I ever had a copywriting client tell me something like this, I would get angry. ”Tell me some specific accomplishments,” I would say. “Something soundbite-worthy. You don’t have to have saved the sea cows. It just has to sound good.”
In the end, on that Copy Riddles sales page, I managed to weasel my way out without saying anything about myself — the course is not really about my authority, after all.
I’m not trying to sell you Copy Riddles right here. I’m just trying to share a bit of advice that I wish somebody had shared with me seven years ago, or really, any time before this year. The advice is this:
1. Start a new Google Doc right now
2. Name it “[your last name] – status”
3. Whenever anything even remotely impressive happens to you business-wise, add it to this document right away
And that’s it. But maybe an example will help.
This entire week, I’ve been promoting my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.
And it’s been working. The book has sold a few extra copies each day.
As a result, it’s been climbing from its usual place on the Amazon best seller lists. It peaked at one point yesterday, while being ranked higher than both Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters and Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing.
So this is what I added yesterday to my “BEJ status” document:
“My 10 commandments book has been ranked higher among Amazon bestsellers than Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters and Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing.”
You might think this is cheap. You might think it’s transparent. You might think it’s shady.
To which, all I can do is shift in my seat, cough a little, and shrug my shoulders.
The fact is, you might not think you have any accomplishments. But if you make sure you write down every even marginally status-building thing that happens to you, pretty soon you will have a whole encyclopedia of little soundbites that you can feed to clients and customers and prospects.
And who knows, when you look over your growing collection of marginal accomplishments, maybe you will even start to impress yourself.
As for me, I’m gonna keep promoting my 10 Commandments book for a couple more days. Because yesterday, a long-time reader and customer named Gregory wrote me to say:
Okay. I finally bought it. This email got through to me. Not sure why since you’ve mentioned it so many times but there you have it…
Thanks John!
Looking forward to digging into it this week.
Maybe there is still some untapped demand in my list.
And who knows. With your help, maybe I can reach new heights on the Amazon bestseller list — for example, selling better than that clown Malcolm Gladwell, with his stupid Tipping Point. At least for an hour.
In case you wanna help me get there: