Big Ideas

Woody Allen and Mark Ford walk into a library together…

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“I don’t enjoy reading,” Woody Allen said once in an interview. “But it’s necessary for a writer, so I have to do it.”

Preach, Woody.

I’ve always found reading is one of those things I do out of responsibility, not enjoyment.

But do you really have to read to be a successful writer? Or at least a successful copywriter?

I don’t know. But I heard two expert copywriters talking today. And their opinion seems to be yes.

The two copywriters in question were John Forde and Mark Ford. You might know them as the two guys who wrote the book Great Leads, which is up there with Cialdini’s Influence and Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising as elementary education for a copywriter.

So John asked Mark, where do you get your big ideas from?

Reading, said Mark.

Not by swiping what worked before. Not by intuition. Not by some magic spark of creativity.

Instead, Mark reads. And when something makes him excited and interested, he takes note, and he uses that idea, in some form, in his own writing.

Which might sound pretty simple. Or even cheap. But hold on. Because here’s a second tip from the same interview:

Mark says Googled reading won’t lead you to a big idea. You’ve got to read books.

Yes, it’s work. Maybe even unenjoyable work. But so what? Read lots of books, carefully, and you can make lots of money as a result. And as Woody Allen will tell you:

“Money is not everything, but it is better than having one’s health.”

But here’s what not to do:

Don’t read my daily email newsletter. It won’t lead to your next big idea. And it’s not enjoyable.

If you don’t believe me, or you want to judge for yourself what my daily emails are like, then click here.

An imminent prediction about a 10x opportunity that solves an urgent problem

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A few days ago, I was chatting to a friend. She said she’s got “thanatophobia.” I looked it up. It means a fear of death.

Then today, I was reading through YouTube comments. “If you don’t like the sound of people whistling,” wrote one of the commenters, “you’ve probably got misophonia.”

I looked that up, too. It’s when a sound irritates you more than it should.

Here’s a third affliction I only just found out about:

Cyberchondria. That’s the condition when you latch on to a newfangled term, found on the Internet, which gives a Greek name to symptoms of being alive.

But let’s change tack for a second.

A while back, copywriter Roy Furr wrote that there are only three types of big ideas for sales letters:

1. Solve an urgent problem
2. Present a 10x opportunity
3. Make an imminent prediction

So let me make an imminent prediction for you:

Rates of cyberchondria will rise dramatically over the next year. Society will become more atomized, isolated, and socially distanced. People will suffer as a result. And they will want answers.

So if you want a 10x opportunity, simply keep an eye out. New terms will pop up to describe bad feelings you’ve sensed but never articulated. These new terms — and the urgent problems behind them — could be your new big idea.

As marketer Rich Schefren says over and over, “That which is most personal, is most general.” And if it has a scientific-sounding name, that certainly helps.

Do you have unexplained symptoms of malaise, boredom, or irritability? I don’t know the cause. But I might have a cure: Click here and subscribe to my daily email newsletter.