Inspiration Archives - Page 10 of 10

I was lying awake in bed at 3am last night as thunderous winds pummeled my window.

Hurricane-level gusts tumbled down the mountain that stands above the house I’m staying in. When they hit the shutters, it sounded like a kid with very full lungs blowing a whistle.

I couldn’t sleep from the noise. The only thing I could think to do is turn on the lights and start researching this wind, which in Croatian is called bura.

So let me tell you a couple interesting bura facts:

In 2012, a particularly bad bura made the Adriatic sea freeze. The bura ripped trees from the soil and threw fish out of the water. Waves got as big as 7 meters.

Many islands in Croatia are completely barren on their landward side. The reason is the bura, which strips away soil and covers everything in a salty mist.

To slow down the onslaughts of bura, most towns on the eastern Adriatic have narrow, labyrinth-like streets. In some towns, houses have stone roofs, because the bura rips tiles away. In Trieste, they sometimes stretch chains or ropes around town to help people steady themselves when the bura hits.

But let me wrap this up:

Not long ago, I read a book that compared fortune to a natural disaster. That book used a flood as metaphor, but I think a bura would work too. When it hits, nothing stands in its way. Trees are ripped up. Buildings are ruined. Fish go flying.

I used to think it made no sense to worry about unpredictable events. But the natural disaster metaphor changed my mind.

Because when the weather is more or less calm, you can put a stone roof on your house. Or install some ropes to steady yourself. Or even think about the layout of your town.

Maybe this is getting too poetic. My point is simply that there are things under your control, even in the face of fickle fortune. You can build up your skills, your assets, and your relationships. This is the best insurance to help you survive a disaster… and maybe even come out ahead when the wind dies down.

On the topic of building up your skills:

If you want some help building up your copywriting skills, my daily email newsletter can be a help. You can subscribe to it by clicking here.

In a moment of idleness today I clicked on an email from Stansberry Research. It took me to a VSL with a big headline that reads:

“WILL YOU BE LEFT BEHIND?”

Behind the video, there is a shadowy photo of what looks like people being corralled into a concentration camp. And then Porter Stansberry starts to speak in a monotone voice:

“In regular places all across America, the lights are going out. And no, I don’t mean streetlights.”

I didn’t watch past the first few minutes. I am not in the Stansberry target audience, and it didn’t much move me. But something similar did move me a while back.

A while back, copywriter Dan Ferrari sent out an email with the subject line “If you want to be a poor, no-name copywriter, don’t read this.” It was about the consolidation Dan saw in the direct response industry. Here’s a part of that email:

“If you’re a copywriter that can produce actual results in that cold traffic, consolidated arena, you’ll have it made. If not, you’re going to be one of the writers fighting for the scraps.”

Really, this is very similar to the Stansberry promotion. It’s a prediction about the future, with the overarching message:

“Some will get left behind, while others will thrive — and it’s your choice which group you end up in.”

I don’t bring this up to talk about the future — of copywriters or of pensioners. Instead, I bring it up to talk about inspiration.

I used to think I cannot write inspirational copy.

After all, I’m such a cold, unenthusiastic fish. How can I possibly motivate others when I can’t even motivate myself?

But then I realized inspirational copy has its own predictable templates. Some are familiar — Frodo goes to Mordor and keeps pushing when the ring gets real heavy.

But there are other inspirational templates as well.

The way to find them is simply to watch your own cold heart. If it starts to twitch with a bit of life, you might have just read something inspirational. So take note of it, and see how you were influenced.

That’s how I singled out that Dan Ferrari email, which reincarnated into the Stansberry promo. And which, if you’re a student of copywriting who’s always looking to improve, you can find here:

https://orders.stansberryresearch.com/?cid=MKT421756&eid=MKT460923