For the past year, I’ve been memorizing, one line a day, various famous poems and speeches and passages.
At some point, I memorized the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
You probably know the “all men are created equal” and the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of hamburgers” bits.
But have you ever noticed the following piece of psychological insight in the nation’s founding document?
“All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
In short, that passage says that people prefer the status quo to just about anything else, regardless of how bad the status quo is.
That might seem like a trivial observation.
It is not. It reminded me of an issue of the Gary Halbert Letter (another founding document of the great American experiment), in which Gary asks what the three following situations, all very different from each other, all have in common:
1. “A guy buys a beer joint that’s doing a good business in a blue collar neighborhood. His first move is to decorate the joint and give it a little class and to lower his prices.” Result: He loses most of his customers.
2. “A guy who has never broken 100 is shooting a round of golf. After the first 9 holes, he notices he’s doing exceptionally well and has only used up 36 strokes. And, if he keeps this up for the next 9 holes, he’ll shoot par for the first time in his life.” He finishes the course with 103 strokes.
3. A wealthy Cuban businessman has all his wealth confiscated by the Castro regime. He moves to Miami with nothing. Within a short time, he’s rich again.
Says Gary, what these situations all have in common is a primary human driver, even more powerful than sex, greed, and curiosity. That primary human driver is the need to stick with the status quo.
I don’t know about you, but I personally cling to the status quo while also fighting against it daily. It’s hard work, but what else is there?
Anyways, my point today was just to share that line from the Declaration of Independence of you, because it is great, and because it’s been playing in my head for the past year.
It speaks to a fundamental human truth, as relevant today as it was then, as prevalent in politics as it is in business.
Speaking of business… business needs to be done now.
I am currently promoting Lawrence Bernstein’s Lead Gen Legend, a giant swipe file of massively successful lead gen copy, with examples from right now all the way back to revolutionary times (ok, maybe not, but pretty close).
If you need a way to tie Lead Gen Legend into the topic of today’s email, go back to the status quo thing.
We all have our own routine and limited ideas for writing copy and making sales appeals. But status quo inputs beget status quo results.
It takes an outside impetus to push us out of that status quo, and to open up new vistas of conversion and profit. A curated swipe file of winning ads can be just the thing. Gary Halbert would agree.
If you are mildly convinced by that argument, I will warm you up a bit more by including several bonuses with Lead Gen Legend, if you get it before tomorrow, Sunday, July 5 at 12 midnight PST.
The ones I’ve announced so far:
FREE BONUS #1. Emails that did well
I’ll give you access to my “Emails that did well” document, now and in perpetuity. You can see which of my past emails did well and why. And as I update the document, you will see which future emails have done well. In a way, it’s a swipe file of outstanding email copy, from, as former Agora Financial copy chief Joe Schriefer has said, “one of the best email writers out there.”
FREE BONUS #2. Core Promise Workshop and Q&A call recording
I recently sold this workshop recording for $97, along with some bonuses. It’s yours free (minus the bonuses) if you get Lawrence’s Lead Gen Legend.
FREE BONUS #3. “Perfect Lead Gen Offer”
Not my idea. Also not a specific offer template you can swipe. Rather, a simple but counterintuitive process for figuring out what offer to make in your lead gen ads to maximize lifetime value and minimize ad costs.
Again, my bonuses are good only until tomorrow, Sunday, at 12 midnight PST.
Lawrence has also generously agreed to lower the price of Lead Gen Legend during this promo by $300 from its usual $379 price, so it is now a very attractive $79.
If you’d like to get it before it becomes necessary for me to dissolve this offer: