I recently rewatched the original Pirates of the Carribean movie, and I was reminded of the dreaded Isla de Muerta.
It’s a mystery island, maybe just a legend, where Captain Barbossa docks his ghostly Black Pearl, and where he keeps the cursed treasure of Hernan Cortes.
But don’t bother searching for Isla de Muerta on a map. Don’t make the foolish mistake of ever trying to sail to it yourself.
Only those who already know where the island is can ever find it.
That’s just like the positioning that A-list copywriter Parris Lampropoulos has.
I listened to Parris on a recent episode of the Chris Haddad podcast. I have stopped listening to marketing and copy podcasts. But whenever Parris makes a new public appearance, once every few decades, I make sure to listen, and probably multiple times.
Because Parris is the one person in this industry that I have learned from the most and that I have modeled the most.
I’ve learned copywriting tricks and tactics from Parris.
I’ve learned mindset and attitude and work practices.
And I’ve learned business of copy strategies.
Which brings us back to Parris’s positioning. Here’s how Parris explains his positioning, including why he gives talks so rarely:
“No website, no business card, not on social media, unlisted number, gotta know somebody who knows somebody to get to me and then maybe I’ll work with you. If I give all these talks it goes against my positioning. It looks like I’m trawling for work.”
In other words, if any ambitious business owner wants the marketing treasures hidden inside Parris’s head… well, that business owner has to have worked with Parris before, or at least know somebody who has.
This kind of positioning might seem entirely impractical to you right now.
And Parris himself admits he hasn’t had this positioning in the early days.
In fact, he kicked off his freelance career by going to Kinko’s, printing out hundreds of copies of a sales letter selling his own services, and then standing outside of a direct marketing convention, trembling with fear and handing out his sales letter to anyone who would take one. That landed him his first five clients.
Still, if you are interested in learning from the most successful people, then there’s no denying Parris is among them in the direct response industry.
And his “mystery, maybe just a legend” positioning might be worth using as a bearing to take you where you want go eventually go. The same way that Captain Jack Sparrow uses his crooked compass, which won’t point north, to track down Isla de Muerta.
Anyways, on to my Most Valuable Email offer.
Parris once, and only once, held a paid and public training. It included a bunch of super valuable bonuses, including a document titled, “A technique for improving your writing overnight.”
Parris advised his copy cubs, and anybody who paid for his training, to copy this document by hand three times.
Why?
Reason one — or so I suspect — was that the document laid out some important writing advice.
Reason two was that this document used my Most Valuable Email trick.
Like I’ve written before, I haven’t invented this trick. A few very smart and successful marketers have long used it in non-email media.
But nobody has used it in emails as often, and with such good results as I have.
If you are curious to learn this mysterious, maybe legendary trick yourself, then get out your broken compass, jam your tricorn hat onto your head, and set sail for this horizon: