One morning in 1985, actor Val Kilmer staggered to his bathroom and got ready to shave. He squinted because of how sleepy he still was. But then he spotted something in the mirror that shocked him awake.
In the middle of Kilmer’s chest a perfectly round bruise, the size of a 50-cent piece.
“I didn’t drink,” Kilmer said to himself. “I didn’t fall during the night. What could stab me like this in the chest?”
After a moment, the realization hit him.
The night prior, Kilmer had gone out partying with a bunch of Navy pilots. He was about to start shooting Top Gun, and he was trying to get into the role of Iceman.
The real Navy fighter pilots liked Kilmer a lot.
“You’re the actor that we’re most like,” they kept yelling the whole night. “You got good hair!”
And each time the fighter pilots said this, they emphasized their point by stabbing their fingers into the middle of Kilmer’s chest. That’s how he got the bruise.
Kilmer later said,
“The only egos bigger than actors are rock stars. And the only people beyond that are fighter pilots. They have the biggest egos on the planet.”
My point being, in spite of how it might look in the insular direct response world, email copywriters do not have the biggest egos in the world. Likewise, copywriting and marketing newsletters, podcasts, and books are not the most valuable things to read and study if you want valuable ideas, stories, and inspiration.
I recently made a list of 10 sources where I get ideas for my daily emails.
Most of these sources were predictable, or I had written about them already in emails prior.
But there was one source that I haven’t really talked about much.
And that’s analyses, documentaries, and original material about entertainment I love. Analyses and background info on Looney Tunes cartoons… William Goldman screenplays… Farside comics… and of course, Top Gun. For example, The Val Kilmer story above came from Danger Zone, a feature-length documentary about making of Top Gun.
So that’s my advice for you for today:
Think about your favorite movies, books, TV shows. Read about how they were made, or track down a documentary that saves you from reading.
You will get great ideas you can apply to your business, and in the most enjoyable format, since you will be digging into something you love.
And if you happen to love Top Gun:
I can’t recommend that Danger Zone documentary enough. It’s fascinating, and not just if you are a die-hard Top Gun fan. The documentary shows how complex it is to produce an hour and a half of seamless entertainment… how many specialists are involved… how much thinking lies behind seemingly simple decisions… how many layers of persuasion go into even a jockish, commercial, fantasy flick like Top Gun.
In case you are interested, you can find Danger Zone on YouTube in two parts. Here’s part 1: