Copywriting pays for my food, my plane tickets, and my collection of black t-shirts.
Back when I had an apartment, it also paid for my rent.
Copywriting allows me to work on a Saturday, if I so choose, and skip Monday through Wednesday.
It’s put me in touch with multimillionaires and even one billionaire.
It’s exposed me to strange new worlds, such as beekeping, billboard wholesaling, and penis enlargement.
But that’s kids’ stuff. Where copywriting really impacted me, where it changed me in ways I didn’t expect, is the following:
A. It taught me to read.
David Deutsch said, “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t read 50 books one time each; I would read 10 books five times each.”
Other famous copywriters say the same.
So I reread books now. And I find mucho stuff in there that I didn’t see before. My brain changed in the meantime.
Also when I read, I’m much more careful. I keep stopping to ask myself, “Is this interesting? New? Useful? Could it be useful if I combined it with something else I’d read?” It’s slow and it’s work. But it’s a better use of my time than flying through text and not getting anything out of it.
B. It gave me a real acceptance of the moist robot hypothesis.
Scott Adams says we are all “moist robots”:
“Humans are wet robots that respond to programming. If you aren’t intentionally programming yourself, the environment and other people are doing it for you.”
This sounded outlandish when I first heard it… then amusing… then interesting… then believable… then obvious. Copywriting provided me with plenty of real-life examples. There might be something more inside of us, some capacity for experience and reflection… but most of what we do is moist robot.
C. It exposed me to the Gene Schwartz sophistication/awareness models.
This is so valuable whether you’re writing copy or doing any other kind of communicating. It can be summed up with the idea of starting where your reader/prospect/adversary is… But how do you do that? Schwartz’s models tell you exactly.
D. It taught me the low value of secrets.
And also the low value of supplements. And the low value of opportunities. In general, through copywriting, I’ve developed a suspicion of anything new being advertised for sale.
E. It taught me the enduring power of listicles.
For getting attention. Not necessarily valuable attention. Which is why I used the headline “What I learned from copywriting” instead of “5 things I learned from copywriting.” As Mark Ford said recently:
“If you want to get cheap readership, listicles are great. But they don’t do a good job selling anything, or getting serious attention, or creating a fan out of the reader, especially at higher price points.”
F. It taught me how to get rich.
I’m not sure if I ever will be rich. But I might.
Through copywriting, I’ve had an amazing business education. I’ve gotten to look behind the curtain at dozens of successful enterprises. I’ve found out exactly how they get their customers… what they sell to these customers… and how they keep selling more.
Maybe one day, I’ll turn that knowledge into actual success. Speaking of which, let me repeat something I wrote a few months back:
”Perhaps success is simply about choosing a field where you don’t mind getting better. Where the daily work is something you find enjoyable enough — or at least, not too repulsive — so you can continue to get better at it day after day.”
Copywriting is not my passion. I don’t have any passions.
But I don’t mind the daily work, and sometimes I even find it enjoyable. And that’s something I never thought would happen.
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