‘Drafting’ Your Way To The Top

In This Issue:

• Guest Essay: “Drafting” Your Way To The Top by Malcolm G Smith
• Resource Referral: Even A Beginner Should Dream About Retirement
• Quick Reading Tip: Be An Aggressive Reader

Monica’s Note:

Hard to believe…we’ve written 50 issues of The Copy Protégé so far! And we feel in so many ways that we are just getting started. We have just logged many hours of phone time swapping ideas on how to best offer you support – and the occasional swift kick in the you-know-what – in the months ahead. Thanks for joining us…and stay tuned! The best is definitely still to come…

While we were busy plotting and planning, we asked up-and-coming copywriter Malcolm G. Smith to step in and do the honors of delivering the main essay for this auspicious issue. Thanks to Malcolm for your wise words on a very important subject – how following leaders all the way to top can make the road to success easier. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you, too!

“Drafting” Your Way To The Top

by Malcolm G Smith

When Monica asked me to write to you, I was honored… and a little nervous. You see, when I had just discovered copywriting, Krista and Monica were already rising stars. I look up to them. What could I possibly tell you that they aren’t more qualified to say?

And then I had an “Aha!” moment… when I realized that’s exactly what I should write to you about.

If you were lucky enough to be at AWAI’s FastTrack to Success bootcamp this past year, you heard some dynamic speakers. Folks with real credentials.

By the third day, I noticed however, that these accomplished people were not just “speakers” – they were also “readers” and “listeners” themselves. Because most of these folks – folks we look up to for their expertise – peppered their own talks with insights they learned from the people that they look up to.

Mike Palmer – a powerhouse financial copywriter himself – quoted David Ogilvy. Michael Masterson quoted the late Professor Peter Drucker. And Brian Tracy used Jerome McCarthy’s “four P’s” marketing mix in a presentation.

And so it went.

As Tony Robbins says, success is built by modeling successful people. And you can usually see it among people who are already successful. People like Mike Palmer, Michael Masterson and Brian Tracy. They know that the fastest path to success is by learning from those who’ve already been there.

It’s a lot like bicycle racing, really. Bike racers know that whoever’s up front is doing the hard work. He’s cutting through the air resistance… and riding just behind him takes a lot less work to keep up the same speed.

It’s called “drafting.” By drafting the leader – or any rider in front of them – bike racers can travel faster – but do less work.

You can apply the idea of drafting to almost anything. Want to be a great wrestler? Then study how Olympic gold medalists got there. Want to build an import-export business? Study what the most successful folks already in the field have done.

And do the same thing to become a successful copywriter. The more you learn from and about the superstars of copywriting, the faster you can reach your own goals.

A great place to start is with a good reading list. Set aside time to read – every day if you can. Here are a few books from the top of my “must-read” list. (And, yes, they’re all recommended by copywriting superstars.)

Influence by Robert Cialdini. This is not a book on copywriting. But it’s on almost every top copywriter’s “required reading” list. This is the Bible of persuasion. If you haven’t read it, go get it right now.

Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. One of the most wildly successful copywriters of all time, Schwartz’s “Burn Out Disease” ad sold 13 million copies of a single book.

My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Hopkins was the brain behind the marketing of products like Palmolive soap and Bissell carpet sweepers. He’s credited with inventing many of the accepted methods used by direct marketers today.

Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. David Ogilvy called this “the most useful book about advertising I have ever read.”

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. One of the great modern masters of advertising of any kind, Ogilvy packed this book with sound advice and terrific examples.

There are others, too – too many to name here and now. But this half dozen are the real deal – quintessential titles from the very masters in our industry who trained the masters who now are training us! Having read them myself, I’m convinced every newbie should have them displayed prominently on their bookshelf…complete with lots of highlighted passages and dog-eared pages.

Finally, keep reading The Copy Protégé. Monica and Krista have already gained a lot of wisdom in their copywriting careers. Put that wisdom to work to “draft” your way to the top faster and easier.

Malcolm Smith is a Florida-based copywriter specializing in information products and alternative health. You can visit him at www.MalcolmGSmith.com.

Resource Referral: Even A Beginner Should Dream About Retirement

While Krista and I both consider ourselves very fortunate to have achieved the success we have in less than five years in this business – we must confess to you: we have no intention of being freelance copywriters for life! You’ll see what I mean soon enough.

Once you get a taste of all you can do with copywriting – how you really can write your own ticket to freedom and use it to pursue just about any dream you’ve ever had – you’ll understand why you need to drop everything you’re doing this Wednesday, February 28th and listen to Bob Bly’s next AWAI tele-class: "Internet Marketing Retirement Plan".

Learn more about how you can catapult yourself from working copywriter to retired internet marketer in just 6 to 24 months! This is the path Krista and I are on…and will be writing more about in the next few months. But as usual…Bob is already a master, even though he just got started marketing his own products a few short months ago. Read his story…and be sure to get on the call.

It’s worth it just to get your hands on Bob’s FREE Special Report "Online Marketing That Works" where he he’ll show you:

• Double or triple your landing page sales with "Taguchi testing."
• How to break into your prospect’s "e-mail inner circle."
• 27 tips for writing e-mail marketing messages that work.
• How to write, publish, and distribute your own e-newsletter … and do it in less than 2 hours a month.
• 5 ways to capture e-mail addresses of landing page visitors.
• The 10 steps to outrageous online marketing success.
• Secrets of the world’s most successful SEO copywriting specialists help optimize your sites for search engines.
• Converting leads to sales with the "online conversion" strategy…

You can count on the fact that two sets of ears that will be hanging on Bob’s every word will be mine and Krista’s. Join us!

Quick Reading Tip: Be An Aggressive Reader

There’s a big difference between reading and retention. Lots of people read in ways I find very passive.

In bed at night as they drift off to sleep…Sipping a latte at Starbucks while the music is blaring, the milk is steaming at a deafening volume, and people are chatting all around them….

I’m suspicious of that kind of reading. It might be fine for the newspaper headlines or a good fiction title…but not when you’re trying to learn something and recall the information at a later date.

I find that more active reading where you are fully absorbed and engaged with the words works better. Try using a highlighter to mark passages and ideas that seem to stand out to you. Make notes in the margins. Jot ideas inspired by your reading into your journal.

Words might sit passively on the page…but engaging with ideas should be a full-contact sport. When you read the titles Malcolm recommended above, rough them up a bit. Get aggressive and have your way with them. You’ll see. There’s nothing passive about the act of reading when you do it the right way.