#115: Mentors I Have Known

“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”
–John C. Crosby

In This Issue:

Editor’s Note: As you know, Monica and I spent last week in Delray Beach at Bootcamp. One of the highlights of the week for me was getting to meet so many of you in person. It was an honor. I also got a chance to speak with two of my mentors while I was there—Will Newman and Michael Masterson. Today, we’re reprinting the following essay from master copywriter John Forde (www.jackforde.com) as he pays tribute to his mentors. Enjoy!

Mentors I Have Known
by John Forde

I’m about to give you a gift.

Five gifts, actually.

Here’s where I explain…

As I tell you often, one of the things that can make a great difference to your success in virtually any career — especially one like copywriting — is to get yourself a mentor.

I lucked into not just one, but two of the best. And then picked up a few more along the way.

You may not be so lucky. Or maybe you’re just not willing to wait until fortune shines your way. So allow me, this week, to help spin the wheel a bit in your favor…

Five People Who Taught Me (Almost) Everything

In today’s CR, I’m going to name for you five people who can make all the difference to your copywriting career.

While I would never — and could never — promise you any of their personal time (and you should not contact them saying I’d done anything of the sort), what I can do is show you a way each of these people can share with you everything they know, painlessly and at your own discretion.

What you’ll get from this, I believe, is both a profile of how a fellow working copywriter (me) came to be… plus, the next best thing to mentorship from some of the greatest experts in the field.

Ready?

Here we go, introducing five people who have taught me plenty… and you could learn a thing or two from too:

William Bonner: When I met Bill, he was the only guy wearing a tie in a company with about 30 employees and $20 million in annual sales. In the dozen or so years since, he’s multiplied both those numbers tenfold.

On an afternoon that seemed like every other, he offered to teach me to write copy. I accepted. And it’s a step that made all the difference. Bill’s great talent, I soon learned, was not just copywriting but the fact that he’s a champion for the thinking man. He lives for ideas. And that alone has inspired many since, me included.

Bill lives the life of a renaissance gentleman now, between his chateaux (yes, that’s plural) and his office, now in London; writing bestsellers (like his current co-authored "Empire of Debt," which you can find on Amazon.com) and doing his best to exercise restraint in managing his publishing company.

But you can get a lesson in writing almost every day from the man himself, simply by reading his almost daily contributions to the ezine he founded (and which, by the way, has almost single-handedly revolutionized the model for email marketing). It’s called "The Daily Reckoning" and it’s about economics, finance, and just about everything else under the sun.

You won’t find better writing online or in your inbox: http://www.dailyreckoning.com

Michael Masterson: When I first met Michael, I was convinced he didn’t like me. What it took me the next ten years to figure out is that what Michael doesn’t like is when someone has not yet tested the limits of his or her potential. In the years that followed, he inspired me to do so. And still does. In fact, he has a great talent for making the people around him do better, sometimes in spite of themselves. I include myself in that category.

Today, he is a great friend and a wise advisor. He has a weakness for the underdog, which is lucky for the rest of us. He also claims to be lazy and undisciplined. But his own story — he’s a self-made Croesus — proves otherwise.

If I hadn’t met up with Michael early in my career, I’m not sure I’d be here today. More likely, I’d be flipping burgers at McDonald’s and writing free-verse poetry. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — flipping burgers, that is.

You can learn a lot by reading either one of Michael’s recent books — "Automatic Wealth" and "Power and Persuasion" — which are also both available at Amazon.com. Michael also writes an ezine, for no other reason than he has too many good ideas about entrepreneurship to keep them to himself.

I’ve recommended you check it out here before, but I’ll do it again. Study the style as well as the content: http://www.earlytorise.com

Those are the two professional mentors I’ve known personally. The opportunity for you to learn from them too, albeit digitally, is one I hope you’ll take up.

But I said "five" mentors.

Who are the other three?

Up front, I should say I could make this a much, much longer list, with a spin that echoes and Oscar speech ("And last not least, I want to thank Mom and Dad… who were always there for me…")

But for the sake of brevity, I’ll stick with these three. Especially because I know they also have something to teach you, too…

Bob Bly: I started learning from Bob long before I thought we’d ever meet, let alone share a microphone (no, not at karaoke night, though that might be a sight to see).

Bob, as you can’t avoid knowing, is the man behind, "The Copywriter’s Handbook." I’ve recommended it in the CR over and over again. When I first started out, that’s what I did. Fellow copywriters and I used to get together with brown bag lunches and group-study it, chapter and verse.

I now see Bob at copywriting conferences at least once a year. He’s always the best-rated speaker at the event, and usually the smartest guy on the stage. Which is saying something, since more than once I’ve found myself standing next to him, pretending to know something.

Bob, lucky for you, also has an ezine. Plus a lot more, listed under "Resources" on his website, which you’ll find here: http://www.bly.com

Gary Bencivenga: I’ve never met Gary in person. I’ve never heard him speak. If he has a book, I haven’t read it. Gary manages to "mentor" or at least inspire countless copywriters simply, well, by being Gary.

When he retired, young and successful, last year… we secretly rejoiced. Simply because the prospect of competing with a Bencivenga package was the kind of thing any sensible copywriter feared all those years while he was still "out there," looming on your horizon.

When I was just getting going, and still living on tuna fish three times a week for dinner, it was the Bencivenga model of success that my boss held up as something to shoot for. It worked.

If you haven’t heard, by now, that Gary — too — is one of those guys who just can’t help sharing his great ideas via the Internet, I’m shocked. Check out his brilliant marketing ezine here: http://www.bencivengabullets.com

Clayton Makepeace: Clayton, to me, is relatively new on my scene. I first started hearing his name from my good buddy, the late Thom Hickling. They went to college together. And Thom had always said he was out there writing copy, doing great things.

I heard his name again when I started seeing blockbuster promos come out — at a furious pace — from Weiss Research, Inc. in Florida. Clayton was behind almost all of them.

And now Clayton has bust out of the gate with a copywriting ezine that puts my own to shame, week after week. I’m just getting to know his stuff, but I’m already sure he’s going to be teaching us a lot over the years ahead.

And you can get in on the education yourself, right here: http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com

Like I said, there are more. Including all the greats you’d expect (your Hopkins, your Caples, your Ogilvy).

But these guys will all do you fine… and teach you plenty… for a long time to come, we all hope. None of ‘em will abuse the mailing lists for these ezines. And all of them offer the service fr*e of charge. So I recommend you just go ahead and sign up for all of them, then let them work via your inbox to sustain the relationship.

I’m certain you’ll be glad you did.

Resource Referral: It Has Jobs Too!

Last week I was asked over and over what advice I would give up-and-comers. My best advice is to continue to take action, which includes completing some of the spec assignments that were available at Bootcamp.

I heard other working copywriters give the same advice about doing the spec assignments. Many a career has been started by doing so—including mine.

While I was giving that advice to attendees, I didn’t realize the Bootcamp-In-Your-Home package also includes more than 20 spec assignments. If you didn’t go to Delray Beach, and you’ve been on the fence about getting the package, having access to all those spec assignments should be the deal maker. Completing a few spec assignments could be the fastest and lowest pressure way to break in with a company.

The program is fully guaranteed so you should have no worries about getting it. Order your copy of Bootcamp-In-Your-Home today, look it over and get started on a spec assignment before it’s too late (the spec assignments have deadlines). If you’re not satisfied with the program, just send it back. It’s that simple.

Reader Feedback: Three Tips for Feeling Good Before You Write by Krista Jones

It’s important to feel as good as possible when you sit down to write or revise your work. Because like it or not, what you feel, you create.

Whenever you’re not feeling enthusiastic, here are three things you can do to feel good almost immediately:

  1. Use your facial muscles. If you change your facial expression, you can change your feeling. It may sound hokey, but put a smile on your face for 60 seconds and see how much better you will feel.
  2. Feed your mind. Spend five to ten minutes reading passages from an inspirational book before you start to write. The higher form of vibration embedded in the words and will resonate in your mind.
  3. Listen to inspirational music. I have five or six CDs on standby for the moments when I need a pick me up. When I’m not in the mood to write, I just pop in the one that is calling my name and I feel better within minutes.