Happy Wednesday Friend,
It’s been a wild week in the world. We’re here to slow down and remember that becoming a leader in life is simple but not easy.
I spent some time reading Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards this week. I’ve found a few things that I’ll be implementing into my life to be a better human (and articulate my words in a clearer manner).
Whether you’re looking to do better in your 9-5 job, relationship with your partner (or friend) or you’re wanting to start your own business, it’s imperative to understand the power of words.
Here’s why:
Being able to write in a way that conveys your message clearly to the other party is an art and a science. AI will not replace our stories and how we feel. It may be able to help us with ideation and clarifying what we’re already thinking but it won’t replace our brains and relationships with other humans.
The lessons in this book don’t just apply to creating great sales copy. There are lessons here that apply to being a subtle leader in life.
Here are the topics I took away that are worth understanding (that I’m going to use).
Specifically:
- Why people don’t buy (or take action) without a reason
- Why people are only interested in themselves (and why that matters to you)
- How getting into someone’s mind increases empathy for understanding
Why people don’t buy (or take action) without a reason
“Everything we do is motivated by fear or love.” – Andrew McGuire
I don’t know if someone else has said that or should take credit for it but through my 41 years of life, I’ve come to the realization that people only do things for two reasons (when you dig into the details). The world wants us to think it’s more complicated – but it’s not.
Let’s look at some of the details of why this happens:
Do you feel this way sometimes?
10 reasons why people take action (that are motivated by fear or love):
- Make Money
- Save Money
- Save Time
- Avoid effort
- Escape mental or physical pain
- Get more comfort
- Achieve greater cleanliness
- Gain praise
- Feel more loved
- Increase their popularity
When you’re working on building a relationship with someone – these are the 10 reasons they’ll do something. The first five are the most impactful that are tied to fear and love. Building a relationship, business or anything else revolves around these reasons.
How to convince people to take action (using these reasons):
I’ve spent years trying to uncover why people do the things they do. The best way of getting anyone to take action with these is to write it down. Try and incorporate as many of these ways as you can. Ideally you’re able to find 3-5 things that you can give someone an outcome to these reasons. This will create a transformation in the individual seeing the future and you’re providing it.
Here’s how I’m planning on using this in my life:
I’m building my personal brand and want people to understand why writing is the #1 way of helping them leave their 9-5 job. I will be working on YouTube videos and LinkedIn content that helps you better understand why writing leads to these reasons. Being able to articulate your thoughts and ideas into words that are tied to these reasons is a foolproof way of helping convey your message (and offer).
Now, this may all be true and we need to remember that everyone is really only in this for themselves. So, let’s get into why that is.
Why people are only interested in themselves (and why that matters to you)
In Sam Harris’s Waking Up book, there is a section where he talks about death. Imagine yourself on your deathbed and envision who is there with you. What would they whisper into your ear?
It’s imperative for us to think about the end. We all are born and die alone. As we go through life, our actions and decisions are all predicated on this fact whether we like it or not.
So, let’s get into what this means and how that can help us as we go through life (and build our personal brand).
Feature + Benefit + Meaning: ‘What’s in it for me?’ That simple question is typically what we think about when we see something new or someone is trying to sell us something. As you’re thinking about convincing someone to do something (in life), you can use this framework:
Feature: What it is
Benefit: What it does
Meaning: What it means to the person (buyer / reader / prospect)
Here’s how you pull it together: It _______ so you can __________ which means _________.
Here’s how I’m using it: Build your personal brand so you can quit your 9-5 job which means you’ll have more money and time to spend with your family.
See how simple this can work.
What would you apply this to in your life?
Love & fear are the ONLY things that make you take action: Think about experiences you’ve had in the past or people you’ve worked with. The underlying emotion is love or fear. We are creatures that are all the same no matter our belief system. Use that to your advantage when trying to strengthen a relationship, build a company or start your personal brand.
Why tapping into the dark side works (and how not to use it): There are two ways to go when thinking about going negative – the good way and the bad way.
Here’s the good way:
- Tap into someone’s problems, mistakes, fears or enemies
- Warn against events or advice
- Use the negative going on in someone’s head to get in sync with them
- Once you’re in sync with them – you can pivot to whatever you want.
By being in sync with someone, it’s going to allow you to pivot to focus on the thing you’d like to. That could be convincing them to do something with you, for you or might be an offer. Either way, the point here is that you can get in sync with someone to move them into whatever you want to.
Here’s the bad way:
- Attacking your competitors or other people
- Downright attacking someone directly
This never ends well. This is political ads that you see and we’re coming into the election cycle for more of it so we should expect to see a lot of bad use of the dark side.
How would you use the dark side for good?
How getting into someone’s mind increases empathy for understanding
Only 1.9% of adults practice any type of meditation consistently in their life?
Your brain is the biggest muscle in your body and it’s important to work it out just as much as the rest of them. A very simple step forward to try this is to think about the other person’s point of view.
Here how I’ve started to work out my brain and increase empathy for others around me:
Using guided meditation to envision myself as the other person
Yes. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s an incredibly powerful thing for you to gain another person’s perspective on how they go about viewing the world.
Here are the steps I take when working through this guided meditation:
- Sit down and close my eyes
- Envision that I’m in my office sitting at my desk
- This person walks in and sits down across from me
- I think about lifting out of my chair and floating over to them and standing right behind them where I’m able to whisper in their ear
- I slowly feel myself sit down in their chair and take over their body, mind and their eyes
Once I’ve been able to fully embody this, I want to think about the types of questions I can ask them that would give me perspective of how they think.
5 thought-provoking questions to uncover life changing answers
It’s not everyday that you can sit down and feel like you’re embodying someone else to gain a new perspective.
That’s what this exercise allows me to do (and you can too).
Here are the five questions I think about when I do this:
- What terrifies you?
- What does that mean if that happens?
- What is your deepest desire for your life right now?
- If I could provide that for you, what would you have to see, or what what I have to say to motivate you to have a burning desire for what I have to sell?
- What other problems or concerns do you have that I may not be aware of?
These are questions I pulled from Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards on page 235. He uses this exercise to get into your buyer’s mind and think about their perspective to help write words that will compel them to take action.
Using it to uncover this is a fantastic way to help you understand your audience, persona and what you should really be talking about in your content.
I also think it applies to life and life’s lessons of better understanding others around you.
How to apply this in life (even if you think it’s weird and won’t work)
According to Pew Research, 77% of Americans said the country was more divided than before the Covid-19 outbreak.
Here’s how I’m going to leverage this new skill for good (in life):
Think like a scientist: In Think Again by Adam Grant, he talks about how there are five different types of thinkers (and leaders). He places it into a pyramid form and at the top is a scientist. A scientist is someone who takes all the inputs (from all sides) and think about it from a neutral position. The other points of view can cause a divide and create friction which is the opposite of what I want to accomplish.
Build locally: I’m going to spend my time building a local community. There is so much we could all do for the state, national or try and tackle a world problem but being local is powerful. I’ll be spending time with my neighbors, friends and work on making an impact at the local level. Using this newfound skill will help me see things from other perspectives when I’m trying to understand them.
Lean into the five: I truly believe you are the five people that you spend the most time with. This could be the podcasts you listen to, people in real life or those that you see on digital screens (YouTube, Zoom calls, etc.). I’m going to be very focused on spending time with less people and have a bigger impact.
Conclusion
Today, we’ve talked about Copywriting Secrets and how to apply learnings from that book into life.
I’m going to spend time really figuring out how to apply these learnings into my personal brand.
Specifically:
- The 10 reasons people take action (and how I can apply this to my content strategy)
- Tapping into the dark side (for good)
- Using guided meditation to really be that person I want to speak to
I appreciate you taking this in and I’d love it if you could reply and let me know what 1 thing you’re going to take away from the learnings this week (and how you’ll be applying it).
Next week, I’m going to dive into Ali Abdallah’s Feel Good Productivity so get ready for some productive fun 😊.
See you next Wednesday.
Andrew
Your Personal Brand Copilot
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
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