It was about 12 years ago that I made the connection that copy is the lifeblood behind the most successful businesses in the world…
And that if I wanted to build successful businesses, I’d have to be pretty damn good at writing copy myself.
I still believe that’s true.
But my definition of "damn good" has changed a bit.
What I mean is – when I first got really serious, I started doing the handwriting exercise regularly (the same one behind CopyHour).
I was hand-copying sales letters from some of the best copywriters of all time.
And I thought, this is exactly how my copy has to be too.
If it’s not this perfect, I won’t sell very much.
But around that time I started networking a lot more too. Going to conferences, emailing back and forth with successful entrepreneurs, and getting myself into the weeds of the digital business world.
And I started meeting extremely successful solopreneurs. (My definition of "extremely" successful is seven figures and above annual profit.)
What stuck out to me most about these people though…
Is that a surprising amount of them wrote all the copy in their business.
And that copy was just … normal.
They didn’t all have 40+ page long-form letters.
Or 1+ hour video sales letters.
Or copy written with that unmistakable "copywriter voice" (you know what I mean… the ones that… contain tons of ellipses… and two words… to each line).
Their copy was typically short and right to the point.
What it DID have in common with the letters I was handwriting were the right persuasion levers – they were still identifying major issues their audience was having, and confidently telling them their product would solve those issues (and how it would do it).
But it was all so much simpler than the "big-time" letters.
Not the insanely long, complicated letters every copywriting instructor makes you think you need.
And that really stuck with me because I had been convinced that copy was only "copy" if it was long, wordy, and written in a precisely exact way. (That "copywriter voice" I mentioned above.)
This is why every email I write is the way it is.
I make it an effort to speak as much like a "normal person" as I can.
My sales letters are the same way too.
I’ll even sometimes get emails from people saying, "Your paragraphs are too long! You’ve got to break them up into multiple small lines!"
But surprise: my paragraphs are that way on purpose.
In fact, the more "natural" and "conversational" I write, the more sales go up. It’s not a coincidence.
I say all this to point out: you don’t have to be a copy pro to make a killing from the copy you write.
Some of the most successful people I know aren’t "copywriters" – but they know the fundamentals of copy.
They know the right levers to pull to make people comfortable (and excited) buying from them…
And that’s all they need.
And that’s exactly what CopyHour is designed to do – to walk you through the most critical "persuasion levers" in six & seven figure copy, and hard-wire those fundamentals into your brain through handwriting as fast as possible.
It’s also why it works so quickly.
You’re just hard-wiring the essential bits & pieces you need – without rewiring everything about how you write.
CopyHour will be re-opening on September 9th for the final time this year, so if it’s something you know you need, I recommend you join then.
That’s all I’ve got for you now – but there’s one final thing I want to share with you tomorrow on this whole subject of "unintuitive" business lessons I’ve learned over the years.
Talk then!
— Derek