Good morning 🙂

A few weeks back I changed my email opt-in process…

So that when people are accepted to my list…

They’re asked to share the biggest question they have about copywriting, business, mindset, etc.

I’ve gotten a lot of interesting🤔 questions from people so far…

And one of the most common ones that keeps popping up…

Is about my research process…

And how I come up with ideas💭.

This is an interesting subject to me…

Because on the one hand, yes research can be systematized…

But on the other…

How do you actually teach someone to come up with an idea❓

Well, in this blog post I’m going to attempt to provide an answer…

And we’ll see how it goes.

—

When it comes to doing research about the customers and products…

There are really just two main places I go:

Forums (#1 by far) and Amazon.

For this blog post, we’re going to focus on forums 📄…

And we can always come back to Amazon at a later time.

—

Okay, so why forums?

I do forums because this is an easy place to see what my target customers are thinking, feeling, struggling with, etc.

Plus, as I go through threads that are relevant to the offer I’m creating…

I’ll often find that specific topics or beliefs keep coming up again and again.

So I’m looking for patterns…

Commonalities…

And then I’m figuring out how those patterns and commonalities fit into the promo I’m about to write.

So, for example…

I’ve been doing a lot of research for a skincare product I’m writing for…

And what I’ve found through the beauty forums I’ve been in…

Is that a LOT of women👩 spent a LOT of time talking about TCAs.

I’d never even heard of a TCA before…

But it’s a term for a Chemical🧴 peel…

And while the market is somewhat polarized on chemical peels…

What I’ve found is that anytime a woman posts about their experience with a TCA…

It’s one of the most viewed👀 and commented🗣️ on thread in the entire forum.

I’ve also seen that a TON of women will post about how they are considering getting a TCA but are scared…

Which makes sense, honestly, since…

1) TCAs are kind of expensive🔥…

And, more significantly…

2) They basically burn🥵 your face and leave it red and discolored for WEEKS.

It’s nuts to me that people do this…

But I’m not here to judge in this context…

Instead, I’m like the anthropologist who is studying a lost tribe for the very first time.

So, here’s why this matters…

First of all, I know that if I talk about TCAs in my sales letter (including my lead)…

That there’s a good chance that I’ll increase⏫ engagement.

Plus, once I start thinking about TCAs and reading all of the stories of women who have used them…

The wheels⚙️ in my brain start turning too.

I could do the skincare promo around the idea of a TCA horror story…

Or when it comes to the USP of the skincare product I’m writing for…

I could talk about how it has all of the youth-enhancing benefits of TCA…

Without the chemicals, cost💰, or weeks of hiding your face from the outside world.

That gives me some ammo right there❗

Plus, let’s not forget what I mentioned earlier…

Which is that up until arriving at these forums…

I’d never even heard👂 the term TCA before.

But, now that I know about it…

I can commandeer it.

And, when I talk to prospects…

I can talk to them in their own language…

Which makes them feel understood.

And increases⏫ the chances of me being able to make the sale💲.

But there are additional reasons why I love forums too:

– I can uncover common objections or biases the market has…

– Find emotional horror stories that I can use in the lead of my copy…

– Plus, I even get ideas for product formulations, and unique mechanisms… because if someone mentions some weird solution on the forum that I’ve never heard of, and it’s intriguing, I’ll immediately start researching it.

—

Anyways, hopefully, this helps.

There are some other dimensions to research beyond this…

And when I finally come out with my RMBC Course…

I’ll go super in-depth on this subject…

And even film myself doing research for some different niches in real-time…

Which I think will be really valuable!

– SPG

P.S. For all of the women👩 on my blog, I know you might read this and think I sound like an idiot. Almost like I just mansplained what a TCA is, right? But that's the thing – as a dude, I had no idea about this. I'd heard of a chemical peel but didn't know much about what it was, or how it worked. And I'd never heard of the term TCA😄. So if I didn't do the research, then I wouldn't sound very knowledgeable in my sales copy. And it's the same for you, too, when it comes to a niche that you're less familiar with. So that's the big point – you've got to research🔍 no matter what, but especially when you're not intimately familiar with a topic.

P.P.S. If you know someone who would find value in posts like this one, feel free to share. Also, they can apply to join my list using this link here.

The post Here’s The Research Hack I Use To Get My Best Ideas first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Good morning!

I’m writing this to you at 6 am my time. I’m in my office already and it’s still dark out.

I had fun yesterday spending time with my family and watching football. In the late afternoon, though, I decided to have a couple of scotches as I took in the Packers game. Not coincidentally, I was asleep by 8 pm.

I’m feeling those scotches a little bit this morning, but because I drank a ton of water and slept for 9+ hours, it’s not that bad.

Still though, I’m reminded of the way alcohol can zap your energy…

And, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that most high performers are also very good about only drinking in moderation.

As T Boone Pickens wrote in his autobiography:

“I’ve been drunk, but never two nights in a row.”

I think that’s a pretty good rule of thumb to live by.

So much of the secret to success seems to be about discipline.

Sometimes I hate that word though, because it can imply rigidity…

But, when I really think about it…

I don’t think discipline needs to mean “not having fun.” It’s more so about having well-defined frameworks that you operate within and being committed to those frameworks no matter what.

For example, here are a few things I’m disciplined about:

I lift weights once a week. I know that’s not all that impressive, but the truth is I don’t like lifting at all. The only reason I do it is to avoid having man boobs. So it’s more of a chore than a fun thing for me. Yet despite not liking it, the last time I went a week without lifting was probably 7 or 8 years ago.

I wake up early. I don’t have a set time and I don’t believe in alarm clocks (unless it’s for a specific occasion, like an early flight). But I still get up between 4 am and 6 am every single day. It’s something I love doing.

I write these articles every day. Admittedly this is a newer discipline, but it’s one I’ve committed to fully.

I read every single day. I’m talking about books. Normally it’s before I go to bed. But sometimes it’s in the middle of the day too. Even at my office – I’ll take thirty minutes to walk away from my desk, sit down on the couch, and read a chapter or two of whatever book I’m working on. I LOVE doing this mid-day because it resets my brain and serves as a digital detox. I’m a fervent believer in the power of books.

I don’t eat bread or carb-rich foods unless I’m at a restaurant. This one might seem weird, but it makes a big difference for me.

I don’t drink at my own events. Going back to the alcohol commentary above, I really do enjoy a few adult beverages. But when I’m running or hosting an event, I don’t drink. The reason why is because I need all of my energy and I also want to be clear-headed the entire time. I’ve also started drinking a lot less at other people's events as well. For example, at T&C last year I limited myself to no more than one cocktail each day, and sure enough it was the best T&C I ever had.

Those are just a few places where I’m disciplined…

But, I’m curious about you…

Where are some places where you’re really disciplined in your life?

And where are some places where you wish you were better?

If you’ve got a second, leave a comment and let me know. I’m genuinely curious.

– SPG

P.S. Here are three places where I’d like to be more disciplined:

1. I’d like to drink even less frequently, especially during the week. I don’t get raging drunk, but I’ll have a few cocktails three-to four nights a week. I’d love to cut that down to just one-to-two times.

2. Another would be doing more hiking. I’ve gone through phases in my life where I hiked 5-7 times a week. Currently I’ll go outside and do walks around my neighborhood (a few miles), but I haven’t been on a hike in over a year. I’d like to get back into doing that.

3. Even though I don't really like lifting, there's a part of me that wants to start doing it 3-5 times a week. I feel like maybe if I committed to doing that, I'd start enjoying it more.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post On Hangovers, Discipline, and Habits first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Some of you may know that my wife, Laura, has been working on a skincare brand called Eden Beauty.

During her first six months, she hardly made any sales…

But over the last month, she’s been making several sales a day.

What’s the big difference been?

Skin in the game.

You see at first, Laura wasn’t doing the marketing for her skincare company…

Instead, she was relying on a third-party agency…

And it just wasn’t working.

Constantly tweaking things for no reason…

And you kind of got the vibe that he thought her campaign wasn’t going to work anyways.

When he left to go join a new company…

Laura decided to take media buying into her own hands…

So, she went through Justin Brooks’ Media Buying Course (I bought the whole bundle a while back)…

Used Google to supplement any knowledge gaps…

And started setting up her own Ad Campaigns on Facebook.

Sure enough, within a few days, she made her first sale…

And now she’s making 3-5 sales per day on average…

Which may not sound like a huge deal…

But it is.

Why?

Because now we know that she’ll be able to scale significantly once she’s ready.

You see, so far she’s been purposely keeping her ad spend low…

And letting Facebook’s AI optimize her ad campaigns.

She’s also been split testing like crazy…

And playing with different price points, ad creatives, variants, etc.

Yesterday she added a subscription to one of her funnels (I wonder who gave her that idea??)…

And, she’s already started making conversions there too…

Which could lead to a LOT of money for the ol’ Georgi household down the line.

So, the point is…

Now that Laura knows her funnel works and her campaigns work…

It’s only a matter of time until she scales to 20 sales a day…

Then 100 sales a day…

And then potentially a whole lot more.

—

And this brings us back to the concept of skin in the game.

In the six months of working with an agency, I don’t think they made a single sale.

In the last two weeks, she’s made dozens.

The reason why is because she took matters into her own hands…

And decided that instead of waiting for someone else to solve her traffic problems for her…

She was going to figure it out herself.

Pretty sexy, right?

—-

I also want to point out that Laura spent maybe 3 days doing the training on FB Ads before she was setting up campaigns and making sales.

That’s a big eye-opener for me…

Because I’m always thinking, “oh buying media on FB is complicated now, I wish I had the time, I don’t know what to do” etc.

In reality, it’s not that complicated…

And, this reminds me of an important lesson I learned a few years back…

Which is that we tend to exaggerate the “unknown”…

When in truth, the unknown is rarely actually all that complex.

I made the same mistake with my health company HLH.

For the first year, I was afraid and resistant to working with affiliates…

Because I didn’t know the space and thought it was complicated.

Finally, in May of 2016 I decided to try working with some affiliates…

And in the year that followed my revenue went from $1MM to $23MM…

Plus, in that same year, I started numerous other health offers that were all driven by affiliate traffic…

And many of which reached 8 figures as well.

Affiliate marketing is NOT hard…

Honestly, it’s stupidly easy.

But I used my fear of the unknown as an excuse…

Something that held me back from reaching my goals…

Until one day I finally said “f**k it.”

—-

So again, you need skin in the game.

Especially at the beginning, when you’re first launching a new venture.

It just makes so much sense to be involved…

Because when you’re trying to get a new business off the ground…

Nobody is going to care as much as you do.

Or try as hard as you will.

Then, once you have momentum…

That’s when you can start to extricate yourself from the day-to-day…

And that’s something that should be your goal…

Because that’s how businesses scale and become the most valuable.

The key, though…

Is to make sure that you extricate yourself in an intentional manner…

You can’t just wake up one day and arbitrarily decide you no longer want to show up to work…

Or immediately hand off all your responsibilities to some new person you just hired after two interviews.

That’s abdication, which almost ends in disaster.

We want to be strategic.

Because, in the end…

Great Strategy + Well Coordinated Execution is how you win.

—

I could write a whole book about this topic…

But fortunately, Nassim Taleb already wrote one…

And it’s titled… Skin in the Game (surprise surprise!)

So, if you’re interested in going really deep on this concept…

It’s worth giving it a read or listen.

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post The Power of Skin In the Game first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

One of the fastest way to motivate another person…

Or yourself…

Is to win.

Sounds obvious or cliché…

But it’s true.

Quick case in point:

I have a new weight loss offer with my partner, Cody Bramlett, that I knew was pretty strong.

But, up until recently…

We’d only been testing it and hadn’t driven a lot of sales.

Recently, though, we did over 100 sales on the offer in a single day for the first time…

And this was driven by an email affiliate who dropped to her list and saw a 5.8% conversion rate and a $5.41 EPC over 36 sales…

Along with Jason Kutasi, who drove 39 sales on Facebook at a 3.9% conversion rate.

In addition to these two folks…

A few other smaller affiliates also tested the offer yesterday…

And we saw conversion numbers like 6.7%, 4.1%, and 6.9%.

So, in other words…

Last month, it became very clear that this offer is a big winner…

And that Cody and I are going to make a LOT of money from it.

—

And guess what?

Suddenly I started feeling really freaking motivated.

Up until then…

I’d been wanting to rework parts of the close for this offer, so I could increase the Average Order Value…

But I kept putting it off.

Then I saw the sales rolling in yesterday…

And, wouldn’t you know it…

I suddenly became a lot more motivated to make those changes…

So immediately after putting Eden down for her afternoon nap…

I rushed to my computer and made copy edits to the close…

Then sent those to Cody and his design team to get them live ASAP.

Total these edits maybe took 30 minutes…

But, they could easily increase our AOV by $30 – $50.

That’s a big difference.

Yet I just hadn’t felt any urgency to tackle them…

Until suddenly I saw sales coming in…

And realized that if I didn’t take action very quickly…

It was going to cost us a ton of profit over the coming weeks and months.

Once I made that realization though…

I was quite motivated…

And the changes got done.

—

This is just one example, but there are many.

As a leader…

The best way to motivate your team is to show them how their actions are helping your organization win.

As a “client”…

The best thing you can do for a copywriter you have on retainer is give them data and feedback on how their offers are doing.

As an individual…

The best thing you can do to be effective in your life is to create an environment where success and wins are the norm. Even if these are small wins too, that’s fine because those small wins add up.

—

That’s it’s for today.

I have a few more emails to respond to, then am going to be waking up Eden.

– SPG

P.S. I’m gonna take the Packers today a +7.5. I feel pretty good about it, but of course, what the hell do I know?

P.P.S. If you have a list and want to test this weight loss offer let me know. I can link you up with Cody and his affiliate manager, Savannah.

P.P.P.S.This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post The Fastest Way to Motivate Someone Is to win… first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

I saw something awesome recently.

My call center has done outbound phone sales forever – mostly to partials and declines.

But just in the past few weeks…

We also hired a new team to do Welcome Calls…

Which are calls to people who just recently bought…

Where we sell them additional packages and bundles.

The new Welcome Call team has a solid script.

They’re following it closely…

And are making some sales.

But, as you might expect…

Some agents are off to a much better start than others.

On my end, I’ve been out on the floor a lot working with the new team…

And, what I quickly noticed…

Is that one of the Welcome Call agents is already outperforming everyone else.

Specifically, this guy is having thousand-dollar days, every day…

Even though he’s only been doing this for a little over a week.

And today…

As I was pacing around the sales floor and listening to his conversations…

It quickly became obvious why this dude is having more success than everyone else.

This agent future-paces like a MOTHER-F.

In other words…

As I listened in on his conversations…

I realized that throughout his conversations with his prospects…

He’s constantly painting a picture of what life could be like if their pain point went away.

For example…

He was talking to a woman about buying some skincare products…

And I heard him say something along the lines of:

“The whole goal is that it’s six months from now, and you’re at the beach, and you feel so confident and proud. Your skin is radiant. You have no worries about blemishes, you feel so relaxed, and so free. That’s what we want for you. Can you imagine that?”

I don’t think this guy has ever studied sales copy…

But he’s naturally using one of the most powerful copy techniques on earth…

And, sure enough…

That prospect turned into a $531 sale during the call.

—

What’s really cool, is that the more I’ve been listening in on our agents…

The more I’ve been reminded of how transferable of a skill copywriting is.

It doesn’t matter what medium.

The same sales techniques that work in a sales letter…

Also, work on the phone…

Or during an in-person conversation.

—

Let me give you another example of this:

An issue I saw come up today …

Was that this same agent was about to close another sale…

And the customer’s card got “soft-declined.”

Normally this occurs because the bank doesn’t recognize the MID that is processing the transaction…

And, when that happens…

The customer needs to call their bank and tell them that they are trying to make a transaction, and to let the charge go through.

Well, when this happened today…

The agent basically said, “okay, well you need to call the bank and then call me back.”

Then he got off the phone!

Let’s be honest: the chances aren’t great the prospect is going to call him back…

But, there’s a way he could have increased the likelihood of her calling him back dramatically.

What is it?

He could have told her EXACTLY what she needs to do.

Instead of saying, “call your bank and call me back”…

He could have given her step-by-step instructions for how to call her bank…

And then set an expectation about how long it should take…

Why she should do it…

And what’s going to happen after she does.

If he did that, the conversation would have gone something like this:

“Okay, well it looks like there was a processing error with the bank. You’re going to need to give them a quick call and let them know that you are trying to make an important investment and that they need to get this resolved right way. Is that something you can do?

 

 

Great. Now typically these calls to the bank take fifteen minutes or less. And while I know even fifteen minutes can be a bit annoying, you have to think about why you’re calling them. You’re calling the bank because you want the chance to achieve beautiful, glowing, crystal-clear skin for years to come. Do you think it’s worth fifteen minutes of your time if it means you could have that chance? Me too.

 

 

Okay great, so we’ll just have you call your bank really quickly. To do that, you’ll need to dial the number on the back of your card. Do you see that number? Perfect.

 

 

So go ahead and give them a call right now so we can get you on the path to beautiful skin. Then I want you to call me back in fifteen minutes once you’re done talking with them, and we’ll get this taken care of for you.

 

 

I’m going to give you my number right now too, so it’s easy for you to call me back. Do you have a pen and paper? Perfect, I want you to write this number down. Got it? Perfect.

 

 

Go ahead and call your bank right now, and if for any reason I don’t hear back from you in the next 15 minutes, I’m going to call you back at this number just to make sure you’re taken care of. Sound good? Awesome, thank you NAME.”

You tell me…

Which response is more likely to get the prospect to actually take the time to call her bank?

Unless you’re smoking crack, it’s the one I just wrote out.

And the reason why, is because while it might seem painfully obvious…

The truth is, people need to be told exactly what to do.

It’s the same thing in your sales letter, by the way.

You need to tell them to click the button that says “buy.” You need to tell them what happens after they click that button. You need to walk them through the whole process in their minds, step-by-step…

You should have them visualizing making the order before they’ve ever actually completed it…

Because doing so increases the chances of them converting significantly.

—

Remember…

When you get good at selling through copy, you get good at selling PERIOD.

This doesn’t mean you’re immediately a smooth operator on the phone or in-person…

But you’re still lightyears ahead of most other salespeople…

Because you know all of the proven tricks and secrets that get people to say “yes.”

It’s a superpower.

An unfair advantage.

A skill we should really value and be glad to have.

—

K, that’s it for now.

I just wanted to share these thoughts with y’all.

– SPG

P.S.This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post There’s Copywriting Gold In This Post first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

I was talking with Jeremy Reeves recently about the power of subscriptions.

During our conversation, I wrote out a pretty cool breakdown…

And I figured I’d share it with my blog readers too.

What you’re about to read is in reference to a health supplement funnel…

But the same concept can be applied to pretty much anything you’re selling.

Check it out and enjoy 🙂

When it comes to subscription revenue, here’s what I did in the past:

1. The checkout is your standard one, where they have the option to get 1, 3, or 6 bottles.
2. On that checkout page, you give them the option to subscribe and get a 10% discount.
3. When giving them that option, you explain clearly that they are enrolling in an auto-ship, and that they can cancel anytime.

When my health company did this in the past, we’d get about a 20% take rate for the subscription.

For those who subscribed…

We would not show them a 6 bottle “stock up” up-sell or a 3 bottle “last chance” down-sell…

Instead, we’d take them straight to cross-sell pages, where we sell them different products.

Now when it comes to the details of subscription billing and how it was executed, here’s what we did:

When the customer’s is rebilled is dependent upon how many bottles they took.

So if they took 6 bottles, then they get rebilled towards the end of month 6.

And here’s the SUPER IMPORTANT part:

Before the customer gets rebilled for the first time…

I would have my team send them an email AND call them…

To confirm they were good with getting rebilled.

We found that about 50% of people were good with the rebill…

But of those 50%, they tended to stick with us for a very long time after (aka, multiple rebill cycles).

And now let’s get to the fun part, where we do the math on this:

Say you're doing 100 sales a day, total.

That means 20 people are subscribing per day (20% of people check the box).

Out of that, let's say:

• 50% of those people take your 6-month option
• 30% take your 3-month option
• 20% take your 1-month option.

We know that half (10) of those people who subscribe will actually rebill.

So, this means that each day you're getting:

• 5 people who are going to rebill at a 6 bottle package (let's call it $240 in rev per person, per rebill)
• 3 people who are going to rebill at your 3 bottle package (let's call it $120 in rev per person, per rebill)
• 2 people who are going to rebill at your 1 bottle package (let's call it $59 in rev per person, per rebill).

That's an extra $1,678 in expected revenue you'll get from those customers on their FIRST billing cycle.

Realistically though, most of them will rebill more than once.

And, here’s the crazy part…

Even if they only rebill two times – we double the future expected revenue to $3,356.  

As in you're generating an extra $3,356 in expected revenue PER DAY.

Every day that you do 100 sales, and add 20 new subscribers…

That’s another $3,356 you can expect to collect in the next year (realistically it will be a lot more).

The math on this is pretty simple:

No matter if they are rebilled every 1-month, 3-months, or 6-months…

If we assume two re-billing cycles…

That means they’ll be rebilled twice in the next year.

Additional Expected Revenue Per day = $3,356….

365 Days in a Year…

That's $1,224,940 in extra revenue you are generating…

And it’s coming from just TEN customers per day!!!

Talk about the 80/20 Rule in Action (or in this case 90/10).

Plus, don’t forget…

You’re not having to pay a CPA when these customers rebill in the future.

So your costs are very modest.

At most maybe $200,000 – but probably it’s a lot lower than that.

All of which is to say that subscriptions are one of the fastest ways to become a millionaire.

A couple more notes on this:

1. I’m sure other people are better with subscription than me, but this is what I’ve done.
2. We were super transparent about our rebills when we used this model in the past, and our chargebacks did not increase AT ALL. They stayed below 1% on average.
3. No joke, I still have customers from 2017 who are on rebill today 🙂
4. Extrapolate this out to 1,000 front ends a day. Suddenly it’s $12,249,400 in additional revenue you’re getting. Realistically, your profit margin on this is probably 80% too. So you’re looking at close to $10MM in additional profit PER YEAR. That’s how you become a centimillionaire within a decade.

Pretty dope, right?

And if you’ve ever noticed that Justin and I spend a lot of time talking about the importance of getting your offer to scale on cold traffic…

That’s why.

100 sales a day can be life-changing…

1,000 sales a day can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams…

It’s that simple.

– SPG

P.S. If you know someone who would find value in blog posts like this one, feel free to share. Also, they can apply to join my list using this link here.

The post How 10 Customers a Day Can Make You a Millionaire In a Year first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Laura is going to KILL me for this subject line 😂

So, before I officially cement my place in the guestroom for the next few nights…

Let me go ahead and explain what I mean. 

It’s no secret between my wife and me that Selena Gomez is one of my celebrity crushes…

And occasionally, she’ll come up in conversation… or I’ll see her in a movie… or hear one of her songs…

And I’ll tease Laura about how in love I am with Selena. 

Of course, I’m not actually in love with Selena Gomez…

It’s just fun to tease Laura…

And I do think Selena is very talented. 

So anyway…

This morning, as I was drinking my coffee and reading the Wall Street Journal…

I came across an article titled, “The Ballad of Selena Gomez.” 

It’s a long piece about Selena and the things she’s been through…

And it had a lot of stuff about her that I didn’t know. 

For example, I remember hearing that she had lupus for a while…

But I didn’t know that it developed into a more serious condition that required her to get a kidney transplant in 2017. Or that there was a complication during the surgery and it ended up lasting 9 hours and she almost died. 

I also didn’t know that Selena has suffered from various mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. Or that she’s seen numerous therapists and gone to multiple in-patient treatment facilities for these issues. I was especially surprised when she said: “I got on the right medication, and my life has completely changed.” 

I’ve dealt with depression (never super severe) at various times in my life too, so I could relate to that….

But, what really resonated with me is the part about getting on the right medication. 

In November of 2018, I got re-diagnosed with ADD and decided to go on Adderall. It was a big and difficult decision for me – because I really try not to take “drugs.” But it has absolutely and utterly changed my life. I’m on a relatively small dosage, but it’s made a night and day difference. I’m more pleasant to be around, more attentive with my family, and have dramatically less social anxiety.

I need to write a whole article about my ADD in the future. But the point is, when I read that quote about medications from Selena, I totally got it. 

Also, while I knew Selena had a lot of Instagram followers, I didn’t realize she’d taken a year-and-a-half break at one point because: “I’d rather stay away from anything that’s going to make me feel like shit.” 

And I found it interesting that Selena’s not religious in the traditional sense, but does say of her spirituality that, “it’s about my faith and connection to God.” That’s how I approach spirituality too: I don’t go to Church, but I do cultivate a personal connection with God.  

Oh, and finally…

I liked hearing how Selena needs alone time, ideally a few hours each day, to fully recharge. Personally, I’m probably about 55% introvert, 45% extrovert. So I’m fine in social situations (especially now that my ADD is better managed), but it’s also very important that I get some downtime each day. 

Okay, so what’s my point?  

Well, as I was reading this article about Selena Gomez…

And learning all of these things about her…

I found myself thinking, “man, I love Selena Gomez!” 

But I didn’t mean this in a romantic way.

Or even in the sense that I was attracted to her.

She just seems really cool…

Like a badass…

Like someone, I could admire, because she’s gone through a lot and has a unique perspective on things…

She seemed like someone I could relate to.  

Now, here’s the part where I wave my magic wand and tie this all back to marketing and copy.

This article about Selena Gomez, and my response to it…

Reminds me yet again of why personal stories are so effective in our copy and marketing. 

Getting personal and vulnerable…

Being authentic and honest…

This is what allows our audience to truly become connected to us. 

If we tell our story well…

Then the reader will see parts of themselves in us…

Which, in turn, makes them feel less alone. 

That’s a powerful thing…

And when your audience truly feels understood…

It becomes so much easier for them to want to take action.

In fact, they’ll want to take action…

You don’t even have to ask them – they do it proactively because they like you. 

For me personally…

When I read this Wall Street Journal article…

It made me want to listen to Selena Gomez’s new album. 

Normally I would never do that since I don’t really listen to pop albums…

But now that I’ve read about Selena’s experiences……

And learned the stories behind some of her new songs…

I probably will put her album on at some point today…

Because now I’m curious and feel connected to her story. 

And, make no mistake about it…

That’s really what the point of this Wall Street Journal article was, to begin with.

It was to present Selena in a certain light…

And to expose her to an audience beyond her core demographic…

With the goal being that people would read this article and find Selena interesting…

And then go stream her music… or attend a concert… or watch one of her movies… or engage with her in some way.  

For me personally, at least, the article was effective…

But there was never any call-to-action in the article…

Nothing that said: “Click Here to Listen To the New Album NOW”…

And truthfully, there didn’t need to be… 

Because now that I know about Selena and her story…

It’s easy for me to want to support her. 

I’m going to be wrapping this up here in a second…

But the last point I want to make…

Is that this whole experience I’ve described…

Of reading Selena’s story…

Feeling more connected to her…

Then wanting to take an action…

It goes back to a concept I posted about a while ago in the Justin and Stefan Talk Copy Facebook Group…

Something I refer to as Emotional Response Marketing (ERM). 

This is marketing where, instead of getting people to take an external action (aka click here)…

We’re focused on getting them to have an internal reaction (a feeling). 

It can be hard for Direct Response Marketers to believe that feelings can be more important than clicks…

Yet I would argue that the former is much more valuable over time.

Because when it’s done right…

It leads to people taking an action not just once…

But over-and-over-and-over again. 

I’ll write more about ERM in the future…

But wanted to make a note about it here as well.

Okay, other than that, time to jump into my day. 

Doing some copy tweaks for the next hour…

Then I have some meetings with members of my call center…

And then this afternoon, I’m going to be spending some time working on my RMBC Course…

Which launched at the end of April.

Hope you all have a great day 🙂

– SPG

P.S. Laura’s celebrity crush has been Leonardo DiCaprio since she was 13 years old and saw Titanic.

In addition to Leo, she also likes James Franco.

And then on the flip side, she’s also into pro-wrestler looking guys with long hair and unshaven faces. 

It’s quite the contrast…

But, the point is that all of her crushes look NOTHING like me at all…

Which is another thing I frequently enjoy teasing her about.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post I Love Selena Gomez first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

When I was 18, I thought I was going to become a professional poker player.

This was in 2004…

Which is the year after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event…

And started a huge poker craze that swept the world.

Suddenly, poker was all over television…

The World Poker Tour launched…

And all of these poker players became celebrities and household names.

I LOVED it.

I was obsessed with poker…

I bought dozens of books on poker strategy and read them all…

And I would go play every chance I’d get.

On Mondays and Fridays during my senior year of high school, I had lunch, then a free period, then astronomy (which was a class you could easily ditch).

So I would leave school at the start of lunch…

Drive to one of the Indian Casinos (about thirty-minutes away)…

Play poker for about an hour-and-a-half…

Then make it back to school in time for the last class of the day.

And, that was just during school hours.

Every weekday…

I’d come home from school at around 3 pm…

Take a two-hour nap…

Wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and have dinner with my parents…

Then drive to the Barona Indian Casino at around 6 pm…

And play until 9 pm or 10 pm.

Sounds kind of nuts, but this was a very happy time in my life.

I treasured those thirty-minute drives to the casino each night…

I’d listen to new albums from start to finish…

And my mind would wander all over the place, as I dreamed of the future and wondered what it held in store.

As for the poker itself…

I had a pretty hard rule…

Which was that I’d play until I’d either won $200 or I’d lost $200.

The vast majority of the time I won…

Especially because, back then, poker was so popular that you had all of these inexperienced people coming into the card room…

Wanting to “give this poker thing a try“…

And so, by virtue of just knowing what you were doing…

It was hard to lose.

(One time I cleaned out the local TV News Anchor and he cussed about me being some 18 year old kid. Another time Joe Pesci was at my table –I didn’t get in any big hands with him, but at least back then he wasn’t all that good).

But even when I did get a “bad beat” and lost money…

I wouldn’t chase the loss…

I’d just get up and walk away.

The end result of all this, was that by the time I graduated high school…

I’d set up a second checking account at Bank of America that was only for my poker winnings…

And it had something like $7,000 in it.

—

Part of the reason I’m sharing all of this is simply because it’s fun to reminisce…

But I do also think there are a few lessons you can take from my story too:

1. The best way to get really good at something is to become obsessed with it. From the time I was 17, I began devouring every single poker book I could get my hands on. While my friends were off getting high in parking lots during the weekend, I was studying poker or playing. As a result, I pretty much always beat my friends. But, I also almost pretty much always beat strangers too. I give copywriters this advice all the time: if you want to be a legendary copywriter, then become obsessed with being the best at your craft. Don’t worry about money or notoriety. Worry about being the best. If you’re better than everyone else, the rest will follow.

1. Good habits are so valuable. I think one of the main reasons I was so successful with playing poker that year was my two-hour nap. It sounds kind of funny for a high school senior to be obsessed with his nap. But it made a huge difference to me. I always woke up feeling well rested, and I think that gave me a boost of mental energy which then carried over to the poker table at night.
2. Have a system. I wrote about systems a few emails back. But it’s worth noting that I had a system when it came to how I approached wins and losses. My $200 rule. It served me really well. Sometimes I’d go to the card room with friends and see them chase their losses. They’d end up losing $800, or $1,000, and then be legitimately broke. I never got in a situation like that because I stuck to my system. The upside was limited for sure, but so was the downside. And for me, at that time in my life where I couldn’t afford to take any “big” losses – it made a lot of sense.
3. We all have our own definitions of happiness. What I did my senior year of high school was not very traditional. Some of my friends thought it was weird. I’d be at a kegger, then cut out after an hour to go play cards. Some people didn’t get it, but playing poker was when I was happiest. So, I’m proud of my 18-year-old-self for not trying to conform to other people’s standards of happiness, but instead following my own.
4. The importance of having something you love in your life. My senior year of high school I’d still go to parties, have beers with friends, and all that stuff. But in general, having poker in my life kept me out of a lot of trouble. I didn’t over-drink, I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t get into fights, I didn’t engage in super risky behavior. I had something meaningful in my life, and that kept me focused.

Contrast this to after I graduated high school and went to college in Boulder, Colorado. Suddenly, I didn’t have poker and I was getting stoned all day long, drinking all day long, flunking classes, and feeling miserable (I dropped out after a semester). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that once I became disconnected from my biggest hobby/passion, I also became disconnected from life in general and was unhappy.

—

Okay, that’s about it on poker for now.

As usual, I’m going to be going to get Eden up pretty soon…

We’re starting potty training with her today…

Which apparently means her running around naked and shitting all over the floors until she figures out how a toilet works.

So, that’ll be fun.

Other than that…

I’ll be watching playoff football, too…

And just so you know, I’m a HUGE Eagles fan today.

Why?

I own a small percentage of a Sports Agency called Dynamic Sports Group…

And one of our players is a guy named Boston Scott, who is a Running Back for the Eagles.

Boston started the year on the Eagle’s practice squad…

But, due to a series of injuries to other running backs…

He eventually got brought onto the active roster…

And then, last week he started for the Eagles in a do-or-die game…

Where if they won, they made the playoffs, and if they lost their season was done.

Well, Boston went OFF…

He almost single-handedly won the game for the Eagles…

And he was even awarded the NFC Player of the Week Award…

Which is the first time one of our athletes has ever gotten that.

I’m really excited for Boston…

And, if you happen to watch the game today…

Feel free to cheer extra hard for him too.

– SPG

P.S. My bet on the Patriots yesterday didn’t work out. But I did have an awesome day. The Golden Knights game was a blast (we won in overtime), and dinner at Twist was delicious. The Chef was actually in the restaurant (he has multiple 3 Michelin Star Restaurants in Europe and he’s usually overseas), so we got to briefly meet him which was really special. And, what was even more special was getting to spend all of that quality time with Laura. I'm pretty damn lucky to be able to say that my wife is also my best friend!

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Ditching High School to Play Poker first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

One of the books I’m reading right now is Atomic Habits, by James Clear.

I’d heard of it for a while, but just finally started on it…

And so far, I’m really enjoying it.

One of the things James talks about in the book…

Is the difference between systems and goals.

A goal is your endpoint – where you want to go…

A system is an operating framework you follow, something that can allow you to get to the goal.

It’s important to note that:

• Different goals require different systems…
• Systems don’t just exist in service of your goals – if anything, they are more important than your goals.

Anyone can set a goal…

“I want to make a million dollars”…

“I want to lose 20 lbs”…

“I want to be a great parent”…

But, just setting a goal doesn’t do a whole lot for you.

The real art-form, and the real challenge, is how you go about achieving those goals.

That’s where having systems and processes come into play.

—

Now, this might all sound kind of obvious…

But the reason I’m writing about it…

It is because as I was reading Atomic Habits this morning…

It helped me to realize that, while I have some systems in my life that work well…

In other areas, I still don’t have clearly defined systems.

And, predictably…

In the places where I have clearly defined, well-tested systems…

I thrive…

While in the places where I don’t have clearly defined systems, things are more ambiguous.

To take a concrete example…

Look at my RMBC Method.

As many of you know, RMBC is my copywriting system.

It stands for Research, Mechanism, Brief, and Copy…

And it’s a process that, when followed, allows anyone to write predictably better copy in significantly less time.

I developed RMBC out of necessity when I was writing 8-12 sales letters a month for Lion’s Publishing, back in 2014…

Then, I taught it to the first copy team I ever built…

Along with every copy cub I've hired since.

It’s one of the biggest things we focus on and teach in Copy Accelerator.

Over time, RMBC has gone through modifications, revisions, and tweaks…

And today…

It’s an amazing system that, when followed, produces predictable results.

In Copy Accelerator, which is the copywriting mastermind I run with Justin Goff…

We review dozen of pieces of sales copy each week…

And, we can always tell immediately if the writer followed RMBC or not.

When they did, the copy is never bad. It may need tweaks or revisions, but foundationally, everything is there and it’s easy to make it even better.

When they didn’t, there are glaring issues. Our feedback becomes focused less on the copy, and more on big picture stuff:

Messaging, language and pain points are off – because the writer didn’t do their Research…

The copy doesn’t identify the surprising culprit behind the prospects’ problem, or present their product as a unique solution to that problem – because the writer didn’t develop a unique Mechanism…

The copy about the product is bland, or the background story is boring – because the writer didn’t do their Brief…

Or, the sales letter itself is logically incoherent and confusing – because the writer didn’t follow the sales letter outline, which is an integral part of writing the actual Copy.

In the case of Copy Accelerator…

The vast majority of our members have now bought into RMBC…

And, the result has been that their writing has improved dramatically, their offers are converting better, and their careers and businesses are skyrocketing.

But it doesn’t always happen overnight.

Sometimes, we’ll have a more seasoned writer join…

And they’ll attend every one of our weekly training calls…

Be active in our Facebook Group…

And be good about asking us for copy critiques…

Then still ignore the RMBC Method for MONTHS!

It’s crazy to see…

Especially because on several occasions…

I’ve had these writers come to me and be like:

“I don’t get it, why am I not improving? Why am I still struggling to get clients? What can I do?”

The answer is simple:

You can upgrade your system!

You see, in cases like the ones I just described…

What’s happening is that these writers are continuing to use their old copywriting system, even though that system has obvious limitations:

It got them to where they are but then they stalled… and one of the reasons they joined Copy Accelerator was to break through to that next level, which requires them to adapt new processes.

And usually, once I point this out to the writers (sometimes it takes a few times)…

They finally get it, they upgrade to RMBC…

And lo-and-behold…

“Wow — this new letter/ad/email crushed it!”

“I’m writing 5 promos a month now when I used to be able to only write one”

“I made 5x more this month than I did in all of last year as a freelancer” (A real comment from a freelancer writer in Copy Accelerator).

“Our business doubled in two months” (A real comment from an 8 figure business owner in Copy Accelerator).

—

And, believe it or not…

The point of everything I just wrote is NOT just to sneakily sell you on Copy Accelerator…

I’m simply using CA as an example, because it’s where I put my copywriting system into practice…

And I see it repeatedly leads to predictable results when people use it…

Which makes sense…

Because of the system flat-out works.

And, as I was reading Atomic Habits this morning and thinking about systems and processes…

It made me wonder, where else in my life I can either develop or optimize, my systems?

I’ve created a great one for copywriting…

But what about everything else?

I’ve got a pretty decent one for time management and productivity…

A pretty good one for my health…

And some good frameworks around mindset, management, entrepreneurship, etc.

I’ve already shared a few of those frameworks with you…

[For example, I shared my time management one a few blog posts back. If you’re new to my blog and want to see it, you can find it here.]

And I’ll share more of them in future blog posts…

Since you may find them helpful…

But still…

I’m pretty sure that for most of these other systems I have…

They could be dialed in DRAMATICALLY.

Because if I’m being honest with myself…

None of them are as optimized as RMBC.

So that’s going to be one of my focuses for the first quarter of 2020:

Picking a few additional areas in my life that could benefit from systemization…

Then developing strong, replicable, and easily implementable systems for those things.

I’ll report back what I discover.

And I’d also encourage you to consider applying this same approach to some areas in your life, too…

Consider asking yourself:

“What are some things that I do regularly, but that I feel could be further optimized?”

It could be copywriting…

Leading a team…

Interfacing with clients…

Building funnels…

Raising your kid(s)…

Leading a church group…

Really, anything you do could likely benefit from having a foundational framework.

So, it may be worth building out systems for at least one of these things…

Then following it faithfully (aka making it a habit)…

Because if you do…

I’m pretty sure it will lead to some pretty outsized results.

—

Okay, that’s it on systems for now.

I promise to share more on the systems I use in future blog posts…

Plus, I’ll report back on the new systems I’m creating, and how they’re going.

I’m also aware that I teased RMBC a lot in this blog post…

And you may not fully understand what it is, or how it works.

So if you want to find out more about how it works, you can check out this page that’s all about RMBC.

This page is several-thousand-words long…

And provides a very strong overview of the system…

So it might be worth it to check that out.

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post The Word “System” Turns Me On… first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

I honestly didn’t know what I was going to write about today…

So, I’m just going to share what’s going on in my copywriting career with you 🙂

• This morning I got a text from Nick Daniel saying that the new offer I did for Vshred/Sculpt Nation is looking really strong. That has me stoked. I can't say what the offer is because Nick wants time to be able to scale it and not get knocked off. But hopefully, you'll see it everywhere pretty soon 🙂
• Then on Skype, I heard from my ex-business partner’s team that the Vision offer I did for them is starting to really take off. Stoked about that and excited for the royalties on this one, as they are not insignificant.
• Cody and I have a weight loss offer that tested insanely well internally. Today is the first day we’ve had an external affiliate send for it and it’s looking great there. We also got a toned-down version to an FB Affiliate of ours and he’s seeing if he can get it approved. If he can, that’s going to be a tsunami of sales, so fingers crossed.
• I heard from the Golden Hippo team that the sales letter I wrote for a new product is finally starting to get tested. This one was a pain in the butt because of the spokesperson involved (not Dr. Gundry but someone else). The fact that it’s finally seeing the light of day though is really exciting, so fingers-crossed there as well!
• A friend of mine is running that Lift Factor offer on FB again. It was dormant for a while because I found the offer owner impossible to work with. My friend is now going direct with the offer owner so that the headache is gone. And the good news is that because I’m the one who connected them, my friend is giving me a second-tier affiliate comm on it (so I get a small CPA with each sale). Considering my friend is currently doing between 600-1,000 sales a day with this offer, I’m pretty pleased about that!
• GS-85 volume is back up, which is great since my agency gets a commission on every sale.
• The new promo I delivered to Lee Euler and Jeremey Hunsicker came out really strong. I got an email from Jeremey yesterday saying that they both loved it and think I’ve created a big winner. Only testing and data will say for certain, but I’ve got a good feeling. And what’s cool, is that the offer is loaded with nasty hooks, but I didn’t mention diabetes one time. Instead, it’s all about erratic blood sugar and glucose support, etc. So, the risk profile should be a lot lower than other offers in the space.
• I’ve got several more offers I wrote, or am involved with, that are being rolled out over the next few weeks, and I’m excited to see how they do. I’ll report back on those and I’ll be honest if any of them tank or bomb too lol.

Hopefully, this doesn’t come across as a brag post…

But it’s important to celebrate the wins.

Especially in the world of freelance copywriting…

Which can be a bit of a rollercoaster, at times.

This morning, though…

I’m feeling a lot of optimism.

I’ve got a bunch of good stuff happening…

A bunch of things that are working…

And I’m excited, motivated, and grateful.

—

That’s about it for today.

Laura is up now, and I’m sure Eden will be getting up before long too.

We’re going to that hockey game later today (Go Knights, go!)…

Then having dinner at Twist.

Last night’s dinner was really nice as well…

And, I’m excited to spend an action-packed day with Laura and continue her birthday celebration.

– SPG

P.S. A while back I shared a survey of all the offers I wrote in 2019 along with how they did. If you’re new to my blog and you want to read it, click here.

P.P.S. I think I'm going put a decent-sized bet on the Patriots today. They're -4 and while I don't think they are making the Super Bowl this year, I do think they're going to beat up the Titans. Let me know if you think I'm crazy.

P.P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post These Offers Are Working So Far In 2020 first appeared on Stefan Georgi.