(upbeat music)
- So, how I got into copywriting,
as my mentor Alan Jecks, my first mentor,
my copywriting mentor Alan Jecks,
and Alan used to run a very successful
financial seven company called
Business Breakthrough Technologies,
and he was the first guy that brought
Robert Kiyosaki, how many have heard of Robert Kiyosaki?
A rich import to Vancouver, he was the first one
that ever did that.
And Alan taught me how to write copy in my early 20's,
and it was a difficult process
because English is not my first language.
How many can tell?
And I flunked English, I actually flunked English
when I was in High School.
So from a guy who flunked English,
you know English was not my first language.
So learning copywriting, it's extremely difficult.
I remember that time I was trying to get clients.
I was doing a bit of advertising, and I was
trying to do cold calling to business owners
trying to get some business.
The business owners would tell me that
on the phone you cannot even speak proper English,
how the hell can you write my stuff.
It doesn't even make sense.
So it was very, very difficult.
But I'm glad I was persistent through that period of time.
Over time it got a little easier,
and a little easier, and I was actually fascinated
by something like that.
The first time when I sent out a direct mail piece,
you guys know what direct mail is?
The first time I sent out a direct mail piece,
the response, I got money, I got a check in the mail
from people I have never met, I've never seen,
I've never talked to, purely through my written words.
I was corrupted forevermore, because I could see the power
of like, holy shit, I've never met these people
it was a mailing address, I'll send you this database,
and they sent me money.
Now, as an entrepreneur, what goes in through your mind?
Let's do more of this, this is good, this is a good thing.
So that's what went through my mind,
and with Alan, Alan's copywriting mentor,
is actually a guy named Gary Hobart,
and Gary passed away a few years ago.
Gary, a lot of people would say,
arguably one of the greatest copywriters of all time.
Back in so many, many years ago, Gary was making
millions, we're talking about 10, 15, 20 years ago,
Gary was charging 15,000 dollars to write a letter,
plus royalties.
His company was mailing millions and millions of pieces,
direct mail, not email shit, direct mail,
millions and millions of pieces every year.
So if your copy doesn't work, you cannot mail
that many pieces.
Does that make sense?
So, that's how he honed his craft.
So Alan learned from Gary, and I learned from Alan.
And with me, how I started as a freelance copywriter,
after I learned from Alan for close to one year.
Basically worked for him for next to nothing for one year.
I always refer to that year as the million dollar
year of my life, because I got a million dollar
worth of education from Alan.
So he taught me how to write copy,
how to write headline, how to come up with offer,
and then I started my own, you could say,
one man advertising agency.
Started writing ads for people.
Now because, as I was sharing with you,
young guy, broken English, couldn't get clients.
How many can see that this would be a challenge?
So, what I did is, I come up with an irresistible offer.
What did I come up with?
- [Audience] Irresistible offer
- So I was contacting, I was calling these business owners,
and saying, you know what, I am a copywriter,
and I can see your ad, and at the time it was yellow pages.
You guys remember those?
Yellow pages?
And I would look at the one who is spending
the most amount of money.
Running half a page or full page,
that means they're spending a little money on the ad, right?
I would contact them and say,
you know what, I'm a copywriter,
I know maybe I'm new, I don't have a lot of experience,
but here is what I'm willing to do,
let me rewrite your stuff, and if you're not happy with it,
don't pay me.
But if it works, you pay me 500 bucks,
or 800 bucks.
Now, did everybody say yes, no,
but I got enough people saying yes,
that I started building my own little client base.
Does that make sense?
So it was like a do or die kind of copywriting thing.
I call that a gun to the head copywriting.
Meaning, a guy is like this has to work,
or otherwise I don't eat.
And that's how I hone my craft,
and after a while, at first, some ads were good,
some ads were not good, but then as I learn more
I can see certain patterns.
Certain what?
- [Audience] Patterns
- Like I would write in a certain way,
and this would get more orders,
versus I wrote in some other way,
and I started writing down those type of things,
and then after a couple years I published
my first book online.
Now it's also available on Amazon, called Influence.
You guys should get it, it's like 10 bucks on Amazon,
but you should get it.
And I wrote that book, and it talks about
some of the principles, actually 47 of them,
that I've learned of what worked,
and what doesn't work.
And that's how I started my career.
In my early 20's I was charging a couple grand
for a marketing piece, a sales letter,
I worked with four or five clients per month.
So, I was making about ten thousand dollars a month.
How many of you think that's decent money?
Ten grand a month in my early 20's as a copywriter,
and that's how I then evolved into marketing,
and internet marketing.
I think one of the reasons, people would say, Dan,
one of the reasons you made a lot of money online,
because of your timing, and I agree with that.
Because when I got into it, it was early,
and there wasn't a whole lot of competition.
Yes, I think timing has to do with it,
but I think also it has to do with the foundational skill,
the copywriting skill that I built up
that when I took it online, cause it's the same,
when I was doing direct mail when I put a long sales
letter online, it works, and that's how I think
it's accelerated my success.
How many follow what I'm saying?
That's how important this is skill.
So, it's a skill that I have, that I've developed
over the years.
It's a skill that I value, and I'm sharing with you,
that I think it's a skill that maybe you don't
need to develop this, but at least,
how many would think it's beneficial to learn
a little bit about it, yes?
That's what I'm gonna talk about.
So you can see, if you type in Dan Lok copywriting,
you'll find a whole bunch of stuff in Google,
things I've done, sales letter, people work with,
interview I've done, all kinds of stuff
if you type in Dan Lok copywriting
it's still there online on all kinds of places
and stuff like that.
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