20 Random Pieces of Take Away Advice from John Carlton’s Hot Seat Seminar
This month I was able to once again be part of the faculty for my copywriting mentor, John Carlton. He held a Hot Seat Seminar in San Francisco with ‘civilians’ and other copywriters. As always, I came home with tons of notes for myself! (It’s kinda funny how watching other people’s hot seats can give you ideas about your own business…even MORE SO than when you’re on the actual hot seat!)
As usual, I was the only female on the faculty. Being ‘one of the guys’ while keeping my female perspective was incredibly empowering. I got the privilege of reinforcing exactly WHY *The She Factor* Marketing System exists. Yup…things are changing and guys DO THINK DIFFERENTLY.
1. Find 10 business models you like and adapt your model to that. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
2. Visit where your target market hangs out and see what language they type in to find each other. These words are priceless keywords you need to know.
3. Follow people in your industry on Twitter. Find out who is following them by visiting their profiles. Follow those people.
4. Become a merciless capitalist. (Yes, a dude thought pattern but since women still seem to be paid less in most marketplaces, something to consider.)
5. Non de plume. Take yourself out of the day-to-day details and focus on your gifts. In other words…DELEGATE and OUTSOURCE. www.AssistU.com, www.Guru.com, www.ELance.com, www.ODesk.com, www.MySunday.com, www.RentACoder.com
6. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) is jungle-level psychology brought to current society.
7. No more free info. You deserve to be paid for your expertise.
8. Use www.itunesu.com to upload content.
9. Google has an external keyword tool that’s free and pretty good.
10. “When all else fails, give them what they want.” Gary Halbert
11. “If you can’t give it away you can’t sell it.” Mike Morgan
12. 1000 click throughs in a pay per click ad is a good sample of how well your ad is performing.
13. Applause equals money. If you’re doing it right, you’re getting paid or ‘applauded.’
14. Don’t worry about the words when you start writing copy. Just worry about the MESSAGE. How would you explain what you do to the average Joe in a bar? Your message should be an ‘urgent whisper in a crowded room’ not a hypey sales pitch.
15. Don’t worry about being too simple or basic. Always cover EVERYTHING in your copy, even if you think they know it. Nothing is worse than leaving something out because you think they know it…and then to be wrong.
16. Good marketing has enormous amounts of theatre.
17. Need to make $2,093 every day for a year to be a millionaire.
18. Social media is all about inappropriate sharing.
19. David Garfinkel, Harlan Kilstein, Kevin Rogers, Mike Morgan, Stan Dahl, Mark Landstrom, and Ben Hart are flat out geniuses. Thanks for letting me stay in the boys club.
20. Billy Bob Thornton said, “Some folks call it a Kaiser blade. I call it a sling blade” in the movie Sling Blade regardless of John Carlton’s misguided attempt to pin it on the other mental patient. Thanks for the $20!
My copywriting bro, David Garfinkel
Harlan Kilstein, the hat critiquer…
Stan Dahl’s shiny head and Carlton watching the Oscars
Kevin Rogers on his bday
Ben Mack, The Morganizer, Lisa Manyon
Ben Harte with his gorgeous wife, Wanda
At any rate it was an amazing ride complete with top-notch learning and hard-core fun! If you were there and have something TASTEFUL to add please comment. Or if you have other things to share and weren’t there, by all means let’s hear it!
Warmly,
Lorrie
P.S. I still can’t believe a ‘Real Doll’ is over $6,500 or that I now know more than I ever wanted to about one…
February 25th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Tasteful? hmmm… That raised the degree of difficulty a bit.
#21 - If you want to get better at tennis, do what you can to play tennis with folks who are better than you are. Same goes for business. If you want to earn more money, do what you can to get in a room with folks who earn more money than you. If you want more customers, set aside all of the reasons you’ve given yourself that you can’t and get yourself in a room of folks who have more customers than you do.
Stan Dahl
PS - I don’t think anybody in the room got take away #17 right, either. It’s one part of the video I’m really looking forward to seeing again.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:30 am
As always, Lo — I’m grateful for your support and for encouraging me to stretch myself and learn new things. You are the best!
The Marketing Rebel Hot Seat was by far one of the best investments I’ve made in my biz. Being among some of the most brilliant minds in marketing and direct response copywriting was an invaluable experience. I agree wholeheartedly with what Stan mentioned above — if you wanna get better — hang with the best.
Not only did I learn more than I can even begin to process at the moment, I had the best time I’ve had in eons. Cannot wait to see the video ( I think — I did take quite a beating but that’s how we learn and it was all with the intent of increasing profitability – gotta LOVE that).
Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work!
Write On~
Lisa
February 27th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Excellent post Lorrie! Really enjoyed reading this and picked up a few nuggets I can use. Keep up the great work!
George
March 11th, 2009 at 12:28 am
[…] Take Away Advice from John Carlton Don’t worry about the words when you start writing copy. Just worry about the MESSAGE. How would you explain what you do to the average Joe in a bar? Your message should be an ‘urgent whisper in a crowded room’ not a hypey sales pitch. … 20. Billy Bob Thornton said, “Some folks call it a Kaiser blade. I call it a sling blade” in the movie Sling Blade regardless of John Carlton’s misguided attempt to pin it on the other mental patient. […]
March 16th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Thanks for sharing the insider secrets!
This sounds like a fantastic event. John Carlton seems to be on everyone’s list of “top copywriters” on the web lately.
Love the pictures too!
~Jessica
November 1st, 2009 at 2:56 am
Great blog. Do you know of any relevant forums or discussion groups?