I have a confession to make. I don’t particularly like writing all the time. I have a love/hate relationship with it actually. And I make a good living at it. But it can be painful. There is no more uncomfortable feeling than staring at a blank sheet of paper and knowing you have to fill it with sparkling words about your business. 

I can’t always find my writer’s hat when the time comes. But for me that isn’t an option. And it probably isn’t for you either. No one wants to waste hours, even days, trying to get their marketing message down on paper and out to the world. We need a reliable, replicatable system we can turn to without thinking.  

You have to start any communication by understanding the essence of who you are. We do this everyday naturally without even thinking about it. We just talk and it spills out. There is no block there. But somehow when we have to WRITE that same message, we tend to freeze up. Does that sound familiar to you? 

That’s because we write many times slower than we speak or think. So those thoughts are spinning around in our brains (updating by the millisecond), preparing to travel down our arm to our hand and they get STUCK. Boom you have writer’s block…or writer’s FREEZE as I like to call it. What happens to ice when you warm it up? It melts. All you have to do is warm it up and it flows. 

I’m going to show how to melt that writer’s freeze and actually have fun. I want to  talk to you about S.E.X.Y. marketing. That’s S.E.X.Y. as in Seductive, Engaging, eXpression of You. Being YOU is the best way to connect with your target.  

We actually play this scenario out in real life all the time. Have you ever seen a guy or a gal that really turned you on? Someone like Brad or Britney (okay, maybe not Brit anymore). Or how about your significant other? You fill in the blank.  

When you’re attracted by someone, what is the first thing you want to do? 

Get their attention. And you get their attention through seduction or flirting. It’s the same in copy. But you can only get their attention authentically when you put your personality in the copy. So consider opening with a brief story they can relate to. 

In order to get their attention you have to prove you care. So do your due diligence. Study your target market/tarket intently. The thing about writing is a lot of energy has to take place BEFORE you write a single word. You have to know the answer to these 3 questions: 

1. Who are YOU?
2. Who are THEY?
3. What do they WANT?

Once you have their attention, of course, you want to keep it and build a relationship. So engage them in conversation. When people read your writing they are also having a conversation…a conversation in their mind. They are coming up with objections and questions while agreeing and disagreeing with parts of what you offer. So you want to be sure you to anticipate what their needs are.  

Story #1

When I was a teenager in New Orleans, I and some friends were making a nature video for a science class. We’d spent all afternoon on the video, and it was almost dark when we unknowingly wandered out of the park and onto Domino’s sugar plant property, up to the chain link fence surrounding the old Domino’s sugar plantation mansion. The mansion isn’t restored, nor is it open for tours. We were looking through the fence at this old, creepy,overgrown house when we saw someone walking along the veranda. The figure turned in to one of the house doors, then turned around in the doorway and looked back at us. Then it disappeared. We ran like the Hound of the Baskervilles was after us, and spent many hours at home rewinding the tape, slowing it down to try to see, and the figure kept disappearing. It just vanished.

We chickened out, cut the last part of the tape, and turned in the science project.

Loni L. Ice
Ice and Ink Freelance

Story #2

Well, here goes…

It was the fall of 1994; I had just endured five life-saving surgeries the past year in preparation for hemodialysis after suffering kidney failure. I had dropped 35 pounds thus far and my skin began to turn a lovely shade of ashen-gray dead. You know, the Uncle Fester look. I’ve seen corpses that looked better than I did at the time…

As I lay restlessly beside my wife in the master bedroom that crisp fall night, my thoughts turned to how I would survive another day of this “blood-cleansing” at the dialysis clinic. I obviously had a lot to live for; however, I knew that I would have to make that decision to live, if I was to do so. My thoughts were interrupted by the curtain in the bedroom, as it gently moved from the cool breeze seeping thru the small crack in the window. As I turned over to get some much needed sleep, it was then that I noticed…

My wife and I were not alone!

Standing, at the foot of our bed, was a “ghost”…

The old man was tall, so tall, that he almost touched the ceiling. He looked ancient with his long gray beard and white hair, dressed in a long robe that touched the floor. He seemed to be transparent, but yet, visible. His eyes, particularly, the whites, were clear and bright and his gaze penetrating, but calming. In both hands he held closely to his bosom, a very large closed book.

My wife awakened, and surprisingly, calmly asked the man “Can we help you?”

The old man uttered not a word, he didn’t even open his mouth, yet, he “spoke” to my wife, saying:

“It is not yet his time. You will receive your gift soon.”

The old, ancient man then floated out over the top of us as we lay in bed, over the headboard and out the window… without opening the window! My wife then turned to me and said: “James, you will receive your kidney transplant by the end of April this next year.” Then, calmly, my wife rolled over and went back to sleep…

We never saw the old man again. We have, however, had several other “visitors” since that time.

On April 30, 1995, my wife and I were lying in bed after another exhausting day of work and “blood cleansing”. The time was 11:30 P.M. CST when I nudged my wife with my elbow and sarcastically stated: “Hey honey, it’s almost May 1st, where’s my transplant?” To which she calmly replied: “It will be here, don’t worry.”

I rolled over and went fast to sleep. I rested for what seemed like hours, when suddenly, I was awakened by the ringing phone at my bedside. “Mr. Artre?” said the kind female-voice on the other end. “Yes, can I help you” I replied. “This is the transplant team at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, we need you downtown as fast as you can get here. We are flying your transplant kidney in from California as we speak.”

I hurriedly, haphazardly, with tears in my eyes got dressed and made my way to the door…

As I looked over my shoulder to ask my wife if she was ready, it was then that I noticed the clock at my bedside. It read…

11:59

What seemed like hours of sleep before, were actually only a few minutes. Every conceivable emotion, captured in that one brief moment…

I am forever grateful for the “gift from the ghost” I received. Because of it, I am here writing this true story to you today. Live every day as if it is your last, it just may be. Love constantly, forgive quickly, be slow to anger and maintain an attitude of gratitude. You are blessed, more than you may realize at the moment.

Blessings,

James G. Artre
CEO & President
AIM Enterprises