A professional friend of mine just unsubscribed from Breakthrough Marketing Secrets…
He was kind enough to give me his comments — his “reason why” for stopping.
Bad news. He was basically throwing in the towel on this whole copywriting thing. Unsubscribing not just from my newsletter, but from all of ‘em.
In fact, he considered mine to be one of the good ones. In his words: “And thank you so much for doing what you do, day in and day out. You really do provide a SHITLOAD of great advice (most of which I have kept).”
But despite all my best advice (and that of many others), he still felt like he was spinning his wheels.
I probed deeper.
I asked him where he’s been trying to get clients from…
In short, he went down the laundry list of all the places where all the copywriters hang out.
There’s a Facebook Job Board I won’t name. AWAI’s jobs site. Upwork. Etc., etc.
All the places where copywriters gather to look for paying clients.
Is there anything fundamentally wrong with these places? Nope. They all can be sources of great clients. (Once upon a time, I got a gig through a spec assignment on AWAI’s job site that led to a substantial retainer. The clients are there!)
Just like any other place where a ton of copywriters gather, to pitch themselves for any clients “in attendance.”
But here’s the thing…
They’re all cattle calls — and you lose just by showing up and playing the game by the posted rules…
What’s a “cattle call?”
“An open audition for parts in a play, movie, or other production.”
In other words, there’s one or a limited number of parts available for a gig. They put out an open call to anyone who wants one of those spots. And wannabes line up for miles, for their chance at stardom.
Think about supply and demand for a minute. Is this situation in your favor? Is this something you want to put yourself into the middle of?
Even if you are a star in the making, the filters in this situation are set on high. They’re looking for any excuse to dismiss you, to rule you out. And if you manage to squeak through? These are for the bit roles and unpaid extras parts, and are more likely to lead to desolation than any real opportunity.
My first year at AWAI’s Job Fair, I tried to stand out. Rather than do what all the novices did, I wrote a sales letter for myself…
The headline?
—
Imagine Discovering A Direct Marketing Superstar Like Clayton Makepeace, Gary Bencivenga, or Michael Masterson at Age 27…
—
It went on in the same vein.
It told of my successes. It highlighted my accomplishments. It featured my growing knowledge of the field.
I still remember stopping at Kinko’s in Delray Beach on the way from the airport, and getting them to print and bind a bunch of copies of that, with some samples included to show off my copywriting chops.
A bunch of marketers took them. They didn’t get me any calls.
What got me calls and gigs from that Bootcamp was the relationships I’d been building before and kept building after Bootcamp.
What I did at Job Fair — even as I tried to stand out — barely mattered. Because I was in the middle of a bunch of other copywriters all trying to do the exact same thing.
And that was me showing off my chops in a room full of clients I know were ready, willing, and able to hire me!
In fact, after that year I decided I wasn’t ever going to approach Job Fair the same way again.
I realized two things:
- There were great potential clients in that room — some of the best direct response companies in the world, ready to hire copywriters, and…
- I would never get their attention by trying to do the same things as everyone else, only a little better.
I realized that if I played by the same rules as everyone else, I’d be treated the same as everyone else.
The first thing I did? Ditch the business cards. I still have stacks of business cards from eager-eyed copywriters from the last few events I’ve gone to, that I had and have absolutely no interest in following up on. Sorry, it’s true.
A traditional business card should serve ONE role. That’s to easily hand someone your contact information, because they asked for it, to save for later. That’s not even relevant today, with email, social media, and access to unlimited contacts in your smart phone. Business cards are dead.
And heck, even when they weren’t dead, the most powerful people in any industry didn’t carry them anyway. If you really wanted to get to the A-players, you’d find out how to get to them. They weren’t passing around business cards like candy on Halloween.
(Truly, I’ve seen people drop their generic business cards on empty tables, hoping someone would come pick them up and for some reason reach out. This is 100% ineffective, I promise you. This is about you feeling good about the act of getting rid of business cards, not about actually getting results.)
Instead of business cards or even elaborate handouts, I decided to focus on conversations!
From that point forward, in any networking situation, I decided to focus on starting a good conversation. And at the end, trying to continue that conversation beyond the networking event.
Yes, by the time I came back a year later, I had far more success under my belt.
But by arriving empty-handed to start the conversation, I was different. I spoke differently, acted differently, and treated the marketers there differently.
I was subconsciously communicating: “I know this is a cattle call, and I don’t participate in cattle calls. But maybe we have an opportunity to create some success together.”
I later refined this system into Roy Furr’s Networking Secret, a system I’ve used to book an entire six-figure-year’s worth of copywriting business from one afternoon in a room like this.
Same clients. Same room. Total difference, based on how I show up.
And if you take this same approach outside of the dozens of cattle call situations available today to somewhere that supply and demand are more firmly in your favor?
It’s even more powerful.
Here’s the thing: opportunity is everywhere, but it’s not automatic…
I hear it again and again. There’s a dearth of really good copywriters out there. Folks that truly understand the principles of effective direct response.
And for folks who help businesses with marketing but aren’t “copywriters” it’s the same thing.
Even the world’s most successful businesses want more leads, customers, sales, and profits. They want to hire you, and pay you good money, IF you can deliver.
But at the same time, they deal with a never-ending parade of promises from under-qualified opportunity seekers who only want to get at the opportunity they’ve been promised.
The key is to be different. To stand out. To immediately position yourself as someone who recognizes the truth of the situation, and adapts your strategy accordingly.
Heck, that’s what good marketing is all about, isn’t it?
“I’m here, I’m different, and I’m a good fit for you. You’re showing your smarts by choosing me, and it will pay off by getting you the ideal result. I understand you, and I understand this situation you’re in, in which we connected. And I have the solution you’re looking for.”
If you can’t do that for yourself, in the crowded situation of trying to get the client’s attention, why should they turn around and hire you to do it for them?
I write this with hope…
I know this will serve as intellectual entertainment to most who read it.
You’ll be inspired, but won’t change your behavior.
You won’t study my Networking Secret training, and the complementary copywriting business training from BTMSinsiders.
You won’t change your behavior, and your entire thinking around getting clients.
You’ll keep positioning yourself the same as everyone else, going back in for the cattle calls, and hoping you’ll get better results next time.
I know that it’s easier to be entertained by this but not change than it is to really introspect based on this accurate thinking about the nature of these situations.
But maybe, just maybe, one person — a future superstar — will get that inspiration to re-think what they’re doing…
They’ll decide something has to change, it has to be them, and it has to be now.
And starting today, they’ll walk a different path.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
