You’re familiar with Gary Halbert, The Prince of Print?
Our times in marketing just barely crossed, by a couple years.
I came into marketing as he was posting his letters on his still-live The Gary Halbert Letter website. Direct response wisdom that used to cost $199 per year (or more) was now being posted online, free. And with an archive available, to boot.
I remember being so excited every time a new email from Gary would show up in my inbox. It was like Christmas.
Because there I was, a rookie marketer, who knew I needed to learn direct response like my entire future depended on it.
And there Gary was, ol’ Santa Claus, handing out gems of wisdom and hard-won experience like presents to us mere mortals.
I didn’t just read the new issues. I went back and read every past issue posted there. I grabbed everything from Gary I could get my hands on.
Turns out most of today’s marketing gurus were doing the same.
(Sidebar: My Aussie friend Ben Simkin, who has generated more sales off Facebook than anyone else in the Southern Hemisphere, is hosting Gary’s sons for the first and possibly last time in Australia to teach how the Halbert family secrets to maximum money in minimum time apply to your business today, right now. Click here if you’re in Australia.)
Today’s most brilliant marketing experts, like me, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Gary. Because he was sharing his secrets. And we were soaking them up.
Now, a lot of my biggest lessons from Gary have been so internalized, I’ve almost forgotten that he’s where they came from.
In fact, that’s what happens when you really, really learn something. It’s like the cream I pour into my coffee cup every morning. Once I’ve poured the coffee into it, it’s most definitely still there. But it gets so mixed in that it’s hard to tell what’s cream and what’s coffee.
Many of Gary’s most powerful lessons are like that. They’ve gotten so mixed into the rest of my direct response experience and learning that it’s hard to see where one begins and the other ends.
But occasionally, there’s something that pops through.
Such as Gary’s lesson on “movement beats meditation…”
Applying this one secret from Gary has had a profound impact on my business in the last couple months, and you benefit!
I’ll explain.
You see, Gary was known for doing things fast. Almost recklessly. At least, on the edge.
While he could sit down and spend months finessing a perfect sales letter or ad, he seldom did. Rather, he wrote from the gut, wrote fast, and sent it to press — to the market.
Did this lead to the occasional messy bit of work? Sure. Did this lead to some flops when his gut was wrong? Absolutely.
But, there was a benefit.
I’ll explain.
Let’s imagine you have two businesses, targeting the same market, coming from roughly the same starting point.
One of these businesses spends all their time working, reworking, and reworking again the marketing that they’re going to send out the door. It has to be perfect, they reason, because they only have one chance to make that great first impression. So they put out a new marketing campaign, with a new message, every six months.
Then, there’s the ragtag renegade marketer who does things well, but focuses on fast. Rather than taking six months to create a new promotion, they’re trying something new every two weeks. Sometimes, they’re rough around the edges. They’re often imperfect. But for every promotion the competitor tests, they test twelve.
In fact, over a year, one company tests two campaigns, the other, twenty-four!
Now, here’s the thing. It’s impossible to know, until you test, what will do well in the markets, and what will bomb.
You just don’t know. You develop a gut instinct. But usually, the more tests you’ve overseen, the less confident you are that you’ll actually be able to pick a winner.
So there’s one company who is spending all their time perfecting these two promotions per year. And there’s another that is testing twenty-four per year, to see what the market responds to.
Not only that, with every promotion put into the market, you have a chance to learn. You actually see what the market is responding to, and what they aren’t. And that learning can be applied to your next test, and your next, and your next.
So, you have more chances to have a winner in the market, AND more chances to learn and improve based on actionable market data about what really works and what doesn’t.
So, who wins? The company focused on putting out two polished promotions per year? Or the one that puts out twenty-four fast promotions?
Assuming pretty much all else is equal, I’ll put my money on speed every time.
And so did Gary. In fact, that’s part of how he racked up such profound marketing knowledge, and such a long list of wins.
Go to bat enough times, swing hard, and you’ll tally up some pretty impressive totals. (Remember, Babe Ruth was both the home run AND strike out kings!)
This is the real secret behind movement beats meditation…
Listen, this is coming from someone who meditates every single day, without fail. Second thing in the morning (behind my daily weigh-in).
I believe meditation is profoundly important for self-knowledge, clear thinking, groundedness, general wellbeing, and a whole host of other reasons.
But when it comes time to go out there and get results, thinking too much (which was what Gary referred to when he said meditation) is sure to set you back.
You have to barrel forward through life on the edge if you want to do big things.
You have to go outside of your comfort zone.
You have to move, fast, in pursuit of your biggest goals.
Make this a habit, a practice, and a way of life? You will create massive results.
So… How do you benefit?
Well, there’s this whole thing I decided to do back in April 2014, where I write over 1,000 words of content every day. (As of yesterday, over 1,175,000 words, and 4,000 pages when exported to Microsoft Word.)
Some readers — business owners and marketers who would know — have compared it to getting a new issue of The Gary Halbert Letter every day.
But that’s not really what I’m referring to in this instance.
Rather, the launch of BTMSinsiders has represented a massive “movement beats meditation” play in my business.
Since 2010, most of my work has involved growing client businesses, creating multi-million dollar campaigns, and so on… But it’s at a relative snail’s pace to what I’m able to do in an entrepreneurial endeavor I control.
So at the same time I’m teaching many of the methods, principles, and strategies that I’ve used to create massive breakthroughs for clients… I’m simultaneously staying one step ahead, with a ton of tests going on in my business, as we speak.
And you benefit through these daily issues and through the new training I’m constantly releasing through BTMSinsiders.
If you find these daily issues valuable (and you likely do or you wouldn’t still be reading this), you have a bigger opportunity than ever before to go deeper into the thinking that leads to this kind of content.
You have an opportunity to assimilate — like I did with Gary Halbert’s work — all my biggest ideas and breakthroughs for growing your (or your client’s) business.
Which leads me to this final note…
Hidden in this essay above were hints at not one but three of the most important principles that A-List copywriters use to make, in the words of Halbert, “Maximum Money in Minimum Time.” Did YOU spot them? Could YOU pick them out — then apply them for bigger results from your next marketing piece?
On Friday, I’m hosting a LIVE webinar for BTMSinsiders members. It’s called Think Like an A-List Copywriter.
It’s all those mindset secrets I’ve picked up from Gary and other A-listers that make a huge difference between those that are practically able to conjure money out of thin air — with their marketing — and those who never really get any traction. These are the mindsets I’ve used to rise to the top of the direct response copywriting world with blistering speed.
It will be recorded, again for members only. But there will only be one chance to attend this live. To ask questions. To go deeper. (Even if you don’t participate or ask questions, I find that attending any training live is a great way to be focused and to make sure you really assimilate and get the most out of it.)
You now have less than two days to sign up. Less than two days to join BTMSinsiders and make sure you’ve submitted your webinar registration.
Just $37 gets you in this webinar. Plus it gets you instant streaming access to:
— My Story Selling Master Class…
— The Most Valuable Customer Strategy…
— The Copywriter’s Roadmap to Building a Core Offer…
— Copywriting Royalties and Pay-For-Performance…
— and Roy Furr’s Networking Secret!
You’ve got a month to go through everything, and if you don’t feel like you’re getting 100X the value, you’re out nothing. Cancel, email our support email address, and you get a prompt and courteous full refund. Or, stick with your membership, and keep getting more of my best ideas for growing your business, every month.
You could sit on the fence and meditate on this all day. Or you could move, and then move to implement what you learn, and see what happens. My bet is Gary’s principle applies even to this decision.
Click here for Think Like an A-List Copywriter and to join us as a BTMSinsiders member…
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
