This is really powerful — for marketing, business, and life…
I follow The Rock on Instagram.
I haven’t been into professional wrestling since before he was a thing, and I don’t even watch most of his movies. I loved him in Moana, and got into him that way.
But the more I learn about and from him, the more respect I have.
Yesterday he posted on Instagram that he was being featured in an article for the December issue of Wall Street Journal Magazine.
And here’s the crazy part — he’s being featured in an article about HIS HANDS.
So in this post, he describes what he calls his…
Two hand philosophy…
“It’s my ideology that we can’t control everything, but we can always control our effort and the hard work we’re willing to put in with our own two hands.
“My paws are scarred, broken knuckles, and calloused all from football, wild pro wrestling matches, dumb fights, and hitting the iron daily.
“But my hands also serve as my two anchoring roadmaps of my life’s journey — successes, failures, protection, love, and everything in between.”
You can’t control the world.
But you can influence it. By how you show up. By how you choose to think, and feel, and act in relation to it. And by the work you’re willing to put in to create the life you want.
You influence your world with your two hands.
Here’s how this applies to copywriting and marketing…
The wonderful and terrible thing about direct response marketing is that you can never know what will generate response.
Even the world’s greatest marketers can’t tell you — before something goes out — if it will be a winner or a loser.
I’ve worked hard since 2005 to get a really good grasp of what makes markets move.
(This is what one of my copywriting heroes, Gary Bencivenga, dedicated his life to — and I am following in those big footsteps.)
And recently, I’ve put out a couple controls, at least one dud, and some in the middle.
And that’s working with TEAMS of marketers who are all pretty dang good at this stuff, helping me get a read on the market and create a message to connect with them and move them to action.
I can’t control the world.
I can’t control the market.
But I can control the work I do, to put out messages that attempt to influence and persuade the market to buy products or services that I believe will help them lead healthier, happier, more prosperous lives.
— I can do more work to find the best message, and the best way to present it.
— I can put out more campaigns, testing faster.
— I can create more test versions of key elements, to increase the likelihood of success.
There are a million dimensions of even these three big categories where I can do more with my two hands (and brain) to influence my life and success.
I’ll never be able to control the market, but I can control what and how much I put in front of it to attempt to influence it.
Side note: I once heard Eugene Schwartz say that he wasn’t the best copywriter in the world, and he didn’t hope to be — but he always strove to outwork his peers and that was his ticket to coming out on top.
If there’s one lesson that is key to living a fulfilling life, this may be it…
You can’t control the world, but you can control how you show up in it.
There are things you can change. There are things you can’t. Learn the difference. And embrace that as one of the key principles and facts of life.
You DO have a tremendous ability to impact the world. In all sorts of ways.
Look at The Rock. He went from football player to professional wrestler to actor to now being a TEACHER of millions who is also building a business empire on the back of all his previous successes.
And what does he look to for the sign of how he’s interacted with the world, and taken charge of changing what he can?
The scars and calluses on his hands.
Practical advice: do the work…
I know this isn’t some marketing gimmick, trick, or tactic to increase response.
But often those are bought and used by people who are getting NOTHING (0%) response on the promise of doubling it… Which is still ZERO.
You want to know what it takes to be a high-level marketer, business-builder, or entrepreneur?
Do the work.
Put out tests.
Learn from both success and failure.
Do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t.
The faster you can rack up those tests (whether marketing or otherwise), the faster you’ll gather data about what works FOR YOU and what doesn’t work FOR YOU.
What you’ll find is that what works for Marketing Guru A doesn’t work for you, and neither does what works for Marketing Gurus B, C, or D. Maybe Marketing Guru E has something that works, along with M and Q.
But what works even better is learning whatever useful information you can get from each of them and trusting both your inner voice and your hard work to guide you to do more of what works for you.
You have two hands…
Put them to work.
Build something.
And when you’re struggling to get the structure right, change it.
Learn, grow, and get better.
As long as you commit to keep putting in the work, you’ll move forward. Even when you experience setbacks, it will be a lesson in moving forward.
The day is moving fast and I have more work to do.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
