[Notes]21-Yrs-old, 3 Weeks into Copywriting, Beats A-Level Copywriters.

[cannan35wong]

21-Yrs-old, 3 Weeks into Copywriting, Beats A-Level Copywriters. My notes on Caleb O'Dowd’s presentation.

Hey beautiful people,

I see there are lots of information in this forum and I know everyone has a lot to take in so instead of posting videos like others, I've decided to share my notes so that you guys can consume in just a few minutes.

The following notes are taken from Gary Halbert’s 80th Birthday Seminar. The presenter, Caleb O’Dowd gave a presentation that I think is really extraordinary.

Caleb O'Dowd is another master copywriter who is the King of Print and has made tons of money in supplements.

When he was 21-years-old, he went to Gary and after just three weeks, he wrote a million-dollar ad.

He was meant to learn from Gary Halbert for only 3 weeks. But for some reason, those 3 weeks turned into 3 years. So what he knows is surely valuable.

Here are some of my notes. Hope you guys enjoy it:

1. Beginner copywriters and marketers are always looking for tricks and tactics. Intermediate copywriters and marketers look for strategies. The absolute masters? They look for Concepts, Perspectives, and Philosophies.
That’s why Gary Halbert never taught him tricks or lessons on how to write a headline. Because Gary focuses on concepts, perspectives, and philosophies… and that’s what allows him and Caleb to dominate ANY market.

2. So how does he know what to write on the headlines? He knows it from experience. Those masterful copywriters have “The Sixth Sense”, which is something you’ll get after years of experience in testing ad copy.
And he acquired “The Sixth Sense” quickly by… writing out winning sales letters by hand.

*3. 3 Types of Copywriters:

The first type of copywriter is “Copy Writers”. They are replicators. They fail a lot because they don’t really understand salesmanship. They just copy other people’s work.

The second type of copywriter is what Caleb calls Professional Product Sellers.
They find out the features and benefits of their products and match them with the market’s hopes, fears, pains, dreams, frustrations and desires.
After lots of practice, they can become really successful. They are GOOD.

The third type of copywriter is… The Alchemists.
They are extremely rare, and there’s a massive, massive gap between Alchemists and the Professional Product Seller.
What they do differently is that they start with the PERFECT BULLSEYE. Perfect, perfect, absolutely pinpoint perfect bullseye!
That is, EXACTLY what the prospects truly wants.
The perfect bullseye is what will set your prospects on fire, and make them take out their credit card to order irrationally, emotionally, and rapidly.
If you want to make banks, all you need to do is to hit it. What about the product? The product is the least concern (although it’s valuable). You create it later after you’ve created your sales letter. In fact, there are countless times where Caleb and Gary have written million dollar sales letters without having the product even exist.
That’s how you create breakthrough advertising.

4. Copywriting has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with sales. Copywriting is always referred to as “Salesmanship in print” or “Multiplied Salesmanship”. If you have no ability to write beautiful sentences, that’s fine. Because writing extraordinary copy only requires you to have THE PERFECT BULLSEYE, some salesmanship and the ability to string sentences together.

5. So, having the bullseye is the key. How do you get the bullseye?
The answer is... you talk, ask, and research your prospects. The more the better.
Do you still remember I mentioned that Caleb wrote a million-dollar ad just three weeks into Gary’s Training? That was actually a sex pill ad. The reason he was able to do that is because he hit the bullseye of those prospects who wanted to buy sex pills. He knew the perfect bullseye since Gary forced him to call more than a hundred customers on why did they buy those pills. During those hundreds of interviews and conversations, he quickly found out that the real reason why those people bought their sex pills. The reason is --- GUILT. People feel guilty for not being aroused by their wife after so many years. So he wrote about GUILT, while other copywriters wrote about “Give your woman the experience of her lifetime”. And that’s how a 21-year-old carpenter with less than 3 weeks of copywriting experience wrote a million-dollar ad that crushed “A level” copywriters' copy.

6. The highest level of copywriting is to write things that the prospects want to hear and they will give you the money.

7. The Cure For Cancer philosophy
Think as if your prospects’ problems are cancer, and your product is the cure for their cancer. Understand that your product is their cure for their cancer.
If you don’t feel like that, you don’t understand your prospect that well. You don't understand how painful they feel and how your product can really improve their lives. Put more effort into understanding your prospects. (Assuming that you are really selling a good product.)

8. 4 Types of selling: Benefit Selling, Feature Selling, Emotional Selling, and Inspirational Selling.
Inspirational Selling is the highest form of selling... the one kind of selling that eclipses all other forms of selling by a large margin.
Inspirational Selling speaks to your prospects at another whole level.
And you need to have the deepest understanding of human psychology to be able to do that. For example, we all believe that we are small, but we all desire to be big.
If you can speak to the other person on that level and make the prospects feel big and powerful, then the product becomes insignificant. Because you've connected with your prospects and they care about you and your message more than the money in their pocket.

9. One of the biggest problems advertisers face is that they are boring AF. Be passionate about your offer when writing copy. How do you get excited about your offers? His method is to have someone who knows nothing about your offer to ask about your offer. As you explain it to them, that’s when you get passionate about it. (At least he does) Record the audio of it, film yourself, remember the feeling, do whatever to have that passion while you’re writing the ad copy.
(or just Gary's Miami Vice technique: Record yourself using an audio recorder and have a conversation about your product. When you forget you're recording yourself and you're speaking the language of passion, that's when you have your own concert pitch. And THAT can be your million-dollar copy after you transcribe it.)

10. What do people buy? New, Unique, Never seen and heard of before, Exciting. If you involve these four elements in your copy, then your product is separated from your competitions.

11. There are lots of copywriting formulas. Caleb uses the following 7 questions to write his copy. The 7 Questions are listed below and they are in the following orders:
- Is this a personal interest to me?
- Is this the exact solution that I need?
- What is actually new, unique and exciting about it? (Generates emotions)
- What proofs do you have?
- What do others say about it?
- How does it work?
- How do I order?

12. The secret to success: Focus, commitment, relentlessness. How do you generate these traits? By understanding that you have the pain and pleasure matrix: You move towards pleasure and away from pain.
He motivates himself by thinking about what bad things can happen if he doesn’t work hard and the good things that come with it if he puts in the work. He also understands his “WHY”, as in why did he do what he does. That's what keeps him work hard and become a great marketer and copywriter.


That's all! I think the 3rd bullet is the best one!
What do you guys think?

[GetStuffDone]

Thank you very much! Do you have the sessions of the event?

[bbhmogul]

Great notes. Thanks. You got reps.

[Kaiser Soze]

Great post, thanks, max reps!

[tsunami7]

Thank you for the notes, repped. Can you share the recordings of the seminar with us please?

[fjohnson59]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing ... +5 reps added to your stats.