Ship 30 for 30
What Daniel Day Lewis and Gary Halbert have in common
There’s not much that scares the bejeebers out of me.
Acting. Oh, man. If you suddenly told me I had to go on stage in a theatre performance, or on screen, I’d immediately go screaming down the street AND have a laundry problem. Sing and play my bass? No problem. But ACT? Hell, no.
That’s why I’m a copywriter.
I can do it on paper, and avoid the hard stuff. Buuuuut ….
Great copywriting is just like great method acting.
You have to step not just into your prospect’s shoes, but also into their heads. Suffer the fears and traumas they suffer. Not just find out what makes them quake, but experience it.
Daniel Day Lewis, for example. Method actor if ever there was one.
I can’t verify the story, but he purportedly refused to film in The Boxer until he’d had his nose broken in sparring at least once. By the end of training, ex-champ Barry McGuigan declared him fit to go pro.
The copywriter’s most valuable tool is Emphathy.
You have to FEEL their pain, and really WANT to see their life improved. You hafta CARE. The difference is that you have to feel it twice: For the buyer, AND, for the seller, simultaneously.
There’s more to great copywriting than just Empathy, mind.
But it’s the 20% that gets you 80% of the way there.
