04/24/2024
Jay-Z, Kobe Bryant, and Anna Wintour, they all have one thing in common.
And this one thing is what made them successful.
That thing has nothing to do with talent or luck, or being born into money.
It’s actually something different and, dare I say… simple?
This one thing is exactly what allowed them to become an ‘overnight success.”
And that thing is to study and learn from the greatest, those who came before them.
Jay-Z or Kobe didn’t look at what those who came before them had.
Instead, they both observed and looked at what they did and how they did it, and they learned from that.
But they didn't just blindly copy what they saw, instead they adopted to their learning style and the time and environment they lived in.
For example, Jay-Z saw the kid riffling and rapping and thought that he could do that too..
And then he started doing it…
After, when he looked at the greatest rapper of his time, he observed what that person was doing and how…
But instead of rhyming about the ladies and the riches…
He was rhyming about life in the ghetto living. And we all know how that worked out for him 🙂
I think copywriters can learn a great deal from the greatest, too, and we can apply this sage advice, which most people don’t notice, to our own learnings.
In the copywriting world, the most common advice is to handwrite sales letters.
This is the advice that came from Gary Halbert.
And I am not disagreeing with this advice.
But my thing is… these days, people only write by hand if they are into journaling.
The vast majority of people either type on their laptops, mechanical keyboards, or even their phones.
Every piece of copy we as copywriters create, becomes alive on a screen.
Every piece of copy we create, our audience sees on screens. (unless you actually mail things…)
So it only makes sense to retype to learn.
Now, the reason I prefer this practice is twofold.
First of all, this is how I learned and keep learning copywriting.
This alone allowed me to go from zero to landing three clients in three months…
And then go to 6 figures in my first year.
While I know a lot of copywriters who handwrite every single letter from the OGs still struggle to put a good enough email together after years of practice this way.
The second reason is when you re-type, you can make notes as you go.
When you do that, you can start noticing patterns and structure…
When you see these, you’re able to highlight the whole thing, leave a note, and come back to it later.
Once you do, you’ll learn much more this way than by wasting hours handcopying letters.
Now this could be just me and the way I learn.
But because I get so many messages from copywriters of various levels sharing their experiences…
While handcopywring was a way to learn 5-10 years ago…
It might be doing more harm than good today.
And if you’ve been doing this as a primary way to expand your skills without seeing much progress…
It might be the time to try something different.
In the end, Einstein said it best “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results”
Curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Lana Sova
