21 Dec 2024 #misc
“Wait, I’m not working anymore.”
Being laid off feels weird. Moments of relief followed by a “What am I going to do now?”
Some days after being laid off last January, something weird happened. I didn’t realize I had ingrained this “habit.”
Midway through rushing to my laptop to reply to my Teams messages, I suddenly stopped my short commute from the living room to my working corner.
“Wait a second, I’m not working anymore…I don’t have to reply to messages or emails.” Pheeew!
I shared this realization with my family. We all laughed. But there was something behind it.
Stopping my short breaks to reply to messages had become second nature. I was trapped in a mindset. In the wrong mindset. “I could get into trouble if I don’t respond soon.”
That moment of relief lasted a few days. Anxiety knocked at my door: “Somebody here?” I realized I wasn’t receiving another paycheck. Arrrggg! “What am I going to do now?”
I had to go through my accounting software, an Excel spreadsheet, multiple times to make the anxiety go away. “Rational brain help me out here.” I had an emergency fund to cover my expenses for a few months.
Yes, a monthly salary is one of three most harmful addictions. I had already heard that quote. This time I had to live it.
That was a moment of relief followed by a “What am I going to do now?”
20 Dec 2024 #writing
Writing is the superpower to survive in the online world.
All online content starts with writing. A video begins with a script, a course with a series of posts, and a long post with a Tweet or short-form post.
And guess what? Marketing and sales start with writing, too. A landing page, an email sequence, a product description, and an ad.
That’s when copywriting comes into the picture. Copywriting means writing to make readers take action: like and subscribe, download a freebie, and ultimately buy.
This is my 3-step plan to learn enough copywriting to be safely dangerous.
1. Start by writing classics by hand
The #1 exercise I have found to learn to copywrite is copywork.
Copywork means recreating classic ads, sales letters, and good “copy” by hand. Yes, by hand. That’s the whole point. When we handwrite, we’re forced to slow down, read carefully, and pay attention to words and phrases.
I’m not new to this exercise. When I started writing coding tutorials, I copied Seth Godin’s posts. I noticed how he doesn’t use introductions or conclusions in his posts. Instead, the first sentence naturally follows the post title.
The goal of copywork isn’t to transcribe. It’s about noticing the structure, common phrases, and other patterns.
These are 3 posts where you can find samples to copywork:
- Get Better At Copywriting By Handwriting Famous Pieces Of Work! —I’ve been following this post this month. That’s one example per day for 31 days.
- 5 Ad Copywriting Examples to Study, Hand Copy, and Save to Your Copywriting Swipe File
- Gary Halbert Copywriting Examples
I bought a notebook for my copywork and color pens. After I finish transcribing a copy, I use a pen with one color to notice words and phrases. Then, at the margins of the page, I use another pen to notice the overall structure and formulas.
And there’s one online course built around the idea of copywork: CopyHour. That’s 90 days of daily copywork—Even we can handwrite that landing page!
Everywhere I looked, I found references to this course. Definitely, I’m keeping an eye on the next enrollment.
2. Read the Boron Letters
Gary Halbert is one name that keeps popping up in any Google search about copywriting.
He is a legend in the copywriting world. He wrote sales letters and ads for well-known brands, making millions of dollars in sales. Think of him like Hemingway going the sales way.
The thing is, Gary Halbert ended up in jail. From there, he wrote a series of letters to his son, teaching him to make money through copywriting. Those letters became a book: The Boron Letters—named after the Boron Federal Penitentiary where Gary was.
After doing copywork, my next step is reading and studying The Boron Letters.
I picked up The Boron Letters years ago but didn’t finish it. At that time, I thought it was another writing book. I didn’t understand what copywriting was and its goal, and dropped it. I wasn’t ready yet.
All that I remember is the advice from someone in jail to eat a banana a day, exercise, and grow big arms because bullies don’t mess with people with big arms. That’s from the first two letters, by the way.
Since reading three books will put us ahead of 90% of people, here are another two copywriting books: “Writing That Works” and “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook.” Those books are on my to-read list after The Boron Letters.
3. Revisit my landing pages and calls to action
This is the dangerous part. Knowledge is only potential power unless it’s put into practice.
I don’t have that many sales pages yet, but a couple of landing pages for coding courses and freebies in my Gumroad account. I want to revisit those landing pages and the calls to action at the end of my posts.
Originally, I wrote them following what I saw online: “Click here” and “Join my course here.” I had no idea about copywriting and frameworks like Problem/Agitation/Solution.
One trick I’ve learned is to write in terms of benefits, not features. Always write with the reader in mind. That’s the difference between “1GB of storage” vs “carry 100 songs in your pockets wherever you go.”
With that trick in mind, I changed one of my CTAs from a simple “Join my free 7-day email course here” to something along the lines of “Join my free 7-day email course and save years and thousands of dollars’ worth of career mistakes.” And I got my first two subscribers after that change.
If there’s one skill you can master for the future, choose writing online. And don’t worry about ChatGPT or Copilot because they will always output average writing.
19 Dec 2024 #misc
You don’t need to speed a DeLorean to 88mph to time travel. In fact, you’re already doing it.
Every time you go into your head to relive past situations, you’re time traveling. And every time you go into your head to anticipate future situations, you’re time traveling too.
I declare myself guilty of time traveling.
I’ve time traveled to the day when the ex-bosses “who let me go” finally realize how talented and smart I am and beg me to return. That probably will never happen. And I’ve only wasted time and mental energy time traveling.
By reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher, I learned to have a “Daily Practice:” A routine to work on my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self every day. We need to work on all of them to be healthy.
As part of the Daily Practice, James Altucher recommends stopping time traveling.
For some people, it means having moments of silence during the day to breathe and notice their thoughts.
I won’t call it “meditation.” Probably, when you hear that word, the first thing that comes to mind is a Buddhist monk sitting in impossible poses chanting. But it’s simpler than that.
When you notice you’re time traveling, repeat to yourself: “Stop, breathe, and get out of your mind.”
Time traveling only brings resentment. Stop doing it and get back to the present.
18 Dec 2024 #misc
Phones are not just communication devices. They’re distraction machines with constant beeps and buzzes.
Keeping our phones around reduces our cognitive abilities, even when we’re not using them. I learned this from reading “The Anxious Generation,” by the way.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t use those beeps and buzzes to our advantage. They can be reminders of what we want to accomplish.
I have an alarm to unplug from work labeled “It’s time to relax.” During that time, I do anything I want outside work without feeling guilty. It’s one of the few sounds I allow my phone to make. All others are deactivated.
From reading The 3 Alarms by Eric Partaker, I learned to use alarms not only to schedule my downtime but also to improve the three main areas of our lives: health, work, and relationships.
Here’s how:
Start by setting 3 alarms on your phone.
Label each alarm with a reminder of who you want to become: the healthy parent, the focused solopreneur, or the supportive partner. You name it!
When the alarm rings, do something that takes you closer to that. It doesn’t have to be a huge action, just a small step.
When “the healthy parent” rings, get up and move your body. When “the focused solopreneur” rings, put all distractions away and work on your side business. When “the supportive partner” rings, call or text your partner.
Those small steps will create habits, and habits will reinforce who you want to become.
You can set an alarm to:
- Exercise
- Drink water
- Read a book
- Stretch your body
- Write down 10 ideas
- Write a gratitude list
- Step away from screens
- Have a moment of silence
- Work on your side business
- Call or text someone you love
And label that alarm as a reminder of the person you want to become.
17 Dec 2024 #writing
“Five times as many people read the headline as read the body.”
That’s a quote from David Ogilvy, “the father of advertising.” It applies to the copywriting world, as well as other forms of writing.
A good headline is like the welcome sign for the rest of your piece. People passing by will choose to read only after seeing a good headline. No matter how well written and insightful your content is, a poor headline will make people skip to the next piece in their feeds.
Apart from writing 10 headlines a day, the best piece of advice I’ve found to write better headlines is to look at YouTube headlines.
Following that advice, I sneaked into Ali Abdaal’s YouTube channel. Here are the headlines of 10 of his most popular videos:
- How I type REALLY fast (156 words per minute)
- My evidence-based skincare routine
- Why you’re always tired - 7 myths ruining your sleep
- If I started a YouTube channel in 2025, I’d do this
- The book that changed my financial life
- What makes people successful?
- How writing made me a millionaire
- My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom
- My favorite note-taking app for students - Notion
- The best book I’ve ever read about making money
Those headlines follow a pattern:
- How I “action”
- My evidence-based “action”
- “Question about pain” - n “promise”
- If I “action”, I’d do this
- The “resource” that “outcome”
- How “action” made me “outcome”
- My honest advice to “audience” who wants “result”
- The best “resource” I’ve ever “action” about “subject”
That’s a good starting place to write better headlines.