Welcome to Secrets to Building Wealth [Pt. II]. This article covers new facets to use these secrets when launching your ideal sales copywriting career. It was originally part of the first post, yet was far too long for one article. We are focusing on how to become a copywriter with NO experience, and I’ll take you through my lessons and experiences from the beginning to now.
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This is a continuation [Pt. II] of the Secrets to Building Wealth series.
Click Here to Read Part I on the secrets to building wealth I highly recommend you read this one first.
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Picking up where we left off last time, we covered:
– the mental plane, creative universe,
– the channeling of your ideal creation through thought energy
– attracting the resources to build anything you want
– tasting the dream before you’re there
– working on getting there, step-by-step – combining your visions and your actions
Today we’ll build upon the foundation we laid last time… So if you’ve ever wondered to yourself “what does a copywriter do?” or “how much can they make?” or “how could I become a copywriter?”… I’ll answer all of that for you today!
Let’s rock and roll.
We Live in a Mental Universe – Nothing Happens Before It’s Created in the Mind!
If you recognize the unlimited potential you hold within yourself, you’ll see that you can create whatever you desire.
But there’s a big, big caveat!
You don’t hold it in your hand until you can build it clearly in your mind.
Let me say that again…
You will never create physically, that which you don’t create first in your mind.
That is to say your results can never outpace your mind, to build things that you don’t first live mentally.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many points in my life this has proven successful. It’s not a new practice; in fact it’s very old, but it’s tried and true by millions of the successful people inhabiting our planet.
– James Allen, As A Man Thinketh
Some masters choose to talk about this, yet a lot of successful people have you fooled.
They might tell you that all it takes is grit, hustle, putting your nose to the grindstone, struggle, and a whole lot of hardship. Truth be told, these are aspects in every successful man or woman’s journey, but should never take up the majority of mindshare.
What you might never see is the fact that this person lived the ideal life they wanted, thousands of times in their head before it actually happened.
I know this is the truth for me.
When I was 19 and still in school, I had my own epiphany that I didn’t want to follow the conventional path (you can even read here about why I dropped out of college).
At this time, I’d just learned about the powers of visualization and mindset, yet I didn’t know how to leverage them.
I started experimenting, playing with how I’d like to see my life.
After I dropped out, I started working two 40-hour jobs per week (80+ hours total).
It’s in this free mental time I was sharpening my arsenal. My jobs didn’t take much mental effort, so my mind was free to roam and build my empire in my head.
Throwing on a hoodie and breaking down two-ton pallets in the grocery store freezer at 5 a.m. ain’t glorious, but it’s not hard on your mind. It’s physical work.
So I put into practice the life I wanted to live (on the mental plane) as if it were a reality.
I pictured the biggest possible vision I could at the time, and lived it out in my mind every single day.
My other full-time job (counseling at a kid’s summer camp) started early too, at 6:00 a.m. Nobody would arrive for at least another hour, and there was basically nothing to do after I set up.
Every morning, I’d step outside, feeling the warm morning sun on my face. I’d take a second to ground myself and get present to the nature and the sounds of the morning, then I’d blast off into my visions.
I practiced my intense visualizations of living abroad. Traveling with my business-in-a-box. Networking with others. Learning and being mentored. Making specific amounts of money from a specific business model, with a specific game plan, etc.
I did this every day for months.
I planned out my savings, my exit plan, my next steps, and ran through the process every day.
It’s one of the most powerful things that’s accounted for the level of success I’ve achieved thus far, and I say that lightly because I’m just getting warmed up.
Not yet at that millionaire level, but this is the type of practice that I needed to incorporate to do just about everything I have. I’ve used it for moving across the world, making my new reality of working, traveling and living wherever I want.
I’ve used it for meeting influential people and serving them value.
For making over $500/day in profit from my E-com business.
Selling my first E-commerce store after a few months for close to $10,000.
Landing $5,000+ copywriting clients and Direct Response Marketing projects.
Landing $1,500+/month retainer copywriting clients for website copywriting services rendered.
Building up my ideal physique in the gym, after hitting discouraging training plateaus.
Selling. Networking. Lifestyle. Relationships.
It does not matter; it simply works for whatever you choose to channel it on.
Secrets to Building Wealth – The New Paradigm That Encompasses All: The Triangle Code
As we covered recently in part one, the secrets to building wealth are usually focused on the area of finances… But what good is $10 billion if you’re 120 pounds overweight?
How does having a diversified real estate or stock portfolio help you, if you’ve got nobody to share nice evenings, universal talks, and dinners with?
What about having all the financial ability in the world, but never creating inner stability, focus, and peace? The type of finance that makes people drop jaws is not worth its salt unless you have the freedom to enjoy it too.
So in this light, I’ve worked out my own code here at Motive In Motion, called the Triangle Code.
I looked at my own life, the lives of my successful circle, and the mentors I look up to.
One thing I like in all those I admire or emulate is is their balanced structures.
The (few) people I view as truly successful have a stable foundation. Their health is on point, their wealth is on point, they’re happy, free, and have quality people surrounding them.
To me, that is success. The accumulation of (only) numbers on a screen is not.
Not to say the former isn’t absolutely essential to a happy and fulfilling life… It is. But it’s not the only thing. So this is part of the inspiration behind the Triangle Code here at Motive In Motion.
(Click here to read more about the Triangle Code… )
And this is the frame that we’ll approach your ideal copywriting marketing strategy and career path, with step-by-step actions and crucial mindset internalizations.
So settle in and let’s get started, my friend. This process will get deep, so make sure you’re tuned in and have no distractions. If you’re in a busy setting, you might want to bookmark this for later when you can focus…
Use This to Embody a Copywriter’s Work, Wage & Network – How to Become a Copywriter (External Processes)
So in the business I was running a few years back, I’d hit some eventual hardships. This sort of forced me into a get-the-money-today position. Not much glamour to it; I was turned on to website copywriting services from a position of necessity.
It was a very humbling experience. But, as life often wraps presents in thorny packages, this turned out to be one of the best possible outcomes for me.
Though that particular situation was trying, upsetting, obnoxious, and tested my temper, it led me to a limitless craft in which I type words on the screen of my metal box and print money.
When I started, I attracted this experience through sheer will and determination to achieve something totally different. In the meantime, some hardships came up that I needed to fix.
Therefore some years ago, I was led into the lowest common denominator, and where many people start. It looked something like this…
“Money’s tight, better do something to get that fixed… NOW.”
Search Upwork, Freelancer, and other sites where I could sell some type of skill.
Choose said skill, learn it well enough to actually sell it, and learn more while on the job.
Get my first client for a low-paying copywriting job, just learn how to become a better copywriter. (I never felt I needed 1000 copywriting courses, because of the method I’ll show you in just a bit. Plus the right copywriting books were more than helpful to me in my journey).
Undervalue my skills, due to self-doubting my prior experience online.
Sell a $50 job to a client, rewrite a sales page, get results for their brand.
But next time, I was ready to level up. I acknowledged my worth and abilities, and I charged the next client $500 for a sales letter. A 10x improvement from my initial starting point!
To be fair, (to borrow a saying from the Brits) I’m elapsing the time for this instance, because it took me a long time before I was:
a) mentally ready to charge that much (even though it is not a lot)
b) willing and able to find more clients consistently
c) practice my copywriting to where I could actually get good results
So anyway, after a few of these $500-level clients, and after double-checking their great results from my words, I recognized this was not where I wanted to stay.
I was making money for these clients, far more than I was charging them, and I had the ability to choose my price point and target client.
Most people learn the wrong way when searching for “how to become a freelance writer”. I don’t even like that term, as it holds the wrong mindset in its very verbiage for getting high-paying contracts.
This is a huge consultant mindset shift, and it needs to be covered in full in the future. Keep an eye out for the dedicated posts on this proper consultant psychology…
For now, recognize that as a professional consultant, you need to be highly valued.
And you only get to be highly valued when you value yourself, like many other facets of the mirror of life.
After a while, I decided this level of value was simply not enough for what I was producing. I knew too much, was too skilled and too well-studied to keep selling my work for peanuts.
And yes, $500/project with this much potential is peanuts.
So, the next client that came my way looking for Direct Response Marketing was charged $5,000.
And as a 2019 update… Between me and you, I’ve since gone on to charge (and help my clients rake in) much more than that…
But each time, instead of messing around, dabbling, or incrementally raising my prices, I simply 10x’d it, aggressively going after what I wanted to earn. And the more I charged, the better I put forth effort, the more committed the client was, and the better results they got.
Simple.
Now that is the front-end, visible side of this. But remember the underlying causes for why things work (reading between the lines) in Secrets to Building Wealth [Pt. I]?
The man who bought the fish cheap, from a specific supplier, so his numbers worked out.
The visualization, mindset strategies, and the internal processes.
That’s the important part that makes the clock tick.
Believe it or not, when you’re learning how to become a better copywriter, this is more important! It’s more important than any of the “stuff you do”. Let’s unveil how we should approach it…
Embodying a Copywriter’s Work, Wage & Network – How to Become a Copywriter (Internal Processes – Step 1)
When I was finished with my first $50 client’s work, I had realized a few things.
1 – This type of client is nowhere near ready to invest in their work, and this project is simply too small.
2 – I’m actually doing them a disservice if I charge this low, because they’re not as committed, it’s fractional work, and it’s not addressing the bigger picture.
3 – When people have skin in the game (money, time, resources invested), they’re much more likely to win big.
4 – My work is far more valuable leverage than this low price paints it out to be.
5 – Clients at this level want to receive the lottery in return for paying out pennies. That is to say they expect miracles from you, and yet still try to control everything.
6 – They don’t recognize your value because you haven’t shown it by charging accurately, and commanding the authority. They try to tinker and fix everything, taking back control.
… plus many more insights. Don’t get me wrong; you do have to start somewhere. But once you’re good enough (only by verified results), you can choose what level to play on.
After the $500 level client I recognized they were much more serious, but still had missing gaps.
1 – I’m doing the exact same type of work for $50 as $500, but I have (a little) more breathing room and space to do it.
2 – The main thing that’s changed is the quality of client (or who) I’m charging, rather than what I’m doing.
3 – This type of client invests this level in copywriting, design work, or SEO with the majority of their budget. Getting results for them is going to be hard.
This is because they don’t have the accurate budget to run ads, test and tweak their funnels with patience (from adequate marketing capital), and spend time and money finding the right people to target for their offers.
4 – They still don’t trust your control and expertise. They still try and do things their own way, then might even blame (or ignore) you when it inevitably fails.
5 – I’m still doing a disservice because they’re not as committed. It’s not the whole picture that they need.
Example? It’s just lead-gen. ad copy, rather than a direct response marketing strategy, a sales page and letter, an ad campaign, and the e-mails for the backend.
They’d try and take the reins, instead of trusting the person for the one skill they looked to get handled. So, after I’d figured these lessons out, fairly quickly, I 10x’d my consulting price and offer once more.
After I got to the $5,000/client level, all my problems vanished, and I drove off into the sunset in a new Ferrari.
Kidding. But in all seriousness…
This $5000+ level was the easiest work with, the most knowledgeable and understanding, and the one who (of course) got the best results.
Why?
1 – These clients have been committed to my implementation.
2 – This level of person is already successful in their chosen practice. The paradigm for this is helping winners win, instead of helping losers become winners. A lot more variables involved in the latter.
When I say losers, I mean lazy people who haven’t tried anything, and hope you’ll do it all. They hope you will find their market, product, offer, positioning, angle, and media to sell it.
Winners have already done the intense work of market research and insights, discovered their market sophistication level sourcing/testing E-commerce products, validating (like Bezos did), gaining an audience, etc. You’re helping them be even more efficient with what they’ve already got, rather than building everything for them (which has way too many variables).
For instance, one of my clients had already sold a business bringing in $30,000+/mo. for over $250,000, and was looking to start new and scale, when he brought me on.
A small sample of the many results is in this post.
Big difference between that and a $50 guy looking to get a “rush project” and make 100s of new sales by the weekend holiday.
Give me a break. The mindsets are day and night. Once I got into a higher consulting level, I was able to “ratchet in my success”. To me, this means never sliding backwards from what you’ve already achieved. It’s making your old ceiling out to be your new floorboard, continually climbing up to new realms.
Embodying a Copywriter’s Work, Wage & Network – How to Become a Copywriter (Internal Processes – Step 2)
So atop these internal lessons (massively condensed) I had a host of visualization and future-framing techniques I used.
At each level, before the breakthrough to the next, there was a budding copywriter reaching up aggressively to what was only a possibility at the time.
In the meantime, I’d sit and visualize what I wanted to do, when it still scared me, and how it’d feel.
After the $30, $50, $80 level etc., I thought to myself what it’d be like to “go crazy” and charge someone $200, $350, or even $500!
Believe it or not, that was intimidating back then.
Nonetheless, I’d feel the emotions of that deposit landing in my bank.
I’d force myself to clearly see the sales call or messages where I’d close them.
I would observe myself working on their project, and which type of business I wanted to earn.
And of course, I went through the daily motions of dialing my skill, so I could catch up and actually deliver once I got it. And what is copywriting, really, but delivering results of sales and profits for clients or yourself?
If you can’t do that, you probably shouldn’t be writing. You’ve got to actually ask yourself “What does a copywriter do?”, and be able to execute on exactly that.
In short, researching your market, finding your unique positioning and angle, your unique selling proposition, your tone, and on and on it goes.
(The full process is far too long to be outlined here, but you get the point!)
One Very Powerful Way to Learn How to Become a Better Copywriter, Fast
I read all types of copywriting books, sales books, and Direct Response Marketing books that I could get my paws on.
I’d sit at plush and luxurious, dimly-lit shoreline coffee shops in Vietnam, drink some “black-crack” drip-coffee, reclined up on a long, L-shaped sofa. I’d watch the waves come in and hand-write Jay Abraham’s famous consulting client letter, and his list of over 100 headlines.
I did this the only real way, by old fashioned pen and paper.
You’ve simply got to sit there and do the work, read and hand-copy the sales pieces, ads, e-mails, and whatever else you find that has proven to bring in the big money.
** This method, hands down, is one of the most potent methods if you want to learn how to write sales copy. Nothing else compares, since the copy gets into your mind and your nerves as you dissect line-by-line direct response marketing pieces that raked in millions of dollars. **
The David Ogilvy Rolls Royce Letter? Wrote it loads of times.
Gary Halbert’s letter (many of them)? Hand-copied into my notebook pages.
I read numerous copywriting books from Dan Kennedy. Dan’s unique because he teaches you how to write sales copy in his many books, by one of the most direct approaches possible.
Famous copywriting books like Scientific Advertising, Breakthrough Advertising, and David Ogilvy’s books on marketing?
Check, check and check. Multiple times.
– David Ogilvy
In a word, I prepared. And when preparation meets opportunity, it’s a beautiful thing.
And when it was time for my manifestation to actually come forth, I landed my clients, got paid up front every time, was treated like a professional, and delivered excellent results for multiple businesses.
There are many reasons for this, including my presentation, my branding, my phone call and contract agreement style, the short, branded contract itself, and the consulting materials. Again, far too long to go into here, but in a word, you must be well-collected.
Through my own goal-setting and affirming processes, I submitted these paths so deep into my mind that I started attracting perfect opportunities. I met with a copywriting legend from Australia who was mentored by Ted Nicholas, Drayton Byrd, and knew Gary Halbert personally.
Get this – Gary was actually his 30th e-mail subscriber back in the day…
This “attraction” part was also very yin, very feminine, and not the overt masculine-grind-style I was used to. These people simply crossed my path at the perfect time, and assisted my growth naturally.
That’s been my experience with almost all the mentors I’ve had, now that I think of it. Very rarely did I overtly go seek out mentors; usually they found me at the perfect stage and added to my life what I needed most at the time.
Very much like the other multi-millionaire from the beginning of this story in Part I, I journeyed into his home from what was simply an accommodation arrangement.
Magical occurrences, thoughts, beliefs, and meetings happen when you start leveraging the power of your subconscious mind.
I’ve been saying it for years, because it’s true.
At first you don’t believe it. You’re skeptical.
Then, you try it out and it works, and you don’t even (need to) know how.
This leads perfectly into our section on “tasting the dream” and cementing success into your physical body, feelings and reality…
Tasting The Dream & Getting Comfortable With Massive Success – A Key Practice I Learned From Ed Mylett
Another important practice that mirrors the embodiment of where you’re headed is “tasting the dream”.
And actually I learned this from a fellow named Ed Mylett, who’s in charge of Wealth Group Financial, and has a net worth north of $400 million.
This is a concept I used for myself, to anchor the feelings, vibe, and environment of nice places that I will one day frequent.
Essentially what you do is taste a sliver of the lifestyle you’ll have in the future, by living a piece of it today.
What this could look like for you might be test-driving a Porsche, or some other nice car.
Playing golf at a private resort, buying a one-day member’s only pass.
Taking an expensive trip that is (at the moment) a pang to the wallet, but in the long term will be a drop in the bucket.
One example of my taste (that we discussed earlier) was traveling through different districts in Malaysia. I stayed at various upscale homes, and finished off my trip with a 5-star hotel in the Novotel family.
When walking into the lobby, enjoying some refreshments, feeling the vibe of things, you simply feel good.
Being escorted to the 30th floor to your room, which has a kitchen, plush, fresh, white sheets and a thousand pillows, thick comfortable carpet, and a view of the city that’s to die for?
These things prime your subconscious feelings and anchor that state into your body to recall later.
And if you never go there for a taste, you basically stay where you are. You’ve got to push the limits to expand your comfort zone bubble.
Now, are these the most expensive hotels in the world? No. But they are nice, and outside of my usual “habit-zone price range”, so it feels good to go there and celebrate wins.
And one day, I recognize that I will be able to drop these prices daily if I’d like, and not think a thing of it.
And that is something that can add a splash of extra gasoline to your inner fire.
So “tasting the dream” has many benefits for your life:
1) You anchor the feelings of success and prosperity into your consciousness
2) You get excited for your future and thereby discipline your visualizations, actions, work, and motivation
3) You rub shoulders with the higher level businesspeople and wealthy who frequent those areas
4) You make your visualization a tangible aspect, and actually experience it now
5) You stretch and destroy your current comfort zone, and get used to a new norm, thereby “ratcheting in your success”. I use that analogy from a socket wrench, where once you lock in, you don’t go backwards.
Concluding the Power of Your Mind’s Eye, Visualization Techniques, and Embodiment of (Actually) Getting Anything You Want
Now, what I’ve described here takes time; we live in a physical plane governed by it.
But know this: the reality which you create for yourself can, and will be (by universal law) created.
If you want a new lifestyle, car, home, relationship, whatever…
Know that the moment you create it, it’s yours.
I said this years ago in the first post on how to get anything you want, and in my video.
When I said that in the video, “when you create something, just know that it’s already yours, I was still practicing this concept.
In fact, I always am. But at this level, I didn’t yet understand it.
I was unconsciously incompetent (U.I.) because I didn’t actually know how that was possible. But through my years of learning and growing with these processes, that are proven to get you what you want, I now understand.
As soon as you create something in your mind’s eye, it’s clear, and you feel it, it belongs to you and only you.
The fact that you are able to think of it is actual proof that you can hold it.
– James Allen
Wouldn’t it be a cruel joke if there was desire with no possibility of fulfillment? Why would other people already be living that life that you want, if it wasn’t possible?
The fact is, it is possible.
And although you don’t have it immediately in the physical sense, as soon as you create it mentally, it’s yours.
It must manifest.
We live in a universe of law and order, not one of chance. If you’re willing to hold the image constantly, through thick and thin, work on feeling its accomplishment, and work towards it daily…
Then your desire is the seed, and your manifestation is the fruit.
This is why you must be careful and conscious of this, staying aware of what you’re creating at all times.
Because moment by moment, you are creating… SOMETHING.
Whether it’s sickness or health, happiness or discord, wealth or poverty, or anything in between. You’re the source of where you’re going, what you want to achieve, and how you’re getting there!
External events will happen, but how you adapt, carry yourself, and forge forward will ultimately determine the direction of your life and your conscious experience.
So whether you want to learn how to become a freelance writer, a pilot, or a professional athlete, recognize this is what you do. And on top of that, this is what they have done.
When asked about whether or not he meditated, Jon Jones, the undefeated, Light Heavyweight Champion of the world said this:
Get this…
You don’t get the choice not to create. You just get to choose where to steer the train.
Choose wisely.
P.S.
If you’re still putting the pieces together when it comes to writing great copy that sells, you’ve got to train the basics before you can sign quality clients.
Not knowing how to bring in results will get your reputation killed quick in this industry. You must have the back-end (internal) consultant processes covered, while you execute on the front-end (external) actions.
This also answers why asking “How do I become a freelance copywriter?” is the wrong question.
My new copywriting book, The Ultimate Copywriting Guide to Selling Anything Online [Vol. I], extensively covers the how-to of writing stellar sales copy, along with:
– How to target your ideal customer for maximum sales and profit
– What to never do if you want to land clients, customers, and close sales
– Actionable steps and formulas to use, to make more sales in your E-commerce business
– A fully leveraged 3-part system never before revealed, (plus a 4-quadrant Profit & Conversions system necessary for any profitable online business).
… and much more.
Click here to get the full scoop on this actionable playbook.
