Become a Dangerously Good Writer in 55 Minutes w/ Sam Parr

You're reading this not because you want to, but because I want you to. Now,

you're reading this second sentence because again, I'm telling you and forcing you to read this. This is called copyrighting.

This is Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, the newsletter empire he built from scratch. He's also the co-host of one of

scratch. He's also the co-host of one of the leading business podcasts in the world, My First Million. Today, he's

breaking down the exact copywriting frameworks that built his businesses.

No one will read this or watch this.

This is too long. No, it's not interesting enough. The goal is not to

interesting enough. The goal is not to get 100% of people to buy what you want.

It's to get the right person to read all of the ad and a large percentage of them are eventually going to buy.

So, I want to focus on the importance of copyrightiting in in this episode.

There's two tweets that you put out that I'm going to I'm going to highlight. One

in 2022, one in 2020. First one, because copyrighting isn't just writing words.

It's understanding what people want and how to get them to do what you want them to do. And then sometimes figure out

to do. And then sometimes figure out which words are needed to get the desired outcome. That's tweet number

desired outcome. That's tweet number one. Tweet number two. Good copywriting

one. Tweet number two. Good copywriting

means getting what's in my head into yours and influencing your behavior, getting you to do what I want. How did

you use copyrightiting to land a first date with your wife? Then I saw this really pretty lady in a restaurant at like a happy hour and I the one of the

basic principles for copyrightiting is ADA. Attention, interest, desire,

ADA. Attention, interest, desire, action. And I was like, what's a good

action. And I was like, what's a good day? I need I need to grab her

day? I need I need to grab her attention. And I was with my friend

attention. And I was with my friend Lily, uh, who's just a buddy of mine.

And I said, "Lily, that girl is really pretty. I gota I got to stop her when

pretty. I gota I got to stop her when she walks by. I don't know what to say."

And like as I was like saying that, she like, "Oh, hey, uh, what's the difference between a chickpea and a lentil?" And she's like, "Huh?" And I

lentil?" And she's like, "Huh?" And I was like, "I don't pay $500 to have a lentil on my face."

And uh, she was like was stunned. And I

was like, "Classic, you know, garbanzo be a little big hummus fan, huh?"

And she thought it was hilarious. And I

was like, "I'm Sam. Nice to meet you.

Yeah, it's high risk, high reward cuz if it doesn't land, but it's good cuz that wouldn't be your, you know, comedy.

You know, if she didn't laugh at a good, you know, pee on my face joke, then we always talk about this like when you meet somebody new and you start like testing the water with jokes to see what you can land, what you can't, what you have to take back. And

well, what I tell our sales people here and what I've always told our sales people, and it's the same for flirting, you can say virtually anything as long as you make them laugh.

Yes. You know, as long as you make someone laugh and smile and it's clear that you're uh supposed to be not harmful.

Uh well, I mean, the key is to talk to them like you know them already.

Yeah. I call that restaurant energy owner.

Yeah. Like you don't want to make it seem like you're stiff cuz then they'll be like, "What's wrong with this person?"

person?" I call that restaurant owner energy. You

know, like you know, like you walk over like you tell them, "Hey buddy, nice to see you again. You never

seen them before. How's the family?

How's everything going? You guys having a great time? Hey, hey, come here.

Cheryl, can you give these fill these guys up with some exactly my experience yesterday in Little Italy? Like it was the guy just came with so much energy like, "Oh my god, how's how's your daughter? Let me get her something. You

daughter? Let me get her something. You

like ice cream? Okay, I'll get you ice cream." Like it was out the gate

cream." Like it was out the gate asking the three-year-old if she likes ice cream.

Smart.

But I wanted to to touch on that just because of the importance of headlines, right? Like there's the David Oglev

right? Like there's the David Oglev quote of on average five times as many people read the headline as read the body of copy. When you've written your headline, you've spent 80 cents out of your dollar, which I know you've the quote from this book

from that one right there. and

and half the stuff. If you ever see me write about copyrightiting or talk about copyrightiting, I'm really just stealing that one. Yes, this is I mean I have

that one. Yes, this is I mean I have both of them. This is

this is the best book that you could read on copyrightiting and it's the reason one of the reasons why it's great is it's less popular than this one and so you can just steal a lot of it and no one will know. Now, so what I want to do is I have five headlines that I

essentially want to show you and have you break them down from mostly classic ads because there is no soul in copywriting in today's world.

There is. There is. You just got to find it.

It's hard to find. I think there was one that you talked about like uh what is it? Get flakes or something like that.

it? Get flakes or something like that.

Drag flakes is awesome. I use their shampoo all the time. I I love their ads.

I will say a great place for copyrightiting is the New York subways these days. Like a lot of these like

these days. Like a lot of these like display ads on the subways are starting to hit as well.

Yeah, you could find it. The first one that I want you to break down is a as a classic.

At 60 mph, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. What makes the Rolls-Royce the

clock. What makes the Rolls-Royce the best car in the world? This is a David Oggovi ad, right?

It is.

Yeah. I love it. It's so good. Um, he's

sold a lot of cars from this. This is

actually from this book, I think, actually. Isn't it?

actually. Isn't it?

It is. It's in there. He spent something on it was like weeks just writing that single headline.

Yeah. Basically like what a lot of people do they don't realize that they usually what people do is they write an article and then they like at the la last minute write the headline and I

think that that has changed now young people know to with YouTube like that the the hook and like the packaging is like more important than the thing than the actual video and so I think they

know that better now but um I actually don't know too much about the background of this ad. Do you?

Yes and no. What I'm more so curious is like you reading that headline and that headline being known as as to be one of the best headlines. What do you what do you kind of take away from this? Is it

because of like the curiosity gap that's like it's the curiosity gap which is like so you always have to mind the gap. Um so

like the best example of this would be there's a headline. Um have you guys ever do you guys remember Upworthy? How

old are you? 20.

Uh 30.

You're 30. You guys might remember Upworthy. Do you guys remember Upworthy?

Upworthy. Do you guys remember Upworthy?

No.

Okay. So, back before Tik Tok and a lot of social media stuff, there was just viral articles on Facebook.

Yeah.

And there would be these articles that said like um the top 10 reasons why uh you shouldn't go camping. You're not

going to believe number seven.

Yeah.

Okay. Do you remember like that style?

Yeah. You would see that on Meta a lot.

There's this one guy who created that this blog called Upworthy. And actually

Joe, my partner who's around here, he had an Upworthy competitor. And Joe's

website went from zero to 200 million monthly visitors um in a matter of like holy [ __ ] 6 months because they would write these articles like that and it was clickbait. So it was junk. But

was clickbait. So it was junk. But

anyway um that was inspired by an old ad that might be in one of these books and it was um everyone laughed at me when I started playing the piano. Then they

heard me play. And that's sort of the same thing where it's like huh what?

Okay. It's called minding the gap.

There's something that grabs your attention and I need to figure out and read the rest of this to release the tension. Yeah. So, this is one of the

tension. Yeah. So, this is one of the most famous ads of all time. They

laughed at They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but then I started to play.

What's he selling?

Uh, a course on how to write music for the music school.

Yeah, it was for a music was it a like a written course? Who wrote this? Is this

written course? Who wrote this? Is this

is this um um um if you said the name Hopkins?

Yes.

Is that who that is? Yes.

Yeah, that's a good ad.

This is one of the most famous ads of all time. break down. What is minding

all time. break down. What is minding the gap?

Minding the gap is basically like when you're telling a story, you need it to be resolved.

Um kind of like similar how like music needs to be resolved. Like have you ever seen like on the office where like someone like ruins the song for Andy and he's like, "Oh, I got to resolve that melody."

melody." Uh it's the same way with headlines. So

like um human beings aren't very good at uh leaving like a cliffhanger. Like you

have to know what it is. And so with good copy, the headline, you need to say something that grabs someone's attention and they have to continue the rest to know what's happening.

Yeah. I mean, this is something that, you know, we both do a lot in our script writing for our short form content is open loops.

Open loops is exactly what I'm saying.

When you when you create an open loop with the curiosity driving hook, it's especially in short form content cuz I mean back in the day, people's attention spans weren't so cooked, but like now you basically have to stack open loop on

open loop as you're writing that script.

I hear people say that all the time.

They always say people's attention now is different than what it used to be. I

actually disagree with that. I think

human attention was always it's been always the same. You've always had to do the same thing.

You've always had to like You think I I guess maybe retention would be No, I I I I I have zero data. I'm just

trying to um say my opinion here, but I think that um see a lot of people think that long means bad. I would say long still converts long longer form things

still almost always converts better.

The issue is that people use the word long is bad or like no one will read this or watch this. This is too long.

No, it's not interesting enough.

Correct. And so I always try to tell people that long will almost always convert better. Ugly will almost always

convert better. Ugly will almost always convert better, but it just has to be interesting.

The biggest eye opening experience that I've had in that realm is uh getting into the teleahalth space last year and going up against like these deep kind of like gray area affiliate marketers. Um I

mean just random guys that were like selling GLP1 brands. Like I'm sure you saw the Medv thing like Yeah. So, you know what people would do

Yeah. So, you know what people would do is to your point, I built a short form content agency. I thought short form was

content agency. I thought short form was the way. These guys are running 27

the way. These guys are running 27 minute video sales letters before a YouTube video, right? Betting

that no one's going to click skip.

No, long is always better.

Yeah. And it's insane. They would spin up these nine, you know, figure funnels and you're just like, how is this how is this working? But it's because, you

this working? But it's because, you know, a boomer is Well, in general, so have you guys seen this website I have called copy that.com?

Mhm. I went through the course. So, that

makes a full-time salary that pays for a lot of my living expenses.

And that is a in New York or Austin.

In New York, it um it uh it's just 2,000 words on white on with a white background.

Yeah.

And that page converts at like probably 5%.

Wow.

So 5% of people who go to it buy it.

It's pretty good.

If I remember correctly, too, it's kind of is it one of those It's almost like inception, right? where you're like,

inception, right? where you're like, "Here's like good copy." Like, "You just read this copy like at the end of the sales letter. Don't you say that or

sales letter. Don't you say that or something?"

something?" Maybe. Yeah.

Maybe. Yeah.

You're like, "I got your ass if you made it this far."

Well, there's a famous hook that I always used to use. So, um, I would always use this hook where it says, um, you're reading this not because you want to, but because I want you to.

Yeah. Exactly.

Now, you're reading this second sentence because, again, I'm telling you and forcing you to read this.

This is called copyrightiting. I'm

getting you to fall down the slippery slope. Not because you want to, but

slope. Not because you want to, but because I am making you like Yeah. Like

I you I love I love kind of breaking the fourth wall a little bit.

I love that stuff. Yes.

Something that's been interesting for me is all of my quote unquote short form content usually I played in this realm of like 45 seconds. Now I've been extended it to a minute 15 minute 20.

All of that content has been performing better, but I've been using a significant more of like adding in curiosity gaps almost like every 8 seconds within the video. But it's been interesting to see the data on.

You know who does that really good is Tony Robbins. So, like if you read a

Tony Robbins. So, like if you read a Tony Robbins book, they're so freaking long. They're like 800 pages and it'll

long. They're like 800 pages and it'll be like in this chapter, I'm going to tell you about this. But wait until you get the next chapter. That's when you're going to see something that's going to blow your mind.

It sounds like a YouTube script. Like

the the intro for a YouTube script, put it in into There's always teasing. When I was a kid, I uh looked like Napoleon Dynamite.

So, I couldn't really like get girls.

Uh, and so I had to read like every pickup artist book there was to like get someone to like have a crush on me. And

one of the like it's so like half the [ __ ] that I know about marketing I just stole from like pickup artist books. But

there's this idea of like when you ever you talk to a girl you want to put a time constraint on because then they feel like okay I know he's going to go in a minute therefore I don't mind letting him finish like his feel. So

like when you talk to someone like hey guys I got to go back to my buddies really quick but I had a question.

You know something like that or like I only have one minute cuz I'm running late but really quick.

It's a really good way to snap someone into it.

Exactly. And so what I've noticed is that um um if you um uh do that in copy like what what I'm about to tell you next is really going to blow your mind, but really quick let me tell you this.

Right.

That's like a really good tactic.

Yeah. Good way to insert a detail.

Yeah. O Pearlman. You guys know the magician O Pearlman.

So who you just had on? I don't know who.

Dude, he was doing it to me the whole time.

Is he doing like the the stuff with pro pro sports teams and he's the hypnotist?

Oh, okay.

And he was like constantly doing like pickup artist stuff where he was like, "All right, really quick. We're going to do this and I'm going to have you do this. Like he would just had me eating

this. Like he would just had me eating out of his hand.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think it's like getting you in a trance kind of like when he's doing it?

Yeah.

He's just controlling the room.

Yeah.

So, back to the headlines. With this

headline specifically that I want to show you, I want you to break down almost how you can do targeting with your headline. How you can talk to the

your headline. How you can talk to the specific individual, get their attention. These are famous Rolex ads.

attention. These are famous Rolex ads.

Oh, I stole all of these.

Yeah.

So, you don't even have my favorite one, which is um the men who shape destinies wear Rolex. That's the best one. So

wear Rolex. That's the best one. So

good.

That's the best one. What was your question? I didn't even I was paying

question? I didn't even I was paying attention to this Rolex ad.

There's also like that Delta one back in the day. It's like for a guy who has a

the day. It's like for a guy who has a girl in every city. Yeah.

You know, yeah.

The the question is more so centered around how you can use the headline to target a specific kind of individual or interest right?

Yeah. So like a good example of this is Buzzfeed. I used to do like um so

Buzzfeed. I used to do like um so articles where it's like 50 reasons you know you are from Denver Colorado you know and like where the goal is like it will only appeal to people from

Denver Colorado but 30% of them are going to click on that. I always just say niches make riches and so it's like the easiest way um to get high engagement rate and so yeah this does a good job where like they are targeting

people who like no one's going to be a sailboat racer but there's a lot of people who want to be.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so yeah, these work really well. Or another example is I knew this

well. Or another example is I knew this um this company started this thing called homesick candles and it was a candle that was the smell of each of the 50 states. So like I don't know what

50 states. So like I don't know what Texas would be but like Washington was like evergreen like tree I guess tree.

Yeah.

And so they killed it selling these candles because a huge percentage of uh you know Washington if you're from Washington bought it. But also if you're like if

bought it. But also if you're like if you moved away from Washington you can then get that for your mom. You know,

like it's there's like an expansion.

Yeah. We do those ads on for Hampton and be like, "Look, if you make over $3 million a year, then I know exactly how you feel. You feel this way." And then I

you feel. You feel this way." And then I explain it and speak like very intimately to them.

Well, and that's probably like a huge reason you do the moneywise thing. And

I've been kind of seeing, you know, you have a piece of content that you've been ripping recently where it's like the difference between the levels of wealth where it's like fresh.

You're you're at 1 million, you're at 10 million, you're at 100 million, and there it needs to be a series. Yeah, he

needs to I mean, you're doing that in multiple different formats, though, right? I feel

like it's I've seen it like several different No, I haven't. But that's a good idea.

That should be a series.

I mean, you could do a whole YouTube video on that.

Yeah, I would rip cuz when you did it, it got covered on Inc., it got covered on Forbes, I think. So,

it's [ __ ] awesome. I didn't know that.

The the next highline I want to get into is is something you taught me when I was for context. I worked at the the hostel

for context. I worked at the the hostel under What age did you work there?

How old was I?

Yeah.

24 25.

That's awesome.

um was you would talk about like taking something that's wellknown. So taking a phrase that's well known and then spinning it to almost like recreate it so that like you attach a brand maybe it wasn't I just I talked so much that I could have

forgotten but essentially like the idea of getting lost in the crowd. Okay, you can take that idea and be like okay how do we twist it to make this unique to our brand?

Which example did I do that on that? I don't remember but I like this

that? I don't remember but I like this copy is a good example of it. You may

get lost, but not in the crowd. They

have another good one. Did you see the one that they're like um it's the one about uh no one wants to have sex with you when you're in a Volkswagen?

I know what you're talking about. Yeah,

there's the Lamborghini one as well that's like pick up nine nine times more women in in this than a Lamborghini.

Sorry, it was like a van ad.

Yeah.

No, these are cool. These old Porsche ads. So, actually my brand Hampton, we

ads. So, actually my brand Hampton, we um just stole um British racing green from a lot of these ads. That's the

color they used. Um, this is called there's this book um that Darash, the founder of HubSpot, told me to read and I can't remember the exact name, but it basically just gives you tons and tons.

I'll have to send it to you so you can link to it. It gives you tons and tons of ways to use phrasing in your um advantage. So, for example, um the only

advantage. So, for example, um the only thing you have to fear is fear itself.

So that's like a that that's a style of phrase and it gives you like 10 different like types of phrases that you can that you could steal or like um for example Winston Churchill gave this famous speech um after the battle of

Dunkirk and it like changed the course of the war because England was not going to win World War II because English were they were like kind of meek and afraid and he was like we're going to fight on the beach, we're going to fight in the ocean, we're going to fight in the water, we're going to fight on the ships

and like it's this way of like using language to make it really more memorable and there's all these really cool like frameworks that you can use like using like alliteration and all cuz I mean the syntax does matter cuz the only thing you have to fear is

fear itself. It's like you're being very

fear itself. It's like you're being very specific. The only thing you have to

specific. The only thing you have to fear curiosity gap and then kind of gives that payoff at the end. Yeah.

There's a lot of these like really cool phrases.

Well, I think it's something that you would always say too is like this idea of punching somebody in the face with the say the first word needs to punch or the first sentence needs to punch you.

Can you give us an example of like copy that you've written that that does that?

Yeah. like you're reading this because I want you to.

Like if I was going to sell a copywriting course, that's the first sentence.

Didn't you you had an ad for the hustle which was like uh my friends think I'm smart. I'm not.

It's really because I just read um the hustle, right? So we probably spent $10

hustle, right? So we probably spent $10 million on that ad.

Yeah.

That ad was singularly responsible for the exit.

Yeah. I mean Yeah. I mean that ad like significantly outperformed it was crazy how much money that one ad made us.

And it had like the the Ben Franklin dollar bill. Yeah,

dollar bill. Yeah, I know because it converted me.

Did it really?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

For a while it was Mark Cuban. Mark

Cuban's face and he sent me a cease and desist and uh he didn't ever know. I've

since talked to him once or twice and he I still doesn't know that I'm that guy.

Sorry, Mark.

The next element I want to get into is now storytelling. So, punch somebody in

now storytelling. So, punch somebody in the face, get their attention with a headline, but now it's about writing copy that sucks people in.

Yeah. I call it the slippery slope.

That's one of the axioms actually of uh of uh Joe Sugarman's books. Joe

Sugarman's book is getting someone to fall down the slippery slope.

Break down what is the slippery slope because I do have an example that I want you to ask.

Yeah, look, there's this idea uh called the um the rule of consistency. Um

basically like if you're if you've done one nice thing for me, you're more likely than not going to continue doing something nice for me. So, like a little bit of a joke is like if I want you to do something nice for me, I'm going to be like, uh, I'll just be talking like

be like, "Hey, can you hold that for me?" Um, and then, um, then I'm going to

me?" Um, and then, um, then I'm going to actually ask you for the favor that I'm really want to ask you because you're already doing something for me. Yeah.

You know what I mean?

For sure.

Like that's like the like there's these little tricks that like you could do is like you ask someone to do something for you. Um, like for example, um, they did

you. Um, like for example, um, they did this crazy study where, let's just say that I'm, um, a politician and I want to get you to put this huge sign on your front yard that says you're going to

vote for me. The best thing to do is to say, "Hey, can you put this little sticker in your window?" And then two weeks later, I'm going to come back and say, "You're a huge supporter. I'm only

going to do this for a handful of the huge supporters. Can we put this big

huge supporters. Can we put this big sign there?" The odds are that you're

sign there?" The odds are that you're going to do it. I think it's like 40% higher u because of the the law the law of consistency. Yeah, this is like a

of consistency. Yeah, this is like a study that's been done over and over and over again. And so once you get someone

over again. And so once you get someone to start falling down the slippery slope and start reading, they're going to start reading this or Joe Sugarman would famously said the purpose of the first sentence is to get you read the second sentence and the purpose of the second

sentence is to get you to read the third sentence and so on. And then once with good copywriting, the goal is not to get 100% of people to buy what you want.

It's to get the right person to read all of the ad and a large percentage of them are eventually going to buy.

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right, let's get back to the episode.

Yeah. And you you've probably I think you've put up that graphic before where it's like good writing is like music. It

starts it stops and yeah and it like has this kind of colorcoded syntax.

It's like a some sentences are short.

Some sentence they're just a little bit longer and some sentence will keep on writing because they're going to tell you about what you're going to read next and it's going to say you need to be prepared for this that and this understood.

Yeah.

So it's like yeah it needs to be like like a little bit of a wrapper where it's like short, medium, long, short.

Yeah. Yeah. You that's um I love rhythm when it comes to writing. That's my

favorite thing. It's such a powerful way to like keep someone's attention rather than so many people will just ramble and kind of like speak in the same length of sentence over and over. And if you're new to writing, there's a few rules.

Well, the first thing is you should write at a seventh grade reading level level. And if you don't know what that

level. And if you don't know what that means, you should go to hemingwayapp.com and that will you just put your copy in there and it'll tell you what reading level you're at. But USA Today, which is like a popular newspaper, that's a fourth grade. And the New York Times,

fourth grade. And the New York Times, which is some people think it's like a smart person's newspaper, that's seventh grade. Um, and so, um, usually what you

grade. Um, and so, um, usually what you want to do is one sentence should have one point that it makes. So, if you're going to use two, if you're going to use a comma in a sentence, oftentimes you want to use a period instead.

Um, the second thing is it's really good for rhythm wise to start the second or third sentence, the next sentence with and or but. Yeah, I do that all the time. It helps like create rhythm.

time. It helps like create rhythm.

Transition words. Um, but usually when you need to have a comma, use a period.

Short sentences uh are the best. Um

Warren Buffett uh does something amazing. He explains

incredibly complicated things like the insurance business which is a very complicated thing. He explains it in

complicated thing. He explains it in very simple sentences. So the average So Warren Buffett's famous for writing these these annual letters where he breaks down the business and anyone can read them and they could understand a little bit about Geico which very

complicated company and the average length per sentence I went and analyzed it um is 17 words. Um, not a lot. And

actually, you started at 25 when he was younger and over the years it's consistently gone down to 17 words. It

might be as short as 14, but last time I looked it was 17. Isn't that kind of the secret to copyrightiting though is constraint forcing clarity?

Yes, 100%. And if you look at some of the best authors that you like, like I love like if just look at the classics, Hemingway, um like his book uh The Old Man by the Sea, it'll say like the man

was sad, he wanted to go fish like those and it's like a pretty like a profound book. And so um you can like have these

book. And so um you can like have these like pretty profound feelings and emotions and everything, but said simply, yeah, I think it was uh Sean's Sean had a thing back in the day. Sean, you're a

co-host. And uh it was like write your

co-host. And uh it was like write your first draft, then cut a third.

Cut a third.

And then cut a third and then cut a third again.

It's called killing your darlings.

Yeah. And I honestly have used that to like that has been such a guiding principle for all the best copy I've ever written because it just makes you get the damn word out there that you're actually trying to say rather than like

all these different clauses and different ways of writing a sentence.

In Cut 30, we always talk about the idea of like writing with your eraser. You're

going to write your script and then now you're going to write with your eraser and chop it completely down. One of my favorite writers would say, um, they, um, write drunk and edit sober.

Yeah.

David Olga famously says, he goes, "I'm a [ __ ] writer. I'm a great editor."

That's so good. And so, yeah, you got to write the crap. You just got to get it out on paper.

Part of that magic is seen in the in the Wall Street Journal ad that they ran for 28 years.

Love that ad. It was the tale of two boys, right? Yeah.

boys, right? Yeah.

What was the headline?

I don't even remember. So on a beautiful spring afternoon 25 years ago, two young men graduated from the same college.

They were very much alike, these two young men, but both both had been your better than average student. Both were

personable and both as young graduates were filled with ambitious dreams. But recently the men returned to college in their 25th reunion. And it goes on to say that they were different. And the

reason they were different was one kid, one of the kids when he was young got a got a subscription to the Wall Street Journal and the other one didn't. And

the one who did uh was significantly more successful. This ad ran for

more successful. This ad ran for decades.

28 years.

For 28 years.

28 years in print.

Yeah. Like

and drove over $2 billion in revenue.

Yeah. And I actually um stole this. So

at the hustle, we had this publication that was $300 a year called Trends. And

I just just blatantly ripped it off.

Twisted 3%.

Huh?

You probably twisted it like 3%.

Yeah. I like it. I was pretty like mercilessly copying it and it crushed it for us. We

made a lot of money.

What are some of the things that you read this that people could walk away from?

Story, story, story, story. A lot of people are afraid to add stories in their uh when they're trying to sell stuff with copyrightiting because they think it's going to make it too long.

There's no such thing as too long, just too boring. And the best thing to make

too boring. And the best thing to make something interesting is to make it a story. Everything has to be a story. And

story. Everything has to be a story. And

a story has a beginning and a middle and an end with a little bit of tension in there.

Yeah.

What are some things that you add into those stories to create tension? Well,

like the hero's journey a little bit like um for example in this case this is this story is the hero's journey. The

hero is the boy who ended up being successful and the guide the one who saves him is the Wall Street Journal.

And so a good brand positions themselves as the guide and the hero of the story is your customer. And so you know this boy was in college he was lost but then

something happened and he overcame and became the hero. And it was reading the Wall Street Journal that guided him to see where the light is.

And even even I think in the hero's journey there's always like the return to the origin or there's always like that stage where the hero returns back and that's kind of like he sees his buddy at the original place where you

know they had met before.

Yeah. So that's a pretty effective one.

A lot of people don't like using stories because they think it's going to be too long. But just add if you're watching

long. But just add if you're watching this and you have something that can um be sold like just copy that.

Yeah. Well, I feel like the story is almost something that we're we're losing now a bit, right? Like and it's I feel like in two ways it's more important than ever because of AI and then on the other end because of platforms like Meta. The stories don't really exist on

Meta. The stories don't really exist on in an ad library.

Yeah. But you made an ad for me that [ __ ] crushed it and it was a story.

Understood. I'm just understood. Yes.

But at the same time, that's that's one out of two.

What was that at? Uh it was the story about how basically um there was this when I was selling my company the hustle there was a distinct moment where there was like a meeting with me and like 14

people and it was like seven lawyers and seven accountants on HubSpot end and they were like asking me questions and I was like what the [ __ ] am I doing here?

Like I should feel successful right now but I feel like way overwhelmed.

Um and that's when I like needed a group of peers that I wish I had to like help me sell my business. And that's one of the reasons why we started Hansen. It

was very much like founder story but then putting in the hero's journey a bit whereas like if Sam had Hampton then he would have been in a completely different position. So like if this

different position. So like if this started off with like this is Sam Sam's about to make some life-changing money but and then it goes into like he's in this scenario where he's all these lawyers little butt therefore right cuz I mean

there's the Trey Parker like South Park stuff where that's also a really good storytelling mechanism and then there's set one in that ad the comments make fun of me though because I was at in my 20s uh and I don't look like I'm in my 20s now.

Oh, and they think that I'm like describing it. Now,

describing it. Now, my biggest thing is like I struggle reading a lot of the ads that are on meta now because it it lacks the depth that you were going into and I feel like it's almost created that kind of habit

where everything needs to be two sentences as an example. Everything

needs to be like like very short short.

A lot of the incentives are just to like shove the benefits in your face, right?

Like it's hey you person who experiences this problem like we have this solution.

Um, something that we do a ton is like the concept of a failed solution as well. So, you want to like absolve the

well. So, you want to like absolve the viewer of guilt. It's like, hey, you tried to solve this problem with your stress, but it didn't work. That's not

your fault. You just didn't have the right ingredient. You know, like you

right ingredient. You know, like you just didn't have this specific mechanism. And I feel like that's

mechanism. And I feel like that's another kind of like, hey, you know, maybe you didn't feel super confident in that business meeting. It's not your fault. You just didn't have the right

fault. You just didn't have the right peers.

That's pretty good.

Yeah. The thing that I've done with with short form to get exceptionally well is copy work. Um I tell everybody that I

copy work. Um I tell everybody that I learned that from you where I'll transcribe different scripts or transcribe different videos.

Copy work is game changing. Do you know what copy work is?

Yeah, you just write it down.

Oh my god, it's like the greatest thing ever. I use it for everything. I guess

ever. I use it for everything. I guess

we should probably explain what it is.

Yeah, I will in a second. So like but I'll set context where my first million view video on on Instagram specifically.

Like I was getting stuck at every video was getting like a 100 150 200,000 views and I'm like okay this is good. But of

course, like everybody wants to kind of get that million view video. I did a bunch of copy work, shifted my my script based off of everything that I did in the copy work. That video out the gate got 2 million views, right? And it was

it was literally two days of me just like, "Okay, let me get I got like five good scripts or five videos that all had millions and millions of views." And I and I saw elements like you were just saying, "Okay, they they added a transition word, you know, right here."

So it's like but then this happened and then therefore this happened and then I'm going to create some tension here so that they're going to and what I was looking at as well is like I was looking at the retention graph seeing where people dropped off. So if everyone was

dropping off at the 12second mark then I was like okay here's where I'm going to introduce some new attention right or curiosity gap and like those elements that I learned from doing copy work

literally shifted the the performance of of my videos. What is copy work? How do

you do it? Um and what are the benefits?

So, copy work. Um, the best way to explain it would be if do you know how to play any instrument? No.

Okay. So, if I said, "Alex, here's a piano." Um,

piano." Um, I played the drums a long time ago now.

Okay. But let's say you didn't know how to play the piano and I sat you down on the piano and I said, "Have at it. Go uh

write a hit song. Talk soon." It would be impossible, right? Like, you can't like write a song that way. Instead, and

we've mastered how to teach people instruments within one year. If you

practice two hours a day, you can be a phenomenal uh musician. And the way that we teach people to play instruments is um you learn jingle bells by copying it and then you learn maybe happy birthday and then a little bit more complicated,

a little bit more complicated. And then

eventually your teacher will be like, "Hey, you like rock and roll. Let's

learn some Foo Fighter songs or like a Green Day song." And then you're like, "Oh, I like that." I'm like, "Let's play a Lady Gaga song. I kind of like this song. I was playing Diranas. I don't

song. I was playing Diranas. I don't

know." And you start like playing all this stuff and you see the rules of how other and the texture of how other people do it. Then you're like, "You know what? I like a little bit of this.

know what? I like a little bit of this.

I like a little bit of that and I like a little bit of this. I'm going to combine it because I've noticed that my favorite things, this is the pattern they follow.

So, I'm going to steal that, steal this, steal this. Copy work is uh you could

steal this. Copy work is uh you could use it for anything, but in regards to just writing, it's when you find writing that you love and even not writing you love, but writing that's regarded

generally speaking as good, and you copy it word for word. You sit down for an hour and you and I did this for months.

You did this with the Boron letters, didn't you?

Yeah. Is that the Boron letters? Yeah, I

did it with the Boron letters. I did it with um The Great Gatsby. I did it with SNL scripts. I did it with um all types

SNL scripts. I did it with um all types of [ __ ] Now, y'all already know we are super skeptical on this show about most AI tools promising the world. They have

flashy demos, huge promises, and ultimately underdel. But I do have to

ultimately underdel. But I do have to tell you about one that has blown me away and saved my team countless hours of time, and that's Rich Panel. Imagine

a 24/7 customer support engine that handles all of your tickets seamlessly, escalates anything requiring human intervention, and here's the best part, upsells your customers in the process.

Their onboarding process is frankly one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

You input your brand and within 15 minutes it has full context on the latest drops, product information, and plugs into all of your apps. That's not

even to mention the cost savings.

They're like three times more affordable than their competitors. I couldn't

recommend this enough. So, if you're a brand looking to turn support into an asset, go check out richpanel.com and tell them we sent you. Do you think the SNL scripts helped you get funnier?

Well, I'm not funny, so no, but it helped me get funnier.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and so like, but you could because that's I feel like people are always like, "How do I learn humor? How

do it% work if you just copied other people, right?

And so like for example, I like got into like hip-hop one summer and I like I was like, "How does Kanye do this beat?" And

so I literally would just like recreate the beat and I'm like, "Oh, cool. I know

how to do it now. That's kind of cool."

Um, little 808.

Yes. And you like you like learn exactly how that works. And um, that works for writing, but it works for anything.

Anything that you want to develop good taste in, that's the number one thing to do is just to blindly copy until you find the rules of the language that you're trying to speak.

And it's super important to write it down, right? Because like that kind of

down, right? Because like that kind of actually it feel Yeah. It's different.

Yeah. Yeah. You you have to you have to like feel the texture actually. There's

science that shows you remember things more by being physical than typing.

And even in therapy like that, that's why they have you write things down because it's almost like you can transform based off the things that you write, right? Like, so if you're going through

right? Like, so if you're going through something, you could write down like how you're you're getting better.

This is my 5-year journal. I love this thing. You know what this is? I can't

thing. You know what this is? I can't

open it because I have writing in it and people will see it.

Um, but every single Well, here, let me find a page that I There's a page I haven't done. So, this is 7:30. So,

haven't done. So, this is 7:30. So,

what's that? July 30th. So, year 1, year two, year three, year four, year five.

So most days, obviously you saw I don't do it, but like most days I'm writing like an entry on how I feel that day.

Then I could see like how I felt that day the year before.

Yeah.

And so like writing things down like has changed my life. It's been a very This is a cool tool.

Definitely do that.

I like how it's structured.

It's awesome.

Yeah. It's a great product too.

Like the aesthetic is really strong.

I know. I wanted to like sell that.

Yeah. The other segment that I want to go into is I now want to give you essentially bad ads and I want you on the spot too.

I'm not that good of a copyriter.

People People talk about you.

People talk about people.

I'm not that good. It's just that most people are bad. You know what I mean?

I'm like um I'm like a guy who knows how to play a handful of songs on his guitar at like a senior party like and then you call me a good musician.

But that guy still commands the room.

Let's be clear.

Yeah. He's I'm I'm a dwarf among midgets. Like

midgets. Like he's still the coolest guy there, though.

So, I'm going to start with AG1. So,

I'll give you context. They they

released a supplement called AGZ. I

don't know if you've seen it. Sleep

supplement. Okay.

Nightly Rest.

The first new product they launched in like a sleep supplement.

Nightly Rest is within arms reach. Az

combines magnesium, elanine, and saffron to support every phase of rest without the groggginess of melatonin. Okay. The

copy then on the actual visual is the nightly drink for restorative sleep. So,

I'll give this to you and I basically want you to change what you would how you would uh essentially write this headline.

For an ad like this, the best ad would be proof. So, it would just be a quote

be proof. So, it would just be a quote like or it would be like a picture of someone's whoop that says before taking this, after taking this.

Yeah.

Um transformation.

Yeah. I would think that the the the nightly drink for restorative sleep.

Yeah. I mean, that's a so basic.

That's a pretty bad ad for this one. And

I would probably do a before and after and I wouldn't even show the product.

So just a transformation of somebody being exa looking exhausted in a sleep score for supplements. There's proof. The

for supplements. There's proof. The

second way you could take it is Can you put that into like an actual headline for for somebody that doesn't understand like what you mean by proof?

Cuz I'm guessing it's like 93% of people are now sleeping 8 hours.

Story. It's it's like uh I almost didn't wake up for my little one or something like that. You know, it's like speak to

like that. You know, it's like speak to who the person is. It depends who they're targeting, but I can give you an example of an ad that I would do for this person um following the ADA method that would be educational. So I would say so I don't know anything about

sleep. So all the facts that I'm going

sleep. So all the facts that I'm going to say I'm making up.

Ada method is attention, interest, desire action.

There's a scientific reason why after the age of 35, 75% of men wake up between 2 and 3:00 a.m.

Okay. So that's going to be my attention.

Attention. Yeah. Then the interest and desire. The interest is going to be um

desire. The interest is going to be um you know the feeling when you're sleeping perfectly fine and you wake up and you're not sure if you have to go

pee or what's going on. And for some reason for the past 5 years you just thought this is age. You just thought that this was normal and I should accept this. And then you get them to desire

this. And then you get them to desire it. You say the truth is is that the

it. You say the truth is is that the reason you feel this way is because you lack vitamin D. Haven't you noticed that you you almost always get this way during winter time? Yeah,

because the world that we live in, it's a lot less I don't know if it's true. I

don't I think it's a lot less sunny than it was before or you're spending your days inside.

And so the reason why you wake up like blue light or something.

It's not your fault. It's because you simply just don't have enough vitamin D.

The good news is that that the good news is that this is easy to fix, right?

Which is taking more vitamin D. Now, a

lot of vitamin D out there doesn't get absorbed because it's just made in bad ways. Not our vitamin D. We've spent 10

ways. Not our vitamin D. We've spent 10 years and a hundred million dollars sourcing the best stuff. Uh and then anyway, that would be like probably inject some social, you know,

like that would be like the trusted by 100,000 dads just like you.

Yeah.

Like some social proof.

So that's like an educational story I would tell.

That's very good. That was very good.

But even doing that, like you did go through a hero's journey like that entire time.

Yeah. That was just so telling a story.

But like that would be really that would probably be a pretty good ad. Now

everything I just said was fake. I don't

know if that's true.

I think what was like something that I've talked about a lot when like training creators is that was a Trojan horse, right? Like you basically bury

horse, right? Like you basically bury the product so far deep into the story.

Yeah. Cuz you want to fall down.

You like build that desire for a long time and then most people I mean that ad just throws the product at you immediately. It's this restorative drink

immediately. It's this restorative drink for you. Yeah. Daily daily restorative

for you. Yeah. Daily daily restorative drink. It's like they haven't built any

drink. It's like they haven't built any desire, you know? There's no real reason to actually believe. There's a the copyrighting rule as well where it's like you're trying to get people to say yes like very very early, right? So I

say a specific line like uh don't you always notice that you wake up.

Is it frustrating why you like why suddenly at the age of 35 you can't sleep for more than 3 hours straight in the night and you have to wake up to go like kind of head nod, right? You're

like yes.

And then you'd say like well did you know that's a recent phenomenon? It's

not always been that way.

Yeah. Peak dantress. And then like the reason it's that way is cuz you again make you also want to put that like all that at the beginning as like as early as possible into into the copy.

The other one that I want you to do is there's one from Carway designed with clean materials like ceram coated glass.

Carway food storage helps you store more and stress less. Your storage can do better. Another terrible

better. Another terrible So they're like a non-toxic cookware.

Great. Okay. Again, I'm going to make up all the details. If I had to write this from scratch, I would use Claude and like find I would like ask it.

Yeah. Get like stats. Yeah.

Did you know that there's more Ecoli in your in your Tupperware container than there is your toilet bowl?

So good.

You see, a lot of people don't realize this, but E.coli comes from rotten chicken. And rotten chicken sticks

chicken. And rotten chicken sticks inside of what's Tupperware usually made out of? I don't know.

out of? I don't know.

Plastic. Gastic.

Plastic. And so the and plus when you microwave it, oh my god, it even wors even deeper.

It creates a toxic waste of so you think so or or the headline could actually be imagine imagine storing your food in the toilet bowl.

That is such a good headline.

Yeah. Imagine storing your food in the toilet bowl because that's exactly what you're doing. There's more E.coli in in

doing. There's more E.coli in in one-year-old Tupperware container, the plastic one-year-old Tupper Tupperware container than there is your own toilet bowl and then you like explain like luckily for you. Yeah.

Yeah. Like that, my friend is why glass is better.

Yeah. You know, that's what I would do.

That's so good. But that that goes back to that idea of like punching somebody in the face with that first sentence.

Yeah. And I bet you I could find out the truth about like like here would be another one. If I had like a kids

another one. If I had like a kids clothing company, I would say um Is this advice for Sean?

No. Free game. I would say um would you put your kids milk in a plastic cup and microwave it until the cup started melting? Of course not. But that's

melting? Of course not. But that's

exactly what you're doing when you're buying them polyester pajamas and putting it in the dryer. That's why you want to have all natural organic cotton.

Do you think it's key to put some like almost frame something else that is extremely visual like you just did?

Yeah. So, for example, if I like a clear obvious no.

If I was going to tell you movie popcorn has 150 gram of fat, that means nothing.

But if I filled this cup up with 150 grams of fat or I showed you like a brick of fat and be like, you see this?

That's how much fat is in one um large popcorn. You want that?

large popcorn. You want that?

Yeah. It's like the deconstructed Coke bottle. They'll be like this much of

bottle. They'll be like this much of your Coke is sugar and it'll be like 40% of the entire bottle. Do you uh do you think about like objections when you're copyrighting?

Yeah. You know who you know who does it the best?

Have you ever seen the 8 Mile?

Yes.

Like the Eminem movie?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The best scene is when they're like freestyle rapping and he's like about to get annihilated by these guys and he's like, "Yeah, I am white. My mom is trashy. I am white trash. My mom did

trashy. I am white trash. My mom did have sex with this guy. Yeah, I got beat up by this guy." And then they're like, I do have a friend named Cheddaba shoots himself with Yeah. And then the guys are like,

Yeah. And then the guys are like, "Shit, I can't say anything. You just

ruined my entire."

Yeah. So, I do think that um when I whenever we write copy, I do think of objections. So, I'll often say like, "I

objections. So, I'll often say like, "I know what you're thinking. Who's this

person? Why can't I even trust them?"

Or, "I know what you're thinking. I

don't need this now." Like, I always I'll ask those questions like in the writing. Yeah. All the time. And then

writing. Yeah. All the time. And then

are you more direct when you're you're tackling objections with like No, you could have it in like FAQs.

Okay.

Cuz there was uh there was this video on on Tik Tok shot back in the day. It was

about like these Lenovo headphones basically.

Lenovo. Okay.

And so he used he was like there's a rumor going around that Apple is stealing this new design for these headphones. And then he proceeds to go

headphones. And then he proceeds to go into like you know he kind of hits like a you know the feeling like those headphones are so uncomfortable. And

then he's like these are the most comfortable ones. I never take them off.

comfortable ones. I never take them off.

And then the way I viewed the video and why I think it converted so well is because okay, you've got me. You've

hooked me in. I'm intrigued by your new design, but it's Lenovo headphones.

They're $40. I think they're probably pretty shitty. And so he proceeds to be

pretty shitty. And so he proceeds to be like, the battery life on these things insane. Like I haven't charged them for

insane. Like I haven't charged them for 3 weeks. And then he explains why. So,

3 weeks. And then he explains why. So,

but why are they only $40?

Exactly. And then he's like, not only that, but you know, I accidentally wore these in the shower one time and they're totally good. He doesn't say they're

totally good. He doesn't say they're waterproof. He says, I wore them in the

waterproof. He says, I wore them in the shower. Right. And like that personal

shower. Right. And like that personal anecdote is a way of handling the objection without necessarily like I know what you're going to say. You're

like these things are shitty. Like if I just get them wet at all they're probably going to die. He's like no I wore them in the shower.

I think that's a really good way to handle it. What do you have a Harley

handle it. What do you have a Harley one?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That one.

Okay. The reason I'm bringing this one up is because when you look at old vintage Harley ads or and or how they were positioned, it was it was more so built around desire. every Harley ad that they're running now is like just

about how much they could save by getting pre-qualified.

So, I'd want what I almost want you to That doesn't mean it's a bad ad. Like,

it could be like someone's super high intent.

Yeah. But I think there's there's a way of structuring it where like you can put pricing into the sentence and almost make it like still very desirable, but

it's it's more built around the desire and then like it's almost a bonus that it's, you know, x amount of dollars a month.

Yeah. I mean, it's the bottom of funnel.

Yeah. Yeah,

I would probably do something. I'm like

I mean I love like facts and like research. So I would probably do like

research. So I would probably do like people who have experiences are x more likely to be happy than people who just buy things. Thankfully this is both

buy things. Thankfully this is both like and and therefore save a little money two for one.

Yeah. I'd probably go something in that route cuz that's how I I've I've always justified I have there's my motorcycle right there. I always justify them of

right there. I always justify them of saying I'm purchasing an experience and experiences make you happier. I feel

like I'm a dancing monkey here. You got

to like show me ads and I got to come up with something clever. I've come up with two clever ones. I don't know how many more I have in me.

I mean, was that not a third?

That was a third. That was a third.

Feel like that was definitely a third.

How do you think about infusing humor or like personality into into the ads?

I don't think it works for every brand, but I think if it's part of your brand, I think that humor is probably one of the easiest um ones to use to sell.

Would you use it in Hampton?

Yeah. Yeah, like if you look at our about us page, um, we have humor. Um,

you read our about us page. Yeah, it's

supposed to be funny. Um, yeah, I like doing humor. Um, I actually think we do

doing humor. Um, I actually think we do do more of it, but at the hustle, we had humor. We had a really famous welcome

humor. We had a really famous welcome email that was quite popular.

Feel like we're very leaned into humor.

Yeah.

Um, and I wasn't the funny one. We hired

really funny people.

Yeah, we had we had a lot of really funny people. Like one of the Yeah. A

funny people. Like one of the Yeah. A

ton. We had ones who you don't even know. And we had headlines like one time

know. And we had headlines like one time SoFi. You know? Yeah, the bank.

SoFi. You know? Yeah, the bank.

Uh they the the story line was like the CEO like touched a woman or did something. It was a bad sex thing. Um

something. It was a bad sex thing. Um

and the headline and it wasn't bad enough where we couldn't make fun of it.

Like I think he like said something inappropriate. Um I don't think he

inappropriate. Um I don't think he touched I think he said something and we said so fi more like so [ __ ] Uh and we had like we had really good

headlines that we would use. I think um the New York Post does really good.

Yeah, they do. They they are the best at it. I mean, like the next day after

it. I mean, like the next day after anything happens, you just know the post is going to file somebody.

Yeah, it's pretty good. So, no, I do think humor is quite good.

For anybody that's trying to become a better copywriter, what would kind of what road map would you copy work without a doubt for six months? just find like just Google like

months? just find like just Google like best ads or like Yeah, I would start with ads, but then like um like most effective or like most top selling or

top selling like American short stories and then like um it could be like if you want to be funny, you'd find like best standup comedy jokes

or best SNL bits or most famous TV scenes, things like that. uh whatever is like critically acclaimed or popular for whatever reason in the genre that you

want to do. Then you spend literally three to six months.

I call it copy hour. I would do that every hour for six months.

Would you do that based off kind of like the skill sets? Like if you're if you're looking at a comedian, it's like, okay, delivery. I'm going to learn delivery

delivery. I'm going to learn delivery here.

Yeah, you want for Yeah, for that you'd want to learn timing. Yeah.

Um but yeah, just whichever um thing I want to be at, I would find like what what's to consider the the handful of classics.

And then even if you want to get good at video editing, you then you go and you try to recreate a shot or um if you want to do songs, you like recreate the song.

Um or for example, if you want to get good at design, you find websites that you like and you literally make them on Canva.

Yeah.

Have you ever had like a like a swipe file of copyrightiting books like all the like all these ones that we're looking at?

Yeah. You've used that as like a lead magnet before.

As a lead magnet?

Yeah. Just like something cuz I mean I feel like you could be like these are my top 15 copywriting books.

No, I've never done that but that's a really good idea. I should do that.

Yeah, cuz I've read a ton.

Yeah, I was going to say like this is just like it's very there's so many.

These are the most popular ones. I mean

these are the ones I talk about all the time but there's a bunch. Um

these are these are the pre-acquisition books. It's all copy.

books. It's all copy.

Postacquisition denim.

Go up one more. It's the contemporary Japanese architecture. Yeah. and

Japanese architecture. Yeah. and

skateboarding magazines.

Um, grab those thrasher magazines.

I did. I was actually looking I steal so many. So, the reason I have all these magazines is I just steal ideas from them. And I I work in the tech world and so I know that not a lot of people are going to be reading

Thrasher or this is like an old uh JFK Junior magazine. That's the first

Junior magazine. That's the first edition I got on eBay.

Yeah, that thing's probably appreciated and value.

Worth $1,000.

Million% since Love Story.

Joe, my partner, bought this for me two years ago cuz I love the Kennedys. Yeah.

And uh it's a the first edition of it's worth $1,000 now. He got it for 30 bucks. But I steal so many funny things

bucks. But I steal so many funny things uh from Thrasher.

They were making fun of me yesterday because we popped out of we went to Am Leon Dior. We left there and I was like

Leon Dior. We left there and I was like I need to instantly go to the magazine shop and I I bought like six, seven different magazines.

Yeah. So much stuff.

I'm like you you guys don't understand how good the copy and how good the imagery is and all of these.

This one's Popeye. There's the reason why this is cool. It's backwards and this magazine is all in Japanese by the I can't even read anything.

The Japanese one I bought yesterday is all um but I I have a subscription. I've

I've been a subscriber to these for years.

Isn't there another There's like a new magazine company trying to do it, right?

Haven't you talked about it before?

There was a cool arena.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a tech thing.

Yeah, they were trying to I don't want to read business anymore. I

just like to read other stuff. I got to find places to scale from.

A lot of people are saying like the best way to unlock your ability to write good original ideas is to read more fiction.

I I read a lot of f like read this headline out the all the gate. First

page I turned to he looked like Dale Nhard and smelled like Bo by a bonfire.

Like you immediately know.

I steal so much stuff from these things.

Yeah.

Thrasher has really good writing.

How long have they been in publication?

Like for 30 years probably.

The one thing you don't know about Sam is he great copywriter. He'll do a kick flip right over this. This

Yeah. Boy shreds the nor even at the age of 36.

Have you seen this guy Jimmy Sundays?

No. You gota

is Is he a 36-year-old who can shred?

No. No, certainly not. He's like a 23-year-old like surfer bro who walks up to like random girls and he'll be like, "What's up, fine shit?" And then he'll be like, "If I land this kick flip, you got to give me your number." And

I don't have those skills.

He just hits it on rip immediately. I

think you would geek out if you like looked up his page.

Well, Sam, I appreciate you making time for us. I know you uh you have a crazy

for us. I know you uh you have a crazy podcast schedule this week. I had one this morning with HubSpot and they um they pay me um every month to host MFM and sometimes when they call I got to say you do have to say yes.

Yes sir.

Yeah.

I think what got got it over the line was I posted something on my story. I

was like hey who what content do you want to see from me and somebody literally said you and Sam pod and I was he had just texted me like 15.

For the record Alex worked at the hustle. I think you started as an

hustle. I think you started as an intern. I don't remember exactly.

intern. I don't remember exactly.

No don't try me. That's not

what you were 24. Yeah, I came out on social.

Where did you work before?

I at my own agency and uh he was a kid and then he uh did the gym. What was it called? Um

the gym. What was it called? Um

Collective.

Collective. And and he like started filming some stuff and I'm like, "You did that?

That's really good. I didn't know you could do that." And then he started doing his own social and I was like, "You did that? That was really good." So

yeah, you built some cool stuff.

Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I

appreciate you jumping on, making time, um, and giving all the game that you that you typically do.

It's not that much, but hopefully someone will enjoy it.

People will find that super valuable.

Where, uh, where can they support you?

They can't.

Okay.

We have some people that are qualified for Hampton.

Uh, well, you have a podcast that's on the come up. We'll put you on.

come up. We'll put you on.

Please do. I would like to get word out.

We have this new thing called MFM. We um

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I started doing I started doing uh Instagram in December.

Yeah. and I've been going hard.

It's been really embarrassing to be a 36-y old guy talking to a camera, but uh you find me there. Are you

enjoying it some days? I do like it. Um I think I

some days? I do like it. Um I think I have 102,000 followers. So I've grown 50,000 since December. I think I started with 50. I don't remember how many I

with 50. I don't remember how many I started with, but um it's pretty fun.

Yeah, the young guys who've grown up with they are just they're different.

It's like competing against it's like competing against a Jamaican 100 meter runner. Like they're just born

runner. Like they're just born different. like the young guys who are

different. like the young guys who are good at it, you know, they just like it's very like ingrained in them.

It's in their DNA. It's been so uncomfortable to have to talk to a camera.

Um, they like vlogging too, right? Like they

they grew up making those videos on Snapchat on everything on their iPhone.

Every single time I try to hit like this, the walk-in talk, I can't do it.

What's your most amount of views on a video?

2 point something mil.

I just got a 4 million the other day.

What about your dad's onion?

My dad's onions. Oh, 4 million is big time. I

time. I got a 4 million. Yeah,

that was pretty huge and I knew it was going to take off right when I published.

How many How many followers did that drive? Probably 20,000.

drive? Probably 20,000.

Maybe 15 or 12.

Oh, yeah. It was

yeah. It was back in the day maybe 30. But

yeah, it was it drove a lot. Let's see.

Um, let's check out the analytic.

You got to get on TikTok, bro.

I hate China.

So, look, 4 million. The China

government. I hate the Chinese government.

CCP. The CCP.

Keep that in there. Keep that in there.

The Chinese people are cool with me.

China I don't like. So, four million followers or how many? Four million

views. How many followers did I get from it?

Roughly 10,000. But those are people that straight clicked follow on the reel. Like that's just count for the

reel. Like that's just count for the people that Yeah.

So, it's it's a little different.

It was just a story about my dad who's an onion salesman and he like just sells $10 million a year worth of onions with a You wrote it. You wrote the the copy behind the video and everything. Just

Oh, there was no writing, bro. You just

I was at my dad's house or my dad's office.

It's like a very raw video.

I was at my dad's office. My dad's an onion salesman. So, basically, my father

onion salesman. So, basically, my father started a produce stand on the side of the road, like a fruit stand.

Yeah.

And it became um a brokerage, which basically means he calls a farmer and he buys $1 million worth of onions and then he sells it to Walmart for a little bit more money and then get 002 or like

Yeah. Like nothing. Like he sells like

Yeah. Like nothing. Like he sells like $15 million a year's worth of onions, but like it's like a arbitrage.

It's like a very tiny. So, he doesn't make that like $15 million a year, right? Which the comments were like,

right? Which the comments were like, "Oh, your dad's like rich." I'm like, "No, the margins are small." Yeah.

But anyway, um I was at his office and it's just him and this woman who works for him, he met at a bar. She was the bartender of his favorite bar.

And uh I go um I'm I go, "Here's how my dad sells $10 million a year worth of onions." And it's just s he's just

onions." And it's just s he's just sitting there with his desk and he's got two like phones and he's got a computer that strictly is used for watching YouTube videos and he has a calculator here and he just makes calls. Yeah. Can

I buy this thing? All right, cool. Like

adds it up like, "Hey, do you want to buy this thing?" Cool. And then his coworker who is in the other office, he let her have like a big pack and play in her office so she can bring her kid to the office. And then we're like we're

the office. And then we're like we're like here's his accounting department and that's the calculator. Here's like

the call center. It's like his two phones. And then like here's the daycare

phones. And then like here's the daycare with just a pack and play.

Yeah. Yeah.

And uh it went viral.

Skip rate only 20%. Which is

So you had 80% of people watch the How much does that mean? What does that mean?

It's like a 80% 3se secondond stop rate.

So 80% of people saw your hook and said, "I'm in."

"I'm in." Yeah. At the 3se secondond mark, 85% of

Yeah. At the 3se secondond mark, 85% of people continued watching, which is insane. It's actually an insane number.

insane. It's actually an insane number.

Yeah.

You don't drop below 50% until 33 seconds in, which I think the video is only 45 seconds long, which is wild. It's 50.

So like 50% of those 4 million people watch the whole thing. Like I always know if like my um if I'm looking at my skip rate, if it's above 50% at the three 3 second mark, I'm like, "Okay, this is going to I do 50% after five."

Yeah.

And I mean looking at these numbers, it's What's the average watch time?

35 seconds.

That's [ __ ] crazy.

And then what I did was I made an ad out of that video. So this is one one of our better performing ads.

It's probably crushing.

I mean, you could also just like whitelist that one from your account.

Well, what I did was watch this.

We're at my father's business. This is

That's him. He sells over $10 million of onions a year. You have to see how he does it. This video got three million

does it. This video got three million views. And if you're a business owner,

views. And if you're a business owner, you're going to understand why. Watch

this. My post went viral in the entrepreneur community because it was framebreaking. Basically, people think

framebreaking. Basically, people think that a $10 million or $50 million a year business should look a certain way. And

they see this and they are encouraged because there's really hundreds of different ways that you can get to where you want to go and build a huge company.

And this is one of the reasons why thousands of founders get a lot of value in Hampton because they're able to see these framebreaking conversations and meet these framebreaking people every single day.

Some quick CTA, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's one of our best ads.

Pretty funny, right? God bless America.

God bless America.

America.

Yeah.

Is that Ralph?

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, dude, thank you. All right.

God bless you guys. Thank you so much as well, brother. Thank you. Thank you.

well, brother. Thank you. Thank you.

Peace.