73. The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
Gary Halbert was one of the best marketing geniuses . He single handedly generated 1 billion dollars in revenue in 1980s. At age 46, and peak of is career, he landed in the Boron prison due to a fraud.
From the prison he wrote letters to his 16 year old son on his life lessons:
Here is the summary:
Chapter 1:son, do the roadwork: 30 min to 1 hr of running everyday morning.
The difference between the people who reach the mountain top and in-ground is simply a matter of showing up every day.
Chapter 2: fasting: 1 day a week
You should do roadwork to order your day
You should fast every week to order your week
Chapter 3:
Winners revise their plans over and over and constantly reassess. Write your goals every day and go over to everyday
Chapter 4:
Rely on your own strengths than someone's compassion.
The real motive of a great businessman is often self-reliance not money
Chapter 5:
Become a student of reality- markets- by observing what people do - not what they say they'll do!
Chapter 6:
Constantly look out for groups of people ie., markets who have demonstrated that they are starving( at least hungry) for some product or service! Create your own list of satisfied customers
Chapter 7:
All you have to do is observe- recency, frequency, and unit of sale are the measures of Markets.
Chapter 8:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck- Observe!
Chapter 9:
Develop a winning formula- that you can use and reuse
Chapter 10:
When you get emotionally jammed up one of the ways to get yourself unclogged and flowing again is to just keep moving - run, walk, jog, write- do dishes
But don't wait around for a flash from heaven! The key is movement.
Chapter 11:
Personalize your messages to get audience's attention.
Chapter 12:
Address letters by name. Personalize by time and location.
Chapter 13:
How to solve problems? When things are tough a very very simple way but effective way to just keep moving in some sort of positive direction
Chapter 15:
After you done the hardwork, collecting notes, writing, etc, stop working on the project. That's right just let it go! For a day or two
Now what happens is that- an outstanding idea occurs to you!
Chapter 16:
When you write follow a formula : AIDA
Attention, interest, Desire,action
Attention:
Get it by attaching a goodie
Interest
Put interesting facts
Desire:
Benefits of buying products or service
Action:
What should customer do? Hand hold them step by step and enable do them right now!
Chapter 17:
The best way to become a good writer is by 'writing good writing'
Copy the work of great author's by hand - soon you will in internalize it
Chapter 18:
When you write an Ad, it should look like a rave review by a reporter of a book that you have written. Including the details of - where you can buy them, how much does it costs, Where to send the checks to;
You are doing a perfect sales job when at first it does not appear that you are attempting to do a sales job
Chapter 19:
“You never get a second chance to make the first impression”. In fact, I have a theory that we - like or dislike someone or something in the first fraction of a second we see.
ELU - Eyes Lit-up moment - when we see something we like, we want to see more of it - so our eyes open up - and allows more light to come in -pupils dilated - and vice versa! Create a nice layout always to present!
Chapter #20:
Most serious mistakes happen due to bad ego decisions - so when you are on HALT - hurt, Angry, Lonely, Tired - you should start moving - writing, jogging, walking;
Therapy is the physical act - of writing/roadwork;
You don't have to get it right - you have to get it moving!
Chapter #21:
You can't control what happens to you! You do have a lot of control over your responses.
So what do I do to deal with this HALT? I write , I do roadwork - I do chores!
Chapter #22:
Read your copy aloud! - what you write!
(See if there is a rhyme and rhythm!)
Chapter 23:
Winners know how to play the cards they were dealt with! They call me Ad genius...i am not sure if i am worthy of that comment...but you know what...one thing I am sure...I work like crazy!
Another thing is awareness: one game you can play with yourself is : guess the time right now...if you are off by more than 7 minutes ...you are less aware! Do some moving around
Chapter 24:
Don't use cheap tricks
Chapter 25:
Pay attention to self. You send vibrations and people can sense it !When I am 'off' I drop out of sight and do what is necessary to strengthen myself!
Authors
Gary Halbert
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