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Bill:
I could get Mr. Kennedy up here early because he has so much to share with you that he needs as much
time as he can to share everything with you. Dan today when he comes up here and he talks, Dan is one
of the greatest teachers and masters of copywriting that there is. I'm pretty certain to my knowledge
he's had three seminars that he's delivered exclusively on writing copy. I was as an attendee at all three.
I've read all his books on copy, I study his copy very closely. As far as looking at all the little nuances and
the thinking that goes in that he does in order to craft and create copy and surely been my blueprint
myself for developing my own copywriting skills.
But he's going to be talking today about a very specific type of copywriting. The specific type of
copywriting that he's going to be talking about today is copy that you use that once you get the
customer, how to not only keep them as a customer, but to turn them into even a better customer.
Once again, somewhat wrinkled sign talks about the fact that the purpose is not to make a sale, the
purpose of the sale is to get a customer. The question is what do you do with the customer once you get
the customer? Gia I was hoping you guys wouldn't start handing that out yet but I guess you have.
One of the things that we always want to do in our business and Dan talks about it in his
language is that you want to go out and get yourself a herd. For anyone here who doesn't have a herd
we are actually handing out to you a little packet of seeds, which is called herd seeds. Now when you go
back, you just plant these suckers and you wait and you keep watering it very lovingly, day after day and
these things just multiply like crazy and everybody here will have a herd. We're giving these little herd
seeds to take home with you so that everybody leaves here with a herd. Now what I didn't tell you is
how many days you have to water this for but you have to discover that on your own.
With that said, now that everyone here is going home with the herd, now you have to learn how
to care for the herd. One of the best ways to care for the herd, if you don't want to go and actually do
manual labor is to communicate with the herd through your copy. With that said there's no one better
at all out there and actually he really has invented this, there's no one better out there who knows how
to write copy for the care and feeding of the herd than our own Mr. Dan Kennedy. Dan, come on up.

Dan Kennedy:
Our guard crasher has turned out to be accidental Bill, and he prefers paying to spending 48 hours with
Ted. Let's take a vote. How many one of these people [crosstalk 00:03:38]. Okay, good morning. One of
the things I want to point out to you both about what I'm going to do today and what Bill is going to do
today is there aren't very many businesses where you go to their are seminars and they will peel back
the curtain if you will and let you see inside the business why things are being done the way they are
and how they work. We're really very open with you guys. Warts and what works as well. This morning
I'm going to be talking about some pretty advanced stuff. For the not real bright in the room, it won't
really have any lasting effects so it won't matter but for the astute in the room it may very well change
the way you view how we communicate with you.
But it will make that now interesting in a different way than it has been for you in the past.
What I want to talk about mostly is how to use the written word in your business to create and keep
customers for life. In any business, but certainly in ours the single most expensive and painful thing is
getting the new customer. The options for doing it at an affordable cost are frankly quite limited.
Everybody spends their entire life in this business trying to figure out how to do it and get more of them
at an affordable cost. One way that a lot of us have done it, Tom Ziegler who's here, the customers exist
to a great degree, because for 50 years, Zig has gotten on an airplane and gone somewhere and stood
up here and done this and brought home customers. A great deal of our customers exist for the same

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reason Dan has gotten on an airplane and gone somewhere. Not to discourage anybody from that but I
will tell you in 10 or 20 or 30 years it gets old.
Abby, Ted and I were talking when Ted says, I'm on 10 programs this year with Donald Trump
speaking to 20,000 people, that sounds exciting. If you went and followed him around at the actual
event where he is speaking with Donald Trump to 20,000 people believe me it is anything but exciting
and fun. Truth be told, if he didn't say it to you from the stage, if you asked him privately, why do you do
that? The answer is because I can come home with 300 customers. That's why. Because I assure you the
grimy little green room in the basement with the stale Danish and the lipstick and crusted cup has the
last thing available to get water in, and the nasty staff and who are you again? Which is more about
what that really is it gets old. But a lot of us do it because it's a very efficient and affordable way to
acquire customers.
The internet has changed the way we acquire customers or find God. I have many bad things to
say about the internet, but I have good things to say about the internet too. That's one of them. But
generally speaking, our options are limited. The bane of our existence is the cost of customer
acquisition. If you made that go away, the rest of it would be ridiculously easy for everybody to be
millionaires in the information business. But you can't. Once you understand that the cost of acquiring a
customer is absolutely the worst part of the business, the most difficult part of the business, the barrier
to getting rich in the business, the pain and the agony of the business, then if your intelligence you must
turn attention to turning each one of them that you do go through the expense and pain and agony to
get into the best possible asset that they can be.
In fact, you have to understand they are the only asset you got. When you take the little packet
of seeds home, by the way, I don't think Bill mentioned and I suggested to him that he did because I
believe in the no man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public. Those
things are not edible. Do not be snacking on them. It probably should have been printed on the package.
This is an official legal disclaimer. If you eat them, you'll probably die. They are supposed to be stuck up
on a bulletin board as a reminder of the business, you're really in. Because for convenience, we used to
call the information products business, and that's passe, for convenience, we call it the information
marketing business but not only is it a misnomer, it's essentially misleading, because that is not the
business we're in.
We're in the business of turning customers into herds of customers into very valuable assets and
the only asset you ever get in this business is a customer. The intellectual property is not a particularly
good asset because A, it's perishable and B it only has value as long as there's somebody around to sell it
anytime you think otherwise I could show you a long list of very famous speakers, authors information
marketers who very shortly after they pass away you can purchase all the rights to all their intellectual
property for pennies. You can't get carried away with the product. The process has changed, media
changes, you obviously don't have bricks and mortar, you don't have equipment, copyrights and
patents, try and enforce them the asset is the customer.
I fortunately realized it pretty early and really made a science out of this if we're going to get
one by God let's not lose them. One of the points of what I'm going to show you this morning is that you
will not keep them for life based on the value of the education or information you are giving them. You'll
keep them maybe for a couple of years with that, but that alone won't keep them hanging around.
Because pretty much nobody knows enough to keep dispensing new information and new education for
20 and 30 years. Most of us what we teach and most of you in the room, what you teach gets front end
loaded in the relationship. There's only about 30 things that I teach. Now I keep putting a new wrapper
on them and talking about them in a different way but fundamentally, you got sequence bailing, we
could name them and we'd be out in about 10 minutes.

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Most everybody who's around me for any length of time already knows that stuff. The
education and the information that you provide won't keep them for life. What will keep them for life is
an interest in you has an interesting person. You write copy, not just your sales letter copy by the way,
that's mostly not what I'm talking about this morning. I'm not talking about the copy that sells I'm
talking about the copy that keeps and the copy that keeps is mostly delivered through in our business
and in most of my clients newsletters and I encourage it in your business it's mostly delivered through
your paper in newsletter, but also through your books and through your other products. That's really
what I'm talking about this morning.
One quick caveat, in showing you what I'm going to show you this morning I am going to very
quickly get into some analogies. I want to caveat it so nobody, it's going to be great if I don't move. It's
not as bad though. Some of you where I forget where this was, but we had every third word went out. I
had to frame what I was doing so that every third word wasn't important. The caveat is I'm going to
show you an analogy I do not mean analogy as comparison. If you take it as comparative some of you in
the room will be offended by what I'm going to show you if you take it as analogy, there is no reason to
be offended now very quick. I'm going to borrow five minutes from my current crusade, which is I said I
was about to talk about technology.
I am enlisting everybody I can I'm trying everything I can to stop public cell phone use. It is my
opinion that the way to solve the federal deficit is simply to have a hunting season once a year for which
you must buy a license. Then it is legal to shoot anybody who is using a cell phone in public cut their
head off and have it mounted on your wall. However, I don't think there's a lot of political support for
this approach. My current tactic is simply to really embarrass people who are doing it because of course
we hear their conversations. Women in case you're not aware of it, people are talking on their cell
phones while they're peeing into urinals and in airports it's just impossible.
Here I'm compiling a book first of all, but I'm going to make a suggestion to you to do what I'm
not doing. Here are actual things overheard with no effort made because you've noticed, in airports and
restaurants, when people talk on their cell phones, they apparently believe these things are the Dick
Tracy walkie talkies that we got for Christmas when we were 11 because they yell into them. You can be
sitting all the way across the room and hear Barbara talking about her hysterectomy with no difficulty
whatsoever. I made no effort to overhear this and then I'm going to tell you what I did, because I'm
going to suggest you do the same. This is a 50 ish, executive looking guy, and he's in line at the
Starbucks. Here's what I hear him say, "I'm not supposed to be telling you this in fact, I suppose I could
go to jail for insider trading but we're going to merge with AT&T next week and our stock has to
double."
Now my new approach is now to walk over to him and say, "Excuse me, I couldn't help
overhearing. I'm an attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission." Here's a woman in the
airline club room. "No Bob doesn't know his son's gay and he's not going to handle it well." I say, "I'm
terribly sorry to hear that. I'm playing golf with your husband, Bob next week." This is another 50 ish
executive talking on your cell phone at the urinal. "She's going to clean my clock in this damn divorce
fortunately, she doesn't know about the Florida condo I've got in Cindy's name." I turned to him and say,
and here's the best one I've overheard. This is a young woman in her 30s she's in a business suit and
she's in the lobby of a Marriott. I won't mention which Marriott and she says into the cell phone, "But if
I'm tied up and gagged how will I be able to tell you when I've had enough?"
It turns out she's impossible to embarrass but the rest of them can be confronted and can be
embarrassed. I suggest you adopt. I'm trying this new strategy of engaging everyone who is talking on
them and hoping to humiliate them sufficiently that they will cease. I would love for you to join me in
this effort. Now to put the little piece of stick I just did a side as if you had it on a little piece of scratch

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paper next to your notes because I did it to be entertaining, but I did it for a demonstration purpose as
well. We will come back to it as we go along this morning. Here are hey, do I have a visual now? It's
incredible. Just come up here and set me on fire. Actually we're doing that to Rory.
You saw his boot camp campaign this year the one we're working on right now is all magic
themed his event is magic thing and Dave D is creating an illusion by which Rory will appear on stage at
the beginning of the boot camp on fire. This is my idea because of course, I don't have to do it. Okay, our
goals if you look at the first two, it is career in business longevity meaning how long do you want to be
around? How long do you want to be in this thing making money and making money hopefully easier
and easier in bigger and bigger amounts as each year passes along and if you want 10, 20, 30 years, it
doesn't happen by accident. Second goal is customers for life. No want to try something just very quick
and I know there's a lot of new faces. I didn't check the registration list, and my memory sucks anyway,
but this still should be an instructive demonstration.
It will be more instructive if you look at each other than if you look at me. Okay, everybody in
the room who their first Kennedy purchase goes back at least five years, if you would please stand up.
It's more instructive if you look at them than if you look at me. Stay standing if it's seven. Stay standing if
it's 10. Stay standing if it's 15. Okay, we got to 15 years here. All right. You get to stand back up if you
think you've spent cumulatively $25,000 or more. It don't take 15 years for us to get that. Stay standing
if you think you're over $50,000. Anybody want to go for 100? A few, okay thanks. Now I would
challenge you to go into most seminar audiences with most speakers try the same thing you won't see
the same result. It doesn't happen by accident. What you saw stand up are not customers, they're not
people, they are but they're also incredibly valuable assets.
That's the way you must think. How do I keep them interested enough to stay around for life?
The second collection of things on the list the goals that lead to this, you want customers who are eager
for the next installment of your story. Customers who are willing to read, listen, return. Who open your
mail. You want a sense of relationship with your customers. I said last night actually, I was having a voice
problems last night and as you know, I haven't spoken yet. I said, Well, there's 400 people here and
everybody's got a story they want to tell me and I can't listen silently. Well, that's what's supposed to
happen. Is everybody supposed to want to tell me their story? That's exactly what's supposed to happen
doesn't happen by accident.
People come up and start a conversation where it left off 18 months ago. They're supposed to
think I remember where we ended that conversation 18 months ago. That's what's supposed to happen.
Customers who are involved in your story that leads to a permission to sell to the customers frequently.
Their tolerance for being sold to has to do with their relationship with you not as much with what it is
you are selling to them. Don't mistake the point. A willingness of customers to pay premium prices and a
preference of customers to buy from you versus others. Here's the formula we're for this type of
business we're only going to talk about parts of it today. It is a relationship business. It is not a product
business.
It is not a transactional business. It is not even a sequential sale business. It is a relationship
business, the business structure you guys are all familiar with that not going to spend any time on that.
Bill is going to take you inside and show you how you fight times the business and that structural stuff. It
is whatever word you wish to use. Guru, charismatic leader, mentor. Tom [inaudible 00:21:39] we have
a joke about his $40,000 coaching program which is for $40,000 a year I'll be your friend. Which by the
way, tells you really what Tom is by occupation. It's just a matter of the price. But it is a guru business.
That's what it is. It is facilitated by printed word, media.
That's what we're going to talk about this morning. One direct comparison I suggest to you is
series fiction. I actually know a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business people are not fiction readers, and

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in fact pride themselves on not being fiction readers. For that matter, not watching soap operas, be the
daytime soap or primetime soap. It's frankly a mistake because what we do to keep customers for life is
very comparative to what a series fiction writer does to keep customers for life. These are prime
examples, by the way, and if you've never paid any attention to any of them I suggest going home
picking one and reading from the beginning to the end, and I'll tell you why later, but these are people
who, Parker is probably the best currently known in the mystery category.
He writes the Spenser novels and if you don't read at all, you may remember there was a
Spencer TV show for a little while with Bob Urich. This is 30 books, sequential, that people wait for the
next one. Just think the Harry Potter phenomena, repeated 30 times. They wait for the next one as soon
as it's available, they all run to the stores to get it. They don't wait for it to come out in paperback. That's
a secondary business. They all run and get it in hardcover because they want the next installment. They
want to know what the character is up to. What's going on in his life. What's going to happen next.
See, it's a mystery novel, but the mystery is really secondary to the readers relationship with the
characters. If there's anybody in here who's a Spenser reader, I could quiz him and they would know all
the characters and they would tell you what his relationship with his psychologist girlfriend that he
won't marry is like at the moment and on and on because it's not about the mystery, any more than our
business can be about the core information over a long period of time. If he actually wrote a mystery
novel, he might have a successful novel, but he wouldn't have a successful series. His thing is all about
characters. Rex Stouts character that he created, Nero Wolfe, has been so enduring that after Stout
died, the family found another writer to continue to write the novels because the customers want the
book so bad, want to stay involved with these characters that they don't want to let go.
Series fiction is closer to what we do than any other thing you can study. Think about the
information business as a never ending novel has that relationship with the reader and if you do the key
elements then are plot characters adventures and ideas. That's what they are. That's what you work
with. Now what media can we deliver that in best? The absolute best is a newsletter. Think of it as a
novelette. Parker is going to dole out 30 books over a period of 28 years. We're going to dole out 12
miniature books one a month and keep that relationship going. Now, I'm going to show you the
elements now of a character driven business. Again, now we're doing analogy. No comparison
personally. Let me give you the elements first, then I'll give you examples.
Element number one, there needs to be a character. There needs to be a guru, a hero, a leader,
someone with which everyone is involved, and they are going to stay involved. For most of your
purposes, our purposes, that character is you. You're the hero, you're the protagonist. You're the guru,
you're the leader, you're the featured character. This by the way means you can't be boring. It's okay if
you want to be boring in real life by the way, it's just that you can't be boring in the way you present
yourself to your audience. Every great character has an origin story, an explanation for why they are
where they are doing what they are and who they are. We'll go back for examples in a second.
Every character has a backstory. The explanation of how they got to be who they are, where
they are doing what they are before the customer encountered them. Every character basically has a
legend. There's a core story about that character that the great characters that everybody knows. Some
characters are so great everybody knows the legend, even if they don't pay any attention to the
character we'll do examples. There are parables. Parables are the guru stories that teach that you use
over and over again. In the speaking business some speakers call this signature stories. In religion
they're called parables. I chose the parables term because everybody immediately gets it. To build this
business, your character has a collection of parables that are really good and that people really like and
that people even want to hear over and over again, that teach the key principles of what it is that you
teach. Then there are other stories about the guru which tend to further the legend.

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There are miracles. The Guru has to be known for making some miracle happen. That may be an
amazing money miracle, it may be an amazing life transformation miracle. It may be think about your
business Steven, it's magical recovery after bankruptcy for hundreds of thousands of troops through
your seminars. There's sums collection of miracles that happen. There's insiders language. I've always
taught most of you know the theory of red door, blue door. It is basically the people behave like cats. If
you own cats, where do they want to get into wherever there is a closed door? They have no reason to
go there. They don't know what's there. There's no particular incentive to get on the other side of the
door. As soon as they get in there and you close the door, where do they want to get? Out Of course.
Well, not out actually, they want to get into the other room that they perceive now to be behind the
closed door.
People behave fundamentally the same. Wherever they are, they want to be in the other place.
This is about creating a place through insider language that when I read it and hear it if I feel like an
outsider back to our discussion yesterday of inadequacy, if I feel like an outsider, I don't like being an
outsider. I want to be an insider. What did everybody want to be in school? In the click. Everybody
wanted to be in some group. Ingrained behavior. We create a language that means meaning, so there's
a Glaser Kennedy language, you guys all happen to know it. It's not like you sat down and learned it like
Spanish, or French or smart me in high school I took Latin very useful. Very hard to work Quo Vadis into
a speech.
Just did it. There's dogma. The foundation, the fundamental beliefs, the laws, the principles, the
rules. There has to be that foundation for your information business. There's an enemy or enemies.
Great character stand for things and stand against things. People unite easier by what they are against
than what they are for. There's testimony, people who are running around singing the praises of the
character, the miracles that he has created for them. Those are the elements. They are deliberate. Let's
show you some examples. Guru, hero, a leader. Well, one is known for immaculate conception and
rising from the dead. Probably none of us are going to match that act. However, if you set aside now,
how you might react to this emotionally or philosophically is the second thing on the list particularly
different from the first thing on the list.
The second thing on the list is he's bitten by a radioactive spider, develops superhuman powers,
and becomes a hero who fights for justice in America. That's the legend of spider man. Is there any
particular difference between the second legend and the first? No there's not. The masked man in the
Indian dates us but that one's so well known, how many in the room know who I'm talking about?
Almost as many as knew the first one. Rocky, typo up there Stallone finally got the money. He's making
Rocky six. Why? We all joke about it. Rocky seven, by the way, is rocky versus irritable bowel syndrome
is the name of the film. But look, he created an enduring character. If you take his character and apply it
to the whole list that we're going through, you'll find that he's hit every element.
Who knows witness parents shot by a robber in an alley who now spends his life avenging
crime? Batman. Okay. Who knows dark and rainy night Andrew Carnegie gave him 30 seconds to make a
decision. Napoleon Hill, okay. Some of you will know who knows former Iowa prison guard, about to be
fired, discovers thinks he'd grow rich sitting on shelf of wardens and goes off and gets rich. Darren
Garmin. See that's what I look for when I work for a client I look for these elements. I know I got
somebody I can turn into a winner as soon as I start to find them. Soon as I heard Darren story, so this is
much bigger than the current business you're fooling around with now, because you got this.
This is more important than expertise. Broke car mechanic borrows the money to go to his first
real estate seminar. Rama Gran. Okay. Why do you know these things? Because these people wanted
you to know these things. They got their story together, they got their legend, right. They tell it again
and again. The parables again, the first one is obvious probably everybody knows that. However, is there

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a significant difference between the first one and the second one? No. There's Spider Man parables too.
The third one is one of the Dan Kennedy parents I use it all the time for myself and for clients to talk
about spending the money and taking the time to come to seminars.
If you stopped to think about it, many of you have read it in a sales letter about how I flew all
night across country and landed in Oakland and had a helicopter waiting to get me to the base and in
San Francisco where the cab was waiting to get me to the hotel in time to hear Richard Thalheimer from
Sharper Image speak for 45 minutes. It's a crafted parable and it's in my little inventory of parables that I
trot out and use over and over again to make the point, of course that no extreme is too extreme to go
and get important education and information and even if you only get one jam, etc. They're miracles.
Again, the first one, probably not. None of us are going to match the water into wine and walk on water
and all that act but look, everybody knows the Tonto one too.
Tonto to put ear to ground, able to tell Lone Ranger. Stagecoach coming. Everybody knows that
one. Two another superhero one is miracle Daredevil. Horrible movie, great comic book. Daredevil. Was
that Ben Affleck? Could you pick a worse, anyway Daredevil, what's his miracle? He's a blind superhero.
Miraculous. It's like walking on water. The insiders language. Well, every religion has it. If you're
Catholic, you have an insider language that's all your own. If you're Baptist you have an insider language
that's all your own. If you're a Buddhist, you have an inside your language that's all your own. There's
five Catholics having, my coaching group took him to dinner a few weeks ago and we're a big long table
and on one side, I have a bunch of them engaged in deep theological debate. You were there, on one
side, I have them in deep theological debate.
If you listened and you weren't of that persuasion, there's an insider language that you're not
getting at all and you're immediately thinking, gee, I want to know about that and on the other side of
me, by the way, I have the Scott Tucker group, who is having a completely different conversation with its
own insider language that is inappropriate for the stage. Human Potential movements of the 70s and
the 80s. What did Werner Earhart do for est? Created his own language? If you're an est insider, you
speak to another est insider in language that excludes the person standing next to you who doesn't get
so there's an insider language. Of course, there's dogma, there's the 10 commandments. There's
Napoleon Hill 17 principles, there's Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of exceptionally successful people.
Everybody has got them. I'll even show you the same elements get applied, not just to the
business as a whole, but to every little thing you do now within the business. Let's just take a look at an
example. Here's Nobias time management. Do we have the elements? Yeah, we got me and we had a
story about me. Pretty much everybody knows the story about me, why? Because I'm sure they do.
Miller talked about time, radical behavior about time. Okay, are there parables? Yes, there are parables.
I tell the Tracy to mortgage broker story all the time because he comes from a business where people
devoutly believe you must be immediately and constantly and always accessible to your customers. He
turns off his cell Phone at 4:30 every single day, never takes another call does not take cell phone calls
on weekends when realtors think they must be able to reach a mortgage broker on weekends dictates
the terms by what why do I tell that path? I tell the parable over and over.
I built my little collection of parables for this particular product. They're miracles, are they
miracles? Yeah. No cell phone, no email, no people bugging me. No interruptions, they're miracles. It's
like showing cavemen fire. It's like walking on water, water into wine. Do they work the same way?
Absolutely. Everybody wants to know how do you do that? I can't believe you can do that. I'm mystified
by your ability to do that. They're miracles. Insider language and rituals? Yes. Dogma. Yes. Enemy and
enemies. Yes. The same elements apply. Try a quick test. See how many you know and what else do you
know about them? The first one, shaken, not stirred license to kill Walther PPK. Come on. It's an easy
one. Why do you know that? Think about it for a second. Why do you know it? Because they honed it.

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They crafted it. They identified these five or six or seven things that would stick with people. They went
to enormous extremes to make sure they stuck.
What else do you know about him? You know other things. Think about it for a second you
know other things. Was he married or single? Where does he buy his suits? Seville Rose, somebody said,
we could go down the list you know things about this character, as if he was a real person, extremely
important. Here's one you got to be a certain age you got to be a mystery fan. Who knows the second
one almost never leaves the house. He's in the rough green house every morning with his orchids, big
yellow soap, pajamas, gourmet food, anybody? [inaudible 00:40:08]. No. It's close. You got to leave out
the orchids. You can substitute racehorse. Nero Wolfe mystery guy. Here's one everybody will know
raincoat, beagle, soggy, cigars. Colombo. Sure why do you know that?
They crafted a character. Try this one this is current television. No not Dan Kennedy wise ass.
Egotistical, pompous but became more likable over two seasons losing powers emotionally wrestling
with aging and Alzheimer's calls it mad cow disease. Very good. Danny Crane. Sure One of the best
characters on television today, brilliantly crafted by the writers David Kelly is a great producer. Shatner
is doing it brilliantly you should watch because if you want to see somebody doing what you need to do,
they're doing it. Let's try this one, sister in law's basement Chicago Bulls fan, avid golfer never wear a
necktie again. Why do you know that because we made sure you do it. As I worked with Jeff at the very
beginning, I identified the things that we would use to make him into a character.
We can try a few more. Some you'll know some you won't. You have to be assertive, but the first
one everybody ought to know. Came to America as an immigrant, modern Horatio Alger story, Mr.
Universe. Arnold, why do you know that? Because he made sure you knew it. By the way you should
read somebody who ever sent me I forget who sends me what but I have already thanked them but you
should read the biography that's out right now in hardcover about Schwarzenegger because it's a
marketing text. In case you don't know it he basically co-opted the old Charles Atlas, saying kicked in
your face and Schwarzenegger original business was selling fitness booklets in comic books. With ads in
comic books. Schwarzenegger made sure you knew this.
The next one many of you won't know you'd have to be 1970s. Let's see if anybody gets it
though sharecropper sign here left eighth grade dropout sold sewing machines door to door [inaudible
00:42:33] anybody? Gwen Turner, there you go. Why do you know that? Because they made sure you
knew it. Try the last one. High School Education started as a child Rich Dad Poor Dad. Same dad Catholic
stamps. Why do you know those things? Because I made sure you knew them. Here's a quick little
checklist. Here's probably the most enduring characters categories that you might craft. Its great line I
was told by Kirby Landis in practice management many years ago that most people are walking around
looking for a stern but loving parent, someone they know cares about them. Cares if you're in fitness
cares that they lose weight and live healthy. If you're in money cares that they are successful and get
rich, but hold them accountable is tough.
Dr. Phil. That's the Dr. Phil persona works very well. It's Dr. Laura persona. Another name up
there that some of you may know some of you may not know but he's one of the guys that I really
learned the character relationship from in the information marketing business very early guy by the
name of Jerry Buchanan. Jerry is a great example to study patient teacher, philosopher or Latin Gale Dr.
Maxwell Maltz, Mike Vance, Jim Rohn these guys have put themselves into this character rap. The
dysfunctional eccentric genius and adventurer. Those of you who know Halbert, I've put him in this
category. The every man, if I can do it, you can do it. Our friend Ron Legrand, the mystical seer, Werner
Erhard from est. These are categories that are used over and over again with some mix and match
perhaps but you have to start thinking in these terms.

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I want you to think of yourself as character, not just marketer. This is from one of the many
books about how to write fiction. I have a room full of them. The key line is readers wish to read about
the exceptional. As business personalities you and I are in the middle. We can't become fictional
characters, but we have to be exceptional characters. Every exceptional character has some little core
competency too. Columbo and the current popular monk on TV, they're built from Sherlock Holmes in
case you haven't paid attention. It's just the same character category over and over again and what's
their exceptional ability? Incredible powers of observation. Perry Mason, and a whole bunch of attorney
characters that have been modeled over the years on Perry Mason their exceptional ability is breaking
down the witness on the witness stand, who now confesses to having axe murdered 48 people even
though there's no evidence and they couldn't possibly be convicted and on and on.
People want to read about an exceptional person, not an ordinary person. Essentially what you
do is this, is you build yourself into a category. As you turn yourself into a character, you accentuate
your positives. See the printed word like television diminishes, it makes you smaller. When you're on
stage, people get to see you, you get to do gestures when you deliver a newsletter, they don't see that.
When you deliver a book they don't get to see that. The media diminishes, which means you have to
deliberately magnify, you have to exaggerate so you accentuate your positives, you exaggerate your
personality, just as most actors most comedians, most performers, and whether you ever stepped to the
stage or not, in a character based information business, you are a performer.
Most performers are not exactly offstage, what they are on stage. Some there's very dramatic
differences. Johnny Carson was a great example. Nothing like his television personality. Offstage some
people, it's not a big dramatic difference, but it is a difference. I've been around Al Leno a little bit totally
different from onstage. Much quieter, much more relaxed, not particularly funny. Needs writers. By the
way, interesting thing about the tonight show, which was created by Steve Allen, some of you old
enough and if you really want to study somebody, by the way, he's a terrific writer. It was Steve Allen.
The first two years of tonight's show was on the air and they had no writers. None zero zip. That was
Steve Allen. That show currently I think has 22 or 26 or 28 writers to craft what must come out of his
mouth, from the teleprompter that you don't see.
You exaggerate your personality. You sharpen your voice. Jim Rohn, who's speaking at our super
conference one of the reasons Jim is so effective is he's a real wordsmith. His use of the language itself is
fascinating. He has sharpened the voice that he presents as part of his character over years. When you
come to the super conference see him speak, you need to try and do it on two levels. You need to enjoy
the experience and hear the personal development material but as information marketers you should
simultaneously on another track in your brain be trying to pay attention to how he's doing what he's
doing and one of the things you will see is that he really has a very sharp memorable voice. I could play
for someone who was a Jim Rohn fan we could take a tape recorded in someone else's voice so you
wouldn't get it by their actual voice, play it and you would know it was a Jim Rohn recording.
There would be no mistaking a Zig recording. Wouldn't matter if I voiced it, Zig fans would
immediately know it was Zig material because he's a very well crafted memorable character with a very
sharp voice. I've tried to do the same thing. Halbert has done it and as a copywriter you have to be
careful not to convey it. I can look at an ad and I can know instantly it's a Halbert ad you don't have to
tell me. If you get a sales letter, many of you can now spot sales letters that I've written for clients
without being told even though I try and get it in their voice, not mine. Embellish your heroics. Your
stories, your adventures that you engage in, there will be a foundation of reality. I'll show you some
examples later that will be familiar to you. Then there's an exaggeration of them to make them into
good stories. Much like hearing a bad joke told to you by a buddy at the golf club and working on it to
make it a good joke that you can tell from the stage.

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Let's talk about all the elements of character crafting. Some I'm going to go through very quickly.
Others I'm going to stop and spend a minute or two on. One is some measure of likeability. It's very hard
to sustain interest over a long period of time, in a character no one likes. It's difficult. It's very hard.
That's why comic books aren't about the villain. Think about it. It's very important. Now they have to
have great villains but there is no comic book series about the Joker. The comic book series is about the
Batman. It's very hard to sustain interest over a long period of time in someone who is not in some way
shape, or form likable. This from fiction book, a likable character is a very simple definition, but it's
brilliant when you stop to think about it, how do you become a likable character to people?
A likable character is someone who does likable things. In the course of your adventures and
your parables and the way you present yourself, you need to do some likable things. In many cases, the
good news is the likable thing that you do that is self-serving, because it is part of sustaining interest in
this character also is genuine, and it's genuinely helpful to people. If for example, you raise funds from
your customers to aid the hurricane victims, that's a likable thing to do. It serves your purposes, if it also
is sincere and something you wanted to do that was genuine. So much about Paul Hartoming, what can
you tell me about Paul that makes him and generally speaking, he's not that likable of a guy.
What can you tell me about Paul that makes him a likable character? You got it. Okay. Now
that's very sincere and genuine and authentic on his part but he could of course do it and never mention
it. But that would not be very bright. He uses it for a very specific purpose. The exceptional man.
Readers as we said competency readers are intrigued by people who are good at what they do. If your
every cowboy hero throughout the history of time, has been good at several things, quick drawing a
gun, can you think of a cowboy hero that is endured over a period of time who is known for being very
slow? They've all been pretty good with a rope with a lariat and if we go back to the 50s they were they
could all sing. Exceptional.
They like characters that overcome adversity, handicaps, problems who are underdogs. Why?
Because that's how most people view themselves. It's identification factor. They like complex characters.
If you're a comic book person, which again, probably like reading series fiction, and watching soap
operas, is not something many of you do and probably some of you pride yourself on not doing it is a
mistake. If you are a comic book person, you would know that Marvel Comics, DC had a big head start.
DC is Superman, Batman, Aquaman horrible character. Think about it. He's underwater. Marvel kicked
their butt in the marketplace. Started late zoom past him why? Their characters are much more
complex.
The Spider Man character, the Daredevil character, the Hulk character these are much more
complex characters, not so much in the movies you see on the screen or the cartoons you see on
Saturday, but if you actually read the comic books, these are emotionally complex characters. People
essentially have to be into what will this person do next? If they aren't interested in what you're going to
do next, you can't sustain interest in yourself at all. There's another character crafting issue. We said we
continue reading a novel or think even more we continue reading a series of novels because we care
about what happens to the characters. If there's any soap opera viewers, or maybe your mom was a
soap opera viewer, do you realize that people they don't necessarily watch every day for their entire
lives, but they keep coming back to them.
People watch a soap opera for 30 years. Think about this. People sneer at that art form, if you
will but for a nighttime drama to stay on the air for say five years that's a big deal. That's huge in the
television business. Days of Our Lives has been on the air for how long? My grandmother watched Days
of Our Lives. The characters who were the young box on Days of Our Lives when my Mom watch Days of
Our Lives are now the patriarch, grandfather and grandmother of the dysfunctional families that have
blossomed beneath them. I shot an infomercial with and one of my clients Dr. Barry Leica for his grand

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opening of a spa used I can't think of the husband's name Susan Seaforth Hayes and her husband they're
married in real life and they're married on days of our lives, and they started on days of our lives. 30
years ago, they're still there, their fans are still watching them and if they miss a day, they want to know
what happened.
Here this if they miss a day, they want to know what happened to them. If you didn't send out
your newsletter for a month, would your customers be calling? Support. Two watch words in character
development flaws and evolution. These characters evolve over a period of time. That's why there has
to be a backstory. The characters evolve over a period of time. If you go back to series fiction, and you
begin to read Travis McPhee novels or Nero Wolfe novels, or Spencer novels, and you read from the first
one, in sequential order through to the last one, you will find the character is changing. He's evolving
over a period of time. He's not a static character. In many of these series, he's aging. If you go read Ian
Fleming, he made some substantial evolutionary changes in the character of James Bond from the first
book, to the last book.
Again, don't think the movies, go read the books, there's an enormous difference. The character
evolves. That sustains interest. Flaws, because that's how people accept characters. They accept flawed
characters. They want you to be exceptional, but they don't want you to be perfect. Who is really
interested in a perfect character? Scott Tucker was in one of my, Where is Scott I always hesitate to
recommend people talk to him but there he is, now that I pointed you out try not to terribly embarrass
me for the duration of the event. He sent me this fax the other day sitting here on my couch Saturday
morning typing this at 6:26am there's an Oprah headliners and legend show, you know that show on
MSNBC Oprah headlines legend show on MSNBC and the narrator just said of Oprah overtaking
Donahue in the local Chicago market before going national that quote, she was a host who shared as
much of herself as did her guests.
If you're an Oprah viewer, what do you know about Oprah? Well, she's a weight roller coaster
story. She takes it off, she puts it back on, she takes it off. She's got 12 different sizes and stuff in the
closet. She's been as big as a Buick, she looks pretty good now but if you're an Oprah viewer, you know
that right? Everybody else tries to hide that stuff. What else do you know about Oprah? Unmarried,
can't get him to commit? Right? Think about it, she's a relationship guru who's with this guy that she is
invisible. What else do you know about Oprah? Won't go on Letterman we know that if you're a
Letterman watcher, you don't know that he has an Oprah fan. Think about it. I'm not going to mention
him by name, but this came up in conversation the other night, just very famous speaker.
Not anybody represented here but a very famous speaker. He's a friend of mine. We've been on
programs together. He's a Nightingale-Conant author, many of you would own his materials, many of
you would know him. By processing elimination. It's not Zig. It's not Jim Rohn and it's not me. Okay,
we're narrowing the field. What came up in conversation is I said, we were talking about why he doesn't
have this kind of a business, why his business is transactional, but there's no equity. See there's income
so you can go on stage and sell hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff and you made income, but you
didn't create any equity unless you create customers for life. That's the equity. Why? There's no equity. I
said, "Okay, so you're a fan, you own a bunch of his stuff tell me five personal things you know about
him."
For those of you who have guessed who the speaker is, think about it. Are there five personal
things you can tell me about that person? No. How many personal things can you tell me about me? The
list is unfortunately long and that's a partial list and many of you know them all. Why? Because I'm
happy. Now I could keep the flaws secret but then I wouldn't be as interesting and valuable a character.
To produce a mighty book, Herman Melville who wrote Moby Dick, which everybody was supposed to
read in high school but you generally know the idea from the cliff notes, Captain Ahab, Big Whale. What

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is the mighty theme of Moby Dick? Who actually read the cliff notes? Obsession. Sure, the mighty theme
is obsession.
To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme. I suggest you to produce a mighty
character, an enduring character you must have themes. You must be able to enunciate what you are
about. Your fans, your followers, your customers, whatever term you wish to use must be able to
enunciate what you are about. Who knows who this character is? It's the greatest mighty theme of a
character ever invented. It's endured for how many years? Generation after generation and they will
trot him out again next year, a new version in a new movie [crosstalk 01:02:27] which is a great show by
the way. It's recreating the legend all over again. Character crafting you have to have a philosophy, you
have to have a position, you have to stand for something which by the way usually will repel certain
types of customers and you must be willing to do that, in order to magnetically attract other types of
customers.
I've always said as you know I was on the Peter Lowe events with Zig for nine years, Zig has been
on them forever. I literally mean forever. But pretty much everybody that's ever heard Zig, if you said
What is he about they might say Christian success principles. Well, there were complaints at every
seminar. I'll bet there's been complaints every place he's ever spoken in his entire career. But I know
there were complaints at the Peter lowe events. There weren't as many complaints about him as there
were about me but there were complaints. Somebody was offended, that you use the commercial stage
as the pulp but for your testimony, people of other faiths complained. He didn't care because that's
what he's about. Now, not to make any insulting comparison but what's Zorro about? Justice. It's a big
theme. What's Limbaugh about?
I tell people by the way, that's another thing you should pay attention to. You should pay
attention to radio and television personalities that have long enduring audiences who don't want to
miss a day. If they do they want a buddy who listens to him or her to tell them what they missed. When
a news event happens here's how well Limbaugh's done with this when a news event happens, like
what's your face being withdrawn and the new Supreme Court nominee, you hear people say to each
other, I'm in a conference all week do you have any idea what Limbaugh said yesterday about that? Why
because they want to now. Think about this. This guy has millions of people tuning in every day to hear
if you put it on paper thousands of words and they don't like to miss a day so by the way does stern.
Content opposite, character opposite. Same character crafting skills. You may like one not like
the other you may happen to like both you may hate them both doesn't make any difference as object
lessons. Why are comic book heroes so enduring? In case you don't know they are amongst the most
enduring characters in fiction. I have about four or five shelves for comic book stuff this is a great one.
You should get this if you are unfamiliar. Steven Oliver just sent this to me as a bribe to get me to do
something. This is the origins of all the Marvel characters. It's called Marvel the characters and their
universe. It takes you through every character how the legend was built, why the legend was built.
Comic book characters are the most enduring characters in fiction.
If you wish to be an enduring character in nonfiction you will study the most enduring
characters in fiction. They all stand for something often to the point of great angst in their own lives. The
other thing that is true of comic book characters is they behave in ways that others envy. That's also a
point of character development for you and I. When your customers wish they dared to say what you
just said.

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