I recently read an article from a Time Magazine that was truly insightful.
The writer (David Von Drehle) echoed what I’ve been preaching from the laptops.
I’ll tell you what that is in a moment.
First, some context.
The article was about Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe speech where she winsomely ripped Donald Trump a new one.
To which Trump quickly tweeted: “Meryl Streep is an overrated actress,” which is like saying Michael Jordan is an overrated basketball player.
The article then talked about how Meryl Streep’s good intentions were overshadowed by the media focusing on Trump’s tweet and how it all devolved into a feud between Trump and Meryl Streep.
You see, right before Streep’s anti-Trump speech, the media was actually focused on real issues such as: What are the Republicans gonna offer to replace Obamacare? Was Putin meddling with the election? Trump’s cabinet and ethics disclosure, and so on.
Meryl may have wanted her speech to draw the public’s attention to important matters such as integrity, kindness and so on, but what her speech really achieved was this:
A big feud with Trump!
Which of course, the media jumped on like a prisoner on his wife at a conjugal visit.
Suddenly all the ‘real issues’ were thrown in the back seat and told to shut up.
Here’s a section of that article that is incredibly insightful:
“For Hollywood, this is a hard lesson to learn:
the well-spoken wisdom of beautiful people in glittering gowns and bespoke suits rarely has lasting effect. The cause of Native Americans was not appreciably advanced by Marlon Brando’s boycott of his Best Actor Oscar in 1973. Nor were many minds changed when Vanessa Redgrave rambled in 1978 about the threat of Zionists and fascism. Clint Eastwood’s weird conversation with an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention failed to spark a fire for Mitt Romney.”
You still with me?
Good.
The article continues:
“What does move the public is the genuine art of passionate artists. Whatever Shakespeare thought about the politics of Elizabethan England is a bare footnote to history, but the whole world still lives in the sunlight of his ideas about life and what it means to live it.
The political influence of popular art is immense, but it is not direct. It works by showing, not telling. Tom Hanks humanized the AIDS crisis not with a speech, but with a performance.”
Well said Mr. Drehle.
Now, let me put all that into layman’s terms:
A Hollywood star getting on their soapbox is like an asthmatic trying to blow up a bunch of party balloons – it may get people’s attention, but the desired outcome will not be good.
Listen, if you wanna influence people, stop giving your opinions and points of view. People aren’t influenced by what you tell them; people are influenced by what you show them.
You see, when you give your point of view (like Meryl Streep did at the Golden Globes) you’re inviting people’s critical mind to challenge it. But when you show someone something, it shuts down their analytical mind, and they become open to suggestion.
Hmn, now that would come in handy when selling your wares, dontcha think?
But how do you “show” someone your point of view?
It’s very simple.
You show them through storytelling.
But alas…
When it comes to storytelling with the written word, most business people are about as clueless as David Beckham explaining Brexit.
But how exactly do stories cause someone to buy, and how do you use storytelling in an email to sell a product or service?
Listen, all you need to know (probably even more than you need to know) about making sales with storytelling is contained in my Playbook.
For example,
- Exact word-for-word samples of storytelling sales letters that dragged in millions, and how to adapt them to your unique situation. (I seriously thought about selling this little swipe file separately. Maybe I will one day. The point is: It’s incredibly valuable.)
- How to tell stories that get your subscribers frothing at the mouth excited about your product or service.
- How to makes sales by doing nothing but storytelling.
- Ricky Gervais’s eye-opening (and surprisingly simple) secret to storytelling.
What else is in my Playbook?
Well, looky here: The Maverick’s Email Playbook To Doubling Your Sales
P.S. I want you to reread today’s subject line. I bet you don’t know what copywriting technique I employed with that subject line. Huh? You say you do know? Okay, hot shot, hit reply and tell me what you think the copywriting technique (or element) is. If you’re correct, I will send you a little gift.
Alrighty, that’s all I got for today.
I’ll check in on ya again soon.
Kelvin
Email Marketing Maverick
