Mind Games:
How to Program Yourself for Success
- What that quart of mush perched at the top of our shoulders really IS good for …
- Two core beliefs you must have to succeed in life …
- Four visual images that power-up your sales copy, rocket your response and make you richer, quicker …
- Much more
Dear Business Builder,
Despite what parents, teachers and cable TV have told you …
Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, alien UFOs, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster are NOT real …
Politicians, televangelists, Oprah and Dr. Phil are NOT more qualified to dictate how you live your life or how you spend your money than you are …
The CIA, FBI, Mafia or the Klan did NOT assassinate John, Bobby or Martin … NASA did NOT fake the moon landing … and the Pentagon did NOT attack itself on 9/11 …
Jesus did NOT paint his own face on that insurance building in Tampa and that is NOT the Virgin Mary gazing up at you from the toasted cheese sandwich that sold on Yahoo for a bazillion bucks.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s only fair to tell you that these are only my opinions. And as we both know, opinions are like (lessee … how can I clean this up?) they’re like necks: Everybody has one.
So, as long as I’m sticking my neck out, here’s another opinion for you:
All this “when-you-wish-upon-a-star” Tinker Bell twaddle going around today is a fraud.
Gurus who claim they’ve found a shortcut – who promise you can “think” your way to riches instantly and without hard work – are full of beans.
And if someone claims he can teach you to magically create or alter objective reality with nothing more than “happy thoughts,” the smartest thing you could do is keep your hand on your wallet and back away from him v–e–r–y s–l–o–w–l–y.
Call me an old stick in the mud if you like, but to me, the notion that a simple human thought somehow affects events in an infinite number of universes, or galaxies or solar systems seems just a bit of a reach.
It seems just a tad grandiose to suggest that – simply by thinking nice thoughts – I can turn the sky green, or leaves blue, or make Angelina Jolie hot for my chubby pink and white body, or get the Bucs into the Super Bowl again, or cause Congress to balance the budget.
… Not to mention, delusional.
Hell. I’ve thought hard about it – many times – and I can’t even get Priscilla the hound dog to stop pooping in the foyer!
Fact is, I wouldn’t let a single one of the New Age sages and pap peddlers who get rich selling that stuff within arm’s length of my money or my wife.
I mean, jeeze Louise – just look at them: This one’s paunchy. That one’s bald. He’s got a face like a horse. She’s had so many facelifts, that dimple in her chin used to be her belly button.
What’s up with that? Can’t their all-powerful, god-like, universe-altering brains … all their miraculous, reality-altering thoughts … all their “secrets” … correct their own obvious imperfections?
Frankly, I wish they’d all just shut the hell up. Or better yet – put their money where their mouths are. I’d pay big bucks to see a gaggle of those guys stand on a railroad track and attempt to stop a speeding locomotive with nothing more than wishful thinking.
Know what? It’ll never happen.
And why? Because despite all their hype and horsepucky, those sunshine charlatans would end their lives as a grease spot on a cow catcher.
And they know it.
But sadly, as long as it’s still possible to get rich pumping vast quantities of sunshine up good peoples’ patooties, you can bet your last dollar they’ll never go away.
Having said all that, however,
a brain can come in pretty handy
– IF you use it correctly …
Now, don’t get me wrong: The human brain is a wonderful thing. And I highly recommend that you have one if you plan to do much in life – and (please, God!) especially if you plan to vote.
And yes, your beliefs and thoughts actually do help influence how successful you’ll be. But not in the mystical, metaphysical, booga-booga ways the teachers of tripe claim they do.
See the thing is, your brain can be your greatest ally or the #1 obstacle to your success.
The validity of your core beliefs about yourself, others and the world around you will either block you, or free you to create the success you desire.
Here’s some stuff I hope will free you …
You have every right.
The simple, objective fact is, there is absolutely, positively no reason why you shouldn’t have it all.
Billionaires are not a billion times more deserving than you are. Nor are millionaires a million times smarter than you.
If IQ points were dollars, Steven Hawking would be lots richer than Bill Gates. Plenty of dumber people than you are living spectacularly successful lives. Not to mention folks with less talent and who are uglier or fatter.
People who started out poorer than you make it to the top every day. So do folks with lousier health and severe physical limitations – and who suffer far more persecution than you ever will.
Want to light a fire under your career? Examine and then disabuse yourself of the false beliefs that block you and the excuses you use to let yourself off the hook.
Once you fully realize – deep down, at a cellular level, with every fiber of your being – that you deserve this just as much as the next guy or gal, there is no obstacle you can’t surmount, nothing; repeat: NOTHING will be beyond your grasp.
It’s completely up to you.
Nobody cares as much about your success and happiness as you do. Nobody’s willing to work as hard to make you successful as you are.
If you wait for some guru, or some philosophy, some deity or “the universe” to make you successful, you’re probably going to be waiting a long, long time.
It’s only when you invest the time and effort to do the practical things required to succeed that true miracles begin to happen.
Case in point:
In 1968, I was a high school dropout earning $1.40 an hour.
Today, I’m a high school dropout who (in a good year) earns nearly 1,000 times more: That’s a 96,328% raise in pay.
Pretty miraculous, huh?
Want to know the secret? Want to know how I did it?
By working my butt to the bloody bone for nearly four decades – that’s how:
Investing the skull sweat required to learn every blessed thing I could about my craft …
Enduring the humiliation of rejection – repeatedly – by companies I would have done just about anything to work for …
Slaving over a hot typewriter 40, 60, sometimes 80 hours in a week to produce the best sales copy I was capable of …
Quietly enduring pride-shattering criticism of my beloved work product – often by pompous morons who couldn’t write a winning sales letter if you’d held a gun to their heads …
Rubbing my own nose in my failures until I’d painstakingly extracted every last lesson I could learn from them …
Doing it all for peanuts at first and scrimping and saving just to keep my family fed, housed and clothed …
And, of course, by finding the strength and the stones to get up each morning and do it all over again … for years … and even when my own family doubted I’d ever make it to the top.
I guess I could have just stayed in bed and “thought” or “believed” my career into existence.
Lucky for me; I never read the right books.
Visualize Triumph
So how did I – and every other top copywriter and direct marketer on the planet – willingly, even eagerly endure what you must endure to succeed?
By understanding that, while the human brain may not be able to create new universes on demand or alter objective reality, it is capable of doing more than just reasoning, learning, remembering and keeping your hat up.
I’m constantly amazed at how many great copywriters use creative visualization to unlock their creativity and to find the motivation to keep going when it would be easier just to quit.
Fact is, most top writers I’ve interviewed hold four visual images in their minds during the creative process …
1. Visualize your prospect. Live salespeople have a huge advantage over us direct response types. Since they’re eyeball to eyeball with their prospect, they can know precisely how he’s responding to everything that’s happening in the sales conversation.
They can read their prospect’s body language … facial expressions and even the inflection in his voice. And they can use that information to identify unspoken objections … sense skepticism and assuage it with proof elements … judge when the prospect is growing tired of the conversation or becoming distracted … and much, much more.
Perhaps the greatest difference between “A” level copywriters and everyone else is that top writers have developed a sixth sense that tells them what their prospects are most likely to be thinking and feeling as they move through the sales copy.
After I’ve consumed my research and before I begin writing a promotion, I like to take a few minutes just to think about the person with whom I’m about to have this conversation.
Who is he/she? Where is he when your direct mail package appears in his hand? What else is going on in the room as she’s reading your web copy?
What core beliefs does your prospect have about companies like yours, products like yours and/or about the subject at hand? What dominant emotion is your prospect most likely to experience as you raise this subject with him?
If you were attempting to make this sale in person, what would you say? And more importantly, how would your prospect respond to the things you’re saying?
Then, instead of attempting to write red-hot sales copy, have a simple chat with your prospect – all the while, sensing how your prospect is most likely to be responding to each proposition and promise in your copy.
What’s the best way to develop this sixth sense?
Two things:
First, practice on real folks in the real world. Next time and every time you have a conversation with someone, have your “feelers” out. Look for cues that tell you what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling about the conversation. Make this a habit – and before you know it, you’ll become a pro.
Second, make a habit of reading direct response promotions through the prospect’s eyes. Instead of looking for techniques the copywriter used, visualize how you think a typical prospect is most likely to respond both intellectually and emotionally to every headline, subhead and block of body copy.
I think you’ll be amazed at what you learn … how much stronger your copy becomes … and how much higher your response climbs as you develop this skill.
2. Visualize your client. This technique has more to do with energizing you, motivating you and unleashing your creativity …
As I’m writing, I hold a mental image of my client being absolutely blown away by the brilliance of my first-draft copy.
I see myself delivering my copy … the phone rings … and my client raves about how off-the-hook powerful this promotion is.
See, I only tell folks I do this for the money. The truth is, the ego boost I get from impressing my clients is every bit as rewarding for me.
And visualizing that emotional reward gives me more than enough motivation to do what’s necessary in each draft to produce the highest-quality work product I’m capable of.
3. Visualize your payday. Gary Bencivenga does this. I do this. And so does every other top writer I know.
The mental image goes something like this: The phone rings. It’s the client. My promotion is blowing the doors off of everything else they’ve ever mailed. His phone’s ringing off the hook; each call is a new customer placing an order.
Plus, every day, the Post Office pulls a huge tractor trailer up to his offices and unloads bags stuffed with more orders. They had to add two more shifts just to count the money that’s pouring in.
And best of all, they’re just rolled out – three million pieces – and my $150,000 royalty check is in the mail!
I see myself walking out to my mailbox and finding the check. Proudly showing it to my wife. And I lose myself in all the cool things I’m going to do with that money – and all the other royalty checks that promotion is going to earn me in the year ahead.
Hey – if that isn’t enough to make you pull out all the stops, nothing will!
4. Visualize how your success will change your life. When I first began freelancing, the money wasn’t so good. I barely made enough to provide for my family.
So I went on a shopping spree.
Not a real one, mind you; it was just a fantasy. A friend and I sat down and made lists of all the things we wanted and all the things we wanted to do in our lives.
We designed our dream lives in painstaking detail – and put it all down on paper.
And when I say “painstaking detail,” I mean I wrote down where I wanted to live (Prescott, Arizona), then researched how much my dream house would cost me there.
I picked out my dream car, went down to the dealer and worked out what the color, options, price and payments would be.
I wanted to become a private pilot, so I visited the local flight training school to see what that would cost, how long it would take. And I wanted my own airplane; so I shopped around for just the right one.
Then, I added up what all the things I wanted would cost me. And figured out that when I got my income to just $75,000 per year ($223,917 in today’s dollars), my dream life would be mine.
Because if you don’t have a clear vision of where you’re going, you’ll never get there.
Until I went through this exercise, I had only half the picture. I knew what the vision was costing me. But the rewards I was working for were fuzzy; unfocused. Now, I could see my dream house; smell the leather in my dream car. They were real.
From that moment on, I had a crisp, crystal clear mental image of why I was going to work every day. Why I was putting in the long hours. Why I was enduring the humiliation of rejection and failure.
And then, I did something else: I began bringing my rewards forward.
Rather than waiting years to realize my full vision, I gave myself small rewards along the way. I took my first flying lesson. Moved the family to Prescott (although not to my dream house). And every time a piece of my dream life fell into place, I was reborn.
Give it a try – you’ll be amazed at the energy and enthusiasm it brings to your work!
Hope this helps …
Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
Clayton Makepeace
Publisher & Editor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.
Looking for more of Clayton’s articles? Check these out.
Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.
22 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Tom Ingram — June 28, 2010 @ 9:34 am
It’s always amazing what a little sweat, and a few tears mixed with some creative visualizing can do for an entrepreneur(or anyone)…Great post Clayton!
Comment by Stan — June 28, 2010 @ 9:53 am
Very inspiring post.
I have heard a few of the ideas before but never in such a clear and easy to read story.
No wonder they are sending you commission checks in truckloads.
Now I am off writing down my own bright future!
Comment by Chris — June 28, 2010 @ 9:55 am
More refreshing advice
It’s amazing what writing down your dreams can do
Pulling out journals you wrote in years ago, and forgot about, to find what you’ve written has ‘manifest’ (without sounding too new age)
I once wrote down a list of everyone I wanted to meet
On reflection, I’ve met Richard Branson, Bill Clinton… Even Mr Bencivenga amongst many others
Hmmm, guess it might be time to add this Makepeace bloke to the list
Thanks for the continuing inspiration… it means a lot to many
Comment by Sean — June 28, 2010 @ 9:59 am
House on the golf course in Fox Den subdivision in Knoxville TN, Black Triumph Rocket III, Black 4×4 4dr Jeep Wrangler with lift kit and other cool stuff, Silver Maserati Gran Turismo with red leather interior. Mastercraft wake board boat for summer days on the TN River…
Horse riding lessons for my daughter, guitar lessons for my son and a housekeeper for my wife… all paid for in cash. (except the house because the banks are practically giving that money away.)
This is a partial list but I have all these pictures in my office and start the day looking at them… not wishing… but taking motivation from them to get to work.
Comment by Bob Duke — June 28, 2010 @ 10:23 am
Thank you, Clayton. I needed a boost this morning and your blog provided a rail car load of it!
Comment by Joe — June 28, 2010 @ 10:25 am
Clayton, what a great piece of copywriting this blog post is. You start off with a promise and bullets points of benefits of reading on and then launch into a story that pulls the reader it. Strong opinion that people are going to love or hate.
Then you deliver great content with your own story on how you used it.
Great stuff. You make it look easy.
I like to think I have pretty clear goals, but after reading this I think I can do better.
Thanks
Comment by JT Chandler — June 28, 2010 @ 10:26 am
Clayton,
Very interesting…
The first half of this article is devoted to slamming purveyors of much of what you claimed in the second half to be your keys to success.
“Visualize Triumph!”
OMG works in mysterious ways
Comment by Alla Goltsman — June 28, 2010 @ 10:28 am
While I am sitting here impatiently waiting for my ‘Two Hours to More Profitable Sales Copy’ to arrive, I can say that it does help. But no, I am wrong. ‘Help’ is not the right word. This article is making me ready to explode with ideas. It’s a burning passion accelerator.
Comment by Lee Schwarz — June 28, 2010 @ 10:42 am
Clayton,
You are one-of-a-kind. My e-mail box is stuffed every day with promotional e-mails- some by choice, many not.
No offense to your guest writers, but even “Makepeace light” is nothing like the real Clayton.
Only yours sound like they come from a friend. Thanks for that connection and your great inspiration today.
Comment by Bill — June 28, 2010 @ 11:07 am
I had to laugh out loud (I guess that is LOL now) during the first half of your article. It reminded me of a gag “Motivational” poster I saw:
Visualize a beautiful peaceful image of a seashore and the title “Motivation”. The sub-head reads (something like) “If a pretty picture and a few trite phrases is all it takes to motivate you, then you probably have the kind of job that robots will be doing soon”.
I have used the “visualize the end-result” a number of times and it works most of the time. The key for me was to be patient, and not to have a pre-conceived idea of what the pathway is to be, and the timeframe.
Bill
Comment by Bill — June 28, 2010 @ 11:52 am
Clayton:
Really enjoyed today’s post. You’re right on visualizing success. For me it’s living on the river with my boat just a few yards away from my office.
I’m just getting started, but I’ll get there. Hey if you can do it so can I!
Thanks for the motivation,
Bill
Comment by Barb Johnson — June 28, 2010 @ 12:51 pm
This is exactly what I needed to get me going for this week. I am going to have a fabulous week.
Thank you Clayton!
Comment by Paul Guzman — June 28, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
Oh man…Clayton you always make me do two things. Laugh and think. Your post is inspirational and I’ve always visualized my “payday” story but never to the point of complete detailed satisfaction. I will work on that.
Paul
Comment by Raphael Dorr — June 28, 2010 @ 2:26 pm
Clayton,
Well you finally seduced me. After reading your daily emails for the last several months, I threw in the towel and ordered your Quickstart Copywrighting program. I’m slowly (don’t want to miss anything) working my way through the material.
Your course also helps me with my writing of a financial/political column for a local newspaper.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and inspiration on a daily basis. You’re making the world a better place, one copy writer at a time.
Raphael
Comment by Brian Hunt — June 28, 2010 @ 7:46 pm
This article should be compulsory reading for anybody wishing to have access to the Internet. Please send a copy to every High School, College, and University on the planet, and ask them to include it in their curriculum.
Comment by Jaime — June 28, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
So wait….you DO use the Law of Attraction? lol!
Comment by Nizom — June 29, 2010 @ 1:05 am
Once again it reminded me the great saying of Henry Ford:
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right”.
Thank you, Clayton.
Comment by Farhad Khursehd — June 30, 2010 @ 8:47 pm
Absolutely true.
What’s also important is to reinforce your goals.
Keep the mental picture of what you want alive. Otherwise they fall by the wayside and instead of that dream house you started out with you could end up in a tiny cottage.
Comment by Jack Settles — July 2, 2010 @ 11:20 am
Thanks Clayton.
I have a shelf full of books about getting rich by right thinking. I’ve been studying AWAI on copywriting and I believe. After reading your blog today I think I’ll just get started. Bye gummies I really can do it. I’m afraid I’ve been a procastinator. One excuse after another but not after today. Again, Thanks for the kick in the patootie. Jack $ettle$.
Comment by walter daniels — July 2, 2010 @ 12:30 pm
Just reading this was an education in copywriting. It’s also a perfect graduation speech. When we stop imagining/visualizing what we want, we lose sight of it. We gain it not by the visualizing, but the hard work that motivates us to do, to gain it.
That includes whether we want to be rich, important, or one of the best. My ambition is to be known as one of the 5 or 10 best in what I do. I believe what money I need, will come once I do that.
Comment by Jurgen Wolff — July 3, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
Great post, tells it like it is! The people who commented that you do use the law of attraction are missing the point…it’s one thing to wish for something and then sit back on the sofa with the remote control in your hand watching “America’s Fattest People” hoping that your wish will come true. It’s another to have a vision that motivates you to get off the sofa and work to make your vision come true.
Comment by Bill — July 5, 2010 @ 12:18 pm
I was trying to explain to my son (17 and off to college) why visualization works, and he wasn’t buying. Then I struck on this rationale (he is going into engineering school…) and I saw a glimmer in his eyes.
When you visualize something (good or bad) you are programming your brain to start looking for information, people, training, “stuff”, that will make that visualization come true (good or bad) and these things become part of your consciousness. You can’t help it, it happens automatically. Its not magic, or the “universe” calling to you. Its just “you find stuff where you are looking”.
It helped that we went to a hypnotist show the night before and he connected the two!
Thanks for the great post, as usual