“Copy Thinking” (Thoughts on Speaking At Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit)

Whew!

I rolled back into Seattle on Saturday night after a whirlwind (and drama-packed) trip to Stamford, Connecticut to speak at Ryan Lee’s “Continuity Summit” event . . .

This was my first “official” speaking engagement in the IM space (I’ve been a guest and on panels a bunch) and I gotta admit I was a little nervous about it.

Got lots of feedback saying I was the best presenter on Thurs (and one of the best of the weekend) . . .

Here’s some of the exhausting (and awesome) lessons I learned along the way . . .

1. No matter where I am in the country (or the world) no one will EVER be able to say my last name the right way. I recently decided to stop fighting the momentum and let people call me Chris “hah dahd” instead of the Massachusetts inflected (and nasally) “had Dad” (I had a Dad but now I don’t . .. ohhh, Morbid.)

Ryan managed to go off into some new world of weirdness though by calling me Chris “hay Dad” before going up there. Ry is an East Coast boy so I was shocked. I give up. I’m changing my last name to “Smith.”

2. “Slow” Chris is still REALLY fast for most people. I pulled hard on the mental hand brake to try to keep my rate of speech at a level the crowd would be able to understand and my RAMPANT ADHD under control . . . but I was still burning through the content and rocketing through the funny (and inappropriate) at every turn. My buddy (and minion for the weekend) Mason told me he had lots of folks commenting on my SUPER SPEED deliver style even though he knew I was downright SEDATE up there. (I forgot to do it, but originally I was going to select someone from the audience and ask them to be my “speedometer” . .  .charged with waving their hands in the air any time I went too fast. Gotta include that next time.)

3. I opened up my talk asking the audience how many of them just LOVED writing copy . . . and a whole bunch of people raised their hands . . . In retrospect, I think most of them were lying. Or at least lying to themselves. They might like WRITING or creating “content” but I don’t think the bulk of the audience really understood how DEEP you have to go to create compelling copy . . . or how much “blood on the page” you end up leaving in your wake.

4. No matter how AWESOME you are, SOMEBODY is going to fall asleep during your presentation. Front row. Right side of the stage. Grey haired woman in glasses. I SEE YOU! (I actually cornered her later in the event and got a sheepish apology. Not really necessary . . . I mean, sheesh . . . I’ve completely ignored a TON of great presentations over the years. It’s just funny looking down while you’re dishing out the gold and seeing someone taking a siesta. Her neck must have been KILLING her when she woke up.)

5. BRING SOMETHING TO SELL . . . OUCH! At the end of the presentation I mentioned (in an offhand way) that I MIGHT put together some kind of program to teach more of my “Copy Thinking” stuff . . . and literally had people RUNNING across the room to give Mason their cards . . . Seems like a no-brainer but having a “box of stuff” to give people would have been a REALLY good idea . . .

6. I didn’t think it was possible, but you can yell “Sorry About Your Penis” at the top of your lungs in front of 400 people and not get one SINGLE complaint. (You had to be there.)

7. Adrenaline is the absolute BEST cure for the common cold (and fever . . . and watery eyes. And general achy horribleness.) I was sick as a dog up there, but nobody noticed. Next time I get on stage I’m going healthy . . . and I’m not taking prisoners.

“Sounds Like Fun, Chris, But What Did You Teach Anyway?”

Good question! (You’re so smart!)

My presentation was on “Copy Thinking”  . . . and was about how to get the “Copywriting Mindset” and the ability to “think like a copywriter” even if you HATE writing and have nightmares about sharp 12 inch rulers and angry 5th grade teachers.

The first half of the presentation covered how to transform features into benefits almost automatically . . . the “emotional” secret of selling . . . how to use built in human “racism” to ethically increase your sales (seriously) . . . and my fun and profitable “Mind Bending Bullets” concept . . .

The second half was  all about SPEED . . . I’m probably the fastest copywriter working today (uhh . . . ADHD is fun) so I gave away a bunch of the tips and tricks I use to crank out the high-converting sales messaging and launch copy in shockingly little time.

And the third half (I’m bad at math) had me doing my “Copy Talking” monkey trick . . . Near the end of my presentation, Ryan hopped on stage, gave me a peanut and had me do a live “tear down” of a “Wedding Fitness” site . . . fun stuff . . . and I think the crowd was pretty shocked that I could just get the “word spew” going like that.

Anyway . . . Had a fun adventure on the way home with my luggage MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARING between Stamford and Detroit . . .

Rather than freaking out, I got eerily calm and nice, practiced non-attachment and wondered at the adventures my stuff might be going on. Somehow my bag trudged its way to Seattle all on its own and showed up on the luggage carousel in Seattle. No one can tell me how. WEIRD.

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