Chris "Mr. Moneyfingers" Haddad... Jeff Walker-Trained Product Launch Manager, Results-based marketing consultant, frankly-awesome direct response copywriter, strangely good dancer, capitalist hippie and all around great guy. On this site he shares all sorts of tips and tricks on how to make good money in bad times... opines fiercely on things that matter to him and occasionally goes a tad bit nuts. Plus he can do that thing with his eyebrow.
Here's a quick "reversal" that will let you come up with killer Pre-Launch Content Fast
Recent, maddening conversation I had with a potential launch client (Facts have been changed to protect . . . nobody. But facts are kind of boring for a blog intro so let’s be light and funny instead. We’ll get to the “meat” in a second) . . .
Me: “Um, what are these videos you emailed to me?”
Him: “Those are our pre-launch content.”
Me: “These are your pre launch content?”
Him: “Yeah.”
Me: “Uhh. . . but it’s just video of you wearing funny superhero boxer shorts and screaming the lyrics to ‘Thriller’ in Spanish. On a pogo stick.’”
Him: “I know, awesome, right!”
Me: “Not awesome. Bouncy and strange and sexually exciting. But not awesome. Your prelaunch content is supposed to SHOCK AND AWE your market and prime the pump for the sale.”
Him: “This is shocking.”
Me: “Wrong kind of shocking.”
Him: “But you’re in awe.”
Me: “I’ve never seen anyone do that with a pogo stick. I never WANTED to see anyone do that with a pogo stick. I mean . . . where does the handle go?”
Him: “What handle? Anyway, what do I do instead?”
Me: “Great question. Read after the jump to find out. (Super sneaky launch-content creation trick.)
Yoda knew more about marketing than he was letting on.
You remember Yoda back in Empire Strikes back?
(You know the GOOD Star Wars movie back before big George Lucas decided to make Darth Vader all emo).
In “Empire,” Yoda rides Luke around Dogabah like a whiny pony and teaches him the ways of the force . . .
Near the end of his training, Yoda tells Luke to use the force to raise his sunken Starfighter out of the swamp so he can fly off and get his hand cut off by his Dad.
Luke looks at the multi-ton X-Wing, glances at Yoda with a “you’re nuts” look on his face and (already anticipating defeat) says “OK, I’ll try.”
Which prompts Yoda to utter one of the greatest bits of pop philosophy of the last 50 years (and one of the most quoted lines in movie history.) He says . . .
Do or do not. There is no try.”
Which is great for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s one of the coolest bits of “Pop Philosophy” of the last 50 years (and makes you wonder what happened to Lucas when he started writing the downright-horrible sequels).
2. Hidden in that sage statement is some REALLY good advice for marketers and persuaders of all stripes . . . and some cool little copywriting advice that can subtly shift even “tough” prospects from tire-kicker to eager buyer in just a few little sentences.
I got bored at the office yesterday and decided to kill a little time surfing the Craigslist personals (which are almost always HILARIOUS).
I was pretty saddened by what I saw so I wrote up this “advice article” and posted it for the girls to see. Got a LOT of positive feedback so I figured you guys might get a kick out of it too. =-)
Hey ladies,
I’ve spent the last hour skimming through a bunch of the “W4M” ads here on Craigslist and, honestly, have been a little freaked out by what I’ve found . . .
Why?
Because as far as I can tell, most of the women on here aren’t looking for “men” or even “guys” but actually want puppies.
Check out this “Guerilla” critique I did of http://www.MassageEnvy.com.
What makes it “Guerilla” is that the fine folks at Massage Envy didn’t actually ask me to critique their site.
It’s just that I’m such a big fan of their service that I think their website needs a proper savaging.
The video is only about 10 minutes long, butI cover a lot of ground in it and reveal a lot of my own techniques for getting into the head of your market, avoiding “false” benefits and pushing your prospects towards a powerful call to action.
I’m in the middle of my “Busy season” at the moment . . . criss crossing the country in giant, metal birds . . . dining in hoity toity restaurants and activating my long-dormant “schmoozing” powers for the betterment of mankind.
Which, loosely translated, means I’ve been doing a lot of travel and hitting a lot of conferences.
Most recently I popped down to LA for 5 days to attend Larry Benet’s “SANG” conference . . .
Something a little bit *different* today . . . (And kind of scary.)
In the video above I describe a simple exercise you can do to blast by negative thought patterns, focus on what you actually LIKE about yourself (and realize just how MUCH there is to like in the first place) and generally live a happier, healthier, more fulfilling and more awesome life.
Below you’ll find two documents that should compliment this video pretty well.
This is a video interview I did with my friend (and fellow Massachusetts boy) Jeffrey Pezzella. Jeff wanted to know some of my “secret strategies” for picking out great clients . . . so we hopped on skype and I spilled the beans.
Special treat for all you copy critique fans today. Normally I do these videos “on my own” in my swank office with no feedback from the client in question. But this time I managed to get Robert Murgatroyd live on Skype and “rake him over the coals” for all of you to hear.
It’s a great chance for you to see what it’s like to work with a pro-level copywriter and “launch dude” one on one . . . and will give you some powerful tricks and tips to go through next time you’re planning your own sales page.
(Pay special attention to the types of questions I ask Robert and how much work I do trying to get to the heart of what his prospects want.)
While I was in LA for his Product Launch Manager training event, a very tired Jeff Walker was kind enough to give me an endorsement.
He also chimed in on the Facebook version of this video to say:
“Holy cow… I really DO look pretty exhausted there. Much better 30 minutes later out by the pool after I had a Red Bull…
In any case BELIEVE what I said in the video. I literally saw Chris go through the creation process while working on a real launch under in a very pressure-filled environment… Chris has MAJOR skilz.”
