I have just finished reading an amazing post by copywriter John Carlton.

The genius of the man just left me stunned. Stopped me in my tracks.

It was like the scene in the movie “Apocalypse Now” where Kurtz tells of the time when an insight hit him like a “diamond through his skull” (or something like that!).

The post is titled “Shutting People Up”.

It seems to be all about cars.

And it’s a fun, entertaining and lively read as John talks about sports cars and his “Miata” and why he loves it so much.

Then, right at the end, comes this…

“That glimmer… is the recognition that, through my story, they felt the raw heat of honest passion and affection coming off me. I’ve had guys who don’t even allow words like “passion” into their vocabulary admit that, around me, they understand how cool the car kinda is.

They’re not gonna rush out and buy one, of course.

But they do shut up. And consider a whole new and unexpected line of thought, contrary to their prior stance.”

…with the lesson…

“The memories that sustain most folks are too vague to be translated as meaningful stories. When you learn to put your feelings and thoughts and graphic detail into a tale — about anything — you possess a power to sway emotion and influence people.

As the Zen master once said… to become eloquent, you must first learn to shut up.

You actually do people a favor by crushing the thoughtless, meandering babble occupying their brains… and bringing new things into focus with a story that makes sense to their heart, as well as their head.

Something to think about, in your quest to learn the art of persuasion.”

Read the whole thing.

Me? I’m going through my swipe file of John Carlton letters to find examples of where he has used this.

Here’s the next in John Carlton’s “Copywriting Checklist” series, talking about the need for a “Huge Promise” in your copy.

There’s an interesting psychological point here.  You need to have a big promise but it needs to be believable to your audience.  And not just believable in the sense that it seems possible but that it must seem possible to your audience that they can achieve it.

For that reason, you need to judge carefully how big to make the promise.  There’s a famous example of an advertisement for sales people where the response increased when the potential money on offer was reduced.  Even though the potential earnings genuinely were much higher, the smaller amount was much more believable to the audience.

Enjoy the video!

Quite a few things going on in the world of copywriting at the moment.

Firstly, Clayton Makepeace and Tony Flores have released a new report called “The #1 Way To Electrify Your Ads”.  It’s part of the launch campaign for a new copywriting program that’s due to be released next week.

The report is all about the power of colloquial words, phrases and speech and how, used correctly, they will add power to your copy.  This isn’t an especially new insight of course.  One of my most prized copy resources is John Carlton’s “Power Words” report.  It’s really drawing on Robert Collier’s idea of “Entering the conversation in your prospect’s mind.”

Having said that, the report is well done and it’s a good resource to have in your copywriting toolkit.

Next, John Anghelache and Ryan Healy have a video up dealing with some of the most common questions they get about how to get clients and build a business as a freelance copywriter.  Again this is part of a launch campaign.

John used to have a course available called “Copywriter Profits”.  I’ve got that course and it’s one of the best courses of it’s type.  One of the few, in fact, that really gives you hands on, practical advice about how to get work as a freelance copywriter.

So, highly recommend checking out the video which you can find here.

Thirdly, David Garfinkel has a new post up on his blog called “An Appreciation For Tim Russert – And What His Legacy Means For Copywriters And Other Marketers”.  Always worth reading what David has to say and this post ties in with my recent comments about credibility and trust.

Finally, my good mate Pete Godfrey is about to launch his copywriting “Master Class 3.0″ event.  This looks like it’s going to be big.  Should be more details available soon.