TCC Podcast #146: How to Sell Anything to Anyone with Richard Armstrong

A-list Copywriter and best-selling author, Richard Armstrong, is our guest for the 146th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Richard has been writing winning direct response copy for more than 30 years. And he just released his latest book, The Don Con. Kira and Rob invited Richard into the studio to talk about the book and a whole lot more. Stuff like... •  how Richard went from office boy to agency creative director •  the lessons he learned early on working on “junk” mail •  what’s changed in the world of direct response in 30 years—and what hasn’t •  his award-winning letter for Sea Turtle Rescue •  the go-to books he refers to again and again •  his favorite clients and the work he’s most proud of •  why he took long 3 martini lunches in his “Mad Men” days •  the one good copywriting habit he has •  the #1 thing that makes copywriters good at what they do •  what Richard learned while writing about con men •  the important difference between copywriters and confidence men •  his experience at Comic Con and FanCon •  what happened when he met Captain Kirk and The Fonz Don't miss your opportunity to get the free copywriting samples and download that Richard mentioned during the interview. And check out a few of the many resources he mentioned. This is a good one. To hear it all, click the play button below, or download this episode to your favorite podcast app. And if you prefer reading, you can scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: FreeSampleBook.com Claude Hopkins David Ogilvy Eugene Schwartz The Sea Turtle Letter The Responsive Chord by Tony Schwartz The Solid Gold Mailbox by Walter Wentz Being Direct by Lester Wunderman Boardroom Parris Lampropoulos Richard Viguerie Agora AWAI David Deutsch Clayton Makepeace Carline Anglade Cole Jim Rutz The Don Con Jonathan Frakes Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity   Full Transcript: Rob:   This podcast is sponsored by The Copywriter Underground. Kira:   It's our new membership designed for you to help you attract more clients and hit 10K a month consistently. Rob:   For more information or to sign up, go to thecopywriterunderground.com. Kira:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Rob and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Rob:   You're invited to join the club for episode 146, as we chat with author and direct response copywriter Richard Armstrong about the persuasion techniques used by con artists that copywriters use as well, what he's learned from 40 years of writing junk mail and what he writes today, his new book The Don Con, and a very useful free bonus he's sharing with copywriters. Richard, welcome. Richard:        Thank you very much. It's great to be here. I am a big fan of the emails you guys send everyday. A lot of tremendous personality and voice in those emails and I read them avidly. Kira:   Thank you. Rob:   That's nice of you to say. I think all of the personality is Kira. I'm kind of the boring side, so she deserves the credit for that. Kira:   That is not true, but thank you for saying that. That's very nice and I was just saying before we started recording, Richard and I are officially neighbors because I just moved to Washington, D.C. So we're going to hang out all the time, right Richard? Richard:        Absolutely. The only problem with being a citizen of Washington is that the rest of the country hates you. So when you go anywhere else on vacation, tell them you're from Brooklyn, you'll get a much better response. Kira:   Okay, these are things I need to know that you need to teach me,