TCC Podcast #171: Writing Sales Letters with Stefan Georgi

It's a bit early to pick a best episode of 2020, but we predict this will be an early contender. Master copywriter, Stefan Georgi, joined us for the 171th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, to talk about how he became a copywriter who has helped his clients earn $700 million is sales. That is NOT a typo. Stefan is a terrific copywriter and this interview is practically a workshop on writing better sales letters. We talked about: •  the lucky poker game that turned Stefan into a copywriter •  how he landed his first two clients (and $300) 24 hours after calling himself a copywriter •  growing into clients and selling almost $700 million worth of products •  the crazy amount of work that earned Stefan $80K a month •  how he ended up writing 8 out of 10 of the top performing pages on click bank •  how he obsessed over the craft of copywriting (and what that involved) •  his favorite copywriting resource—we’ve included a link so you can get it too •  the RMBC method for writing a sales letters •  the genius way he breaks the “mechanism” into two parts that increases sales •  the different things you need to do with the lead of a sales page •  Stefan’s point-by-point script for a sales page that you can use when you write •  the most common mistakes copywriters make when writing a sales message •  the ROI escalation method and how Stefan uses it to justify his rates •  how his mindset has shifted as he’s grown in his business •  how he got his clients to recommend him to future clients •  how he balances his time writing for elite clients with time for his family You won't want to miss this one. To get it, download it to your favorite podcast app (or better yet, subscribe so you never miss an episode), click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: TCCIRL Warrior Forum ClickBank Software Projects The Fascinations Doc Stefan and Justin’s Mastermind Stefanpaulgeorgi.com Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Rob:   This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Club In Real Life, our live event in San Diego, this coming March 12th through 14th. You can get your tickets now at thecopywriterclub.com/tccirl. 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 171 as we chat with copywriter Stefan Georgi about his approach to writing long copy, the ROI escalation ladder and how we can use it in our businesses, what it takes to write copy that produces $700 million in revenue over six years, and how he gets his clients to sell his services for him. Kira:   Welcome Stefan. Rob:   Hey, Stefan. Stefan:           Hey, guys. Thank you. It's great to be here. Kira:   Yeah, we're excited to have you here. We met you through Brian Kurtz, through the Titans Masterclass, and so, glad we can hang out today. And also you're going to be speaking at our event in March, which is really exciting. Stefan:           Yeah, I'm thrilled for that. I really appreciate you guys inviting me to come speak, but I cannot wait for that. Kira:   All right, so why don't we start off with your story? How did you end up as a copywriter? Stefan:           Yeah, so it's definitely one of those sort of funny twists of fate or things that are, it's a bit unexpected, I suppose you'd say. In 2011, I was teaching at an outdoor school in Marble Falls, Texas, which is about an hour and a half outside of Austin. And I was at this place called The Outdoor School, which was like a summer camp during the summer and a outdoor Ed type facility during the spring and the fall, where kids from all over Texas would come in on buses and stay from anywhere from a couple of days to a week. And they'd be taught about nature, living off the land, water quality, astronomy and things like that. I was one of the instructors there, which that happened because I'd been in a phone call center type job that I hated, and was like, ‘I want to go be in nature.’ And I applied to do this job and got accepted. I was in Marble Falls, Texas, teaching kids about the outdoors and nature, and I thought that's what I was going to do for an extended period of my life. But in May of that year, maybe late April, I went hiking with my dad back in San Diego. We hiked up a mountain, and I was just home for like a weekend, and went back to Texas to keep teaching kids about nature. And then I got a call maybe a week or two later that my dad had been diagnosed with cancer, and he ended up having stage four cancer. It was a rare form of liver cancer. When I found that out and did the whole thing where you look it up on Wikipedia to see how bad is it, and they say it's basically a 99% mortality rate and very fast, and realized that my dad was not going to be around for very long. I went back home to San Diego to spend as much time as I could have my dad before he passed. And I know that's a really heavy way to start a podcast. Rob:   Yeah, a little heavy. Stefan:           Just coming right in with the cancer and the dad dying story, but it's one of those crazy things nonetheless, because I did go back home that summer to San Diego. I moved in with my parents. And it was a difficult time and challenging, but of course I was glad I did it, because I got to be there and spend this quality time with my father. And then he passed at the end of October, October 22nd of 2011, and after that, I needed a break and wanted to, after the funeral and everything, wanted to get out and clear my head or do something for myself, because it had been awhile. I ended up booking a trip to Las Vegas and I posted it on Facebook, ‘Hey, who wants to go somewhere with me?’ A friend of mine from college was like, ‘I've never been to Las Vegas.’ That's why we picked Las Vegas, and so he and I booked a weekend for December, I think it was like the 12th through the 14th, 2011, Vegas. We go to Las Vegas. We're at the Circus Circus. I've got a couple hundred dollars in my bank account, that's it. And the first night we're there, we lose most of it playing blackjack. The second day, we decided to play poker instead of blackjack, and I win a couple hundred bucks. I'm like, ‘Great.’ The final day, Sunday, we decide to play poker again. We go to Caesar's Palace, which we picked completely at random. And we go sit to the card room. This may be 25 different card tables in the card room, poker tables in the card room. We're sitting there. A girl walks into the card room. I immediately think she's absolutely beautiful, and I make a joke to the table, ‘I hope she gets seated at at our table,’ because you don't get to pick. When you walk into a poker room, you go up to the desk, and then they assign you to a table. But she did get seated at our table, and I was happy about that. We're playing poker, and somebody asked her what she did for a living. And she said, ‘I'm a writer.’ I wanted to talk to her, so I said, ‘What kind of writer?’ And she said, ‘I'm a copywriter.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, copywriting. That's really interesting.’ I pulled out my phone and Googled, I think the iPhone 1 or whatever, but I Googled, ‘What's the copywriter?’ Because I had no idea what a copywriter even was. And that's the first time I ever even heard of copywriting. But basically, the girl and I hit it off, and ended up playing poker together. And to make a really long story short, I took one last job with a Fortune 500 company, but the girl ended up moving in with me pretty much after we met. And I was out there for this Fortune 500 company doing this outside sales job, where I was in like the hot sun all day. I made $200 a day, and I'd come home and she was in her underwear drinking a beer. And she'd made $1,200 in the same day. It got to the point where I was like, ‘Well, what am I doing here? I want to do what you're doing.’ And I asked her, ‘Do you think I could be a copywriter? Do you think I could make money doing that?’ And she had gotten to know me a bit at that point. She was like, ‘Yeah, you seem like a great writer, and I'll help you out. Why don't you go ahead and post something?’ I posted something on a site called Warrior Forum in the Warriors For Hire section. I charged $149 for a sales letter. And I went to bed, and I woke up that next morning, and I had $298 in my PayPal account. Two people had gotten sales letters from me, and that was the whole a-ha moment of, ‘Oh my God, people will pay me to write. I could do that.’ Stefan:           And I quit my corporate job a month after that, and then made tons of mistakes and learned a ton of stuff. But eventually got pretty good at copy. And yeah, I don't want to just kind of ramble for too long to start, but that's the- Kira:   And are you married with that woman, the copywriter today? Stefan:           Thank you. Thank you. Let me close the loop on that. Rob:   Very much, yes. Kira:   Can you close that loop for me, please? Stefan:           Before she murders me, yes. And then that woman is my wife, and we have a daughter together. Yeah, it was a really fortuitous moment in my life to be sure. Rob:   I've got to know Stefan, who's the better copywriter, you or your wife? Stefan:           I'm supposed to be diplomatic here, but me. Kira:   I don't know. We need to get your wife here next and speak to her. This needs to happen. Stefan:           She's really good. She's really good as well. And she's great at the kind of like Bizzabo, but not in like, I don't mean in like the really sleazy kind of make $50,