Ray Edwards Show

This week's episode contains a bit of a rant, but I think it's a rant most of us should hear. There's a sea of negativity in this world, and at the center of that sea is a giant vortex with an ever-expanding mouth, trying to pull you under…to suck you down the drain. I know that sounds like a negative outlook, but here's the thing…You shouldn't be part of that sea in the first place! Every human I know (and I know me better than the rest of them) is guilty of falling into these traps…stressing about the parts of the world they don't have the power to change while real opportunities for growth and prosperity are right in front of them. Let's have a serious talks about how to eliminate this; how to acknowledge the fact that we can't solve every problem (for me, Parkinson's Disease comes to mind.) Life is about solving the problems you can and not getting paralyzed by the ones you can't. This pandemic has taken much from many, BUT it has created new opportunities that have never existed before…it's created needs to be filled. Why not focus on those needs and HELP people? You will prosper greatly and improve the world. Links From This Week's Episode https://trainwithray.com – Get your ticket for The Copywriting Academy Live 2021 How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

The title of this week's episode is the title of John Lee Dumas's new book which I strongly suggest you add to your library. John is the host of the award-winning podcast, Entrepreneurs On Fire, and has interviewed more than 3,000 successful entrepreneurs. This book is the result of JLD sorting through all of that wisdom and boiling it down to 17 common steps that each of these entrepreneurs have taken on their path to success. It is rare that I read a business book that I feel will still be relevant and valuable for decades, but that's exactly what I believe about John Lee Dumas's book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success. Links From This Week's Episode https://uncommonsuccessbook.com – Get your copy of JLD's new book here. https://www.eofire.com/ – John's podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire https://trainwithray.com – Get your ticket for The Copywriting Academy Live 2021 How You Can Help Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

This week's episode content was actually borrowed from my YouTube video of the same name. Even if you've already seen the video, these are some great, money-making ideas that deserve a review. Feature Presentation So you want to be a writer for hire, but those high-paying gigs you hear about seem a bit out of your reach. Keep in mind that, just like any worthwhile career, you gotta start somewhere. Here are seven ways you can get started making money as a copywriter that ARE within your reach: Creating Content for Others Affiliate Marketing Social Media Marketing Copy Copy Editing and Proofreading Ghostwriting Podcast Show Notes YouTube Descriptions Tune in to the episode to get the full explanation of these often overlooked rapid-revenue generators. Links From This Week's Episode https://trainwithray.com - Here's your invitation to join me for The Copywriting Academy Live, April 7th-9th. This intense, 3-Day workshop will teach you how to write the words that sell WITHOUT the sleaze. You can get the world's premiere Copywriting training for 1/10th the cost of the in-person event - AND you'll get the same knowledge. Click the link for details. https://youtube.com/rayedwards – If you're not subscribed to my YouTube Channel, click the link and fix that. Be sure to enable notifications so you never miss a video!

If you're considering writing a book, you need to check out this week's podcast. Chandler Bolt, CEO of Self-Publishing School, is THE Authority when it comes to self-publishing and he's my special guest this week. By the way, “self-publishing” doesn't have the same minor league connotation it did a few years ago. There are many situations when it's simply the smarter choice.  Chandler and I discuss how to be an authority by being an author and how your new book can have a major impact on your business. Bio: Chandler Bolt is an investor, advisor, the CEO of Self-Publishing School & SelfPublishing.com, and the author of 6 bestselling books including his most recent book titled “Published.“. Self Publishing School is an INC 5000 company the last 3 years in a row as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the US. Chandler is also the host of the 7 Figure Principles Podcast and the Self Publishing School Podcast. Through his books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and Self-Publishing School, he’s helped thousands of people write a book that grows their income, impact, and business. He’s currently spending his time scaling Self Publishing School, a company he’s built from 0 to $20M+ in 5.5 years. In 2020, Self Publishing School hit #1,944 on the INC 5000 as one of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America.

There are so many ways to make your marketing complex. Funnels, upsells, cross-sells, JVs, multivariate testing, challenges, tiny offers with a value ladder of upsells… Sometimes the best way to sell a horse is with an ad that says “Horse for sale”. But that kind of clarity only comes when you know your perfect client. Your “right fit client”. And you must know their language. The POSITIVE and NEGATIVE “triggers”. It’s like your RFC has a codebook …. And you need to know that codebook inside-out.         Spiritual Foundations How To Be Blessed Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3 (NKJV) Tip of the Week This week's tip is simple: Get on Clubhouse! I know there have been a few come-and-go platforms in the social media world, but this one looks like it's here to stay – already over 100 million users! What's different about Clubhouse? It's “Social Audio”. This is a place where you can host, or participate in, discussions on a particular topic. Live, audio only discussions – A great place to teach, learn and network with your people. Visit JoinClubhouse.com for more information on how to get started. Feature Presentation This week's episode is a good one to listen to multiple times because there is a lot to unpack: Who is your “Right Fit Client” – AND – Have you learned their language? That second point is the one that seems to get screwed up the most. Your RFC has certain triggers that they respond to – both positive and negative. It's like they have their own codebook…a language that they recognize and respond to. Once you decipher that code, writing copy that makes them react becomes almost trivial. In next month's Copywriting Academy Live, we'll focus on how to build this Messaging Codebook for your Right Fit Client – AND – how to keep building it, block by block. When we're done, you'll have your first, high-performance Sales Page, and you'll have the ability to easily generate subsequent offers using your Messaging Codebook. You'll know what to say and how to say it. TCA Live is only a few weeks away. Get signed up now so I can get your materials in the mail (Yeah…materials – This is a workshop, not a seminar. Be ready to be productive and profitable!) How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

This week's episode is a conversation I had with the great Lee Cockerell, former VP of Walt Disney World and a master of creating that Disney Magic. Lee is one of our favorite people to learn from. I say "our", because my company invested in The Cockerell Academy which has benefitted our entire team. Lee teaches entrepreneurs and business leaders that you don't have to be Disney-Sized to make magic. Excellence, like so many other things, is a state of mind and learning that it is within reach will motivate you to be better. Learn more about The Cockerell Academy by clicking here. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook - This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

My book is now officially available for purchase. For now, you can get it the Kindle or Nook version for only .99¢ Even though this book is one of my biggest accomplishments and, I believe, will enrich the lives of those who read it, I still felt weird doing a monologue podcast about my own writing. Instead, I got permission to borrow some audio from my friend Dan Miller's podcast. Dan recently interviewed me about the book and definitely did not softball me any sales copy disguised as questions. He really dug into the "why" behind this book and that's what made me want to share it here.

ATTENTION: We interrupt these show notes to bring you this important announcement: You have a chance to train with me for free starting this Friday! This Friday, February 12th, we're starting the Get Clients Fast 5 Day Challenge. Five days of free, live training to get clients, fast! This IS 100% FREE OF CHARGE. Live training will be about one hour per day. This will be fun, interactive and ultimately profitable if you follow the steps. Click here to join the challenge and I'll see you live starting this Friday! And now...back to the show How can you reframe an overwhelming list of "have to's" into an exciting list of "get to's"? That's what we're talking about in this week's episode. Spiritual Foundations  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT) In the past I would often wonder what to pray about. Well, it's clearly stated in the verses above: everything. I think these are the things we worry about and stress over even though they are beyond our control. If you can reach the point of release where you can let go of the things which you can do nothing about, I think you will find yourself much less stressed. Let God do the things that only God can do. Tip of the Week My tip this week is for my new book Permission to Prosper. It doesn't get officially released until February 16th, 2021, but you can preorder it by clicking here. Also, if you'd be kind enough to preorder, I'll make sure you get a free copy of the audiobook as soon as it's released! Feature Presentation So how does one transform stress and anxiety into peace and increase? This is another example of "change your words, change your world". It's about looking at "have to's" as "get to's". I recommend starting out by writing down your list of have-to's. The example from the podcast was, "I have to increase revenue for my company." That sounds stressful...it sounds heavy. Perhaps overwhelming. It's a have-to that I and probably every other business owner has had on their list at some point. Truthfully, I've had to deal with that one quite a few times in my career and one day it hit me: We have incredible resources now that we didn't have when I first addressed this "have to". Not so long ago, I didn't have social media platforms to potentially reach millions of new customers for free. This revelation changed my outlook on things. You and I have ever-increasing opportunities to grow our revenue...we don't just "have to", we "get to". Now, it's important to notice the "revelation" part of this story. I didn't simply pick a new word and *poof* everything changed. I had an epiphany that made "get to" a more accurate way of describing the process. You need to ask yourself what you need to do to make that true for you. I promise you this is a better, more rewarding, exciting and less stressful way of tackling your list.   How To Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook - This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

You want to write copy that converts, but how can you do that? Remember this: Before conversion comes connection. You need to connect with your audience before you start pitching them. In this week's episode, I'm giving you three ways to do exactly that. Spiritual Foundations  Do Not Boast About Tomorrow. “… we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NKJV) Many verses of the Bible seem a little vague (hence all the various denominations of Christianity), but this one is crystal clear. As a believer, I find comfort in this verse during the bad times. If I don't see the good in what is happening in my life, I simply need to remember that the story isn't over. In other words, in the end, I will see the good. Tip of the Week My tip this week is for a free app called Threads that is available for both IOS and Android. This is the tool to use when you want to add close captioning to your Instagram stories (which, for the record, I do on a daily basis right here). Why closed captioning? Because not everyone scrolls through Instagram Stories with the volume up and having the text on the screen entices them to either turn it up or read it. How do I know this to be true? Because my engagement has increased since I began using it. If you're posting videos on IG, I highly recommend you get this app. Feature Presentation 3 Ways To Write Copy That Connects I don't just write copy, I teach others to write copy and often my students and I review some of their material that flopped. In almost every case, the basic problem is the same: They failed to connect with the reader on a personal level. Their words were...just words. First connect. Then convert. Here are three ways to get it right: 1. Pay attention to what your market is talking about. Whomever your intended audience is, do your homework and get to know them. Try to learn not only the relevant joys, pains and everything in between, but also learn their specific language well enough to echo it back to them in your copy. 2. Help them feel understood, appreciated, justified , safe and vindicated. Okay, there is a lot going on in that sentence, but it isn't complicated. It goes back to remembering whom you're talking to. For instance, I've never been in combat, but I've written some powerful copy for our combat veteran heroes. How could I do that if I've never experienced the battlefield? I took the time to listen to their stories...to make an emotional connection, to empathize as much as possible. 3. Be interesting especially when you’re talking about boring things (be different by not being the same) It would be great if every story we had to tell were filled with action heroes, narrow escapes and surprise endings, but that ain't so. You have to find a way to make the story interesting even if the subject isn't. There was a time when no one would have considered making a funny car insurance commercial. What's funny about car wrecks? Nothing. But, put a caveman in a suit and tie and now you've got my attention.   How To Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook - This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

Can you imagine opening the lid to your toilet, only to discover a snake? What would you do? Here’s what my wife did…OK relax. My wife did not find a snake in the toilet. But this little exercise reveals the subject of today’s podcast…Using story-based emails and subject lines to capture your reader's attention. There is more noise than ever before in the marketplace, and therefore there’s more competition to get emails opened and read. You’ve got to have something really powerful to hook people's attention. Nothing beats a great story. We’ll  explain how to use story-based subject lines and email copy in this episode. Spiritual Foundations  Do Not Boast About Tomorrow. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”    James 4:13-15 I don't think this means that we shouldn't set goals, but I think it does mean we need to have the humility to admit we cannot predict the future...that sometimes, God simply has a different plan. Feature Presentation Story Based Email Copy That Gets the Click One of the cardinal rules of writing is the importance of learning to “show and not tell”. So instead of saying “he had searched the room from top to bottom”, you might say instead, “He systematically begin taking things out of the top of the closet and throwing them on the floor. Boxes, shoes, sweaters...then he moved to pulling clothes from the hangers and throwing them on the floor. He proceeded to empty the drawers of the dresser, his face growing more and more puzzled the longer he searched." Notice how the second version conveys a lot more drama and emotion. That’s what stories can do for any copy, and especially for email. Don’t say “this is very interesting” – you make it very interesting by telling a story about it. Three subject line examples: sent the email TEMPLATE by mistake – and our open rates went crazy… when she opened the email, she screamed… She found a snake in the toilet! (and THEN…) Each of these subject lines paints a very different scenario. Each of them begged you to fill in the blanks in your imagination about what happens next. And that’s exactly what you want to occur whenever you send an email. You want the subject line to induce so much curiosity, the recipient has to read the email to find out what happens next. But keep in mind, then you have to deliver. You have to give them something that satisfies the set up in the subject line. It’s the best of all possible worlds when you tell me a true story that beautifully illustrates the point you’re trying to make in the email copy. Because the next thing you’re going to do is ask the reader to click through to get… “The rest of the story”…And to maintain your credibility you have to be telling the truth. Take that headline about sending the email template, for example. True story. One of our best testing email open rates for a case when we sent an email with the subject line: “insert subject line here”.We even got tons of replies to that email. Not something you should do on purpose, and probably would not have worked as well the second time because it was an honest mistake. But that’s just a point. It was true, and it contained an element of story. Start telling the story in the subject line, continue it in the body of the email, and have the reader click through to get the rest of the story on your landing page (or in your podcast, for instance)… Are there “new rules” for copywriting? Undoubtedly. We are living in a different time now. We’re going to be spending some time going into these new rules during our Copywriting Academy Live event which takes place April 8th and 9th. This is a totally live, but virtual workshop. We’re going to spend these two days writing your copy together. You should register now, while the price is still just $197 per ticket – because at the end of this week (January 31) the price goes up. Get all the details by going to https://rayedwards.com/tcalive. How To Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook - This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.