The title of the book is: How to Stop Acting.
It’s a classic in the acting field.
Famous actors like Glenn Close and Kevin Kline and Christopher Reeve… Superman, himself… use the method.
And.
It would be like writing a copywriting book called: How to Stop Selling.
That’s crazy.
But is it crazy? Or is it brilliant?
I had to know.
So I bought it.
Here’s what happened:
I like to hang out in Barnes & Noble in the poetry section.
Poetry used to be over by the dictionaries. (So random.) But now it’s between Fantasy Fiction and Shakespeare Spark Notes.
You can tell you’re in the right place because of the giant dust bunnies.
(I think they have names, but I’m not sure because I didn’t ask.)
Make sure you move slowly when you pick up these books because the dust triggers my asthma…
… not enough to get me to stop reading poetry, but certainly enough to make me wonder why they don’t give feather dusters to the employees.
So I see this scrawny little book. Black spine, yellow letters.
It jumps out at me because when you’re building a business, you try on different personas until you get one that feels real.
In a way, you become an actor playing the role of yourself.
In a very literal sense, you discover yourself as you write your daily emails and sales messages.
And.
You fake it until you make it.
Both.
You’ve found a paradox.
To say it shorter:
You make mud. And when you get good, you make mud pies.
So I open the book to a random page, and here’s what I see:
“Say what you mean, whatever that is. Most important of all, don’t be careful!”
Hmm. Those are triggering words.
Especially for a copywriter.
In this field, we live and die by structure.
We have formulas. Rules. Protocols.
We have checklists, for Heaven’s sake!
And then I take a deep breath, and let the panic wash out of my bloodstream, and I remember the other truth:
This is a people business.
A relationship business.
You —> your buyer —> your product.
Connected.
That’s what’s real.
We use the formulas to anchor us to the the customer.
A connection to living breathing humans.
With real problems and cash to solve them with.
People.
That’s why I’m in this business.
That’s why I write.
That’s why I teach.
That’s why I believe copywriting is a life skill, and not some shady way to jilt people out of their money.
And if all of that is true…
If it’s really about the people and the connection, then I want you to do this:
Stop being careful.
Make mud.
Play.
Laugh.
Tell silly stories.
Use the formulas to get you started, then let go and have fun.
It’s okay to be you and to be real in your business.
There’s too many people hiding their brilliance behind boring writing.
The old idea of “being professional” is gone.
The new “professional” is authentic, relatable, fun, and even… sometimes messy.
Something else to think about:
I want you to consider reading this acting book.
It talks about a way to take the exact words of a script and make it “lift off the page” and become authentic to you… without changing a single word.
That makes a lot of sense for us because so much of copywriting is repetitive and formula-driven. I mean, there’s only so many ways you can write a guarantee, right?
But what if you could make those same ideas “lift off the page” and take on new life, and still honor those classic, proven formulas? That would be cool.
Here’s the link, see if it’s for you: How to Stop Acting
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