“Aaahhh! We don’t need no stinkin’ lessons!”

That response brought a smile to my face when talking to a colleague (and hopefully a good friend in the not so distant future) about taking up the game of golf again. “Aaahhh! We don’t need no stinkin’ lessons!” She was light-heartedly giving the wise-ass response us wise asses give when we mean “Dude, this just for fun!” or ”Honey, I am NOT tryin’ to be that serious!”

Unfortunately, I hear a similar response all too often from entrepreneurs and info marketers. Except it goes something like… “Aaahhh! We don’t need no stinkin’ COPY!” No apologies, I gotta file this none under “Stupid Things People Say.”

In a previous life as a journalist, publisher and editor there was always a battle between the advertising people and the editorial people about which was more important – the ads or the stories. Although the ads paid the bills, it was the content that attracted the reader/customer/information seeker - so in my opinion, CONTENT IS — and always has been — KING! Here’s the thing though… I’m not talking about journalism here, I’m talking business. In any business — especially the speaking business — copy is king. Let me show you what I mean.

• If you were a chemist and didn’t write your newly discovered compounds down, how would your verify your work to your colleagues? (That’s copy)
• If you were an automobile manufacturer how would you ever produce the second car if no one wrote the specs down? Besides, if you were a car salesman, wouldn’t you want to know if it came with ‘fine Corinthian leather’ or not? Somebody had to write the list of available features and options somewhere — I hope. (That’s all copy)
• Whatever your skill or expertise, while acquiring it didn’t you run into some documentation somewhere that gave you the information needed? Especially if you took a class or a course? I’m sure there was a lesson plan, a workbook or a syllabus somewhere. (That was copy.)

This is just a few examples, but too many in business underestimate the importance of documenting what they do and how they do it. Or could it be they don’t know what they do and how they do it? At least not in detail. They’ll tell you that they know it from their gut and they ‘wing it’ every time. I say that’s crap!

Under the harsh light of interrogation they fold like a house of cards. With my brainstorming hat on I start asking the hard questions about the details of the product, service, workshop or supposed area of expertise. If they can answer the question, they can’t answer it the same way twice. Often they answer in some confusing language I don’t understand that’s full of scattered adjectives, superlatives, conjunctions and redundancies. Needless to say, if this person is a speaker I pretty much lose patience and my politically incorrect alter-ego emerges. (Give me the benefit of the doubt on the ‘alter-ego’ thing.)

Every business and especially an information marketing business needs GREAT FOUNDATIONAL TECHNICAL COPY (and copy by its very nature is in WRITTEN form) that thouroughly describes what they do and how they do it in painstaking detail. It’s the only way to thouroughly understand your business and effectively shape your brand.

For speakers that amounts to thorough descriptions/outlines of the specific content of each of your workshops and speeches (YOUR SERVICE). By being as thorough as you can (and not ‘winging in it’ so much) in your documented description, you will become a much better speaker and a much better marketer. Even more importantly, you will have DONE YOUR HOMEWORK and increased your knowledge of your own subject. PSSST! It’s called becoming an expert. It’s also why (and how) people write books. As an extra bonus, you’ll find that writing that dreaded MARKETING COPY is much easier when you’re starting from a firm foundation of technical copy – instead of always putting the cart before the horse.

So if you want to stay out of the rough and play the course like the pros… get some stinkin’ lessons!

PEACE.
Rick

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