Hi everyone,Been ruminating on this one for a little while now but it’s probably one of
most profound discoveries of my life. It all began with a little book about music and it’s had such a deep influence on my copywriting and small business, indeed my whole outlook on life, I'd like to share it with you all now.
Here’s what happened…
About 8 years ago I bought book “Man and Music In India” by Roshmi Goswami and was introduced to a staggering thought from within it’s pages… that every note sounded by a musician is actually a container for spirit of musician.
Now breaking that open further I began to see that (I’m a musician myself; drummer, guitar player) as notes of a musician could be filled by very soul or spirit of musician himself or even God or demons (if you believe in them) so notes were almost like little boats that each musician filled with their persona unique to them and by plucking, singing, striking note they in essence ‘launched’ it out into waves of sea of sound where it eventually reaches ‘port’ of it’s destination - audiences hearing ear, who gladly receive and enjoy it (or otherwise if a bad musician).
In my mind’s eye I saw each musical piece therefore (stick with me here - it’s worth it I promise) as composed of thousands of little boats (the notes) sent out to sail across sea of sound by vibration (the waves) to audiences listening intently on other side of that ’sound sea’.
For many years I thought about this and then realised (sorry I’m a bit slow on uptake sometimes!) that this didn’t just apply to notes in music but more deeply and profoundly it actually applied to very stuff of life itself - WORDS.
As such every single every single word you say or write is a container, a ‘little boat’ as it were… that actually contains YOU! The question is what fills your ‘little boat’ before you launch it out to sea?
If light bulb has not gone on yet it will, just keep pondering bigger picture above - perhaps of a lone master violinist or a sitar and tabla player deeply intwined in an intricate Indian raga and before long you’ll understand exactly what I’m driving at… and it’s deep, very profound.
When you apply above metaphor to words you see little boats not as notes just being “containers for music and spirit of musician” but rather words as little ships themselves that contain YOUR very essence, spirit, soul and persona.
Every time you speak or write a single line you release a little ‘Armada’ of these little boats out onto sea of existence itself - if speaking, then out onto splashing waves of ’sea of sound’ - if writing, then even more deeply into sea of ‘heart to heart direct communication’ itself… without a sound, directly to target.
What’ s so profound about written word is it’s ability (when writing is good) to bypass all defences humans erect against other human’s intrusion and drop directly into emotional and decision making part of heart to evoke powerful responses. That’s also good if you want to sell something to someone.
Quick example…
My wife didn’t even know I really had feelings for her in first months of us knowing each other and she’d moved to another town 65 miles away - I wrote her a letter; it was pretty powerful (I was terrible at controlling my emotions then and splurged clumsy letter full of poetry and undying declarations of love etc!) and she phoned me saying she was surprised at my feelings for her; within 8 weeks we were married and that was 17 years ago.
Prior to letter I’d just been a fleeting aquaintance and if I’d tried face to face I’d probably have blown it being so nervous and all but; words carrying my spirit, passion, persona bypassed all her natural resistance and… melted her heart!
So what’s this all got to do with copywriting? Well a massive amount really; point I’m trying to uncover here is that you reveal your very personality through every single word you write… even if there are some aspects you’d rather not show to others, especially prospects or clients.
