The Secret to Building Trust and Authority

Lessons from Gary Halbert

Hey! Happy Tuesday.

For two weeks, I’m living with a Belarusian mother and her son.

They took me in because I had a two-week gap between my apartment leases. If you wanna follow along, I’ve been tweeting about it here:

Connor Widmaier @CopyWriteConnor

I’m moving in with a Belarusian mother for two weeks. Her son is a student at our school. In your opinion, what’s the best way to be a polite and respectful houseguest? I’ll go first… always bring a small thank you gift to build reciprocity. What else?

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Start

When I was in school, I sucked at writing.

But a year ago, I set the intention to become a professional writer. Now, I earn 3-5 times my school salary by ghostwriting Tweets (depending on the month). One way I learned to write well was with a little-known exercise called copywork.

Copywork isn’t popular in modern education, but historical figures like Ben Franklin swore by it. To practice copywork, simply take a piece of great writing and copy it by hand. This helps your brain soak up the patterns of persuasion.

If this sounds interesting or useful to you, one of the best places to start is with the world’s greatest sales letters.

Why?

Because we know they sold millions of dollars of products and services. They must be persuasive.

Discovering Gary Halbert

Gary Halbert's sales letters generated over $1,000,000,000 in revenue.

And before he died, he allegedly sent 1 in every 3 American a sales letter. So if you want to practice copywork, his letters are a good place to start.

This was the first letter I ever hand-copied:

Go to Swiped.co for more

Please ignore the fact that Gary is obviously selling bullsh*t.

We’re not here to judge the man, only to learn from him.

If you notice, Gary starts off the letter by admitting he was once a “desperate nerd from Ohio” and that he was once “dead broke.”

Why does he do this?

Why the heck would I buy a get-rich-quick booklet from a desperate nerd?

Well, because he’s no longer a desperate nerd. He made a transformation. And by admitting his weak starting point, Gary builds a special bond with his reader.

It makes him more likable and relatable and even implies he’s being honest.

So what can we learn from Gary?

To build trust with your audience, start by admitting a flaw.

Even better, start with a flaw that you overcame. That way, you build trust and establish authority before leading others to do the same.

Thank you for reading.