MBA923 Guest Teacher: Sean D’Souza- 3 Ways to Write Intensely Curious Headlines

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Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show. Pump up the volume because this is the business podcast you need to get you the business you want with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And today's episode is a guest teacher episode. On our guest teacher episodes, I bring on an expert to teach you their area of expertise. Today's guest teacher is Sean D' Souza from psychotactics.com and Sean's going to be teaching you three ways to write insanely curious headlines. We all know how important a headline could be. Whether it's a subject line for an email, a headline for an article or a blog post, or a headline for your sales page, it's the first thing. It's the first impression people have with your content. It's going to attract them. It's going to draw them in. Well, hopefully it will. Well, with Sean's lesson, it will. Sean is one of the best copywriters I know. He's been doing this for decades. He's also a great speaker and teacher and he's going to help you crush those headlines today. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I've gotten to know Sean d', Souza, today's guest teacher for the last few years, and he runs a great business over@psychotactics.com he's been running it for decades. And Sean's really good at the fundamentals, especially when it comes to copy. He's also, like I mentioned, a great teacher, a great presenter. You should check out his podcast called the Three Month Vacation. He's a fantastic storyteller, as you'll see very soon. But in today's lesson, Sean's going to give you some specific ways to better your headlines. Some great strategies, how to get people curious, how to get people wondering, if this is for me, is this something I want to learn? Is this something that I want to buy? I'll be back to give my takeaways at the end of the episode, but right now I'm going to pass it on to Sean d', Souza, your guest teacher. Take it away, Sean.

How long does it take for a tadpole to turn into a frog? I always thought that it took well over a month. Growing up as a child in India, the rains would show up in June and we'd have these pools of water. And in these pools, you'd have dozens, possibly hundreds of tadpoles. It seemingly took weeks before a tadpole turned into that frog. That's not the case for every tadpole. India has plentiful rain. It lasts three months. But if you go elsewhere, there are arid conditions and tadpole development has to be incredibly quick. The eggs are laid in pools, and then the tadpole has to fully develop before these pools dry up. All of this has to happen in a matter of days. It's go, go, go all the time. In today's world, we also have go, go, go all the time. We need headlines for our newsletters, podcasts, webinars, workshops. But is it really possible to turn out a great headline almost immediately, or do we have to wait? What we'll cover in this episode is the concept of headlines in a hurry. We'll learn three ways to write great headlines and then to write them under pressure. We'll also have fun, and instead of just learning headlines, we'll go back to grammar class. Yes, you heard right. Grammar class. So what are the three ways? The first way method one is headlines with and the second is headlines with even and the third is headlines with without. Let's start out with the first one, which is headlines with and remember Windows 3.1? I sure do. I was a cartoonist. I was still living in Mumbai. And that's when I got my first computer. It was a 386. It was top of the line. It had programs like CorelDraw, it had Photoshop. And right before I got to the computer, I would go through the tedious task of drawing a cartoon, photocopying it several times, and. And then I would color each version. Clients wanted to see the same cartoon rendered in different colors. And so I spent time back and forth to the photocopy shop. Let's say I got to know the photocopy shop guy really well. But it also wasted a lot of my day. And then came Windows 3.1. And I was able to scan and then color the cartoons in half an hour. From paper to the computer was my big leap forward when it came to cartoons. And yet, several years later, when I moved from cartoons to copywriting, I struggled a lot with writing headlines. Every time I sat down to write headlines, I'd get the blue screen of death in my brain until the day I figured out the incredible power of and. And that's what you're going to learn. When writing a headline, all you have to do is to add the conjunction and. And your headline seems to dart forward. Let's take a few examples, shall we? Here are some headlines. How to raise your freelance rates. And we add and we say how to raise your freelance rates and get a greater number of clients. Or how to create magic with your brand stories. How to create magic with your brand stories and engage new readers every time you publish. Or how to keep fit over the age of 55. We add and we go how to keep fit over the age of 55 and still eat everything you want. What do we notice with these and headlines? The first was the sheer simplicity of the headline. We started the headline as if it's going to be a really short one, like how to raise your freelance rates. Then, as an afterthought, we added the and. What this tends to do is give your headline more oomph. The first part of the headline without the and. That's good enough. But the second part allows your headline to move your client forward, which is why the and headline has a far greater curiosity factor than a headline without the conjunction. When writing and headlines, I use the parenthesis. Some people call it the brackets. So you write the first part of your headline and then the and portion goes into the brackets. To take an example, how to create magic with your brand stories, brackets or parenthesis and engage new readers every time you publish. Close brackets, close parenthesis. The interesting Part about this is it's not just that the headline is better to read, but it's also visually more interesting. When you look at headlines side by side or even in your inbox, the second headline seems to say a lot more. Yes, some of it disappears in the inbox. It doesn't matter. People can still see that there is a continuation of their thought and so they get curious about what's in there. So it's not just a physical conjunction that makes a difference, but it's also the visual aspect of it. So if you wondered why you had to sit through boring grammar class, well, now you know. You're in headline grammar class and you just found out how to use and and like Windows 3.1, which got me from a bit of a struggle to super fast execution. You too can build a headline in next to no time by using and the way I write and headlines is to write the first part and then walk away, keeping that break between your activities. It helps your brain hum in the background. It comes up with a far superior idea than if you simply jumped on the first possible idea that came to your mind. So that's the first part of the grammar class. You're keen to go to the second part, aren't you? So let's go to the adverb, which is the land of even. So what do we do with even? I'd never heard of a comedian called Michael Jr. Then one day I'm lying on the sofa, I'm scrolling through Facebook and this video pops up. In the video, Michael Jr. Is talking about how comedy works. And here's what he says. This is how it works. First there's a setup and then there's a punchline. The setup is where the comedian uses his talents and his resources to seize any opportunity and to ensure that his audience is moving in the same direction. The punchline occurs when he alters that direction in such a way that was not anticipated by the audience at all. So he's talking about the adverb. Yep. Michael Jr. Doesn't know it, but he's just given a quick grammar lesson. And that is precisely the grammar lesson that you can use in your headlines. When you use the adverb even, you're taking the audience in a specific direction and then you're moving them to the punchline, which isn't quite anticipated by the audience. So how do we do this? Let's take a headline. Let's take a headline that goes like this, which says how to rank high on Bing. And then let's put the even to it. How to rank high on Bing even with low Google rankings. Let's take another example. Why you should raise your freelance rates. Then we'll add even to it. And it is why you should raise your freelance rates, even if you're not sure you're worth it. Third example, how to quit your day job. Now you're going to put even on to how to quit your day job, even if you're cash trapped. You see the setup, you see the punchline. It's everywhere, this setup and punchline. If you want to think of it, think of it as a twig. You know, a long branch and then this little twig. So the main part of the headline is long. And then this little even comes in and changes the direction. Now how do you use even? Same thing as the end. You put the parenthesis and that's how you do it. You just go first part, parenthesis or brackets, put the even and then continue the second part. And that's how you make these very interesting. It's also very easy to write it as a headline. When you do it this way. You break it up into two bits. So remember, setup, punchline. That's the power of even. So what we've covered so far, we've covered and. And we've covered even. We'll go to the third part of the grammar lesson, shall we? Let's head to without. And without does a really good job. A really cool job, especially when you're tired of using and. And even. So let's find out how. Headlines with Without. To write a headline with without, all you have to do is consider the possible how to raise your prices, how to raise your prices without losing clients, how to raise your prices without increasing the quantity of your product, how to raise your prices without considering the competition, or how to raise your prices without the accompanying fear factor. When you write a without headline, guess what you're really doing? You're bringing up the objection in your head. Notice the second part of the headline. They brought out the fear of losing clients, of needing to increase the quantity of the product of the competition, and the fear of fear itself. All of these are obvious objections to your premise or article. So you write your article or write your first part of your headline and then go, what's the opposite of this? What's the objection? And then put it in and that makes it a without headline. Let's take an example, like how to lose weight in two weeks. What are the objections to losing weight? One, you're a foodie. Two, you don't want to go on a crazy diet. Three. You don't care about exercise and then you slap on the objections to the first part of the headline. Are you ready? How to lose weight in two weeks without giving up your foodie habits. How to lose weight in two weeks without going on a crazy diet. How to lose weight in two weeks without needing to exercise endlessly. And there you have it. Without comes to the rescue. Isn't grammar wonderful? We should really do a summary. But what would we cover? We already know the three methods that make our headlines stand out. All it takes is just and even and without and gets your headline moving forward really quickly. Even does this little setup and punchline. And without. Without is all about objections. See, those grammar Nazis were right. You should pay attention to your grammar because even if your brain feels like it's running on Windows 3.1, you'll still be able to turn out super curious headlines. So what's the one thing that we can implement today? Remember the advice that you got about writing part of the headline first and then going away? Well, here's a reminder. You may be so excited with your proficiency at grammar class that you may forget to take that break. Leaving that task unfinished ensures that your brain brings up and then rejects many options. Eventually, when you get back to your headline, you're likely to get a far superior headline than just the first thing that you thought up. Put some space between your activities and you'll find it's far superior than trying to finish everything in one go. That's pretty much it. Grammar lesson over. School's out.

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The February 2025 Nielsen report. What a powerful and impactful lesson. I love how Sean broke it down into three simple strategies, three simple formulas. I love these strategies. Using and even and without. So simple, but so effective. It allows you to keep it simple so people can understand. But at the same time get to the root of the matter, what you're trying to convey. I want you to utilize these strategies right now. Think of your next blog post, think of your next product. Think about your current sales page. How can you use these three strategies with your headlines? Write it down right now so you can do it. Also, love how Sean weaved in some great stories to convey his message. It kept it interesting and it shows you that's what it takes to keep people engaged as a teacher. Love it. Sean. If you want to thank Sean for this awesome episode, tweet at him. His handle is seandasa. That's a D S O U Z A. Make sure you check out psychotactics.com and his podcast the Three Month Vacation. Alright, that's it for me today, guys. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to hit subscribe because tomorrow we are going to dive into how to create the first version of your product. How to make sure you're creating something that somebody actually wants. That first version is very critical. You don't want to overdo it, you want to simplify. We're going to talk about those steps and how to implement that in tomorrow's episode. So hit subscribe so you don't miss it. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this. I've gotten to know Sean d' Souza online, but I also gotten to know him in person at conferences as well as masterminds. And Sean runs a very old school type of business. I say old school meaning that he just focuses on the fundamentals, what works and he really does that well. He doesn't do a lot of bling bling on his website. He's not a fancy guy looking for the shiny object to put on his website or his brand or his business. But he's profitable. He does very well. He has a lot of time off, he enjoys life. So his business is a great example to look at and say, hey, this is an option. This is another version of a business. It doesn't have to have a million employees. Him and his wife Renuka run the business on their own. They do everything. So I love meeting different people, doing different things, doing things in a different way. It changes my perspective, it opens up my mind a little bit. So when you find somebody like Shonda Souza, get to know them, learn more about them, see what you can take away and implement in your own life and business. All right, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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