The Journey to $700 MM - Who is Stefan Georgi?

Why do you hate guitar so much now? And minister done. It's unbelievable. I'm still making the most of this kind of time being on lockdown. Okay, okay, I'm done playing guitar. Okay. I'm still working. And Laura, to her credit's been just an incredible, you know, mom and awesome with Eden.

One Teddy.

Only one Teddy. It's like I can work and then when I'm done, there's no like, commute or like, whatever. It's like I literally just get up from my office and walk into the kitchen and spend family time. I always figured I would be a parent, but it was not like something where that was like my mission in life to be a parent or a dad.

A red dog on a blue tree.

A blue dog. It's like there's just this whole different level of love in your heart that like you can't know or experience or understand until you have a child. I know that's the spider. I know more than anybody else. I get to mold her from the very beginning and like, not mold her to my own designs, but at least I can instill these incredible beliefs in her at such an early age that then I just see the potential for what she can accomplish being so limitless, you know, with link it over him. If I can just sort of like show her that pretty much anything is possible. It really, truly is. What would that look like? Right? What can she do in this world? What can she accomplish? And then like, how much impact can she have? And then can she spread that to other people? And so I'm trying to do that, I guess, with like my coaching and my training and my mentorship and my leadership and all these things that I'm doing. And then it would be bizarre if I wasn't also trying to do that for my daughter. Okay, you want up? Got it. I grew up in rural Maryland. So my early childhood was like, me, my sister, other kids in this neighborhood, sometimes my cousins, we would play in the woods behind our house. We would pick wild onions during the summer and like rinse them off and eat them. Or I'd go like hiking in West Virginia with my family and be picking wild blackberries and berries and things. It was a very close knit community where like my going away party was in my friend's barn. And then we moved cross country to San Diego. I went to like a private school in La Jolla. We go from that to like an environment where nobody knew me. And I was just like pudgy kid with glasses who really wanted to like fit in. And it's almost like kids can smell it when you really want to fit in and you want to be accepted, they kind of can be extra mean or extra harsh. So, you know, I think that probably had some baggage that then affected me going into like adulthood too, and feeling like maybe I'm not good enough and I don't belong.

Alright, so why don't we start off with how did you end up as a copywriter?

In 2011, I was in Marble Falls, Texas, teaching kids about the outdoors and nature. And I thought that's what I was going to do for an extended period of my life. But in May of that year, I went hiking with my dad back in San Diego. We hiked up a mountain and I was just home for like a weekend and I got a call maybe a week or two later that my dad had been diagnosed with cancer and he ended up having stage four cancer. I went back home to San Diego to spend as much time as I could with my dad before he passed. It's a difficult time and challenging, but of course I was glad I did it because I got to be there and spend this quality time with my father. And then he passed at the end of October of 2011. And after that I needed a break. So I ended up booking a trip to Las Vegas. The final day, Sunday, we go to Caesar's Palace. We're sitting there, a girl walks into the card room. I immediately think she's absolutely beautiful. And I make a joke to the table. I hope she gets seated at our table. But she did get seated at our table and somebody asked her what she did for a living and. And she said, I'm a writer. I wanted to talk to her, so I said, what kind of writer? She said, I'm a copywriter. I was like, wow, you know, copywriting, that's really interesting. And I pulled out my phone and googled, I think the iPhone one or whatever. But I googled what's a copywriter? Because I had no idea what a copywriter even was. The girl and I hit it off and ended up moving in with me, like pretty much after we met. And I was out there for this Fortune 500 company doing this outside sales job where I was in the hot sun all day and. And I made $200 a day. And I'd come home and she was in her underwear drinking a beer and she'd made $1,200 in the same day. And it got to the point where I was like, well, you know, what am I doing here? I want to do what you're doing. And I asked her, do you think I could be a copywriter? Do you think I could make money doing that? And she was like, yeah, you seem like a great writer and I'll help you out. And so I posted something on a site called Warrior Forum and I charged $149 for a sales letter. I woke up that next morning and I had $290 $98 in my PayPal account. That was like the whole aha moment of, oh, my God, people will pay me to write. I could do that.

And are you with that woman, the copywriter today?

Yes. And then that woman is my wife. Okay. And we have a daughter together. And, yeah, it was a really fortuitous moment in my life, to be sure. When you. What you guys are going to see is I'm actually only going to have like 12 or so slides here on this entire PowerPoint. And then a lot of what we're going to be doing is me walking you through stuff and workshopping. We really are going to workshop. The goal of what we're doing here today is that by the time we're finished, you have everything in place where you can leave here and write your own sales letter, and that you can do it in a pretty remarkably fast amount of time. A winning sales letter utilizes direct response marketing. So what is direct response marketing, really? It's marketing where the objective is to get your prospect to take a direct response or to take a direct action. Right. So they're going to buy something or send an appointment, or get on the phone specifically telling our prospect to respond to our marketing. We're saying, take this action, do this thing. Whether that's to buy a product or again, to book an appointment, whatever.

His commitment to the craft and his ability to simplify things and teach them is, I think, a huge reason why people will say he's one of the best copywriters ever. Because not only does he do the work, he's able to translate it into such an understandable way.

Most copywriters at his level can't teach what they do or how they do it, where he literally breaks it down to a step by step formula that can take a writer who is very new and. And turn them into a competent writer that can write winners in a tiny fraction of the time that it would take.

Of course I'm taking notes. I mean, he's a smart guy. I was going to hire him just for myself. And then I thought to myself, well, why would I not give my entrepreneurs the same access so that's how we ended up starting to work together.

I think one of the things I learned with Stefan as I got to know him more and more is he really, really is an abundant mindset that really wants everybody around him to win and he really cares about your success and he likes seeing people win. Some people, they like to see you win kinda. He's a 90 year old man in a 32 year old man's body who wears like tiny little socks and old man shoes and coats. He's a quirky dude. I mean we all are, right? If you're gonna get good at this stuff, you can't be particularly normal. But he seems, he's a very ethical guy, pretty funny, straightforward, and just seems to really, really kick care about doing good work and being the best. And more importantly, on teaching people in.

These forums, it's not just like a, oh, your cat probably has like this or that, it's these stories of these women with cats. And it's like my Fluffy is, you know, two years old and a real rascal and you know, when I come home he circles around and so I bought him like one food, but Fluffy doesn't like that. So I got him this wet food that I now use and he loves to sit at the window and stare out at birds. Like this whole freaking thing. And it's like, you know, 500 words and they're like, oh, by the way, your cat has fleas, you know, the very end. But it's like they give you so much information on forums. So I just love going to forums because people over share and they tell stories and it's emotional. And by taking that stuff and then answering those research questions in forums, you can then kind of like appropriate their language too. You can take what the language they use or the slang or the terminology and you can write in your sales copy in a way that's going to then convert with them. On a deeper level, a lot of people when they teach, they're really just talking at people and it's like either you get it or you don't get it. And I'm really trying to like talk to them and with them and get them to really understand and then making sure like they don't understand, then like I don't keep going. It's like we'll keep going once you actually understand this and then just going deeper and deeper. I think that's really important. As we're explaining like our value proposition and the unique mechanism and what we're offering. People just really learn through Stories and metaphors. And so, you know, especially for a concept that maybe is, like, a little bit, like, dry, your. Your metaphor could be saying of, like, just like a sculptor. A sculptor starts with a big, like, block and then chisels away to create, like, a beautiful statue. Your creative talent that's inside of you right now is, like, that block. But through these classes, we're going to chisel away to end up with this beautiful, like, creation at the end of it type thing. So there's a metaphor you could use to sell your service or business or something like that. Does that also make sense? Let me go slowly. Does it not make sense? Does anyone, like, what the hell is he talking about? It's totally okay.

Before this, I would have looked for other examples. Kind of like you were saying at the beginning, how you showed us examples, like, okay, so I'll write this part and try to figure out what I need to do here. And it would be. I would feel like it was very tedious and annoying. And so what you did by really being thorough with us about the day is giving us time for Q and A. And I love your Q and A humor as well. I just want to say thank you for breaking it down step by step by step by step. And when you were coaching her, I actually was typing out my own story.

How are you typing furiously?

I was typing everything and inserting it just without overthinking, not being correctionism. Like, what's my thing? What's my thing? So I feel like my whole thing is written.

Yeah. That's amazing. I've always been a critical thinker. I've always been a bit of a contrarian. I've always liked looking at different perspectives. So whatever, like, the status quo is. I'm like, how can I do it differently and better?

For every new piece that you write, there's something new to learn, there's something new to share, and there's something new to try. And there is probably nobody who. Who lives and breathes that fact more than Stefan.

Stefan understands being great is not something that happens to you. It's something that you work at.

Right.

I've never seen him just kind of be like, hey, I'm amazing, and I'm always gonna be amazing. The guy's always hustling. He's always working. He's always trying to learn every new.

Piece, even if it's like a gut health offer. He'll start from the very beginning, and he'll research from the very beginning all over again. And guess what? That's how he finds a brand new pain point or this related pain point that hasn't been talked about yet.

I'm never stoked to write copy. I'm never stoked. I got really burned out in, like, 2017, 18, because it was always like, I have to write copy. And I thought about it from the perspective of like, no, I get to write copy. I'm getting paid to be creative. I'm gonna get paid to do research and learn new things. I'm going to get paid to come up with unique ideas and to craft a story. Those are things that I love to do. It's not like I don't know what to do. It's like I always start at the same place, start doing research, and then suddenly you find a story from somebody that's just really interesting. There's a flow thing that happens, like a flow state. But really it's because I'm uncovering unique and original ideas, ideally that nobody's ever had before. And I'm going to put them into, like, you know, this format that then will get people to take action. You're creating whole new ways of looking at a problem or looking at the road. It's a very intoxicating power to that.

What I think is just absolutely unbelievable about Stefan is his speed and his endurance and his ability to do this day in and day out at such a high level and to get so much work out there. And I told him yesterday when we had this first conversation, I was like, you have changed the way that I approach my own production schedule because I know that it's such a powerful lever to be pulling on, But I almost didn't even know it was possible until I saw it being done the way you're doing it.

I think there's different levels of obsession. Name the basketball player who, like, wanted to be the best at free throws. So they shot like a thousand free throws a day, every day type thing. All right, so we're going to jump right in with recipe research, which is the R and R and B C. For me, it's as simple as just writing every day and then studying what's working and then wanting feedback and taking feedback and then applying that feedback to what you're doing to continuously improve your craft. We can see there's a ton of these forms anyway, right? So let's look at what we got here. This is weightloss.fitness.com but they show up really fast, so I also want to make sure it's active. And it is. So weight loss of health conditions is Kind of interesting. I need to do this for me and only me. I need to prove to myself that I am strong and will be able to accomplish anything. I want my husband to look at me with pride and say, this is my wife, and look how great she looks. Okay, that won't happen, but he will be very proud of me. He has always supported me and all my goals. That is when I actually set them. I don't want to keep letting him down with failure. He does not care what I look like. I don't believe it is really hard to keep failing. I want to prove to him that I can do this, that I am strong enough. She's not talking about, you know, having sex with her husband. She wants, like, his, like, you know, admiration and respect and him to be, like, proud. So you just see all this stuff here, and it's like, that's all going to this research, right? What are their hopes and dreams? It's a bunch of this shit. What are their victories and failures? Well, not a ton of victories here, but the failure is, like, you know, failing going from 10 to 12, and then not from 12 to 10 and then back. I mean, tons of stuff there you could write out, you know, married sister, stuff like that. There's just this. Just one little thing. Like, this is awesome. And by the way, I think she kind of keeps updating it here. She does. So I'm gonna read through this. I'm gonna pause it. But, like, man, like, that's just that this gives me. You can hear I'm talking faster, and I'm a little more excited because, like, I just love this stuff with research. It gets me really, really amped. Okay, seriously, though, I fucking love that. That's what I'm saying with these forums. It's like, people are like, hi, I'm your target customer. Here's everything about me. And you're like, okay, let me just repeat that back to you and be like, I have a solution. Tired of failing all the time. Like, I am like, dang, no problem. You know, what's your husband look at you with admiration and respect? I do. Perfect. You know, it's like, fucking. Just makes it so much easier. Ugh. This is where I get excited about coffee. Why does that get you so excited? Because it's like, I know. I just. I just know I'm gonna have an edge almost. It's, like, as funny as that sounds, like, I. Like, for me, for whatever reason, I don't know why, you know, we can explore it, but I, like, really hate the Idea of. I just don't want to not be. Maybe because I believe in communication so much. I just hate the idea of, like, not being understood. When I do this research, I can start to really. I understand. I really understand who my market is and their pain points. And then I just know that my copy because of this one thing is going to be so much better than what most people would write. Just because I'm doing this one little step and then that makes me happy from like a. Makes me excited because I'm going to create something that's going to be effective, I guess. And like, that. That gets me excited. The most I can do being here on this earth in this time is to do something that matters, right? That's something I get to do. I get to choose that I didn't get to choose when I was born. I got really lucky. My background, anything else, but I get to choose what I do with what I have. And what I have is a tremendous gift. The probability of me being here is so infinitesimally low. And then not only to be here, be here, like one of the best times, right? As far as I can tell. It's crazy. And so when I think about all that, I'm like, if I don't make the most of this time on this earth, Like, I'm a fucking asshole. Like, I am such an asshole. Like, I. What a gift, right? And so part of that is like, well, how do I make the most of it? And it's like, I can be a heat in this and just seek pleasure all the time. And, you know, I love pleasure as much as the next person. I like nice things and all that. But, like, it's got to be. You got to do something more. Part of it is really just helping other people to see that if you're going to sit around and, like, work at a job you hate and that this is your again, you know, this is your life. But it's like literally this and like this massive. Like you're a speck, a blip. I can't even, you know, the space is infinitesimal. And you're gonna do spend that time, like, miserable and unhappy and broke and hating your life and depressed and overweight and whatever this shit is. Like, that's how you're gonna use this incredible gift you've had. Like, I can't have you do that. Like, if I can help it, I wanna try to help. And so for me, that means, like, trying to really coach and teach and train and show people a better way and so these excuses and the self limiting bullshit of like, you're being in your own way and it's not your fault, it probably goes back to your childhood and like your own story of I'm not good enough, I don't belong. But if we can get through and past all that shit and help you to make the most of this time in your life here, I think it's a very holy, like, devout, like amazing mission and purpose and I think that's really on a super deep level, like what drives me, Sam.