In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Larry Elkan, a copywriter and consultant specializing in financial services and crypto. The conversation opens with a vivid personal anecdote from Elkan’s early career as an overseas telephone operator, where he spent three hours helping a mother reach her son in the Air Force, earning commendation from a U.S. Steel executive and illustrating his core belief that doing right by the customer always pays off. Elkan then explains the unique challenges of copywriting for regulated financial firms, describing the tight gray area between compliance (FINRA, SEC, FTC) and compelling, conversion‑focused language. He shares broader business advice centered on a “customer‑first” hierarchy, recommends early saving and investing in tax‑advantaged accounts, and defines happiness as doing what you enjoy. Elkan cites Ray Dalio’s Principles as a pivotal book that systematizes life, economics, and investing, and highlights an Einstein quote about explaining concepts simply. He concludes by directing listeners to his Twitter handle @LElkan and his LinkedIn profile for further contact.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Larry Elkin with us. He is a copywriter and consultant in the financial services and crypto markets. So welcome to the show, Larry.
Thank you very much.
Of course, thanks for joining us. We'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Larry, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Spanish. You know, I gave that a lot of thought, and I came up with one that really impacted me. I was pretty young. I was like in my late teens, early 20s, and I had worked for the phone company in New York. It was right before they deregulated, and we were New York Telephone. The only way to get started back then was you had to get started as an overseas operator. So I was working. It was Christmas Eve, and one of the rules of thumb is they didn't want you spending too long on any one call. Now, it was a quiet Christmas Eve, and I remember this because I had a call from a woman, and she was trying desperately to reach her son, who was a captain in the Air Force, and he was stationed over in Germany. She was trying for 2 days, and she couldn't get through, and she was really wanting to speak to her son, Jeffrey. On Christmas Eve. So it was quiet night and it was boring, and I said, well, they're probably not monitoring. What they did once a month is they monitored you as an overseas operator, and it was called AWT, actual waiting time, to see how long you spent on any one call. Make a long story short, that evening we couldn't get lines through to anywhere. And this wasn't back in the old days when you had patch cords, but it was further enough back where you had control of the calls and you were able to route it through other operators in other countries. Bear in mind, this was pre-internet days. I'm in my 50s. This was pre-internet. So we're on the call that night, couldn't get through anywhere. Finally, I got through to another operator, and with combination of my little bit of broken German, I was able to explain what we were trying to do. I was probably an hour and a half into this call, had already spoken to about 3 or 4 other operators, etc., etc. Finally, we hear that tone that it makes when it's ringing overseas, and it sounds like a foghorn. And all of a sudden you hear, "Hello?" And the mother goes, "Jeffrey? Jeffrey, is that you?" And at that point, we had to disconnect away from the call because, you know, you couldn't stay on there, but we had to hold it on the board. About an hour later, she must have finished. She— you could tell she's clicking back. She asked me what my name was, my operator number. She was so very, very pleased that I got her through to her son after days on Christmas Eve. Her son Jeffrey, stationed overseas in Germany. I'm done with the call and the assistant manager calls me over and she says, Larry, we were doing an AWT on you tonight and you spent over 3 hours on that call. So what happens, they read me the riot act. Everything was just terrible in the world. I spent 3 hours, even though it was getting a mom through to her son who's in the military overseas. Turns out she had taken my number and she had taken my name. Her husband was the vice president of U.S. Steel, wrote a big letter of commendation and of raving about how I was able to help them and get through to their son, etc., etc. So now One minute, I'm the biggest heel in the world when it came to the phone company because my actual waiting time instead of 2 minutes was now 3 hours. But because it was the vice president of U.S. Steel and it was the son in the military, etc., etc., now they wanted to make me the poster boy of doing right. So the moral of this story is, if you do what's right for your customer— in that case, she was my customer— then you can't go wrong.
Yes, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Um, and next question is, what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Okay, within my expertise in industry, the most valuable piece of information is I do copywriting in the financial services industry. That's different than financial, where they're covered by the First Amendment. And they're able to pretty much make promises, make, um, forecasts. They could tell you you'll get 1,000%. In financial services, you have to really be careful because it's generally financial advisors, registered investment advisors, money managers, people with what's called the million-dollar license. You know, they have Series 7, Series 8, etc., etc. The most important thing when it comes to writing in that industry is you have to walk a very, very tight gray area. Because if you make the writing, which is what I do, so compliant that it passes the scrutiny of in-house compliance, passes the scrutiny of FINRA and SEC and all the government alphabets, it's going to be so boring that nobody wants to read it. On the flip side, if you make it so interesting and so compelling that it's something that the client or their audience wants to read, then it's not going to meet the scrutiny of the FINRA, the SEC, the FTC, all the Alphabets, and the person, the advisor, etc., potentially could lose their license. So the important real piece there is you have to know what you're doing to be able to write compelling and compliant copy that that still resonates and converts.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Overall business advice would basically be the customer is number one, and when in doubt, look at rule number two. Rule number two says, see rule number one. I say it sounds corny, it sounds cliché, but My advice is do what's right by the customer, always. Put the customer first. Customer first, then the firm, then yourself, and you never go wrong.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
To my younger self, what I would say is start saving and investing early. And I don't know how many times I've tried to tell younger people this, and I'm sure my grandfather and my parents tried telling me this. Nobody ever listens. But if you start saving and investing from each paycheck, the first job you get, and you put it into a tax-qualified account like an IRA or 401(k), you only have to put away a very little bit in your 20s and 30s where you'll potentially be very wealthy by the time you hit your 40s and 50s.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Key to happiness is you have to do what you enjoy. If you do what you enjoy, you're going to be happy whether it's at work or it's at play. If you're not, then you're going to be miserable.
And what is the best book that you've read and what's the number one thing you learned from that?
You know, I'm an avid reader and that's a real hard question. I read at least 2-3 books a month and I'll read not so much novels, but I read Persuasion, Cialdini's probably the best copywriting, I'll read Caples, etc., etc. But one of the best books by far that I read in a long time is a book called Principles by Ray Dalio. And what's really neat about that is he argues that life management, economics, and investing could all be systemized, and it's rules that are totally understood, no different than equipment.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
That's another one I really have to give it some thought because I love quotes, you know. I, I, I Actually study quotes. I read a lot of them, but probably the best quote came from Einstein, which says, if you can't explain it to a 6-year-old, you don't understand it.
Yes, I love that. Um, thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Online, I don't have a website. I actually have embraced Twitter where it's @L, my first initial, then E for Elkan, and the full name Elkan. So it's @LElkan, or they can find me on LinkedIn. Just go in there and put my name, Larry Elkan with an A, E-L-K-A-N.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for coming on. We really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me. Take care now.
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