I’m at my desk this morning — taking a breath from headline optimizations — when I reach over for the small, calculator-like device on the corner of my desk.

Only this little device is not a calculator at all.

No no no.

See, over the summer I picked up the (very niche) hobby of making electronic music.

You know, like, synthesizers and stuff.

It’s my attempt at flexing my creativity whenever I need a break from writing.

Anyways. The first electronic “instrument” I picked up is the Pocket Operator PO-33 from Teenage Engineering.

This is the calculator-like device. Except it’s actually like a sampler/beat-maker type thing.

Really cool and fun.

Anyway, I’m sitting there playing it this morning when … it just … dies on me!

duhn DuHn DUUUHHNN!

Terrifying, I know.

I flip it over to change batteries, but at the bottom of the device, a tiny piece of microcopy catches my eye:

“God gives the nuts but does not crack them.”

(Apparently this is a Franz Kafka quote.)

Now …

This email list is not about microcopy. Or brand copy. Or aWaRD wINniNg copy.

It’s about direct response, conversion, persuasion.

So I’m not gonna talk about the strategy behind printing this piece of copy on the device.

The quote does bring up a good point, though.

As a copywriter, you can be given tools to do amazing things.

But it’s up to you to turn those tools into real-world results for your clients or yourself.

YOU have to be the one to crack the nuts.

This was a huge realization for me when I first got into internet marketing. There are truly no “secret formulas” to success.

Just tools and fundamentals that could help me get where I needed to go.

Taking courses, attending webinars, trying every get-rich-quick scheme under the sun would never make me successful.

But learning how to APPLY the knowledge in my own unique way?

That’s the key. That’s what cracks the nuts.

Sadly, I currently have no copywriting courses — or as I call them, “tools” — to sell you at the moment … but I can assure you I am working on them.

And when they are done, I will be selling them tirelessly for you to try your various nut-cracking skills on.

In the meantime, here's the current peanut gallery, as de-shelled as I can possibly make it.

David Patrick