[Secret Mission] The “Million Ad Man” EXPOSED

[TIME]: 2 AM, dead of winter ❄️

[LOCATION]: Secure undisclosed building outside of Geneva, Switzerland🇨🇭

[MISSION]: Steal the secrets of the “Million Ad Man,” locked deep in a vault in the secure building. 🤐

[MISSION LOG]:

As the moon tucks herself behind the nearby snow-capped mountain, my team lowers me from the cold, metal roof of the secure compound into the glaring darkness.

I go lower … lower … lower — dodging tripwire lasers and boobytraps — when I finally see it.

There, glistening in the pond, sits the metal box containing the secrets of the “Million Ad Man” — as featured on Steal This Copy’s homepage.

I drop feet first into the pond like a feather and release my rappelling rope.

“ALL CLEAR,” I whisper into my headset.

But no sooner than I take my first step do I realize something is terribly, terribly wrong.

🚨WHOOOP WHOOOP WHOOOP WHOOOP WHOOOP 🚨

It seems I’ve stepped on a false tile in the pond, triggering the alarm.

Within 60 seconds, the “go team” protecting the Million Ad Man’s secrets will be on my heels like a pack of wolves to a bone on a snowy forest floor.

I know what I have to do.

I grab the metal box.

I pry it open, mere seconds left.

And inside … I find …

NOTHING???

“This can’t be,” I think to myself bewildered. “There’s NO secret???”

But before I even have a chance to process it all, my team is pulling me up and we’re back in the helicopter, flying off into the night.

[END MISSION LOG]

Oooookay, you got me.

I DID just watch Ocean’s 8.

(And I may or may not be a huge fan of “heist” and “spy” genre movies.)

But that’s beside the point that I want to make today.

See … when I got my first brush with marketing nearly 10 years ago, I had a marketing mentor who told me something that has stuck with me to this day.

“There are no secrets.”

He was referring to my propensity for gobbling up any “guru-get-rich-quick” course I could get my plastic little marketing mind hooked on.

I was addicted to these so-called secrets, but never spent time fleshing out learning the fundamentals.

And it wasn’t until I started learning copywriting about 5 years ago that I realized something.

Secrets = the fundamentals … done exceedingly well (typically with one’s own unique take on it).

At least, that’s my understanding of it at this point in my career.

And it’s how I’m approaching the first course/product I’m developing right now.

But more on that another time.

Because right now, my helicopter is flying over the mountain’s edge, and we’re about to drop into our next mission.

(My next mission being a batchload of pesky compliance edits … and getting you to sign up for my daily emails.)

Signing off.

Danny Ocea—er ... David Patrick