One hundred thousand dollars! What a promise. Do what you love and make a $100K. That’s my hope as I reserved my place at Patrick Jones’ Make $100K as a Copywriter free event.
Naïve? No, I knew a pitch was coming. But I felt hope. Maybe he’s got action steps, copywriter business growing action steps I hadn’t thought of…
Oh, there were steps. Steps in the front door and out of it.
But what was I to do? This virtual space felt distant. Give Patrick Jones a chance?
Yup. Here’s your scoop, pros, and cons on Patrick Jones’ 100K event.
Pros of Make $100K as a Copywriter Event
Setting of Lemverse
Lemme tell you about the Lemverse. You could see that copy coming. Couldn’t ya?
Imagine you’re a video game character entering a public building with a third-eye view of the process.
- Your own name shows up as a temporary identifier
- Character animation’s conducted through your mouse’s movement
- Preloaded avatars pop up as you brush up next to your peers also attending the event
- Move your character through rooms such as virtual coffee break rooms, hallways, offices, and of course the stage where the speaking event is about to take place
Yeah, that’s freaking cool. Check it out in the pics below.
1. Lemverse and Webinar Cost?
Nada. Nothing. Nil. Zilch.
The event, How to Make $100k as a Writer: Virtual Co-Working Space for Writers Kickoff was all free. There was a trusted way of signing up for the talk, Eventbrite. I felt pressured for my email address.
But I understood the funnel I was entering. Jones didn’t ask for my address on Linked In. All info collected in Eventbrite data for his convenience.
So, if I were a newbie writer, I wouldn’t have guessed Jones was building his email list.
2. Jones’s personality
In all honesty, Jones’ LinkedIn picture does not reflect his real-life appearance. I would say, think glamor shot. In person, Jones is of light, if not medium build. Thumbs up. He looks quite buff on his LI profile pic.
On-screen, Patrick’s not the chiseled Miami Vice type at all. And his physique doesn’t fit the part of the alcoholic turned straight shooter businessman either. So, I felt a bit surprised.
But again, his quiet charm was a glass of fruit punch at a snack table to a person already frazzled by the new video game-like environment.
3. Jones’ Presentation
Dress
Jones showed up in business casual attire. khakis and polo feel. This clothing made him approachable. But I also felt curious as to why he decided against the style of dress on his Linked-In profile pic, suit jacket, t-shirt.
Speech Setting
Jones walked us all via the screen to his own home office and to his desk. Nothing distracting in the background to keep you from your focus on his talk.
Jones’ Talk
Jones’ talk had a PowerPoint feel. He began with an analogy to uncover and reaffirm positive mindset beliefs about money.
I saw right away, Jones’ research with the inclusion of the voice of customer data (VOC).
What is voice of customer data (VOC)?
That is the term that marketers use to say that someone interviewed a past prospect or customer to get the language in their presentation. An example of that would be to say, “there’s new chocolate in Halloween candy this year and compared to last year it tastes terrible. SO bitter.” That’s VOC.
Back to Jones’ Talk
The first (VOC) analogy Jones used was looking at sales as an anti-icky proposition.
I’ve heard this phrase said so many times before. That’s a wonderful use of Jones’ research.
To challenge this icky-sales belief, Jones used the analogy of the horrible water salesman at a natural disaster site.
Jones’ Analogy Imagery
Jones did an adequate job of painting the analogy’s setting. But I must dig into the richness of his scenario like a storyteller to get you into the scene.
- Imagine yourself in a town after a destructive hurricane
- Pipes have burst. Water’s everywhere
Townscape
The town looks like if your two-year-old brother walked through your Hot Wheels Town and Country road set. If you look real close, the path of destruction shows his inch-and-a-half footprints.
- Cars flipped on their sides like Eggo waffles in a toaster
- Telephone poles down
- Houses have torn apart like the cereal boxes in the grocery store aisle with their free prizes ripped out
- Zero clean drinking water
Foolish/good Neighbor
A stranger shows up to help you put your town back together.
- You appreciate him as he gets the old ladies rescued from their flooded homes
- You so needed his service as he helped you pull the tree that blocked your front door
- But what you really needed at that point was cool, clean drinking water
- And the salesman who helped in the situation never offered it to you
Jones asked.
- How would you feel?
- Wouldn’t you have wanted him to at least offer you the drinking water bottles in his trunk?
- Didn’t he do you a disservice?
Conclusion
I enjoyed Jones’ analogy because I never heard of a sales mindset and service combined into one scenario.
You might find in this message a bit of a gut-check to the icky sales belief. If you look at yourself as someone who can help a business owner who needs water, the icky part of sales disappears.
4.Jones’ Fruit for Thought
Another mindset fix introduced in Jones’ presentation was looking at your writing service as more than research and words on a page.
See yourself as a service provider, Jones challenged. Then, he explained. You’re leading your customer, a business owner, to a greater understanding of his target market.
Again, to a newbie writer, I imagine this was an eye-opener. But as a copywriter trained on Copyhacker method, this was simply a new way of looking at an old problem.
Concept of the Offer
Research and social listening to Jones’ Linked In feed told me he had an ace of Spades to play for newbie writers. But at a 100K Copywriters course?
Yes, the offer. The price to set it at? Jones sold us on the $1.5K or $1.5K+ tag. I like this amount. So, I thought it was an ambitious goal to work up to your trek to collect 100K in six months.
I’ve created offers before, so this was nothing new. But the idea of pricing services at a thousand-dollar mark appealed to me and my business.
Packages
The next idea is breaking the mindset of pay coming per project and not per word or hour. Jones hinted at this idea with his emphasis on packages.
The what do I need to do to make $100K as a writer was a path set clear before me. Some more CH training reinforcement.
- Create an irresistible offer
- Price it at least $1.5K or higher
- Pick a community to serve with your talents
5. Jones’ Bravery
Fist bumps to Jones…he showed up on time and didn’t run over on his presentation. Jones was supposed to enter the virtual stage as the lone speaker, but his partner bowed out. For good reason like wife is having a baby type reason.
But the fact that Jones moved on with the show…well, kudos.
Pleasant surprise because Jones had asked me for time to talk before this event and canceled. For good reason, family, but he never followed up. A request with a lack of follow-up isn’t ever a good business precedent to set.
6. Questions for Jones
Jones openness to ask for questions after his presentations is commendable. But again, his answer choice positioned him as being the solution to the prospect’s question.
So, Jones kept to tight marketing theory. It was the what to do of how to reach $100K income as it eluded the how. He was committed to answering any questions that came his way. He also did a fantastic job of offering help outside of the event and after the event.
Jones’ Pitch
Jones’ pitch. The old switcheroo. You come for the tools to make $100K. He gives you the concept, provides you the steps, but he gives you none of the application, so not any how. It’s very you build the offer with the value in mind, and you can set your own price mindset.
You get the pitch, and I will help you get there. Jones’ claim…I have clients who have gotten there. It felt like Amy Porterfield’s free golden list for the relaxed marketer all over again.
7. Jones’ Guarantee
Jones has a strong guarantee, confidence.
He will work with you in private sessions and guarantees that in six months he will have your business at the $100K income mark. Or…. yeah I don’t remember. A full refund? Another six months of coaching? I can’t tell you.
Half his guarantee…audacious, but his other half…not memorable.
Cons
1.Expectations Not Met
As a reviewer, although I liked Jones, the event didn’t deliver on its promise.
Leaving the virtual stage, my $100K copywriter income goal felt no closer.
Questions exploded in my head, but I felt a distance from a host-given on-point answer. Jones had well positioned himself as the grand-slam swing to his pitch. So, after forty-five minutes, I excused myself from the fantastic Lemverse.
In close, the ‘what’ presented itself to me came in a theoretical way. I liked what I heard in that I could support running a business as an extension of my ministry for service. I love that Jones acknowledged that as the way to position yourself in business on the Linked-In platform.
But with my critic hat on, there was nothing new that our host shared.
I hoped to gain a game plan of action steps to take to get a $100,000K business going. I didn’t leave with that. What I left with is more questions about offers and how to set them up with $1.5K+ price tags.
2.Setting
First, the Lemverse didn’t feel safe to me as an event attendee.
Before you enter, you will have no idea how your character is going to appear. The name labels that show up as you move are not an identifier that sets you at ease. That is until you move from the crowd huddled at the door. It’s sad, you have no idea of who you are without moving.
All character’s clothes, face, skin color etc. appeared randomly assigned. And that didn’t set a comfortable tone for me moving into an event where I knew no one. A breath later, an invisible guard moved up inside me.
I realized I wasn’t the intended audience as I looked at my peers’ avatars and eavesdropped on their conversations.
Auditing Jones’ speech for this month’s blog became my new aim.
3.Little Gain for Reflective Thinkers
I can’t speak for reflexive thinkers. But as a reflective thinker, I felt lost after the presentation.
Tack on not meeting my expectations before with a follow-up, I now had a new challenge, how to sort through all my questions. But I didn’t have the chance to ask them. One participant asked question after question to which it felt like Jones was a hostage.
Plus, I had a meeting to get to. So, I felt a bit discouraged.
Add to that, Jones dodged the one query I knew he would…his authority to talk to fellow copywriters.
He never answered this question. And as a reflective thinker, there’s no proof Jones is familiar with how to write copy that converts into cash esp. from looking at his website the day before the event.
On my audit of Jones’ site, I discovered his copy wasn’t reflective of content marketing strategy or copywriting theory. For example, his About page centered on Jones’s life.
Trained content writers and copywriters know that you need about two sentences to describe yourself and to add those facts with a twinge of personal spice, flavor.
That’s it. And it’s something cute and loaded with a quirky personality. None of that was on Jones’ site. The rest of the About page is in theory what you can do for a prospect landing on your site.
4. No Icebreakers or Audience Participation Ask
Businesses just don’t get this. If you want me to follow a presentation, you must engage me.
Jones’ speech felt distant in that the audience was not invited to take part in it. And that felt like when I was alone in a Mexican airport with no family to welcome me.
As a knowledgeable teacher knows from his hard earned on-the-job presentation skills, you need the audience to be active, not passive. And that wasn’t happening here.
5. Questions
Jones was open to questions, but he couldn’t get past his first reflexive thinker in his audience. I applaud her bravery. But her questions had no substance.
What she was wanting to know was what authority do you, Patrick Jones have to be on screen addressing us copywriters. Jones dodged the question.
The first time I connected with Jones, he explained he gets along well with copywriters. He never professed to be a copywriter….ever.
I believe it would’ve been a better strategy to answer the implied question with an instance of how he saw copywriters selling themselves in a way that made him feel pain. And then, Jones could dig into the pain and talk about what hurts him about the current copywriter market.
Digging out specific examples would’ve sold his audience.
6. Prospecting Problem
The hustle mentality is all over Jones’ social media. But his idea of hustle is presence. It’s meeting people and explaining to them what you do. He needed to tell his audience that in his presentation.
Again, there is a lack of transparency and empathy here, with the copywriter. This stems, I suspect, from the ambiguity that Jones is one. And like all entrepreneurs his ideal audience is a vision given to him in glimpses and hunches.
Jones is doing his best to show up and serve. He’s just moved forward on the who he sees as his ideal customer with this event.
To be honest, I don’t see prospecting as a writer working, not without a back-up lead generator or some tool collecting a mailing list.
Also, if the target clients are business owners, then prospects must think like someone who owns a business. And business owners want to see positive reviews and statistics that prove a copywriter’s value. Prospects without numbers and proof are passed up (period).
How long can you trust Linked-In to have the algorithm as business-friendly as it is today? You need a list. Porterfield’s on it, here.
7. More Cons
Cost
Time. I spent about forty-five minutes to an hour to hear what I already knew albeit in a different analogy package.
Setting Awkwardness
Imagine you’re in a video game. You weren’t expecting a character format.
- You don’t know how to move
- You don’t know where your character is
- You have no idea where you’re going
- Absent are any arrows to tell you where to go
A loss of orientation, no personalization option. You’re just this 1980s Atari, Activision Pitfall-like pixelated character on a screen.
Then, when you get to the virtual room, you don’t sit down. You well, hover and roam waiting for the guest speaker to arrive.
White Noise
Jones is starting to sound like the same people I’ve met that claim to be writers and in reality are mindset coaches. Jones’ new strategy smells of the million-dollar networking club. This isn’t a move I have found to be profitable.
Jones gave away the what to do to make $100K but not the how to do it. This again is smart marketing. But to me, there’s no real value in that. My pain points still linger.
Beware of the conceptual honeymoon phase coming, new copywriters. Easy business is Jones new brand catchphrase.
Quite scary.
I’ve been at this writing game for almost three years. LinkedIn has been a long game for me. I knew that going in. But I do believe I’m one connection away from positive life-changing revenue in my business.
It’s a matter of the communication of my differentiation and value to new and struggling customers in my niche.
Sooo….
- The talk wasn’t what I needed. I’m far on the journey, so distant from honeymooning it
- Jones dodged the experience of copywriting specific questions and empathy with copywriter specific pain points
- Jones doesn’t really help. No how. There’s a well crafted and positioned pitch
- Void of charisma in Jones’ presentation. Money is the prime motivator. But Jones is deeper than that
- Marketing to broke people….not addressed
Wrap Up
Minuses
Missed Expectations
Is this event is worth your attention by what it promises and delivers? No. I was expecting to have a game plan of action steps to take to get a $100,000 business going. I didn’t leave with that. What I left with is more questions about offers and how to set them.
But Jones was skilled in setting himself up as the best solution. A chair at the virtual stage to watch him set that up and pull all the strings at once was a treat for my marketing mind.
Congrats.
Jones presentation misses
- Lack of Audience participation/buy-in
- Event should be marketed to newbie writers, not copywriters
- No sharing in copywriter pain points
Pluses
- Lemverse’s potential
- The experience of an amazing, imaginative video-game office type adventure
- Given a second time to visit Lemverse, I could see enormous networking events with fellow writers from all over the world
- Jones’ use of voice of customer data
- Jones’ analogy addressed selling in the context of service
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