Embracing Vulnerability and Telling Powerful Stories with Ray Edwards

Ray Edwards is a famous copywriter, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. His direct response campaigns have resulted in an estimated $100 million in sales, and he has worked with high-profile clients such as Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen. Ray is currently a copywriting consultant and the Founder of the Copywriting Academy Coaching Program and the Ray Edwards Copywriting Agency. He is also the host of the top-ranked podcast, The Ray Edwards Show.

 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Why Ray Edwards invested in a mastermind group and the benefits he reaped in the process
• Ray tells a phenomenal story about how he learned to better serve others and himself
• How Ray started embracing vulnerability in his life and in his business
• Ray reveals the one thing you can do to get a quick win as a copywriter
• How Ray went from being a disc jockey at a radio station to copywriting for huge clients
• Ray’s most successful campaigns and the decisions that made them effective and profitable
• The three biggest storytelling mistakes that business owners and marketers make when writing copy
• The important business lesson Ray learned from a less-than-successful campaign

In this episode…

What is the secret to writing a compelling and unforgettable story—for direct response marketing campaigns and beyond? According to copywriter Ray Edwards, the best possible story is the true story.

While many marketers and business owners shy away from storytelling that makes them feel vulnerable or uncomfortable, Ray insists that the most powerful stories are the ones that are personal and emotional. That’s because they strike a chord with your audience, inviting them to create a connection with you and your brand. For example, the hardest story for Ray to tell was about his Parkinson’s disease. However, when he finally embraced his discomfort and posted the story on his professional website, he received an astounding and positive response. As it turns out, this was just the story that people were waiting for.

Sit down with Dr. Jeremy Weisz and copywriting legend Ray Edwards in this episode of the Inspired Insider podcast as they talk about how to tell a story that leaves a lasting impression on your target audience. Ray opens up about the many valuable lessons he has learned throughout his career, his journey toward embracing vulnerability in life and in business, and the storytelling strategies that he believes are the most powerful (hint: always tell your truth).

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Dr. Jeremy Weisz on LinkedIn
• Rise25
• Ray Edwards
• Ray Edwards on LinkedIn
• The Ray Edwards Show 
• The Ray Edwards Copywriting Agency
• Writing Riches: Learn How to Boost Profits, Drive Sales and Master Your Financial Destiny With Results-Based Web Copy by Ray Edwards
• Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter
• The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

 

Episode Transcript

Jeremy Weisz

Today I’m honored to have Ray Edwards, who’s one of the legends of copywriting and direct response marketing that campaigns he’s written and results in an estimated $100 million in sales. Not all that money has was his to keep. Ray has served high profile clients, including New York Times bestselling authors Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, who are creators of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and lots of other niche businesses like gyms, weight loss clinics, many more. So all this stuff applies to you if you’re listening. He’s also the author of the Amazon bestseller Writing Riches. Ray, thank you so much for joining me.

Ray Edwards

Well, thank you for asking. It’s my honor and privilege to be here with you when I

Jeremy Weisz

reached out to people like who were the legends of copper, and I should interview and your name came up over and over. So I had to reach out. And I want to hear your big lessons, you know, the successes, the the mistakes, what worked, what didn’t work. And you Have you listened for big lessons. And so I wanted to hear those. So before we get into some of your best techniques and quick wins and how you tell stories, what are the four big lessons?

Ray Edwards

Well, the first big lesson is to take responsibility for your own life in your own business. We tend to want to blame the economy, or we want to blame our boss or some other external force for what happens to us. And when I was just getting started out, I was in the radio business long before I was a copywriter. And there was a guy named Dan O’Day. He’s still around, he’s a teacher in the radio business. He teaches people how to beat personalities on on the air and

Jeremy Weisz

I listened to your interview with him actually.

Ray Edwards

Oh, wow. Yeah. Man, you are the most thoroughly prepared guy I think I’ve ever met. I went to a seminar where he was talking and he was selling actually tickets to a seminar that he did teaching radio personalities how to be better DJs. And one of the objections that came up from the audience was, well, my company won’t pay for me to come to this seminar. And his response was, well, whose career is it? Is it your company’s career? Or is it your career, and that was a lightbulb moment for me. And I realized that if I don’t take responsibility for me, it will happen. My second big lesson was kind of tied to that and it was to invest in myself. That was the first program that I invested in, I use my MasterCard my entire $300 limit at the time on my MasterCard to get that program and then later as I was making the transition out of radio into the world of copywriting, I invested $5,000 to join a mastermind group because I wanted access to the people who led the group. So I invested money, but I had to also invest time and show up for the meetings and travel and I had to invest time and show up for the call for q&a calls. And it was interesting because they had this, this open call time, where certain hours each week, you could call in and speak to the two guys who led the group for 10 minutes. And I would call at the appointed time, and I would always be the first one on and they would say, Well, nobody else has called in, so you get another 10 minutes. So I get 20 or 30. I was amazed that people didn’t invest, they invest, they invested money, but they didn’t invest the effort to actually make that connection well because of the connection I made with those guys. One of them was named Armand more and the other was Alex mandossian. And Alex recommended me to people like Jack Canfield, which led to me writing for the Chicken Soup. So guys, him an Mark Victor Hansen. Ultimately, Tony Robbins And some of the other big, fancy impressive names that I’ve had the privilege of writing and working on their marketing for. So that was my second big lesson was invest in yourself and it’s not just about money. The third

Jeremy Weisz

ask about that one, actually, Ray. So how did you decide? There’s a lot of mastermind groups out there? What made you choose that one? How do you do it? What was your thought process behind it?