Julian Leahy

The Pink Puzzle Incident (AKA My Bio)

I believe that we can only see things when we are ready to see them.

Sometimes everything is difficult and progress gets stuck.

Other times our minds get into a “flow state” where we have incredible clarity and everything is easy. When this occurs we sometimes notice things that we would normally miss or dismiss as trivial.

This is a story about going from struggle to clarity and how it can happen in one moment.

The Struggle Period

That period when we are struggling can be so dark and stressful. You just don’t know what you are doing wrong. Even if you have a good day, its not consistent….I used to wonder what are these successful people doing so easily, why cant I do it?

When I started online, I never really found anyone that could help me. I got myself in a state where I was getting worried about my mental health. I will never forget that time when I needed help. I wished that somebody could have shown me the way. Fortunately I worked everything out, but I promised myself that, in future I would lend a helping hand to those people struggling to build a business online.

For Years I Struggled Online

Debts Were Mounting

So Was Stress At Home

I Had Desire And Belief

But Nothing Was Working

I Couldn’t Afford To fix My Car So I Had To Carry Water Bottles In Case It Overheated

My kids saw this to, so I felt so ashamed to be in such a pathetic state.

I Spent My Last $5000 On A Marketing Course That Guaranteed That It Was Going To Be The Solution

It Didn’t Work

I was at a low point.

I Started To Battle Negative Thoughts

“I Am A Complete Failure”

People Started To Worry About Me

“I Was Extremely Depressed”

I Did Something I Never Do

After a sleepless night, I looked at My Clock, It Was 4AM

“I Needed To Get Out Of Here”

I put my sneakers on and just walked the streets

I Walked And Walked For 4 Hours.

I Started To Feel A Sense Of Calm

I Had Been Over Thinking

No Guru IS The Answer

I Am Going To Keep It Very Simple

The word Value kept popping into my head, then I remember a very random line from a long deceased sales trainer by the name of Zig Ziglar.

It was pretty weird and completely random. I had no interest in Zig Ziglar and never thought about him on a day to day basis. I have to include it, because it is exactly how it happened, This completely random quote from a long deceased sales trainer popped in my head.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want..

I remember being a bit puzzled by this advice when I first heard it in an old training manual.

I mean it sounded good, but I really had no idea what it meant or how to implement it.

Sometimes we receive wisdom before we are ready. Your brain files it away until you find a few more pieces. All of a sudden, I could not stop thinking about that quote.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.. Wow. This random quote was exactly what I needed to hear. But, I didn’t just hear it, I understood.

Value, Value I kept repeating.

Ok this is where it gets a little weird, I don't know if I believe in signs from the universe or fate. But the following moment which I will tell you about, combined with the first revelation about Zig Ziglar’s quote would make this walk one of the most significant events of my life. I know I sound like a crazy person, but that’s ok.

I will never forget.

As I walked I could see something pink tied to a light pole.

As I got closer, I could see it was an advertisement, it was like a word search puzzle with letters and numbers. You know like a square grid with numbers and letters and you have to try and read the words inside.

It was bizarre. I stood there staring at it for 20 minutes. I must have looked like a lunatic staring at a light pole at 4 am in the morning

I could read some words.

It said Curious about ending emotional eating. Don’t feed the frustration by over eating and then it had a phone number, it must have been a weight loss company or something. I never called them because weight was not really my issue. Don’t get distracted by the topic, I was just obsessed with how they delivered the message and how it really hooked me in.

I thought it was the most genius advertisement that I had ever seen. I have never walked up to an advertisement so utterly curious before. It also stirred up emotion in me as I thought about my own feelings of frustration.

Curious, that lingered in my mind. Curious is also the first word in the ad.

I am staring at this message because it made me curious…

I mean talk about light bulb moments. I knew then that I needed to incorporate curiosity into what I am doing. Like into my marketing. I want to make people stop and stare like crazy people. Once I had their attention, they would see the value in what I offered.

I Re-Engineered Everything whilst I walked in the darkness. It was almost a spiritual experience. It was like I had all these puzzle pieces so close to being in the right spot. All of the sudden all the pieces came together. Have you ever had one of those clarity moments, where suddenly you see things perfectly clear. Your brain is on fire….Going on dawn walks is so important to me to this day.

I imagined myself carrying these Christmas sacks that had the big words VALUE on them. I started handing them out to people. Once again, yes I sound crazy, I realize this.

This was a sign

Value – I need to do more for people and I decided that I didnt want anything in return

Value and Curiosity. As I walked I kept repeating those 2 words. A week later I began to study copywriting.

Copywriting became like a secret super power. I used to write really stupid text down in a clumsy attempt to get sales.

Good sales copy is on a whole other level. It plugs into deep emotions. But before it does that it makes use of powerful curiosity to make people look and read the offer.

I will give you a quick rundown on how effective sales copy looks

When you create an offer it could be for an ad or just for an email, for anything. Instead of writing some clueless ramble, I began using copywriting formulas, like Problem Agitate Solution. PAS, its focuses on emotions and curiosity which is the most powerful way to sell something

For example

Say I was a Life Coach I wouldnt say ” I am a life coach I can make you happy and successful”

I would talk about P… Problem, frustration, Self Doubt, Feeling helpless

I would make you feel these feelings that you already have.

Then I would Agitate and stir up the emotion to the point where it almost hurts. Lets feel that pain and let the reader feel that pain. We are not creating a new pain, we are encouraging them to really feel one that they have been carrying for some time. Only our ideal prospects have these feelings of frustration. We have the product that will eliminate the pain.

Next comes S for Solve. We provide a solution to the problem that is causing the pain.

This is just a brief example, but these techniques are incredibly effective. Most good marketers are using them without telling you.

I would never have learned about copywriting if I hadn’t seen that weird pink ad. It made me focus on curiosity which was the missing piece that led me to learning more.

Can you imagine how much more stuff you would sell, or affiliate products you would sell, or software you would sell if you knew how to harness curiosity and emotional copywriting techniques. The product doesn’t matter, it’s all about know what your prospect feels and letting them know that you can fix it. Its all about emotions and curiosity. Curiosity is to make them look, like in the heading or the weird pink word puzzle which made me stop in my tracks for 20 minutes.

Value Curiosity Copywriting

That was my mantra.

I just needed to put it all together.

In my head I started to build a lead funnel.

It was going to have value, curiosity and copywriting

I start to think about stacking a lot of value up front. I wanted people to feel as though they ripped me off not the other way round. Like whatever I sold I wanted the customer to feel that they won. They got far more value than what they paid.

I thought, “what would happen if I made the price low?”

I would sell plenty, but I said to myself, I would only cover my advertising costs and make no profits

Cover my advertising costs….Cover my advertising costs. Wait a minute, I GOT IT

I stopped dead in my tracks, I thought that I had a problem. If I built a sales funnel that covered my advertising costs, I do NOT have a problem, I have the biggest breakthrough of my career.

All I need to do was make profit on the back end with higher ticket, higher value products.

Like A Low-Mid-High Price Sequence

I Decided To Try Out My New Technique

Back then I was selling affiliate offers.

I messaged a prospect out of the blue. This guy was an influencer. I really wanted to sign him up for my affiliate offer. He could make me THOUSANDS FAST But I Refused to Give Him My Affiliate Link That is what I usually would do and nearly always got me ignored

I wanted to try the curiosity angle first

Would I be Ignored Like Usual Or Would I Get His FULL Attention

I sent him a funny picture. It was a dachshund (weiner dog) wearing sunglasses and a hoody sweater.

"This is Snoop Dog", I wrote.

"LOL" was his reply

Something Very different happened

This Guy Eventually Joined My Program As A Sub- Affiliate (he asked for my link)

My Phone Started To Go Crazy

Ding, Ding, Ding

More Things Started To Happen As I Continued With My New Strategy

I Started Getting Sales

I Started Getting Thousands Of Subscribers On Youtube

I Started Getting Thousands Join My Email List

I was using the Value Curiosity Copywriting approach

I structured all my paid campaigns in a way that always covered my advertising costs. I never worried about profits until later on in the sales funnel

I Used The Same Process To Sell Other Things

I Began To Promote Offers

I Found That I Could Get Sales And Leads

At Will

With the affiliate stuff, I was topping leader boards. Money was just flowing in abundance.

The rest as they say is history