“Learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that reading a single text twice is more profitable than reading two different things once.
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Lebanese American essayist and scholar
The first time I read this quote and saw the word “profitable” I knew I needed to share it with you, my marketing and copywriting savants, under the umbrella of “repetition makes perfect…and profit” …which includes:
Practice makes perfect.
Trial and error makes perfect.
Research makes perfect.
Testing makes perfect.
But all with the caveat:
“Done” is always better than perfect. 🙂
I don’t think Mr. Taleb is talking about profitability like we talk about profitability in marketing…but there is profit everywhere (way beyond cash).
Whether we hear about profit from a prophet like him…or from an online marketer…or from an inventor or innovator of any kind…or someone who only works pro bono…repetition is a critical component to “making a profit.”
And since I’m repeating this blog post (with additional insights and “profit” gained over the past two years), it’s repetition on top of repetition…with the goal of giving you new things to think about in addition to reinforcement by repeating the old.
When I was in college, The Odd Couple TV show (a classic starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall) was on twice a night at 7:00 and 11:00, with reruns of the 114 episodes that were produced from 1970 through 1975…and I couldn’t get enough.
In fact, many evenings, after dinner, I’d watch the 7:00 rerun, go to the library from 7:30 until 10:30, and return to my room for the 11:00 episode.
Clearly, I wasn’t dating much. 🙁
It never got old…I ended up memorizing at least 110 of the 114 episodes…and in the process I got into the habit of studying at the library “just enough but not more than was necessary” (an affliction that affects many college students then and now).
Years later I realized that the habit of repetition was nothing to scoff at…and despite The Odd Couple never being anything in my life but an entertaining binge (does anyone do that today? 🙂 ), I believe the lesson was significant:
A lot of a great thing is better than a little of lots of mediocre things.
At least that’s how I’m spinning it.
Hopefully I didn’t embarrass myself by using this “odd” story to introduce the premise…and if I did, I don’t care.
It was fundamental to how I look at “content” today.
It asserts that repetition is the cornerstone of all education…leading to knowledge…and wisdom.
Note that the definition of “repetition” in this context does not refer to rote memorization… or simply regurgitating facts that have been drilled into your head multiple times…or repeating the same thing over and over again without revisions and/or new revelations.
It’s about reruns with a purpose…to embed into your brain anything and everything that is important to you…” news you can use” … whether in your personal life or business life.
Having fun facts at your fingertips you have learned through repetition, useful or mundane, to spit out at a moment’s notice, is a nice by-product of regular repetition…whether as icebreakers at a cocktail party…or when you decide to become a contestant on Jeopardy.
But what I’m referring to is getting to the root of eternal truths, fundamentals and core principles that are most meaningful to you…and related to what you believe you are on earth to do before you depart.
Purposeful repetition is the critical piece to get there.
And that I got to this epiphany by watching 114 episodes (multiple times) of a meaningless 70’s sitcom is shocking, isn’t it? 🙂
Here are some examples of meaningful (i.e., purposeful) repetition that I learned, mostly from others, and applied in my work:
- Copying successful ads: In the words of legendary copywriter Gary Halbert: “Get yourself a collection of good ads and DM pieces and read them aloud and copy them in your own handwriting.” (And please read the P.S. for a way to apply this today in your own writing and marketing.)
- Selling Gene Schwartz’s masterpiece Breakthrough Advertising: On every book I ship, I attach a letter to the book with instructions on how to get the most out of it because it’s a dense read.
I recommend that buyers read the first three chapters multiple times before reading the rest of the book…so they can train their “Gene Schwartz muscle” to think like Gene…and make the book more actionable. - And that inspired the creation of the landmark training program, Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp (we’ve done seven of them, with the seventh completing this week) …and the publication of Breakthrough Advertising Mastery (the 500-page companion volume).
Check out a special offer for Breakthrough Advertising Mastery in the P.P.S.Both are examples of creativity borne from repetition…and seeing new applications within the same material.
I love it when that happens.
Slicing the salami: While working at my beloved company Boardroom for over 30 years, we had an expression to describe the process of creating our “greatest hits books” (with content from our newsletters).
We called it “slicing the salami.”
For example, an article about a diet plan for heart disease could appear in a general health book or in a broad-based consumer book…probably only read once by the reader of those respective books…but no harm/no foul if the reader read it twice in both books.
And if they did read it twice, the odds just doubled that they would take the advice to heart (pun intended) and execute on it. Re-read the quote that opened this post if you don’t believe me. 🙂
Keeping your best content in a “rotation”: When best-selling author and expert marketer Brendon Burchard was in the habit of posting memes and quotes on social media that were meaningful to him and his audience (and he might be continuing this practice today), I remember him saying that he posts in a “rotation” (i.e., everything doesn’t have to be new all the time)…but everything does have to be consistent with his vision…and the “greatest hits” get repeated often.
That’s not a direct quote, just my interpretation of what he told me.
And emails and social media posts that you send a second time that didn’t get opened or appear in a feed the first time you sent them, makes it new rather than a rerun for many anyway.
Good content is a terrible thing to waste…and sharing it as a “one and done” is a mistake of the highest order.
This also applies to having your content do double (and triple)-duty in different media, reconstructed and redesigned for each medium.
- Getting to the core: I am aware that re-working core concepts in these blog posts for you every Sunday is full of repetition (sorry/not sorry) …but hopefully they are not “full of” something else…
My hope is that you see it as repetition with conviction (and purpose) …since they are my core beliefs based on over 40 years in the marketing trenches.
I am aware you don’t open and read my posts every week (boo, hiss) …so there’s a shampoo-rinse-repeat mechanism in all of this (like what Brendon does) …for first time readers and repeaters.
Like him, I try to do it with integrity and transparency (e.g., I told you THIS post was created two years ago but there are some new spins on the core beliefs and concepts in today’s version).
How meta of me. - The message and the messenger are both important: Whether you know the concepts already (from me or someone else), heard them but forgot (from me or someone else) …or never heard them before…thank you for indulging me with my purposeful repetition.
I also think there might be a gene or chromosome for “purposeful repetition” based on this quote, shared by one of my genius members during the Titans Xcelerator call this past week:
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
-Heraclitus. Greek Philosopher
[Note: According to “Chicago Philosopher,” Perry Marshall, he advises that we should all read or share something every day that was written/spoken before Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. Heraclitus lived during the 6th and 5th century B.C. so I fulfilled my quota for today.]
Back to having a gene for making use of purposeful repetition:
My son did the same thing with Seinfeld reruns as I did with Odd Couple reruns…but somehow, I don’t recall in his case there was too much studying at the library (or anywhere else) in-between the early evening episode and the late evening episode.
He was also able to identify the full episode, with all the intricate and related side plots –which always astonished me–simply by watching the first minute of each show (a very useful talent).
His “gene” was much more powerful than mine…it took me at least FIVE minutes into each episode of The Odd Couple to identify the full episode (which had many fewer subplots).
I guess studying in the library is overrated.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. “Getting yourself a collection of good ads and DM pieces, reading them aloud, and then copying them in your own handwriting” is not just a copywriting hack from Gary Halbert…it’s a mandatory rite of passage if you really want to be good at the craft…and that’s the craft of both copywriting and marketing.
It’s how many master copywriters got started…and it’s also how many of them now teach copywriting today to a new generation.
But how do you define…and find…those “good ads and DM pieces to read and copy?”
There are at least three ways:
- They need to be winners—and you need a vetting process for that (something I’ve done for you below…please read on).
- They should cover a wide variety of styles and formats from different writers and media. To find them takes time, effort and research. Also, something I’ve done for you below.
- They should vary by category and offer—and if you are specializing in a particular category or offer type, start there (and that goes for copywriters and marketers alike). And yes, I’ve done that for you below too.
Finding and sharing treasures like the ones described above is embedded in my mission to contribute to your success…because I have access to various collections of “good ads and DM pieces”—killer swipe files I’ve assembled over four decades–which are a key component of my marketing library…and I want them to be part of yours.
One of the 11 bonuses for buying my second book Overdeliver, is “Bonus #3” –what I call The Copywriter’s Toolkit–which contains over 400 pages of the most spectacular ads ever written from 1900 through the present day.
This is only one of 11 bonuses…and this one alone is worth the $20 you will spend on the book.
But wait until you see the other 10.
But wait, there’s more…
On the bonus page to my first book, The Advertising Solution, there is a swipe file with the classic work from the six legends who are profiled in the book:
John Caples, Robert Collier, Gary Halbert (who will be extra proud if you copy some of his “good ads”), Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy and Gene Schwartz.
Yes…these are really good ads too.
If you want to spend a little more money—with writers you will learn from by going a mile deep with them (in terms of their eclectic styles and personalities)–I have the complete works of two such writers, Bill Jayme and Jim Rutz.
If you haven’t heard of them, you owe it to yourself to at least read about them at the links below; and if you have heard of them, you know how legendary their work is…and getting your hands on these treasured swipe files will be a gift that will keep on giving…as part of your marketing library…forever.
Check out The Bill Jayme Collection here.
Check out Read This or Die: The Lost Files of Jim Rutz here.
P.P.S. There’s another resource of “good ads” which I have published more recently and equally timeless, Breakthrough Advertising Mastery…which contains over 500 pages with over 300 of those pages laying out classic ads personally selected by Gene Schwartz to illustrate the principles he created in Breakthrough Advertising.
All in full color.
And the book is available in hard copy or digitally.
We recently sold out of the hard copies but our print order has been fulfilled…and we have new books in inventory, ready to ship today.
The digital version comes with no postage…funny how that works when you don’t need to mail 500 pages…
However, the hard copy is exquisite…a utility and a collector’s item all in one.
What does the publication of this one-of-a-kind volume mean to you?
Lots of successful, classic and meaningful ads can be coming your way soon.
That is, this 500+ page book (hard copy or digital), in full color, will have many ads worth copying…reading…studying…with all the ads having a distinct lesson (within the context of Breakthrough Advertising and beyond) …whether you copy them or not.