It’s not all about the facts.

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Dude.

Henry David Thoreau was right.

One of the things that plagues business owners who are crafting their own copy, be it web copy, emails, or sales pages, is our crazy need to throw everything we’ve got at our audience (in the hopes that SOMETHING will convince them to hire us).

Let’s call this the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to writing copy.

How this shows up:

On the Services page of your website :: You list EVERY CONCEIVABLE way someone can work with you. You include a menagerie of outcomes – everything from clear skin, more energy and health, a raise at work, a red-hot romance… and world peace.

In a promo email :: You put your focus on listing everything that is included in your program, instead of telling your readers a story about what that program will DO for them (and how it will make them feel).

On a sales page :: You’ve seen a little bit about how to put a sales page together… so you just let ‘er rip… and although just getting the sucker done is a monster achievement… there’s no unified message or story (or it’s all about you or your program).

The problem with the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach is that it’s not very effective. It’s not emotionally nourishing and rich, so your reader doesn’t lean in. It leaves your reader feeling sold to, instead of understood.

And it also signals that you don’t know what the heck you’re talking about.

Even if you know your work like the back of your hand, if you can’t convey it simply and powerfully in your copy, you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

You’ve got to – in the words of poet, author, abolitionist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau – simplify, simplify, simplify.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Know your top result. This isn’t some intellectual exercise – this is how you begin to connect with your audience… and let them know you GET them.

(And please, for the love of all that’s holy, STOP writing “I understand where you are. I’ve been there.” Figure out a way to say it that doesn’t sound like a copywriting zombie wrote it. How would you ACTUALLY convey that idea to someone you care about? Write that instead. End of soapbox).

Make a list of 30 results you help people get. Everything from “more confidence” to “you will ask for a raise at work” to “your sex life will get inexplicably more interesting and fun” And then pick the top one. Don’t make this hard – just do it.

2. Run those top 3 results past the “will they pay for it” test. Here’s the thing: many business owners pick their 3 results… and it’s something like “get in touch with your inner goddess, feel beautiful dancing in the moonlight, and start playing a bigger game.”

You may think I am a nasty old troll for saying this, but NO ONE WILL PAY FOR THAT. Even if you follow some big name who has a giant list and money coming out of their ears, I guarantee you, that is not how they started out or grew.

You MUST offer the marketplace something people want to pay for. Weight loss. Finding meaningful work. Expressing oneself fully. Financial security. More money. Soulmate love.

(Side bar: often when I say this to people, they resist it. “But Stella, what I do is so much deeper than all that!” I love you! Really. And believe me, I get it. I’m running a training school for money-making mischief makers through my business—the copywriting thing is just a cover. But the point is, if you want to make money, and you don’t want it to take a really, really long time, please pick those “boring” results that people will pay to get. Think of it as a “front” for the real work you do, if that helps.)

3. Tell a story that makes them FEEL something. The best way to convey a lot of truth without weighing it down with a lot of words is to tell a story. The simplest story to start telling in your writing is what happens AFTER people work with you. A story of what’s possible. A story of extraordinary outcomes. A story that has emotions.

Is it easy? No. Is it a neat and tidy process where you always win and always come out on top? No, no, and no. But I promise you, you and I are running marathons, not sprints.

You’ve GOT to get into the mud of your message and let it out there half-baked, and do your best and let your list, your audience, your clients, your peeps, see you putting your butt on the line for them, again and again.

And you’ve got to tell them a story… a story that they are longing to hear… and a story that their lives depend on hearing.

Because that’s when the magic starts to appear.