Want to win the online writing game? Listen to Sam Parr. He built The Hustle into one of the world’s largest newsletters and sold it to a multi-billion dollar company, and he's mastered the art of turning viral hooks into big businesses. Here’s what I've learned from him: 1. If simple words were enough for Hemingway, they’re enough for you. 2. The best market research tool was invented thousands of years ago: talking to your customers. Get your finger on the heartbeat of your customer’s problems. Otherwise, you’re shooting in the dark. 3. Thinking in headlines will make you a clearer thinker. It will help you see how an idea should be framed, identify different ways to tell your story, and show you the soul of your topic. 4. Sam says: “I firmly believe in putting my back against the wall.” Deadlines, pressure, and harsh goals will pull out the best from you. 5. Short attention spans aren’t the problem people think they are. Some of the most popular online essays are longer than 5,000 words. There are other data points too. Rogan has the world’s biggest podcast. Popular standup specials on Netflix are sometimes 90 minutes long. The problem is that your content isn’t good enough. 6. How do you make it good enough? Sam tells writers to make their work “slippery.” Cut the fluff. Make it move. Keep the energy high. 7. When you start writing and don't have an audience, go to where your readers are and do the work of telling them about you. Look for Internet subcommunities where you can reach your readers. Find the people who want what you have, but just don’t know about you yet. While starting The Hustle, Sam went to the r/selfpublishing on Reddit. 8. Sam Parr copied the best sales letters of all time by hand. Let the writing you admire pass through your fingers, fall out of your pen-and you will discover the heartbeat of eloquence. This method is called copywork. 9. Speaking of copywork... if musicians learn music by copying other musicians, why don't writers learn writing by copying other writers? 10. Most people suck at writing because they’re scared. “Will people like my article?” they say. That's loser talk. The only way to get past this is to toughen up. Come at your keyboard with boldness. Pounce on it. Timidity is the enemy. 11. The optimal post length is shorter than 500 words or more than 2,000 words. Don’t bother with anything in between. 12. To improve your company’s copy, look at what big companies had on their site before they got big. Use the Internet Archive. Study their branding. Copy their design. Dissect their word choice. Most companies are sharper and more focused in the early days before design-by-committee becomes a plague. 13. It doesn’t matter if you’re easy to read, if you’re also easy to forget. Aim to get stuck in your readers’ mind like a catchy song. Be easy to read, but hard to forget. 14. To see what hard to forget writing looks like, study this popular line from the Bible: "Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Notice how the word day reappears in daily, and the word trespass is used twice. This practice of repeating words with intention is called “polyptoton” and makes for stickier writing… 15. Just like you should look at what big companies did before they got big, you should look at the habits of successful people before they got big. A 13 year old basketball player should look at what Lebron James was doing at 13, not what he’s doing today. There’s more alpha in the “early career” part of all outlier success stories. 16. Sam Parr’s mantra for business (which he has tattooed on his thigh): “Bold. Fast. Fun.” It’s really hard to beat someone who moves fast, takes risks, and has fun doing it. 17. Sam Parr’s favorite business book: How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis. Sam says it has the best information, perspectives and stories for those who want to make $ via starting a business. 18. If you're making a sales page, use the AIDA framework. The hook is for getting Attention, the content is for generating Interest, the conclusion is for inciting Desire, and the CTA is for inspiring Action. 19. Book recommendation for anybody who wants to write more memorably: The Elements of Eloquence. Sam can write, sell, and entertain. Come for the writing, stay for the stories about women who want to sleep with werewolves and the time he crossed paths with a soon-to-be convicted felon.
Awesome conversation. Two takeaways I'll use now when writing: 1) "Does this make me smile" such a handy reminder 2) Keep it BFF (bold, fast, fun)! Loving these podcast episodes. Keep them up!
This episode made me subscribe. I'm a software developer, and writing is core to my profession (which, unfortunately, many people in the industry don't understand.) There are a lot of great insights in this interview and your interviewing skills definitely bring them out.
This is phenomenal. Taking a step back and re-evaluating how we run our business and how we write all types of copy at the moment. This really helped. Going to relisten tomorrow.
This was great and full of practical interesting advice. I started listening to My First Million and discovered who Sam is recently. I love reading and write not as much as I should. Would have liked to hear comments on how AI is changing writing on the net.
David! This is my absolute favorite podcast! Nothing like it. It just feels so different from an experience standpoint. And how blessed are we to get access to such brilliant people? It almost always proves that success is not accidental.
