I saw a pretty crazy video on YouTube.🎥
26-year-old Kyle Burgess was out doing a trail run in Slate Canyon, which is near Provo, Utah…
When he spotted four small animals further along the trail.
At first, he wasn’t sure what they were…
But as he got closer, Kyle realized they were cougar cubs…
And about 10 seconds later…
Momma cougar appeared.Â
What follows is an extremely intense 6 minutes…
Kyle has his camera out, and he films the entire encounter…📸
As this majestic mountain lion walks him back up the trail from whence he came…
Strutting, roaring, and lunging with her claws out.
Just watching the video gets your heart pumping pretty hard…
Although it’s also a spectacular sight to behold…
Because encounters like this are pretty rare.
I’m going to link to the 6-minute video in just a second…
But first, let me tell you why I’m writing about this today.
When you do watch the video…
I want you to notice Kyle’s emotional state.
He’s very vocal the whole time, talking to the Cougar…
And you’ll hear how his reaction to this fairly improbable situation change by the second.
Kyle’s immediate response is to express absolute shock…
Then at one point, he’s laughing at the absurdity of the moment…
While later he’s saying he doesn’t want to die…
And still, later he's pleading with the cougar and trying to talk rationally with it.
The emotional rollercoaster is real…
And I think this video does a great job of illustrating an important truth about human psychology…
Something that can serve you well as a marketer and a copywriter too.
What is it?
Instead, we’re complex beings…
And even in life-or-death situations…
We don’t always react the way one would expect.
For example, when it comes to Kyle and the cougar…
One might expect him to be screaming the entire time…
Crying the whole time….
Pleading the whole time…
Etc.
Or maybe we’d expect him to be an angry, aggressive, adrenaline-pumped alpha male.
The point is…
We probably expect him to display one dominant emotion…
But in reality, he shows an entire tapestry of responses.
When it comes to writing sales copy or selling to prospects in general…
I believe it’s the same thing:
Don’t assume your prospect is one dimensional.Â
They're not.
And even when you use emotion…
It’s typically better to switch it up.
Want to lead your promotion with fear?
Okay great….
But then I’d also be working in humor, inspiration, and sadness too.
And this holds no matter which emotion you lead with.
Because yes, it makes sense to know what your dominant emotion is going to be…
But it’s a mistake to ignore the secondary ones too.
Just think of a great speech:
Maybe the speaker starts with a funny story that makes the audience laugh…
Then they hit you with a sudden bomb about a tragedy in their life…
Followed a bit later by anecdotes of them struggling to cope…
Before ending with an inspiring message of hope.
Shouldn’t your sales messaging be the same way?
I think so…
Which is why I wanted to share this blog post with you.
– SPG
P.S. As promised, here’s a link to the 6-minute long video on YouTube.
I really think it’s worth watching the whole thing…
And pay special attention to around the 2 minute and 40 second mark…
Because some of the lunges that the cat makes around that point are absolutely terrifying!
P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.