I have an old friend, one I’ve known for years and years. His name is Dennis.

He’s a working actor who does a lot of commercials…🎬

And some time ago, he got a big break when he was cast in an upcoming Hollywood movie starring The Rock.🤯

Now Dennis isn’t a “co-star” of the film or anything…

But he has multiple extended scenes in the movie where he’s there on screen, alongside Mr. Dwayne Johnson.

And it was an amazing experience for him…👌

One that’s since led to a lot of auditions for starring roles in very high-profile movies.

I’m super happy for Dennis…🤗

And over some days, we spent hours talking about acting, making it in the film business, the creative process, and all kinds of other fascinating topics.

During our conversations, one of my biggest takeaways had to do with auditions.

You see, Dennis was telling me that when you go in to do an audition…

The people on the other side of the camera, who will decide your fate, have a pretty clear picture in their head of “who” the character you’re auditioning for “is.”

They have a vision of that person’s demeanor, the lines are written out for you to read, and they’re mostly expecting you to just “nail” the script.

And yet, the actors who are most successful in their auditions do one thing a little different…

They take the character to a new place – something that’s outside of the box and the constraints of the script.

Or to put it another way…

When you are auditioning in front of the director/producers/writers…

The most important thing you can do is get those folks to see the character you’re auditioning for in an entirely new light…

To expand what’s possible for that character…

And to make the people you’re auditioning for expand their conception of who that character is, and what’s possible for them.

And yet, there’s a catch…

You have to pick your moment to do this.

You can’t just come in and not read the lines you’re supposed to…❌

If the character is supposed to be serious, you can’t do your whole audition in some slapstick manner.

You need to “mostly” stay within the lines they’ve drawn for you…

And then, when they least expect it, that’s when you hit them with something surprising.

Maybe it’s bringing a sense of humor to a line that wasn’t meant to be funny, but it really could be…

Maybe it’s a quirky tick you do with your body…

Maybe it’s deciding that instead of crying, the character is going to stare dead-eyed into an existential void…😳

Or maybe it’s something else.

I’m not an actor, so I don’t know all their secrets…

But I can tell you that there’s a very interesting parallel in the world of freelance copywriting too.

You’re going to run into clients who seem to have the entire sales letter mapped out in their head, in advance.

They’ll tell you the tone, the points to make, the mechanism to expound upon, etc.

Funnily enough though…

If you just follow the client’s wishes dogmatically, they’ll often end up feeling disappointed or ambivalent about the copy.

And the reason why is because you gave them exactly what they thought they wanted.

Seems weird, but the client’s thoughts are “where’s the surprise, where’s the creativity, where’s the part that justifies me paying you all this money to write this copy for me?”

Not necessarily fair to the copywriter, but this is the way it is.

Which is why, with a client like this, you need to pick a few spots where you surprise them.

Maybe you develop your own separate big idea and combine it with theirs…

Maybe you take their unique mechanism, but then you expand upon it further (which leads to surprising implications)…

Maybe you take their boring story and move it down in the sales letter, and start with an emotional, heart-pounding story you uncovered during your research instead.

The important thing here is that you are picking your spots.

So I’m not saying to give them some weird experimental script that reads like a bad detective novel…

Or try to completely redefine what an ad looks like…

Doing that will likely lead to a bad outcome for you.

So it’s a delicate dance.

For the most part, you give your client what they think they need…

But you also find a few places where you push the boundaries and go into the realm of the unexpected.

Often, this not only leads to happier clients…

But better-performing copy too.

 

– SPG

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