Peanut and I recently watched the Manti Te'o Untold documentary on Netflix about his non-existent girlfriend.
Manti had one of the most impressive collegiate football careers any defensive player ever had. In fact, he was a Heisman trophy finalist during his senior year—the same year that began with his grandmother and girlfriend dying on the same day, right before the season started, which led Manti to dedicate his senior year to both his grandma and girlfriend—which is unheard of for defensive players.
But there was only problem:
Manti’s dead girlfriend never existed.
Despite dating her for an embarrassingly long time, they had never met. And they never met because every time Manti tried to meet her, she had an excuse.
First, she was involved in a near fatal car accident.
Then, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
Next, she literally died.
Then, a few months later, she came back alive, saying she was in some kind of protection group and that’s why she faked her own death.
Of course, she faked her own birth too. Turns out, Manti’s girlfriend never existed. And she wasn’t even a girl.
As you can imagine, this crushed Manti’s football career.
The media ran with “his grandma and girlfriend dying on the same day” story his entire senior year. Manti was one of the most celebrated athletes in the world at the time. Everyone rooted for the guy… until, well, some journalists decided to look into his girlfriend's “death,” and realized she was fake.
If the embarrassment wasn’t enough, many accused Manti of playing a role in the creation of his made-up girlfriend. And while he was projected to go as a first round draft pick, this story that his girlfriend wasn't real came out before the NFL draft, meaning Manti slid to the second round.
(If you’re not familiar with how the NFL works, being drafted in the first vs second round costs you potentially millions of dollars.)
And you know what I couldn't get out of my head as Peanut and I watched this two episode documentary?
How many stories I’ve heard of innocent business owners like you getting catfished by copywriters.
Copywriters go through the same elaborate ruse as Manti’s fake girlfriend did:
* They create fake testimonials and social proof to convince you that they’re better than they are
* They “swipe” from successful sales letters and emails, pretending they wrote it when they just copy and pasted info from different letters
* They’ll ghost you as the deadline hits, causing you to wait weeks (and sometimes even months) for them to deliver what they owe you (and, of course, they had your money the entire time)
* They smooth talk on Money Twitter and inside copywriting Facebook groups but actually have no idea how to write copy
And there are many such examples of sociopathic copywriters catfishing clients, stealing a fat chunk of their moolah, and delivering sumtin that ain’t worth a few shekels, let alone 5-figures worth of USD.
Moral of the story?
Knowing these copywriting catfishers exist is half the battle.
The other half?
Doing your due diligence before hiring anyone. That includes me, despite the 300-odd emails I’ve sent you over the past year.
Anywho:
If you need help from a copywriter who ain’t trying to catfish you… one that has proven time and time again that I skyrocket your email revenue and create stronger bonds with every person on your list… Book a call with me here: https://calendly.com/johndbrandt/discovery-call
We’ll jump on a quick call, because I need to do my due diligence too.
And if we decide to work together?
Well, you may never have to worry about being catfished by a copywriter again.
John