Copywriters Podcast
by David Garfinkel
BusinessE · Explicit
Latest episode
Prize Fight: Human Copywriter vs. AI — REMATCH!
Prize Fight: Human Copywriter vs. AI — REMATCH!
About this podcast
Copywriting lessons from David Garfinkel
Episodes
The newest 50 of 497 episodes
- Prize Fight: Human Copywriter vs. AI — REMATCH! · 31 minLast week, we held a prize fight between a human copywriter and an AI, or, at least a virtual prize fight. Here’s the background: In late September, here in San Francisco, a man…
- Prize Fight: Human Copywriter vs. AI · 32 minIn late September, here in San Francisco, a man named Frankie LaPenna held three cage fights against robots in a cage match. Human vs. robot. And he won two of them. Five days…
- What To Do When An Offer Stalls Out · 32 minWhat do you do when your offer stops working? First step: Keep breathing. An offer that stops working may feel like a disaster. But you need more information so you can decide…
- Scientists Reveal Extreme Sales Shortcut · 31 minWhat are the little things we do in our copy that have an overly large impact on our sales? It’s a good question, because it’s so easy to get caught up in headlines, stories…
- 7 More Eternal Truths Of Copywriting · 37 minA couple weeks ago, we did an entire show to answer the question: “Are there eternal truths of advertising copywriting that are as true today as they were 40, 50, even 100 years…
- Theater Genius Copywriting Secrets · 32 minA powerful mindset forces you to write scripts for TV and movies that compel viewers to watch. Keeps them glued to the screen, in fact. There’s a nearly identical mindset like…
- The Eternal Truths Of Copywriting · 38 minFor as long as I remember, new people coming into direct response marketing believe that the old rules no longer apply, and they are in an entirely new game. It’s just human…
- Old Masters Series: A Technique For Producing Ideas · 35 minIt’s kind of unusual when someone you work with bursts into your office with an urgent problem, and then you proceed to develop a solution to that problem and simplify it over…
- The Persuasion Power of IMperfection · 30 minIt turns out in the larger world of culture and fashion, we’ve reached a breaking point. This is important for copywriting because of something we’ve always known and practiced…
- Old Masters Series: Robert Collier · 32 minHe is known for one of the most famous sayings in copywriting: “Enter the conversation already going on in the prospect’s mind.” Yet most copywriters don’t know much about him…
- Back To School For Copywriters · 30 minSomewhere near you, right now, there's a store with a whole aisle of spiral notebooks marked down to 79 cents. The gargantuan engines of the big yellow buses are getting tuned up…
- Protecting Your Freelance Business, With Copywriter Kim Krause Schwalm · 32 minHow do you make the transition from having a job to being a freelance copywriter? Or, maybe more to the point, if you’re already a freelancer, how do you do what you do and get…
- The Magic Power of DON’T · 35 minNathan came up with the idea for this show, and it started, of all places, in his mom’s kitchen. Here’s what happened: If Mom says dinner will be ready in 30 minutes, Nathan is…
- The Master Key To Persuasion · 33 minI was rummaging around on youtube when I came across this video with an outrageous claim: “This book literally teaches you to think like a Harvard lawyer.” My skepticism shot…
- More Screenwriting Secrets For Copywriters · 29 minThis week I had a great conversation with a Hollywood screenwriting coach and screenwriter himself, and it reminded me about how much people in Hollywood know that copywriters…
- Old Masters Series, Advertising’s Founder, Albert Lasker Part 3 · 37 minToday we’re continuing with Part 3 of our Old Masters Series, focusing on the contributions of Albert Lasker. That’s because in 1898, Albert Lasker arrived in Chicago to work at…
- Will AI Shopping Make Copywriting Obsolete? · 28 minThe world of copywriting and ecommerce almost changed forever last September 29, when Open AI launched something called Instant Checkout. This new service was designed to let you…
- Part 2- Old Masters Series, Advertising’s Founder, Albert Lasker · 34 minToday we’re continuing with our Old Masters Series focus on the contributions of Albert Lasker. This is Part 2. Lasker is the one person in history who, more than anyone else…
- Old Masters Series– Advertising’s Founder, Albert Lasker · 33 minAlbert Lasker didn't just become one of advertising's biggest names—he helped invent the way modern direct response marketing works. In this episode of the Old Masters Series, we…
- Copywriting Secrets Of Human Nature, With Andrew Gould · 37 minOur special guest today didn’t start out planning to be a copywriter, but found his way into it after posting online reviews of his favorite martial arts movies in college, and…
- Sales- Friendly Content Marketing · 36 minLast week, we did a show on how content marketing is failing direct marketers when you do it the way everyone else does it. Basically, social media encourages you to crave…
- A-List Copywriter Bullet Secrets, With Kim Krause Schwalm · 35 minOur returning champion today is Kim Krause Schwalm, and she is going to share some amazing and unique information with you. The late Clayton Makepiece, a legend himself in…
- Why Your Content Isn’t Getting You Buyers · 37 minIf you’ve always wondered about content marketing, you’re not alone. It’s a confusing term and there’s no standard definition to describe what it means. It really depends on your…
- The Missing Piece That Supercharges Copy · 29 minSocial media can be a HUGE waste of time, but sometimes when you’re scrolling you come upon a gem. I did last week, and it led to all kinds of crazy thoughts. I was on Twitter/X…
- The Best Type Of Ad To Use In 2026 · 31 minIf you’re noticing the advertising landscape changing a lot and changing fast, it’s not your imagination playing tricks on you. Things really are changing. Our special guest a…
- Screenwriting Secrets For Copywriters · 34 minPeople always talk about opening your copy with a story, but most of the time, when you say what kind of story, they’ll look at you like you’re an idiot and say, “Hero’s journey…
- The Surprising Truth About Learning Copywriting · 32 minThink about these two things: First, learning to write copy, and Second, then actually writing it. Wouldn’t it be nice if those two things, learning to write copy and then doing…
- Old Masters Series Copywriting 101 Part 4 · 35 minToday we have the fourth and final installment of our hit Old Masters Series segment, Copywriting 101. We’ll be talking about the last seven fundamentals. And if that little…
- 10 Direct Marketing Trends, With Super Copywriter Mike Pavlish · 30 minOur returning champion Mike Pavlish has written dozens of VSLs that have brought in $10 million or more. In fact, over the last 30 years, Mike’s copy has brought in over $810…
- New Mindset For Copywriting · 33 minWe’re going through massive and disruptive upheavals all over the place, and of course copywriting is no exception. I’m seeing the need for a complete mindset shift to survive…
- Copywriting 101, Part 3– Old Masters Series · 30 minAs we return to our hit Old Masters Series segment, Copywriting 101, I’d like to let you know that the first edition of John Caples’s book Tested Advertising Methods was…
- Next-Level Skills Every Copywriter Needs · 36 minThe future for copywriters and AI is pretty clear: AI will not replace copywriters. But… copywriters who know how to use AI will replace those who don’t. Sounds simple enough…
- Copywriting 101, Part 2– Old Masters Series · 34 minOnce again we’re back to our Copywriting 101 segments in the Old Masters Series, picking up where we left off a couple weeks ago. This is about copywriting fundamentals. It never…
- Introducing 7 Types Of Microstories · 31 minLet’s talk about something small. Very small. Small enough that most copywriters are forced tooverlook it, most of the time. Because we’ve all been trained to think in termsof…
- Copywriting 101– Old Masters Series · 30 minThe big secret of success, whether it’s in investing… in professional sports… or in copywriting, is one in the same: A focus on, and a mastery of, the fundamentals. The legendary…
- How Clive Cable’s Building An Agency With Virtual AI Copywriters · 34 minOur returning champion is Clive Cable, who was here a few weeks agotalking about his new book Neurocopy. As Nathan and I got to know Clive a little better, we found out he…
- How To Make Prospects Fall In Love, With Nathan Fraser · 31 minDante Aligheri was a copywriter kind of guy. Rather than write in the stuffy, formal Latin which is what everyone else was writing in the 14th century, he wrote in the home boy…
- The Visual Design CRISIS, And What Copywriters Can Do About It, With Lori Haller · 33 minIt’s a full-blown crisis. As if writing copy wasn’t hard enough, there’s a new demand falling on the plates of copywriters more and more. And while maybe it’s not fair, it IS…
- The Neuroscience Of Copy That Sells, With Clive Cable · 33 minThese days people talk about neurochemicals a lot. Chemicals like dopamine, and cortisol, and the love chemical, oxytocin. I’ve always wondered how these chemicals are affected…
- The One-Sentence Attention-Magnet Story · 27 minWe’re really at a crisis point for a lot of marketers. It’s not just that ads keep getting more expensive. It’s that it just gets harder and harder to get and keep prospects’…
- Value-Based Copywriting, With Harlan Kilstein · 34 minToday’s show is for every talented copywriter stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle of business and would much rather get paid well, to reflect the enormous value their copy is…
- Old Master’s Series: Walter Weir, The Copywriter WAY Ahead Of His Time · 30 minLife must have been at least a little frustrating for our Old Master on today’s show. His name was Walter Weir. He was a very active and successful copywriter and advertising…
- Copywriting Goals For 2026 · 32 minIf you’re involved in copywriting in any way, you know right now we’re at an inflection point. Things have been changing fast over the last two years, and show no signs of…
- Why Copywriter Alin DragWhy Copywriter Alin Dragu Fired ALL His Clientsu Fired ALL His Clients · 32 minIt takes a lot of courage and a lot of confidence to do what our special guest today has done… and that’s fire all his clients and start an email-based business. But Alin Dragu…
- More Free Financial Copy Training, With Glenn Fisher · 33 minLast fall, our returning champion Glenn Fisher and his business partner Nick O’Connor teamed up with mega financial publisher Marketwise for a bold experiment: Offer FREE…
- The Awesome Marketing Power Of Signal, With Nathan Fraser · 34 minSo a lot of people are building their brand by pouring tons of money into traffic… A/B testing… tracking every click… but deep down, you feel that something’s not landing. It’s…
- Claude Hopkins’s Enduring Gift... Old Masters Series · 31 minWhat was discovered and perfected over 100 years ago, that is one of the most important marketing strategies online today? We have a special Old Masters Series show today. It’s…
- Copywriting Secrets Of The Music Business, With Doug Pew · 32 minOur returning champion today, Dr. Doug Pew, is well known in two different worlds: The world of high-powered copywriting for online course creators, where he has done many six…
- Why You Need An Imaginary Friend · 30 minDo you have an imaginary friend? Whether you do or not, today we’re going to talk about why a particular imaginary friend can solve one of the biggest problems copywriters are…
- Why You Should Start Writing BEFORE You're “Ready” · 31 minEver spend hours, just waiting for the “perfect time” to start writing? Maybe first you decide to do a guided visualization. Or answer a few emails. Could be that there’s that…
