Muhammad Ali, Gary Halbert and me

It was January 1971.

He saw me jump rope. She laughed and yelled, “Hey white boy! What are YOU doing here?”

It floated like a butterfly, it stung like a bee. He was the greatest.

Me? No float. No bite. No one.

He had a point. What was he doing there?

Oh yeah. A frustrated college football player, he had decided to be a boxer. So just before Christmas 1970, I dropped out of the University of Oregon and headed to the mecca of boxing…the Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach.

The doors were flung wide open at noon. Media, microphones. Howard Cosell, Burt Lancaster, Angelo Dundee. Cameras, high rollers, cigars. Plus a few dozen guys with crooked noses and fat ears. The scene was surreal.

But I couldn’t help but notice an alarming lack of unreality inside the ring. Ali punched out his sparring partner, training seriously for his first fight with Joe Frazier. I’m glad I could give you a laugh. Happier still wasn’t there with him.

Three months later, my knee exploded. I retired undefeated, without a fight. “The Greatest” never caught on.

Fast forward 19 years

1990 was my 13th year driving a county bus in Miami and Miami Beach. I started and failed in so many businesses that I lost count. Couldn’t sell a lick. I did one stupid thing after another. Married with 4 children at the time, it had cost us tens of thousands of dollars.

On breaks, he studied sales letters. He had written a couple dozen for other people, with some success.

I sent samples to the Prince of Printing, Gary Halbert, direct mail world champion and copywriting genius. Could you work on your $7,000 per person Key West Seminar by the Sea?

A couple of days later, the phone rang. Halbert did not laugh. He didn’t call me “white boy.” He invited me to work for him at the seminary.

Despised by Ali, but working with Halbert. YES!

Key West was a blessing…for a day.

Monday morning I met the other writers: John Carlton, Brad Antin, David Deutsch, Gene Dowdle, Loretta Duffy, Brad Peterson. All the legends of today.

I met some of the speakers: John Eger, Dan Kennedy, Ken Kerr, Phil Kratzer, Carl Galletti, Bill Myers, Ted Nicholas. More legends. I put Halbert. What could be more exciting?

On Monday, Halbert and others shared their genius. It was wonderful. On Tuesday the hotseats arrived.

Oh! Back to “white boy!”

Halbert called an assistant to the front with himself and 3 editors. The guest described his business. The panel asked questions. Then Halbert shouted words that instantly startled me:

“EDITORS! HEADLINES! HEADLINES! HEADLINES, AUTHOR! HEADLINES!”

Halbert wanted headline after headline, pop pop pop pop pop. He wanted quality. He wanted quantity.

Over time (and I mean weeks or months later), I understood the point: the more insights and ideas, the better chance of finding lots of sales letter highlights. I now accept this as absolute truth, and so should you.

But not then. My routine? Sit in front of my word processor with a cup of coffee, think quietly, get a good idea from time to time.

The other editors shouted headlines. I sucked my finger.

Tuesday was horrible. Wednesday and Thursday weren’t much better. By Friday, I started having it… but the week was over.

When I left, I promised that I would never, ever, NEVER feel so embarrassed again.

Back home. To the library. I got years of Readers Digest, Forbes, Cosmopolitan and other magazines on microfilm. I wrote ALL the headlines… over 1,500 of them.

The people who wrote these heads make millions to get attention, to sell magazines. They are the best. So why not tap into that brainpower? So I created a file of all the headlines I pulled from my sources and called it Shortheads.

I have been using ShortHeads for over 15 years. It has made me a lot of money. I used it to create (among others) the most recognized headline in network marketing history: “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie!”. Your headline is the most important part of any ad or article. If your head doesn’t capture and hold attention, the rest of your writing is wasted. I highly recommend that you compile your own “headline file” that you can pull from whenever you make a good headline.