If you write a copy and have to ask “who is Joe Karbo”, you will need to see this … and if you don’t, you will want to see this.

Joe Karbo is the man who wrote the headline “MOST PEOPLE ARE TOO BUSY EARNING THEIR LIVING TO MAKE MONEY.” It’s the kind of headline that makes readers shake their heads to agree … to relate, to understand and agree … but most importantly, to stop what they were doing … and start read the rest of (what I think is an article but actually is) the ad.

His self-published book THE LAZY MAN’S PATH TO WEALTH changed the advertising industry … and millions of people along the way. Sold 2,785,500 copies through print ads … no bookstores …

But to understand how he wrote that headline, the body text, and the book itself, we must take a closer look at the life experiences that led him to extraordinary riches … to overcome poverty and failure, to create what is accredits being. one of the most effective headlines ever written …

Joe was born in Los Angeles, the son of immigrants who operated a tailor shop. He went to manual arts high school and served in the Navy. He was in the South Pacific as a doctor and pharmacist during World War II. He returned to start a wholesale paper business that he sold in 1950 to take acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse … and gradually began landing small character roles in movies, radio and television shows.

Along the way he did television commercials and became the spokesperson for a Maywood California car dealership. Joe began writing the ad copy … with a low-key, realistic and honest approach to car sales. The result was that Joe became famous … made very good money … and the merchant became rich.

Joe felt there was a market for late-night television if the quality of the programming was worth it. Back then, most TV stations went offline around midnight. Joe bought 6-hour blocks of time, from midnight to 6 a.m., playing movies and doing interviews with well-known celebrities like Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dinah Shore, and many others. His show was “The All Night Show” in Los Angeles on KTTV, Channel 11 and it was, according to Joe, the first night show in America.

He needed to generate income to cover the costs of the program … but the advertisers wouldn’t buy … so Joe bought his own products in bulk, wrote and delivered his own ads selling those items. He got rich … very fast.

After a few years the station was sold. The new owners wanted time to themselves and did not renew their lease. He faced huge debts on the inventory he had and had no way of selling it. His income of approximately $ 50,000 a week dropped to zero and he faced bankruptcy.

He had to feed a family of 10 … And he had no idea where the money would come from. They moved into a run-down, low-rent home, he drove a beat-up and refinanced Ford Falcon and faced $ 50,000 in debt. He met with several attorneys who recommended bankruptcy. Instead, he learned to negotiate with his creditors.

He brought his creditors together and for 90 minutes of discussions and statements like “If you don’t think I was broke, bankrupt me. If it turns out that I have money hidden somewhere, they will get it back.” and maybe put myself in jail … but if you believe me, let me do what I do best: sell merchandise. You have my word. I will give it back to you “. They gave him nine years to pay off his debt.

In the process, he wrote a book called THE POWER OF MONEY MANAGEMENT or HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT IN 90 MINUTES WITHOUT A BORROW … which he sold through newspaper and magazine ads in local media … the book had a lot of success and gave you the confidence to try and sell your inventory in the same way.

Before Christmas he sold glow-in-the-dark tree decorations using, among others, headlines like “THE FUN BEGINS WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT.” It sold thousands of door viewers (the peepholes placed on doors to see who’s calling) with advertisements beginning with the headline “SEE THROUGH WALLS, FENCES AND CLOSED DOORS” …

Although Joe had negotiated a nine-year payment with his creditors, he was able to pay back every penny in less than three years. He accepted projects for other marketers and, desperate for the job, gave up a normal copywriting fee for a percentage of the sales … he wrote his own brochures and sold them using direct marketing techniques he had perfected through the experience …

His name and reputation grew within the local “mail order” community and he helped many others … discover that many were emotionally unprepared for success. This led him to the idea of ​​writing a book … actually, two books on one cover. The first book talked about becoming a person who had the confidence, the mindset to be a success … to set and achieve goals and how to be a person that others would want to work with. A kind of combination of TM, Positive Mental Attitude and Cybernetics. The second book revealed all his secrets on how to select and market products using mail order techniques … secrets he had spent years learning through trial and error.

But before writing the book, he wanted to see what kind of market existed for the product he envisioned. It did something that was common at the time … many mail order operators did it … but it is illegal today. He wrote the ad before he wrote the book and then (this is what’s illegal today), he placed the trial ad for a product that didn’t exist yet.

His plan was to return every hundred collected with a note saying that the response was so high that it was out of stock … he couldn’t send the book as promised … but that as soon as there was another print, he would contact the buyer and would offer him the book again … before any additional advertisements were placed.

The response was huge. More than you ever dreamed of. He returned every penny and then took his family to a cabin they owned in Lake Arrowhead CA. where in six weeks he wrote “THE LAZY MAN’S WAY TO WEALTH”

Advertisements for the book ran for years … in newspapers and magazines published in the US as well as on select vehicles around the world. The book (and the ad) were even translated into other languages. Ads are still studied today … used as models for other offerings … used as a teaching tool in direct marketing courses … and eventually an editor (Viking / Penguin) published an abridged edition of the 20th anniversary that sold out quickly. in bookstores.

Joe had a team of 40 people who helped with the placement and production of media and then they branched out. His financial publisher was able to give him the cash flow to create Karbo Advertising, FP Schools, Northwestern Pharmaceuticals, and a company to oversee international marketing.

In 1980, Joe, at the age of 55, was being interviewed at his home in Huntington Harbor CA by a morning news crew and suddenly died of a heart attack. At the time, he is said to have been working on a new mail order book tentatively titled “TO HELL WITH THE KIDS, WHAT ABOUT YOU AND ME, BABY?”

In previous interviews, he admitted that the book cost 50 cents to make (it was photocopied sheets of paper with a spiral binding between two sheets of premium-grade paper), and it sold for $ 10 a copy. It was worth much more … since the reader paid for information … not for raw materials. The section that talks about his mail order marketing secrets was worth many times the retail price of $ 10.

It had a unique guarantee that the buyer had to post the check 30 days after the order date and during that 30-day period, if they were not 100% satisfied, to return the book and receive the original check.

So what can you do to be the next Joe Karbo?

Think about it … he was an average person … he didn’t have much formal education, he had some success … some serious failures … not unlike many of us … the thing is … he kept trying. … kept learning … kept doing … Developed a philosophy of positive mindset … faced adversity head-on … was responsible and honest … and just didn’t give up. Do I need to say more?