Page 78 - Hypnotic Writing - How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words

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HOW I LEARNED THE SECRET OF HYPNOTIC WRITING
Few people know this, but I learned a lot about writing hypnotic copy from reading magic catalogs.
I’ve been interested in magic since I was sixteen years old. In- spired by Houdini, I wanted to be Harry Excello, the world’s great- est escape artist. I used to let my brothers tie me up in the basement in Ohio. I always broke free. I knew Houdini’s secrets. I could do what he did. One day I even considered being tied up and thrown off a bridge in my home town, left to struggle under water while I worked myself free from my binding.
That’s when I turned to card magic.
I invented a few tricks and saw them published in magic maga- zines while I was still a teenager. But my father never approved of magic, and I let my interest hide under a mental rock for almost 30 years. Today I’m back into it. I’ve met Lance Burton, Peter Reveen, and Mark Levy, and famous entertainers like Kreskin use my mar- keting ideas. I’m now a life member of the Society of American Magicians, the group Houdini started in 1902.
I love reading magic catalogs because they are usually wonderful examples of hypnotic copy. In short, they sell the sizzle, not the
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