A direct marketing Icon and the “Greatest Copywriter in the World” died last weekend. Gary Halbert was a genius and just a joy to be around (usually :-).
I was lucky enough to attend two of his seminars. One was the Fusion seminar where he spoke with Mark Joyner and a few other guys about the merging of online and offline marketing.
The second was a copywriting seminar with just him and 15 students including me. That was one I’ll never forget. He loved to teach, if you were willing to learn, and it sure came across there.
It was just us and Halbert for 3 solid days (well for Gary that meant 9 or 10 am to 5 pm :-) But it was gruesome! Both nights we went back to our rooms with more homework than we could ever get done. He said the only way we’d learn how to write, is to write! So he made us write.
And then we presented what we wrote the next day… everyone. So we knew we’d better have something done.
I feel really blessed to have been there and to have known Gary. May he rest in peace.
If you’d like to know or hear more about Gary, Ken McCarthy was just kind enough to put up some clips of him speaking at the System Seminar a few years ago. Thanks Ken!
Just go to: http://www.systemvideoblog.com/2007/04/gary_halbert_vi.html
Until next time.
Here’s to Your Success,
Tim
