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Chuck Dolce
Copywriter, Marketing & Content Strategist
Chuck Dolce is a perception architect and copywriter with over a decade of experience helping businesses connect with their markets. He has a BA in English from Illinois College and has worked in various industries ranging from finance to marketing. Chuck has served as a Senior Writer, Financial Watchdog, and Conspiracy Fan at The Sovereign Society and as Managing Editor/Content Chief at Agora Financial. His other previous positions include Product Manager at RTS Realtime Systems Inc. and Exchange Member/Broker at Prudential Securities. Chuck has provided his writing services to several esteemed customers such as The Sovereign Society, Leadpages, and Mark Nestmann, among others. He is the Founder and Chief Perception Architect at Impact Marketing Solutions, where he creates compelling copy and content for businesses involved in financial copy, business coaching, entrepreneurship, personal transformation, and B2B/SaaS niches.
Highlights
It’s a beat up, worn out topic.
But what the hell… Let’s take a shot.
What’s your favorite book on marketing?
My vote? Breakthrough Advertising by Gene Schwartz. (My copy’s at the end. Yeah… it's that kind of book!)
I think most copywriting books or courses tend to lead you down a technical path of “how to.” How to write headlines, how to turn features into benefits, how to structure an offer etc.
Breakthrough Advertising operates at another level.
A couple of my biggest takeaways:
- Approaching “the market…”
“The power, the force, the overwhelming urge to own that makes advertising work, comes from the market itself, and not from the copy. Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions of people and focus those already existing desires onto a particular product.”
Your market isn’t a segment of people — it’s an already-existing pool of shared desires!
- Understanding levels of awareness of your market:
“But how much aware is that prospect of that desire? How close is it to the surface of his consciousness? Is he aware only that a problem or need exists, or is he aware if they can be satisfied? And if he is aware that a means of satisfaction exists, does he realize that it lies in your group of products, or specifically in your product by name, or more specifically in your product at a given price?”
These are subtle yet critical distinctions. The degree to which your market is aware of its desires will influence the path you have to take to heighten and funnel that desire!
- Considering your market’s level of sophistication:
“How many similar products have they been told about before?”
Are you first out of the gate launching a new product? Or has your market heard it all before?
- Probably his most shocking claim is on writing headlines.
I learned headline writing by formula. They had to contain elements of usefulness and urgency etc. Beyond that, I learned to study other big winning headlines with the implied suggestion that copying their structure would copy their success. (Do You Make These Mistakes Fishing?)
Schwartz says no go!
“But the idea for an ad or a headline demands its own shape. It cannot be fitted into someone else’s solution. The problem defies a formula. And the third, analytical approach that we have outlined above — with no answers; only guide-posts and questions — offers the only way.”
Bad news for anyone swiping from Schwartz’s greatest headline hits.
The rest of the book covers what to do once you get inside your market’s collective head: How best to channel and navigate their desires, identifications and beliefs.
This book frames the copywriting experience more uniquely than any other IMHO and ought to be on every copywriter’s shelf.
So what’s the best marketing book you’ve ever read?
The circus has left town.
The Democratic National Convention just wrapped up in my old home town of Chicago.
By any account it was a raucous love-fest fueled by joy and healing and unity.
Unless, of course, you’re Donald Trump. Then you’re Hitler.
To be fair, the GOP convention hosted by Chicago’s neighbor to the north, Milwaukee, wasn’t much better.
I’d say it’s a safe bet that politics has reached maximum disagreeability.
Even agreeing to disagree has become a stretch.
Fortunately, it would seem this polarizing disagreement has been confined to the political world. And that’s good.
Because agreement is critical to your sales or marketing copy. Selling from the same side of the table is a whole lot easier. Here’s a thought on how to achieve it…
One of the best marketing books I've ever read wasn't written by a marketer. It was written by FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss (along with Tahl Raz) titled Never Split the Difference.
In one chapter, Voss writes about the two magical words you want to hear from your counterpart (prospect) when starting to present your case. What are they?
“That’s Right!”
(Important distinction: “That’s right” ≠ “You’re right.” More often than not, “you’re right” is a means to get you to shut up and go away as in “OK fine, you’re right. Now let me drink my beer!”)
“That’s right,” on the other hand, is a phrase that indicates a connection between you and your prospect.
Great salespeople can get to that point by asking questions face to face.
In print it’s a little more difficult to do.
But there is a way. And Voss hints at it in his book.
It was during a hostage negotiation in the Philippines. Progress had been slow. The Filipino agent they were negotiating through insisted on taking a hard line with the kidnapper rather than follow Voss’ lead.
Finally Voss had a sit down with him, “You hate Sabaya, don’t you?”
The interpreter responded with the equivalent of “that’s right.”
“I tell you I do! He has murdered and raped. … I heard his voice come on our radio one day and celebrate that he was standing over the body of one of my men.”
It was an emotional connection. The Filipino agent finally felt understood. From that point, negotiations kicked into high gear.
Your sales copy can do the same thing. By initially targeting the dominant emotions that your prospect is feeling.
Whether personal or work-related, everybody harbors some degree of (take your pick) anger, betrayal, revenge, fear, greed (for almost anything), frustration, etc… about something. (Every copywriting book has a list.)
Put your finger on that emotion early on, and you’ve got a great chance of triggering a “That’s right” moment with your prospect. And that opens the door to the rest of your message.
Does your marketing / content / copy get your prospects or readers to "that's right?"
If not, what can you do to change that?
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.