🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner

Founder of VeryGoodCopy.com, essayist

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I’m Eddie 👋🏼

I’m a conversion copywriter, content marketer, and the founder of VeryGoodCopy, a newsletter about copywriting and creativity read by millions of people each year. Join over 80K email subscribers—including copywriters, marketers, entrepreneurs, and other smart folks—who've subscribed to the VeryGoodCopy Newsletter and bought 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬:

◾ “VeryGoodCopy shows you how to write, and how not to write. How to think, and how not to think. Eddie is a damn good marketer. I recommend him.”
—𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗬𝗧𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗗, 𝗢𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿

◾ “Please, God, can everyone involved in advertising—and not only copywriters—just read this book…I loved every moment.”
—𝗥𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗦𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗, 𝗢𝗴𝗶𝗹𝘃𝘆 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻

◾ “Eddie is a fantastic copywriter.”
—𝗔𝗡𝗡 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗘𝗬, 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙨

◾ “Eddie Shleyner. Where to begin? Not only a fantastic writer, a historian, a gentleman, someone I'm proud to call a colleague. VeryGoodCopy is a copywriting goldmine. I often go there for inspiration. Eddie is the real deal.”
—𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗗𝗥𝗬, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺

◾ "Eddie Shleyner is one of the few people who can articulate what makes great writing great."
—𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗢, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲

◾ "Eddie Shleyner is a brilliant writer who understands the art of persuasion — and teaches it — in a way few people can. I'm jealous of how he can say so much in so few words. Big fan!"
—𝗞𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳

◾ "Eddie Shleyner, now there's a fella who knows something about copywriting."
—𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗧, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲

◾ "VeryGoodCopy is likely the very best reading you'll do on any given day about copywriting."
—𝗞𝗜𝗠 𝗞𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗠, 𝗔-𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿

◾ “Eddie gets it. He’s a joy to work with and does so at the highest level.”
—𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗧 𝗗𝗜𝗞𝗞𝗘𝗥𝗦, 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿, 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻

Read hundreds of free "micro" lessons, interviews, and courses about copywriting, creativity, and storytelling on VeryGoodCopy.com.

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Founder

"One of the best copywriting blogs around." 
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VeryGoodCopy.com is a blog about the art and science of written persuasion. Over 53,000 people subscribe to receive weekly micro-articles about copywriting, content marketing, and psychology.

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Hey folks! Many months of work went into this thing. I'm very proud of it, and excited to finally share with you all: https://lnkd.in/dgTWp2jp

Please help me spread the word 🙏🏼 

And as always, enjoy!

- Ed

Founder of VeryGoodCopy.com | Join 95K newsletter subscribers

VeryGoodCopy Audiobook is Now Available

How to find the words again (without AI):

Growing up, it felt like Babushka had a saying for every problem. 

Every bad or uncomfortable situation I faced was met with some expression about resilience or patience or effort. Probably because my grandma’s own childhood in Stalinist Russia was so hellish and sad, so she had these set phrases, I guess, these little rhyming quips that brought levity or perspective when things were hard. 

I remember when I cut my lip on a 7UP can. She held a napkin to my mouth and put her cheek against my head and said, “Doh svahd-by zah-zhee-vyot.”

It means: “It’ll heal before your wedding.”

Or when I stormed into the living room and told her that I couldn’t do it, that I could not possibly memorize “Falling Up” by Shel Silverstein. I remember she looked up at me from her book and said, “Trood vsyo peh-reh-troot.”

It means: “Hard work grinds everything down.”

Or when there was heartache. She opened the door to my room, and that devastating song, “Color of Your Blues” was playing through the stereo, slow and soft…

𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴/ 
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴/

I remember she hugged me so and said, “Vsyo pra-ho-deet, soln-sa.”

It means: “Everything passes, my love.”

And of course, I remember the thing she told me almost every night, no matter the circumstance, like a mantra. “Oo-truh vye-cheh-ruh moo-dreh-nee-yeh,” she said. 

It means: “The morning is wiser than the evening.”

I think about this often. 

I think about it in all sorts of situations, but especially when it’s dark outside and the house is still and my brain is still, but I’m still writing, still trying—and the words won’t come. 

When this happens, I hear Babushka. I swear to God I hear her voice: 

“Oo-truh vye-cheh-ruh moo-dreh-nee-yeh.”

And so I listen. And I rest. I let my subconscious drive for a while. 

And when I return to work, the words are there again.

A warning to writers:

I read Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk.

In it he talks about philosopher Martin Heidegger, who postulated that humanity sees the planet as a standing reserve of raw material—as resources, basically, inventory just waiting to be collected and processed and converted into something else, something useable:

Cows into meat. Forests into lumber. Mountains into minerals and metals. Etcetera.

Heidegger called this standing reserve “Bestand.”

“It seems inevitable,” writes Palahniuk, “that people without access to natural Bestand such as oil wells or diamond mines, that they’d turn to the only inventory they do have—their lives.”

Yes. Most people don’t own massive quantities of raw materials, but all of us, every single person, owns their story, their life, everything they’ve savored and suffered, the beautiful things and devastating things and everything in between, too.

Our Bestand is our lived experience—and to harvest it, we can write.

We can notice our life, and we can write about it.

“Put yourself into your work,” said the late, great copywriter David Abbott. “Use your life to animate your copy,” he said.

Some of our greatest artists have echoed this advice:

Writer Anne Lamott said, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories.”

Comedian Norm Macdonald said, “My strongest material comes from real life.”

Director Bong Joon Ho said, “The most personal is the most creative.”

But at what cost?

Heidegger warned that viewing the world this way, as Bestand, can be incredibly dangerous because it reduces Mother Nature to a mere resource, something expendable to exploit and subjugate.

And therefore, as writers, it’s also possible to exploit ourselves, to collect and process and convert everything that happens to us—be it love or children or divorce or cancer or existential dread—into material: every moment examined for its potential as a headline or chapter title.

And what happens then?

“[Then] we might hurry through life,” warns Palahniuk, “enduring event after event, in order to build our list of experiences. Our stock of stories. And our hunger for stories might reduce our awareness of the actual experience.”

And what happens then?

What happens when the material supplants the moment itself?

Folks, would you call this asset a LANDING PAGE or a SALES LETTER: https://lnkd.in/gnHcEwQp

Note: this asset is designed for folks familiar with my work, mainly past buyers, current newsletter subscribers, and avid followers.

Please feel free to share your take in the comments...

Another note: I may quote and/or screenshot your comment in an an essay I'm writing about this topic for my newsletter. (I will of course link back to your profile if I do.) But if you do NOT want me to use it, please just say so in the comment 🙏🏼

Thank you!

Is this a LANDING PAGE or is it a SALES LETTER? (See above)

Moe Choice

Three years of therapy…

Condensed into a carousel 

Because attention spans are now six seconds

You’re welcome

Swipe through and save yourself about £15k and several uncomfortable conversations about your childhood


Peace ✌️


PS — If this accidentally causes personal growth, please remain calm

That was not the intention

_______________________________

is mentoring solopreneurs to $15k+ months

3 years of therapy

For just $250 a year, I get to live ANYWHERE I choose (And you can too)

In 2020 I decided I wanted a location-independent life

As a Leadership Coach

It was important that I had access to stable internet

And the privacy to take on coaching calls

Most Digital Nomad setups didn't cut it for me

I came across a global housesitting community

Where you get to live in people's houses

While looking after their pets

Yes

I get free rent to hang out with dogs

I love dogs (and don't mind cats)
I love meeting great people
I love exploring new places
And I love travel

All I needed was a passport, a plane ticket
And the ability to fit my life into two suitcases

So 2020 was about building my reputation as a Leadership Consultant

And 2021 was about getting rid of most of my stuff

And 2022 was about building my reputation as a trusted house sitter

In 2024:

• I spent $250 on membership
• About $5,000 on airline tickets
• And less than $1,000 on other transport

I got to:

• Meet incredible people
• Live in wild places
• Experience seriously cool communities

As of today I have:

• Lived in 60+ cities
• Made life-long friends
• Added $350,000 to my wealth

It's not for everyone, but it gives me what I want


Peace ✌️


PS — This was in Switzerland on the border of France

PPS — The dog judged my French accent

Honestly? Fair
________________

Their offer may be shit, but that's not the real problem

The real problem was my due diligence

Even shitter!

So here's how I fixed it:

1- Ask them what the exact outcome will be
2- Ask them how long it will take them to get you there
3- Ask them the MAXIMUM it will cost you to get you there

Then

4- Ask them to introduce you to 3 people who got there
5- And three people who did NOT

Then

6- Ask them what conditions are needed to get you there i.e. What they want/need from you

And finally

7- Ask them what happens if these conditions are met...AND the outcome is NOT achieved

If ALL answers are favourable, they are worth the "punt"


Capeesh? 🤌


PPS - Sports stadiums = worst "due diligence" ever

_______________________________

They took Ayahuasca…and they're still cùnts 

You can sit in the jungle 
You can purge your demons into a bucket 

You can cry under the stars while a shaman bangs a drum 

And if you were a cùnt before you went… 

You'll probably still be a cùnt when you get back 

There's a strange belief right now that transformation comes from experiences 

Ayahuasca Retreats
Ice baths
Breathwork
Jungle ceremonies
"Alignment" weekends in Bali 

People fly halfway around the world hoping a ceremony will fix what's wrong with them 

Real change isn't mystical 
It's boring

It's looking at the way you treat people 

The stories you tell yourself 
The habits you repeat 
The ego you protect 

And asking the one question most people would rather avoid 
"Why am I the problem here?" 

Most people would rather fly to Peruthan sit in their own bullshit 

Because the inward journey? 
That's the one that actually hurts

So where do you start?

Three questions that cost nothing and require no passport

1. Who have I been avoiding a hard conversation with?
2. What pattern do I keep repeating and pretending I don't see?
3. Where am I blaming circumstances for something I control?

Sit with those longer than any ceremony

That's the real retreat


Peace ✌️


PS — Ayahuasca often makes people violently throw up 
Which means the jungle has better comment moderation than most social media platforms

_______________________________

"I don't want to change my offer in case I lose clients"

What clients?

If you had thousands of leads coming in every day
all wanting different things…

Fine
Don't change your offer

But you don't

You don't have the problem of too much demand
You have the problem of no demand

So this idea that you might lose a client
because you say the wrong thing…

Forget it

You can't lose a client that doesn't exist

Most people are protecting a hypothetical customer

A person who isn't in their inbox
Isn't on a sales call
Isn't buying anything
Isn't real

They're holding onto an offer that nobody is responding to
because they're afraid to adjust it

Stubbornness doesn't pay the bills
Feedback does

And right now the market is giving you feedback

Silence


Peace ✌️


PS — You can't scare away imaginary clients

They're not real

_______________________________

You don't need to sell someone on a vision they already believe in

When someone truly has a vision for what they want…

You don't need to convince them
You don't need to motivate them
You don't need to sell them on why it matters

They already know

Your job isn't persuasion
Your job is alignment
You connect with the vision

Then you help them get there

That's the difference between pushing someone…
and partnering with someone

The first one is exhausting
The second one is powerful


Capeesh? 🤌


PS — If your vision is blurry, try squinting
Works for business plans and restaurant menus
_______________________________

Post. Wait. Pray.

That's not a Linkedin strategy. That's a lottery ticket

Then they wonder why they're still stuck at $2k months

Six-figure solopreneurs do something different

They start conversations
Lots of them

But here's the problem…
Most outreach on Linkedin is painfully awkward

Long connection notes
Fake compliments
A pitch in message #2

No wonder people hate it

So I built a simple model for my clients

CACA

Connect
Acknowledge
Compliment
Advance the conversation

No copy-paste templates
No "hope this finds you well" energy

Just a simple structure that turns conversations into clients

I break the whole thing down in the video

Watch it


Capeesh 🤌


PS — Better to break down the process than break down yourself

PPS — Yes, CACA means poop in Spanish

And yes, most people's outreach is exactly that

_______________________________

If you're not closing sales…
You probably don’t have a sales problem

Most solopreneurs think they need to improve

Pitching
Persuasion
Closing techniques

But usually the real issue is earlier

They’re talking to the wrong people

When you’re speaking to the right buyer

The conversation feels easy

They already understand the problem

They already want the outcome

Your job isn’t convincing
Your job is clarifying the path

The right client rarely needs to be pushed

They need to be shown


Peace ✌️


PS — I tried pushing a pull door once

We don’t talk about it

_______________________________

Shut the fùck up and I'll show you how

This happens on calls all the time

Someone says

"I want to make $15k a month on LinkedIn."

Great

"Do you know how?"

No

And five minutes later they're telling me what the strategy should be

That's like going to the doctor and saying

"Something's wrong with me…
but I've already decided what the prescription is."

If you want the outcome…

Stop talking
Start listening

The person helping you only has value if they know something you don't

Otherwise it's just two confused people agreeing with each other

That's not progress

That's a support group


Peace ✌️


PS — If you go to a mechanic and tell them how to fix the engine, don't be surprised if they hand you the wrench


_______________________________

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🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner

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The Battle

🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner

Moe Choice

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMoe Choice's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance Score🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner's LinkedIn Performance