The Copywriters Who Hide Will Lose (Here's Why)
Hey,
I've been watching something happen in real time.
And it's making me nervous for a lot of talented copywriters.
Last Monday, I was at a coffee shop when a guy named Hamza was helping jumpstart someone's car.
He was inside, sipping some coffee as he waited for the dead battery to charge up.
As I was chatting with some locals, he looked up to me and said "Wait, are you Fathi from that podcast? I recognize you”.
We talked shop for around half an hour, he was a local. like me, who'd lived in Columbus his entire life.
We shot the breeze and talked about lots of things like leaving Ohio and moving on to more opportunistic cities/countries.
By the end, he told me he signed up for my list and referred more subscribers my way.
I didn’t have to pitch this guy at all or tell him about my newsletter, something I used to do when I was just starting out.
That same day, I got an email from a copywriter asking why their "perfectly optimized funnel" wasn't converting.
The difference wasn't the copy.
It was that one of us exists as a real person to our audience.
The other is just words on a screen.
Here's what's happening (and why you need to pay attention):
The inbox is dying.
Open rates are plummeting.
The email space is at full capacity with regards to market maturation.
AI can write decent copy now.
In fact, AI summaries and AI data/privacy breaching are a thing now.
On that note by the way, make sure to disable the Google AI that scans ALL of your emails.
Financial documents, tax records, personal info, all of it, that you've previously uploaded or had sent to you is being scanned, studied and likely sold by Google.
(Corporations make money selling your data if you didn’t know).
Go to settings in your Gmail account (top right, gear wheel) and under general settings, scroll down and disable "smart features" as well as "Google workspace smart features".
Anyway, new privacy issues aside, the subscribers who actually open, read, and buy are getting harder to find.
But there's one thing AI can't replicate and algorithms can't fake:
You, showing up as a human being.
I'm talking about:
Your face on camera, sharing your actual unpolished thoughts, not just polished talking points
Your voice in someone's ear, on a podcast or voice note, where they hear you laugh at your own jokes or stumble over a word
Your presence in real spaces, at that run club, game night, or industry mixer where you can shake hands and make eye contact
The copywriters who treat their audience like a faceless email list are going to struggle.
The ones who show up, really show up, are going to dominate.
Why the human element is about to become your biggest competitive advantage:
• Trust is the new currency, and cameras build it faster than copy ever could.
People buy from people they feel like they know.
When someone's seen you mess up on a live stream or heard you tell a personal story on video, you're not a stranger anymore.
You're someone they recognize.
• The best subscribers don't find you through ads—they swim upstream to get to you.
They hear about you from a friend.
They see you speak at an event.
They stumble on your YouTube video at 2 AM and binge your entire back catalog.
These people are pre-sold before they ever hit your landing page.
You can't buy that kind of attention.
You earn it by being visible.
• Everyone else is hiding, which makes showing up absurdly valuable.
Most copywriters are terrified of the camera.
They'll write a thousand words but won't record a 60-second video.
They'll optimize their funnel but won't go to a networking event.
That fear is your opportunity.
The bar is lower than you think.
I know an ex-Agora copywriter on Twitter.
Worked for one of the most prestigious direct response companies in the world.
Knows his craft inside and out.
His list?
Stuck at 800 subscribers.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting at 3K+ and growing faster in less time.
The difference isn't talent or experience.
It's that he's a ghost.
Agora social proof is useless when you have no face, no voice, and no real-world presence.
Just tweets and copy.
His list is tight and organic, sure.
But it's not growing and therefor not earning.
And it's costing him.
• Real-world connections create opportunities no funnel can replicate.
When you're at a game night and someone asks what you do, that's a warm intro.
When you're jogging alongside someone at a run club and mention a project you're working on, that's word-of-mouth in action.
These moments don't scale, but they convert like crazy.
The truth about subscribers who actually matter:
The ones who have the longest LTV and the greatest value in terms of dollar amount, the ones who open every email, who reply, who eventually buy, those people are rare.
And they almost never come from cold traffic.
Remember how Dan Kennedy said "Whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins"?
He's not just talking about money invested and adspend, but also about IRL presence.
They come from:
Seeing you speak at an event and Googling you afterward
Hearing you on a friend's podcast and clicking through
Meeting you IRL and remembering your name because you made them laugh
These are the people who sought you out.
Who swam upstream like salmon to find your work.
They're worth at least 10x more than any leadmagnet subscriber you'll ever buy.
What this means for you:
If you're a copywriter who's been hiding behind your keyboard and an ANON pfp, it's time to get uncomfortable.
Start putting your face on camera.
Even if it's just Instagram stories or a weekly 2-minute TikTok video.
Start using your actual voice.
Record voice notes.
Go on podcasts.
Let people hear you.
Start showing up in real life.
Join that run club. Start that run club.
Host that game night.
Go to industry events, even if you hate networking.
Because the future of this business isn't just about writing better emails, anyone with half a brain can write emails now.
And those early internet halcyon days of easy email marketing are over. The bottom of this market is gone.
It's about being a person your audience can see, hear, and connect with.
That will separate the chaff the wheat.
The copywriters who figure this out now will have an overwhelming advantage over the ones who don't as the copywriting space gets more competitive.
The ones who keep hiding?
They'll get drowned out and get lost in the sauce.
Much Love,
Fathi
