🇺🇦 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.

You can also the "Featured" section below for more information about my products and services. 

Thanks again for being here—and enjoy!

Founder

"One of the best copywriting blogs around." 
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"One of the content marketing industry's best copywriters." 
- HubSpot

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.

It's also a direct-response copywriting and content marketing agency that ships clear, concise words that sell.

Click the link below to learn more.

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)

Beatrice Gutknecht 🦘

Strategy that differentiates streamlining leads to your business. 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲. 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐲.

Your brand looks exactly like your competitors'.

Because you started saying what everyone else says: "Quality." "Experience." "We care."

The pattern: Revenue plateaus. Sales slow. You're still the face of everything. Your team gives different answers when prospects ask "Why you?" 

And you can't step away because nothing happens without you.

So rebranding sounds like the fix.

It's not.

—

THE REAL PROBLEM:

Positioning, not packaging.

When founder-led service businesses get stuck—working 70-hour weeks while the team waits for approval on everything—it's because strategy lives in a document on a shelf, not in how people actually work.

—

WHAT CHANGES:

Your team knows exactly how to talk about what makes you different. No checking with you first. Your pricing reflects what you're actually worth. You show up where it matters, not everywhere.

No rebrand. No touching the logo. No throwing out what's working.

What that looks like: 

One client repositioned from last-minute supplier to design-phase partner—moving into conversations 9-12 months earlier in the buyer cycle. Result: bigger projects, better margins, eliminated price objections.

Your version won't look identical. But the principle is the same: different positioning = bigger deals, better margins, no price fights.

Results:

Within 30-60 days: Decisions happen faster. Team stops checking everything with you. Business starts to feel lighter.

By month 12: Margins improve. Referrals increase. You're the obvious choice, not another option.

—

THIS IS FOR:

Service-based businesses where you're still involved in every decision. Your team waits for your approval. Growth feels impossible without you.

THIS ISN'T FOR:

Quick fixes. Logo redesigns. Corporate structures. Businesses under 3 years old.

—

MEET THE WOMAN BEHIND THE SHADES:

I started this business because good businesses were losing deals to worse competitors. Not on merit. On positioning.

My background is operations and marketing—I've driven $700K+ in attributed revenue through repositioning and integrated campaigns. 

Now I work with founder-led service businesses to escape price competition by making strategy operational. 

Basically, what works > what looks pretty. 

Made in Australia. Based in Valencia. When I'm not fixing positioning gaps, you'll find me hoarding dark chocolate and hunting for the perfect brunch cafe.

Favikon Top 20 Branding Expert, Australia 2025.

—

F*ck rebrands. Fix your positioning first.

Let's talk: DM me or visit badasserybyb.com

Founder and Branding Strategy Consultant

Providing badass brand strategy services for service-based small to medium-sized businesses that will differentiate their brand from competitors and streamline their marketing efforts to reach and convert their target audience effectively.

Badass results:
•  Build loyalty
•  Lower churn rate
•  Increased referrals
•  Quicker sales cycle
•  Higher customer lifetime value
•  Improved audience associations and feelings about your brand.
•  A distinct and memorable identity.
•  Increased word of mouth
•  Increased inbound leads 

I know the rules of branding and when to break them.

You can tell within 2 lines of the email.

Something about how they phrase it. The questions they lead with. The way they describe what they need.

And you already know. Not consciously, just somewhere in your gut. Like, ugh, that this one is going to be work. The kind where you have to earn every dollar twice.

But hecks to it, you take the call anyway.

Because you're a professional. Because the pipeline needs filling. Because maybe this time it's different.

It isn't.

Nobody says out loud at this stage: those clients aren't finding you by accident. 

Something in the way your firm shows up… Before the call, before the proposal, before any conversation, told them they were a fit.

The fix isn't a better sales process. 

It's changing the signal. 

BATMANNNNN! 

No, okay, I’m kidding, we’re gonna make a signal just for you.

That's what this week's newsletter is about. 👇

Beatrice Gutknecht

*uck rebrands. You built it, you’re trapped in it. Positioning that creates actual exit value.

Brought to you by The Art Of Positioning Podcast Because your intake is already filtering for a type of client, you just haven't decided it's doing th

Open article: why do difficult clients always find us? by Beatrice Gutknecht • 7 min read

The mission: Avoid being caught in the 'eye-roll feed.'

Feeds have been getting more eye-rolly for a while now.

Same style of writing. Same buzzwords. Same promises. Meh.

AI isn't helping matters here.

And if you're anything like me, it leads to an uncomfortable question:

Is my business content doing the same thing?

I've seen it with clients who've been in business for decades.

Somewhere along the way, that fire and vision got buried. Through well-meaning advice. "Industry standards." Pressure to follow trends.

Hell even hiring marketing without a clear position when marketing will look to trends or to industry norms to guide their work. 

But what nobody mentions:

Your edge isn't lost. It just got a dampener on it. 

- It's in the reason you started—that you've completely stopped talking about.
- It's in how you solve problems that your team can't replicate without you.
- It's in the standard you hold that competitors quietly cut corners on.

That's what Badassery is actually about.

Not quirky. Not edgy. Not being a royal douche canoe. 

Rather, actions toward and creating the formidably impressive.

And when businesses rediscover that?

- Your business runs without you in the room
- What you've built is actually worth what you know it should be
- The right buyers see it before you even have to explain it

So here's a question I'll leave ya with:

"My reputation speaks for itself" is the most expensive sentence in your industry right now. Agree or disagree?

The best client conversations I've ever had weren't sales conversations.

There was no pitch. 

No proposal. 

No "we're comparing a few options."

They called because someone they trusted told them to. They already knew what they wanted. The conversation was just the logistics.

And that doesn't happen purely because of referrals. 

It happens because somewhere upstream, the firm had been showing up in that person's world in a way that just STUCK in their mind. 

And the most relevant voice in the room for the problem they were quietly sitting with.

By the time they were ready, there was no competition. Not really.  

The decision had already been made over months of quietly thinking: *when I'm ready, it's them.*

My client shifted what they talked about, not what they sell, but what their buyers are thinking about before they're ready to buy. And it move them 8 months earlier in the customer journey (8 months BEFORE any of the others in their space are normally approached).

That's what the newsletter I published this week gives you the fix to, I s*it you not:

https://lnkd.in/e7VpUQ5u



📸: Brandon Jackson Photography

Most biz owners assume if they find a good position, competitors will steal it.

Except competitors can't copy what their business model won't allow.

See, some positioning is structurally locked.

Let me share how with an accounting firm I found where their clients stay for 17 years.

The key here isn’t the number; it’s that they had the same team. 

Meaning same relationships and built knowledge that compounds instead of resets.

In outsourced accounting, rotating staff is standard. It's baked into how most firms operate. Junior staff on volume accounts. Senior staff moved to bigger clients. Annual handovers dressed up as "fresh perspective."

To pivot to permanently assigned teams, others would have to restructure their entire staffing model.

Fire people. Rebuild contracts. Rework how they price.

That's not a marketing change. That's a business model change.

Which means the positioning I'd build for this firm isn't just distinctive.

It's defensible.

Your competitors can claim quality. They can claim reliability. They can claim experience.

But if your differentiation is built into how you structurally operate?

They can't touch it without blowing up what they've already built.



So, what does your business do structurally that competitors would have to dismantle themselves to copy?





*uck positioning that lives only in the marketing deck. This is week 13 of me breaking down positioning competitors can't steal.

Somewhere right now, a business owner is briefing a web designer for a problem that needs a positioning strategist.

The designer will do a great job.
The site will look beautiful.
Nothing will change.

Because the problem was never the website.

It was that nobody, including the owner, could explain [differently] why a cold stranger should choose them over the guy down the road that sounds the same, and also claim impeccable service.

A new site doesn't fix that.

Neither does an agency, a rebrand, or another sales training day.

The fix depends entirely on what's actually broken.



Save this. Share it with someone who needs it more than a new logo.

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