Mongo’s Last Adventure

Scott was a fun guy to be around. Great copywriter. I have some letters he did. When he was on his game he was fucking brilliant.
I met him for the first time at Gary’s seminar in Phoenix. Scott did the bullets for the sales letter for the seminar.
I remember thinking, these bullets are outstanding.
It was always good to hang with him.
I spoke with him a few months back.
Can’t believe he checked out so soon.
RIP Mongo

What a wonderful, loving tribute you’ve penned John.

A mighty big thanks is owed to you for connecting me to Scott via the SWS program. He was my first copywriting coach and he did a damn good job teaching me how to assemble words into marketing messages. I consider myself damn lucky for that experience and to be friends with him for all too brief a time.

I wish I had some great stories but the only two that come to mind are from our last get together in Vegas with Big Jason Henderson, Mike Morgan, and Mike’s brother-in-law.

If memory serves me correctly, Mongo asked Mike’s brother-in-law “Hey, do you have any good stories from when he had hair?”

Soon we were off into stories from Mike’s younger, wilder days that he probably would rather keep to himself. 🙂

The other thing I remember clear as day is Scott asking me how I managed to deal with living in Vegas and working on the Strip.

I told him I just had to keep reminding myself of one thing:

That the Strip is essentially the vortex where the worst dressed neanderthal’s from Wal-Mart collide with the phony Hollywood, GQ wanna-be’s all vying to be the most vain and vapid in order to be discovered by the Kardashians.

If you can always bear that in mind you’ll be fine.

At which point a respectable amount of beer exited Mongo’s nose as he started laughing.

To get Mongo laughing was an honor and a memory I’ll always cherish.

His ability to ask simple straight forward questions unlocked stories, experiences and information that would be sitting right in front of you waiting to be discovered if you only asked the right questions like he did.

I’ll always remember that about him and always be grateful that he took a screwball like me into his world. I only wish I’d me t him much sooner.

To add more color to Michael’s funny story, Mongo was putting on a drinking clinic there at Gordon Biersch Brewery. Waiters brought him beer after Jägermeister, after beer. Yet you rarely saw the dude drinking because he was talking or howling with laughter. Sneaky bastard, our Mongo.

I never knew, Mongo. But from this article, I wish I did. Sorry for your loss, John. And to everyone else who knew him.

I never had the chance to meet Scott, but it’s obvious he was the kind of guy I would have enjoyed being around. What a bummer to lose such a fella. Thanks for the write-up and shedding more light upon your pal.

His course was the one that brought me first “bigger than usual” money. After this I wrote my first good sales letter, not mediocre one that was before. Big thanks to you, Scott!

He was a great teacher, a great copywriter and a great man.

He loved life, loved goods that life brings to you.

I hope he was happy for his life in his last days.

Now he can hang out with Gary Halbert again…

RIP

Goddamn you, Carlton. You got me crying all over again. Yesterday (January 10th) was much, much harder on me than I expected.

Mongo and I connected immediately, but I’m not even sure where I met him first. Or how many events I’ve hung out with him. I know I never had his phone number but if I ever wanted it, I know without a doubt he’d not only give it me but encourage me to use it.

He was one of the biggest hearted people I’ve ever known. I’m honored I was included in the final close circle of Gonks and friends invited to say our final goodbyes the night before he left us. It’s great that so many others are learning of (or already knew of) his legacy. He was deeply loved and is deeply missed.

I’m going to miss a few of the Gonks with the ferociousness I miss Scott…you’re at the top of the heap, Carlton so don’t even think about checking out anytime soon.

Love ya, man!
CPW Brat

Knew him only through you. Yet I’m shocked he’s gone at 46. Gotta live hard and fast. Thanks for the reminder.

Etienne
A fan and customer

I met him, shocker of shockers, in the bar at one of Jay Abraham’s seminars.

Shared a couple drinks and good laughs. One of the most approachable guys I’ve ever met. Left such a mark on me that I’d regularly stalk him online and try to figure out where the heck he was and what he was up to, though never did get a chance to work with him in my direct mail days.

Sad to hear of his passing.

Nice tribute John. My heart’s hurtin’ today.
Mongo like beer. Mongo be missed.

“It seems the good die young, yeah”. Marvin Gaye, (Abraham, Mavin and John).

It was as if were yesterday when he was ribbing and spinning yarn at Gary’s tribute about working and road dogging with him and the ensuing adventures.

And now he’s gone.

From the raw emotion being played out here it showed he meant a lot to many people.

Everyone’s ticket is going to get punched one time or another.

The only thing we can do is to leave a good legacy of our time here on this ball of mud.

Scott through the thoughts shared here had this in spade.

His life will live on through his work.

What a write up tribute, John.

Rip Mongo

Damn. When I was burning out at my job in the 90’s Scott was the only friend I had. One of the first I knew on the internet. I’ll never forget palling around Disneyworld with him and you, John.

Damn.

John,

Thanks so much for the fantastic tribute to Scott. I hadn’t talked to Scott in about 2 years, since my last trip to Vegas where we got to reconnect and share some laughs.

So sorry to hear he’s left us. Great guy overall.

RIP Scott.

This was a nice story thanks John. I was quite haunted when I first saw the news about Scott’s stroke on Christmas day. Somehow I thought he would be OK – 46 is way to young to exit this place.

It kinda didn’t add up! Also I have been running through his bullets (again) on and off for a few weeks and hand copying as I try to improve my own writing.

They were (and will remain) genius and I wonder if I’ll ever get so good I can write my own like this one day.

Scott did a sales letter critique for me once and gave some awesome suggestions – which ramped the copy up in to a different league!

Yes its a shock – but it must be odd for you guys who were part of each others lives.

THe world is less one more writer with that “magic” but he leaves a gift to us all in his wake – and I will continue to copy the remainder of the bullets with a slightly different emotional feeling as I write.

Thanks for the great post.

R.I.P Mongo – I hope I’m as good a writer as you when I join you for the great gig in the sky!

Cheers Carl

I am so sorry for your loss, John.

Scott and I had only exchanged emails on a small number of occasions.

The last one he’d sent me was on Dec 23rd 2016.

I’d only heard about him a couple of years ago — (something that John C. or Gary H. had said) — which set me scouring the interwebs.

I devoured what little I could find by him… and the stories about him by copywriters I’d already held in highest esteem (Carlton, Halbert, Rogers, etc). I was immediately a fan-boy on the far outer-rings of his acquaintance.

I found out about his passing shortly after it happened, and posted this to a group some days before the ripple affect began to cut a swath of ache across the industry.

“Reflecting on the brevity of this mortal coil’s dance… and those masters of copy who’ve paved the way… yet shuffled their path all too briefly.”

In grief-stricken delusion, I feared invoking his name in the post… (because then it would seem real)… and even deleted it as if guided by a naive, childlike wish to set time back.

Then John Carlton began posting about it, and…

floodgates.

I met Scott for the first time in person that weekend in Vegas from the photo you posted above, John.

Before that, we were basically just Facebook friends who said happy birthday to each other. I’d gotten a few copy reviews from him and bought his course, but we didn’t really know each other.

However when I met him in person, we instantly clicked, and I felt like I’d already known him for ages.

Thing is, I’m guessing a lot of people who met Scott would say the exact same thing.

He had what Mexicans refer to as “la sangre liviana” or light blood. It means you’re a kind, good hearted, easy going person. Easy to know.

After I met him, I felt like I could randomly show up unannounced on his doorstep and say “hey man remember me” and he would immediately invite me in for a beer with a smile and a dirty joke.

That weekend in Vegas was a great time sharing stories and talking shop over good food and a few too many drinks.

Obviously Scott had copy chops, but aside from that he really was an awesome, good hearted guy, and I wish I’d gotten the chance to get to know him better. Wherever he is now, I hope he knows the mark he left on the world.

Thanks for the post John.

Condolence to the bereaved!

Every time I talked to Scott about growing up in Oklahoma, he always mentioned their evil pet billy goat.

He hated that damn thing. It was always ramming him and knocking him over when he was a kid.

During the time I was in Tulsa to see Scott off to the bar with Gary, his big brother Jamie asked if I wanted to see some old pictures of Scott.

I said, “Hell, yeah!”.

As we’re going through all these pictures, I suddenly screamed, “Holy shit! Was that your pet billy goat?”.

Jamie started chuckling and said, “Yep. I loved to rile that goat up so he’d ram Scott and knock him down. I’d get a kick out of it every time.”.

We laughed our asses off for quite awhile.

After we finished looking at all the pics, Jamie asked if I wanted to keep some of them.

I now have a picture of young Scott looking down in horror at their evil billy goat.

It’s on my desk, and I look at it every day…

Scott was my coach when I first took the SWS. He tore my copy apart like a jaguar pouncing on a crocodile, lol. But he did it with patience and grace. It was exactly what I needed to get good. I was very grateful for how much time he gave me on all the lessons. I was expecting to get some solid tips, but Scott put his whole being into the coaching. And damn, he was good. Before the coaching my brain was like North Korea at night—completely dark. Afterwards my brain was lit up brighter than Las Vegas. I felt like a real copywriter after that. I’m truly blessed to have been coached by such a legend.