4:54pm
Saint Paul
One thing the book The Creative Ambush hammers on is,
What dreams have you given up on?
And why?
Last week I met with a university student who is majoring in marketing.
Over coffee, I asked about his marketing and business classes, what he’s learning, what his plan might be after college.
Was he learning to write headlines? Advertisements? Design UX? Understand KPIs?
No, no, no and no.
The classes sound abysmal.
We first met when he was knocking door to door, selling house painting services. The painting gig required him to find workers, find customers, do the work, collect payment, make payroll, and more.
He learned far more about business and marketing during those three months than in 2+ years attending college.
So I offered to send a few book recommendations to help with his concept of marketing.
“What type of work do you see yourself doing?”
He didn’t know. Something with writing, or sales maybe.
Sounds like Direct Response Copywriting to me!
Point is, both the Creative Ambush book and this coffee meeting highlight the importance of knowing where you want to go.
Myself, after college I wanted to be a chef. So I got a job at a high-end restaurant in Minneapolis.
I planned to attend Le Cordon Bleu cooking school… until I learned about the low pay, long hours of most full time chefs.
Then I decided to teach Spanish. I attended grad school classes to earn my graduate degree, but after two years of teaching I knew this wasn’t my calling.
So I quit that.
I spent much of my teaching life messing around with Linux on the computer, so I took computer courses and made that my career.
I quickly realized that security is important—so I developed a security-focused mindset.
I worked in IT for some 16 years…
And spent the last three of those years learning about copywriting. When the time came, I was ready to dive into marketing.
Point is:
At each of these stages, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do forever.
But I knew what I wanted to do next—and I made myself into that person.
I know a guy who says he wants to be a copywriter.
Last time we spoke, he was driving trucks for UPS delivery service.
Nothing wrong with that—but when I asked how he was working on his copy chops, he said he wasn’t.
You, *|FNAME|*, are in charge of your own life.
Give yourself direction… or your life will take the path of least resistance, and you’ll be stuck in a job you don’t like without any idea what’s next.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Jeffrey
P.S. I have just over a month until I give my Direct Response Email Marketing presentation in Boston.
The audience is going to be in for a surprise—I think this type of marketing is completely foreign to them.
And the way my presentation is set up, I expect people to be scribbling notes fast and furious.
I’m still gathering content to flesh out the slides and talk, and I’d like to know what you think of what I have so far.
So next Friday Oct 18, I’ll be presenting this in a live setting.
If you’re a copywriter or business owner looking to make connections with your readers…
You’re open to giving me feedback…
And you’re willing to suffer a few stumbling blocks…
I’d love to have you there.
I’ll send out a sign up form next week.
And no, it won’t be free. But it won’t cost anywhere near the $2195 of the Boston event, either.
Stay tuned.