Read time: 9 minutes
MCC #70 – 25 Aug 2023
Welcome to My Creative Calling!
Are your days fuelled with self-doubt?
You question your actions.
You feel unsure or stuck at every major decision.
You feel like a living and breathing imposter.
And any minute now, your whole world is gonna cave in.
But it doesn’t!
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
This is also me.
Yes me.
Just cause I’m here writing these letters doesn’t mean I have anything figured out more than you do.
Here’s the big secret:
Nobody does!
Do you remember when you were a child?
And you thought those big bad adults had everything figured out.
“Man, their life must be pretty sweet having all that power. I can’t wait to have my own house and stay up all night watching movies and eating ice cream.”
Yeah, right…
Thankfully, I lost that desire.
Or I remember one particular teacher in primary school who was a real hardass?
You know the one!
They are so mean that even their dog must hate them. Simply making eye contact with them puts a cold shiver through your whole body. They ask a question in class, and you duck your head and look to the side. They make you feel horrible for not having the right answers.
They seemed to have it all figured out.
So then those thoughts go through your mind:
“I can’t wait til one day I am boss and have it all figured out like them.”
But here’s another secret. That day doesn’t really arrive. You get older, and the more you learn. And the more you know, the more you realise there is so much more you haven’t figured out.
And here’s the kicker:
You eventually realise that the evil teacher had nothing figured out, and they only used that authority to distract from their insecurities.
And so, let’s make peace with the fact that we will never have it ALL figured out.
Let’s stop pretending we do.
Can you promise me you’ll do that?
Good.
Cause now that frees us up to start learning.
We don’t realise we are learning
You know when you have a massive a-ha moment?
It’s literally like a giant lightbulb rises up and smacks you in the face. You are not the same after that moment.
How fascinating!
Well, it happened to me in the last couple of weeks.
I realised I HAD been learning something, even though I couldn’t see it at surface level.
I’ll tell you what’s up. But first, let’s give a little background…
So, I never considered myself a copywriter.
“A what?” you say.
“Aren’t you the accountant who turned all creative? Who is now a coach?”
Yes, that’s true.
But writing this newsletter is central to all my grand moments of change in that story.
I wanted to write with impact.
But I was an accountant for 15 years. Numbers were my game — Until I had a midlife crisis.
Kidding.
I felt a creative calling.
I decided to become a creator.
It’s all inspiring until you fall flat on your face.
It’s not so simple to succeed online. To put it bluntly, it’s bloody hard.
Why so hard?
Because you don’t have the skills to succeed. Most people don’t.
What do you require?
Well, it’s beyond the scope of this letter to cover everything. You need plenty of new skills, particularly in sales and marketing.
And what is the mother of all skills online?
Writing.
I realised I had work to do.
How else was I gonna make it in this new game?
I considered myself a terrible writer. I hadn’t really thought about writing since I did a professional English elective at university over 15 years ago.
How the hell was I going to get better?
Well, the best way is to write. Put your thoughts out there. You’ll naturally get better over time by putting the reps in. Establish your writing practice.
And so I did.
But I soon learned nobody cared about my writing.
Why?
I had no technique to keep it interesting.
And that’s where we return to that magic word I mentioned just before:
Copywriting
So, what is a copywriter?
Someone who writes the words for advertisements.
Cambridge Dictionary
Ummm, that doesn’t sound so appealing, does it?
Let’s start again.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is very goal-driven. The writer of the ad or other marketing copy wants the reader to take a particular action.
For example, you might want the reader to sign up for your newsletter, click to find out more about a product, or move them along a sales funnel. Ideally, a brand’s copy drives sales and conversions while also creating meaningful experiences for its target audience.
Copywriting is precise, effective, and requires a lot of creative problem-solving. Components such as features, benefits, and price all combine to persuade a consumer to convert. Your copy is the way you communicate these aspects and your value to your potential customers.
Neil Patel
And here’s Dan Koe on it’s relevance to his success:
Some accounts that were posting insights about eCommerce mentioned a skill called “copywriting.”
When I studied it deeper, that seemed to be the piece I was missing.
Copywriting, in my definition, is persuasive writing.
Think marketing and sales — two of the most important skills for making an income — but in written form.
As you could guess, this was the missing piece to my success.
Dan Koe
There you go — copywriting is persuasive writing. That’s how it’s relevant to you, even if you aren’t a marketer or salesperson. You want your writing to be engaging and persuasive. And that’s where copywriting techniques come in handy.
And so, where to learn about copywriting?
The best way for me has been following some top creators and drawing inspiration by reading and studying their content.
And who captured my attention the most?
George Ten, aka @GrammarHippy
The way he used words on the screen hooked me in, and I wanted more. I was amazed by his storytelling and how he could keep me captivated every step of the way.
I wanted to learn more. So I joined George’s community — The CopyThinkers Community.
CopyTHINKING is about asking yourself questions.
Putting yourself in your target people’s shoes.
Imagining their day.
Both personal and professional.
When you do this…
The copy writes itself.
I promise.
George Ten
I got to work, quietly following along in the CopyThinkers Community and slowly making my way through the classroom.
What else?
Doing a hell of a lot of writing.
But I still felt average, actually way below average. It felt like I was miles behind everyone else I could see online.
Was it even worth trying to catch up?
I’ll never be a copywriter.
I don’t mean an actual “copywriter” writing ads for people. Still, you know what I mean — a persuasive writer with excellent copy skills!
Now’s the point we return to that big a-ha moment I had, remember from the beginning?
You wanna know what that was?
It was around the time I realised something was starting to click.
A DM that changed everything
The “click” was confirmed by a DM I received after helping another creator:
“Man, it is awesome.
And I am amazed by your copywriting skills.
How you delivered exactly the same ideas I suggested into easy to consume words.”
You have no idea how much it meant to hear those words.
I never expected that!
The little voice inside my head keeps telling me how much of a sloppy writer I am. And how I’ll never be as good as a “real” copywriter. So, I will NEVER be successful online.
But no — all false!
I have the proof in this message I received.
Now I can see the possibilities.
If I can help one person, I can help more.
I know this is just the beginning for me.
And so here’s that big a-ha insight:
Stop comparing yourself to those miles in front of you.
It’s not helping.
And start looking to those you CAN help a few steps behind you.
You see, you don’t have to be the best in the world to make an impact. You can start now — as you learn new skills, find ways to help those behind you.
Not only does it help others, but it reinforces your learning.
You might not feel like it, but to them, you may already look like a master!
And remember.
Keep learning.
The learning never stops.
An example to wrap things up
Now, I don’t want to just tell a feel-good motivational story without helping you more concretely.
So, I’ll show you an example of a copy transformation. Then, you’ll have something tangible to model in your own world of persuasive writing.
A starting point
I recently did a collab post on Instagram with another creator, Alex Omelchenko. I’ve come to love doing collab work as it is always a win-win in many ways — not only do you help each other grow, but you learn so much from each other’s perspective, creative workflow, and business.
Alex brought his expertise as a full-stack digital marketer. I brought my experience as a writer and creativity coach, and we combined powers for a post, “8 Ways To Never Run Out Of Content Ideas”.
Alex shared this first draft for the social media caption with me:
DRAFT #1:
Generating content ideas might be challenging sometimes, especially if you have no idea what your audience wants to consume. Before you use any of these tips to generate ideas, we strongly recommend performing audience analysis and figuring out how your knowledge can entertain or educate people and, what is more important, how it can help you sell.
It’s a good start. It lays out the challenge for people, a path forward, and why it’s essential.
But I quickly realised it was not my style. It wasn’t speaking to me.
This is something you will soon notice in collab work is that you both come with different styles. In this case, Alex was leaning on his strengths of SEO-friendly writing, which he uses to get wins for his business clients, so it has a more formal tone. However, I am used to writing more informal newsletters, not for SEO but made to feel like a conversational letter with a friend.
So we worked to find a common ground to meet in the middle. And this is where the magic happens in a collab, as you reach a new place you couldn’t otherwise by yourself.
We both knew copywriting techniques would come in handy.
What can you do here?
Let’s break it up
People scrolling online are busy. And they don’t want to work hard to find valuable information. White space on the page is your best friend. Let your words breathe!
Open with curiosity
We want to hook the reader in so they hang around for more. Opening a curiosity loop is a great technique. You will notice I did it earlier in this letter with the “a-ha” moment, but I didn’t tell you the “a-ha” until later.
Opening with a question can be great, as that instantly engages the reader. They want the answer.
WIIFM
“What’s in it for me?”
That is what your reader is wondering. Get to the point on how it matters to them.
Establish this early, or they will check out.
Be clear
Cut out big, fluffy words. Remove long, winding sentences that confuse your reader.
And stay on point to the message you aim to deliver.
Be specific
Call out precisely who you are helping and how you are helping so they know.
Don’t be vague. People don’t search online for vague things.
Think when you type into Google. For example, If you need to find a local dog groomer who specialises in older dogs with anxiety issues, you search for that. You don’t type in “dog haircut” for that search.
Make the reader feel something
We humans are emotional creatures. We like to feel things.
Sure, we prefer joy and serenity, but what gets our attention?
Our fears and pains.
Yep, as annoying as that sounds, you want to lead with some negative emotion to hook the reader in.
But don’t worry, you can do it engagingly without becoming one of those junk tabloid news outlets.
Create a slippery slide
You want your writing to feel like moving down a slippery slide. Vary your sentence length. The goal here is to keep people reading.
Your readers should be so compelled to read your copy that they cannot stop reading until they read all of it as if sliding down a slippery slide.
Joseph Sugarman
With all that, let’s see draft #2 of that caption:
DRAFT #2:
So you wanna be creating more content?
But there’s one problem…
You’re forever running out of ideas.
Or worse.
You don’t have any ideas.
Gulp…
And just to top it off…
You have no idea what your audience actually wants to consume.
So before using these tips, we recommend you:
Get to know your audience.
Check out some profiles.
Speak to them.
Analyse your audience.
See what you can uncover.
Then:
Figure out how your knowledge can entertain, educate or inspire those people.
And what’s more important:
How it can help you sell.
What else would you add to the list?
Notice how it’s essentially the same content idea as draft #1. But it lands much differently, doesn’t it?
And we finished with a question as a call to action (CTA).
Go over Draft 1, then Draft 2 again.
You will notice number 2 is much more informal and conversational. It’s like you are chatting with a mate. It’s fun to read.
And so, with all that, now it’s over to you:
Reflection
What high-value skills are you learning at the moment?
Maybe you don’t even realise you are like me with the copywriting example.
Stop comparing yourself to those masters who are miles ahead of you. Turn your focus to those a few steps behind whom you can help.
Time to get your hands dirty:
Write a piece of short-form content. Just smash out a rough draft. Then, apply the copywriting tips I outlined:
- Break it up
- Open with curiosity
- Be clear
- Be specific
- Add emotion
- Create a slippery slide
A quote to ponder
No sentence can be effective if it contains facts alone. It must also contain emotion, image, logic, and promise.
Eugene Schwartz
What happened this week
YouTube & Podcast
Unleash Your Hidden Talents (The Power of Your Individual Gifts)
Poetry & Purpose
Today Is For The Seizing
“I could always wait until tomorrow,
but where’s the fun in that?
Tomorrow turns into next week,
next month or next year.
Soon you’ll find regret.”
Final thoughts
Today’s writing background music playlist was The Wind Down on Spotify.
I hope you enjoyed this letter, please share it with a friend.
If you would like to receive my weekly letter in your inbox, sign up here.
It would be great to have you on board!
Cheers!
Matt K. Head
When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:
Coaching
- Find more meaning and fulfilment in your work
- Gain clarity and start taking action on your creative journey
