Back To School For Copywriters

Somewhere near you, right now, there's a store with a whole aisle of spiral notebooks marked down to 79 cents.

The gargantuan engines of the big yellow buses are getting tuned up or are already tuned up and ready to roll.

Pencils are getting sharpened.

And millions of kids are about to get something most adults never get anymore:

A fresh start. A new year of learning.

Think about that. Students get new supplies, new subjects, new teachers.

All kinds of fun, and discovery, and spitballs from the back of the class.

Meanwhile, what do we get? Nothing. As copywriters and business owners, we just keep working. Sadly, for us, there's no first day where everything smells like fresh pencil shavings and great possibilities.

Unless, of course, we build that first day ourselves.

So today, we're going back to school, but in a WAY different way than you did when you were a kid.

Everything on the agenda is designed to do one of two things: either sharpen a skill you use to make money, or refresh your imagination that is so vital to the work we do.

SUMMARY

1. Recess

- Buy something fun from an ecommerce site and take notes on every piece of messaging.

- Buy something else and enjoy it without taking a single note.

- Take a real walk with no phone, no podcast, no earbuds. If you are a fan of situational awareness, you would be in condition yellow.

2. School Supplies

- Pay for at least one AI subscription and actually use it.

- Start a swipe file, or clean out the one you already have.

- Get a real notebook and a pen you actually like to use.

3. Books

- Read Obvious Adams, by Robert Updegraff.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T14VCJE

- Read a bestseller — something easy and fun.

- Read one of my books:
Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00513MQ2G/
Breakthrough Copywriting
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548706957

The Persuasion Story Code
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ

4. Extra Curricular Activities

- Go out to a movie and pay attention to the people, the film, and the marketing.

- Hand-copy some pages of fiction and some great copy, to get a sense of the rhythm and feel.

- Interview one real customer and write down their exact words.

5. Free Time

- Learn to turn your brain off from work.

- Binge-watch something on Netflix.

- Listen to a new kind of music just to rattle or soothe your brain.