I’ve gotten sucked into a new brainteasing game—cryptic crosswords.

Definitions, word play, letter order, all of it unravels before me eyes as I watch the creator unpack a myriad of cryptic clues to solve just ONE crossword clue, and after 3 weeks of watching I still haven’t gotten the hang of it.

And I rage every time the creator presents the solution. He’s so smug it makes me insane.

But I’m going to stick with it because words are my passion, and puzzles are my addiction.

However, your customers are not copywriters like me. They don’t stick around your website because they don’t want to solve cryptic clues on your website, or in your emails, or even how to contact you.

They want simple, clear, and concise messaging that tells them exactly who you are, what you do, and how you solve their problems.

Don’t hide your best value in a jumbled mess of text blocks. Hire a copywriter who’s a (on-the-way-to-being) master at solving cryptic clues and can turn your messaging into easy solutions for your clients.

Give a children a sandbox and they’ll be entertained for hours.

Give video gamers a sandbox and they’ll construct machines beyond what the developers could ever imagine.

Give your users a sandbox, fill it with as much sand as they want, give them the toys they need, and give them as few rules as possible.

You’ll be amazed by what they create, and how they’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to build a business they keep coming back to.

Millions tune into the Oscars every year to see who will come out on top as the best so-and-so.

The tension of who’s going to win, and who’s going home without an award, draws people to sit nose to nose with their screen.

One moment suspended between the announcer’s pause and the paper flutter of the sealed envelope opening is a small eternity, full of possibility.

Find the possibility in your work where you can recreate the tension of that envelope to make people sit forward in their seats thinking something amazing is about to happen.

Write down 100 bad ideas first. At least one good idea will slip through the cracks.

Do some research to explore your ideas and narrow your focus. Explore ideas that make you feel something and put into words WHY it does that.

Talk out loud like you’re talking to a friend.

Take a walk in nature, look up at the trees.

Kill your darlings.

There needs to be more meandering.

Small cities equals small space, and no one wants 5 massive parking decks clogging up the beautiful downtown.

Delight the people who are already living there by refining your public transportation system and improve the foot traffic system before you greenlight massive hotels.

Cars are built for going places. The trip is mapped out before the engine starts, and if you’re not a pitstop you’re not getting a visit.

People on foot have the exclusive ease and opportunity to wander. From block to block, from store to store.

A lesser known fact about me is that I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and I chose a finance major because of compounding interest.

The idea that you could build your own mountain of shimmering gold coins with your own dollars was interesting, and then inescapable.

But then I took the courses, and the magic was gone — now I feed my Roth IRA every month and it grows without me noticing.

Now as a copywriter, I see the same compounding effect in my work. A new currency that has the same fluidity: emotions, affiliation, status, objections, goals, and decision-making factors. They’re the pennies and dimes traded in the business, sales, and copywriting world.

Just like money could move money, the right words can grow your money pile.

When you invest in solid, well-strategized copy, you’ll start seeing exponential growth. Slowly, and then all at once for years and years after.

Artists in the modern world are staring down the barrel of the gun that threatens their livelihood on the daily — it’s called overconsumption under capitalism.

Slashed prices and cheap knock offs have destroyed the value of true art, and if you’re an artist in the thick of it you might incorrectly assume that the only way to keep yourself in the game is to slash your prices as well.

But what would you do if I told you the secret to success wasn’t to undercharge? That the magic potion you’re looking for is something you already have?

My dear artists, your artistic vision is an integral part of the art. All you have to do put your process as the star of your marketing, not the art itself.

Your process is the what makes your art valuable. The vision in your mind, your hands that mold the medium, the hours you pour into drafting every minute detail in your art.

There are millions of t-shirt sellers on Etsy, but why does your flower-blocking technique and inspiration make you outshine the others? How does your art connect more with your customers than anyone else’s? How have your life experiences sculped the way you create your work?

The answers to those questions are what people want to hear. Put it on your social media, your website, a portfolio, your business cards, whatever platform you want to use.

Romanticize the process, be strategic with your marketing, and price your art as if it’ll become a treasured heirloom — only then will your ideal art appreciator come sprinting towards you without ever crying, “Why is this priced so high? I can make it at home!”

Copywriters have an obligation rarely talked about in the “hustle dude bro” circles that saturate the marketing industry.

And that’s being good stewards of our craft.

We have a powerful tool at our fingertips — the power to persuade.

You can have the best product in the world, but if your messaging can’t accurately convey WHY it’s good you might as well be talking to an empty room with the door shut.

Copywriters stoke the fires of passion, creativity, and transformation that businesses want to broadcast to the world.

We have the power to make customers hand over their wallets with gratitude.

But we can also mislead, lie, and rally for the wrong missions, or the wrong people.

With great power comes great responsibility. Copywriters who check themselves and write for the good of the business AND the customer are invaluable — the diamonds in the rough.

When I was a fresh-faced virtual assistant back in 2021, I learned quickly that busy VAs looking for solutions were the only ones who stayed employed.

So instead of waiting for my clients to pass work down the pipeline, I made myself a proactive partner my clients could rely on to dig in and get the work done.

I would take deep dives into their businesses, looking for any small projects I could take on so they’d have less on their plate.

With each problem I solved for clients, I gained more marketing experience and knowledge about what it takes to create an effective marketing ecosystem.

More importantly, I learned how to be a great service provider for clients who needed help with their marketing needs and finding new ways to reach their consumers!

It was work that came naturally to me—and my clients were happy with the work I turned in!

Now that I’m a copywriter, I find myself using all that expertise to deliver the best copy AND customer experiences that’s organized, strategic, and effective!

All of that to say, proactive service, no matter your skill level or title, will always carry you to great success.

The most horrifying thing I can think of has finally happened to me— my 2001 Pontiac Aztek kicked the bucket… and now I have to go *shudder* car shopping.

The first google search I typed after getting the death sentence from my mechanic was “what car should I drive if I don’t care about cars.”

Because I’m one of those drivers who don’t care about all the fancy bells and whistles. As long as my car can get me from point A to B, we’re golden.

And according to the internet, there’s a lot of people who feel like me and they all came to a unanimous vote.

“If you want a car so indestructible it’s not even funny, get a Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V.”

“These cars will outlive YOU if you take care of it.”

“My RAV4 hardly ever breaks down, and when it does it’s easy and cheap to fix.”

“There’s a reason millionaires only drive Hondas.”

Well…that’s all I need to know.

While I browsed local Toyotas and Hondas in my area, I couldn’t help thinking about how hard both those companies have worked to get the reputation they have now.

To command that kind of notoriety means they understood how to use their marketing efforts to change the culture of car manufacturing.

And it’s not just the commercials or the shiny paint jobs when the roll off the conveyor belt.

It’s the accessibility to the car parts and how affordable it is to fix them, it’s how their customer service cares for it's customers, it’s all the ways Toyota and Honda went out of their way to serve their customers in the ways they needed.

All of it settles into the customer and changes the story they tell themselves — that only smart and economic drivers buy from Toyota and Honda.

Everything a business does that touches the market is marketing. And when done right, your customers will happily spread your ideas, services, and products for you.

A person who hates getting gum stuck to their shoes can walk by the same billboard advertising a reusable pocket-size gum scraping kit every day for years, and never truly understand how it serves them to make their life better.

The gum scraping kit business owners will scratch their heads wondering why this person, who is their exact target for the kit, never looks up at their very nice, informative, and persuasive billboard.

But that’s the problem. The person who needs the kit isn’t looking up at billboards on their walk. They’re too busy looking down at the sticky mess on the bottom of their shoes.

If these gum scraping kit business owners wanted to serve their customers more (and get more sales), they would put that same billboard low to the ground.

In short, your messaging must exist in multiple platforms, and in different spaces to connect with the right people. If your customers aren’t coming to you on their own, you must go and meet them wherever they are.

Like a good little copywriter, I carve out time every day to read through my email, including my promotions folder.

And what I’ve noticed is that ecommerce emails are the ones that my mind scrolls past almost instantly.

Why? Because I already know what’s going to be inside.

I can already see it. ‘Here, buy this!’ in some variant under a big picture of the product.

It’s not a bad format, but please ecommerce brands I’m begging you to try something different.

Look at it this way: You need new solar lights for your balcony in time for your next dinner party.

Are you going to buy them from an email that goes on and on about about the run time, or are you going to buy from the email that paints the picture of solar lights that are the hero of your dinner party? The lights that cast a warm glow over conservations all night and let you stretch the goodbyes out just a little bit longer than needed?

Sometimes simple emails are the right way to go. However, I say the more you can delight your customers with specific stories and word painting, the more likely they’ll be to choose your solar lights.

Today I’m researching how to fundraise for nonprofit spec work, and here’s what I’m learning about the art of begging for money.

1. Don’t call it begging. Use language that invokes reciprocity like partner, support, and sponsor.

2. The most well-funded kick starters used affirmative messaging that inspired hope and action after the initial donation. If you’re unsure about what you will accomplish after the fundraiser, your prospective donors will turn away.

3. Personalized, heartwarming stories do a much better job with connecting donors to the cause than just about everything else.

I’m very close to my grandfather (Granddaddy if you’re southern like me), and I’ve learned that he has no patience.

Especially for things he doesn’t care to understand — like instructions from doctors. So I pick up the slack and translate the medial jargon for him instead.

Like today, when he was grumbling about a procedure his doctor signed him up for.

“I get a pain in my temple maybe once a month, but it’s not anything to worry about.” he told me over breakfast, “I wished I’d never mentioned it to him. I don’t want to go if there’s no reason for it.”

I’m sure his doctor already explained the reasoning, but still I asked, “Did he say what the test was for?”

“He must have, but I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.”

So I called the medical center.

I listened carefully to the technician answering my questions, and did what I do best as a copywriter — deliver the message exactly in the way he needed to hear it.

“It’s a stress test. They want to make sure you don’t have a blockage in your heart.”

“Well, why didn’t he say that?”

He did, just not very well or in a way that would resonate with my Granddaddy.

Maybe doctors should learn about copywriting, then they would understand that the right message and words can literally be a lifesaver.

You could say I’m a little bit of a drama queen.

No I don’t want to start drama, but I love watching it play out across all mediums.

Star-studded movies, over-the-top play productions, and I can’t forget my stack of romance books chock full of drama and tropes I eat up every. single. time.

Which is why I love writing story-based emails for my clients.

The flair! The passion! The complex plot! The incredible cast of characters and storyline you can build up in your weekly emails have endless possibilities!

Sure, emails are only text, but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring.

The pain of loss can be much more powerful, and enticing, than the mystery of something new.

We all remember Pirates of the Caribbean 2, right? The one where Tia Dalma gives Jack Sparrow a jar of dirt that will protect him against Davy Jones.

At first, Jack is skeptical. However, once Tia Dalma demands to have the jar, Jack is much more reluctant to part with it.

And in doing so, he attributes much more value to the jar than before.

Sometimes, your marketing strategies need to show your customer how they already have the solution in their hands, and how painful it will be to lose what’s already proven to work.

Then give them the option to defend their right to it.

There’s just some parts of your business that shouldn’t be discussed on a podcast.

Specifically, if you’re contemplating whether or not to cancel your podcast show… don’t hem and haw about to your podcast listeners!

Sure, podcast effectiveness can’t be measured like other marketing channels and the financial obligation can be a strain if you aren’t ready for the burden.

But just make the decision yourself and act on it.

Don’t plant the seed in their minds that you’re already wrapping things up by making claims too soon.

And for goodness sake, don’t tell your listeners they’re part of the reason why you’re closing down the show!

It’s an immediate warning flag for listers to jump ship, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.

Go ahead an be “authentic” on your podcast if that’s what you think your listeners want.

And then make provisions for when you look around to see no one is following behind you.

Here’s the exercise I use in my self-editing that helps me find the deepest benefits, and trim away the fluff that doesn’t carry weight.

“They don’t want the thing you’re selling. They want the feeling that comes with having the thing.”

This works regardless of the service or product. If you can needle out the what your customer is truly after, connection and persuasion follow naturally.

Example: a new mom doesn’t want to buy an expensive baby conditioner because it’s expensive and has a no-tear formula.

She wants it because being a new mom is hard, and life becomes a little easier if she sticks with a conditioner the hairdresser approves of.

In fact, if the hairdresser who does her baby’s first haircut compliments her baby’s hair, she’s gets reassurance that she picked the right product, and she gains a new level of respect and status by being a mother who keeps her child well-kept.

New moms don’t want the expensive conditioner. They want the reassurance, status, and respect that comes with using it.

You can find copywriting everywhere if you squint long enough.

Example: How do you convince the older citizens of a small college town in north Alabama that walkable neighborhoods is better for them — the group who fights change the most?

Joel Anderson is leading the development of the West Village, the first walkable neighborhood in Florence, Alabama and possibly north Alabama.

This development is only a few miles away from where I live, and I also have my name on the waitlist.

The problem Florence faces right now is that it’s on the precipice of a new age. A clash of ideals you could say.

The older generation likes their cars and parking decks, while the young remote workers (who the local government are targeting with funding programs) would like for the Shoals area to have more accessibility, walkability, and flexibility in how you get around.

I agree with younger crowd. Florence has the potential to be a small American town with the work-life balance and access to community like any European paradise you can think of.

But how do you get the other side on board?

It’s a practice in copywriting, and persuasion, that starts with showing them how useful it is to get more drivers off the road — leaving more space for their supped up trucks to take up.

It all comes back to this copywriting fundamental: know you audience.

The remote workers are already don’t need more pushing, they already want it.

So the job is now convincing the older generation that new ideas and ways of life coming to the Shoals is a benefit them first before everyone else.

I watched Inside Out 2 this weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.

As someone who has anxious tendencies, I can say Anxiety’s character was accurately portrayed in ways I had never put words to before.

Spoiler Alert: Riley, after being taken over the new emotions, spends the second act of the movie abandoning her values to gain a short-term victory — pleasing others at the expense of her sense of self.

In the end, Anxiety puts too much pressure on Riley to predict move and outcome on the way to this goal, and she has a panic attack.

It’s easy for us to look back and say, “Well, of course anxiety is only in your imagination! No one should ever listen to those voices in your head telling you that you’re not good enough.”

But how many times have you put your brand promise at stake to meet quotas and quarter goals?

How many times has the anxiety in your head told you that you’re not good enough to reach out to a client?

Or avoid investing in a service that will bring your business further into alignment with those you seek to serve because you feel like you don’t deserve success?

Business moves rooted in anxiety are inherently selfish, because they are made to satisfy your inner fears instead of serving your customers.

And that’s a road that leads to nowhere.

We cannot control outcomes, only what we put into the world.

When there’s only a tiny bit that you can control, everything you ship should be rooted in generosity.

Elevate, experience, embody, unlock, discover, dive into…

What do all of these have in common?

Ding ding! Yep, you guessed it! These are all words that pop up everywhere in AI-generated copy.

People forget that AI scrapes data from human work, and most writing on the internet is average at best.

If you try to use AI to write a mission statement for a luxury brand, I’d bet all the money in my pocket that it’ll spit a word salad that uses “elevate” at least twice.

And when you’re a luxury brand, do you really want copy and messaging that uses average word choice?

Or would you rather have custom, bespoke messaging with rooted in creativity and unexpected possibilities — all the things AI could never hope to achieve?

AI is the next swing of a pendulum.

The 70s and 80s were filled with too much supply of trade workers and craftsmen, the pendulum swung to more demand for tech workers after the personal computer was built.

Now the pendulum is moving again, evident by the massive wave of layoffs plaguing the workplace.

There are too many of “this” (tech workers to man the machine) and not enough of “that” (trade workers to keep the offices cushy).

In a decade or so, the pendulum swing will again.

I am a habitual over-explainer. Long winded. Novel writer doomed to build listicles instead.

Call it whatever you want, I just hate being misunderstood.

And yet the daily practice of copywriting demands that you be as brief as possible.

When you finish your draft, cut it in half.

Then cut it again.

Whittle it down until there’s no fluff, and every word has its place.

That’s why I’m committing to this daily Seth Godin-style blog.

Less words, more intention, and more vulnerability with putting my work out there.

And with daily practice, it will be reflected in my work too.

An easy-to-follow guideline I use to measure a landing page’s composition, no matter the industry standard:

What’s the problem?

What’s the solution?

Who are you and why are you selling this to me?

Does this really work work?

Where can I buy this?

Businesses and products become great and connect easily with the market by creating tension.

The good kind of tension can only be solved by forward motion and connection.

Example: Do you feel that itch on your back where you can't reach? Here's a back scratcher.

The bad kind of tension leaves a bruise instead of an itch. It mashes on a customer’s frustrations until there’s only pain with no relief in sight.

Pull the string taught and when you release it, aim it in the direction that propels your customers towards a better place than where they were standing.

Not in a way that sends them back to a darker, lonelier version of themselves.

Being clear will always connect with more people than trying to be clever.

Done right, a clear motive and transparent sincerity will get you the most powerful asset in the digital age — trust.

If done wrong, cleverness can translate into deception.

The wrong message aimed at the right people, wrapped in an inside joke, is still the wrong message.