Back To School For Copywriters

<p>Somewhere near you, right now, there&#39;s a store with a whole aisle of spiral notebooks marked down to 79 cents.</p><p>The gargantuan engines of the big yellow buses are getting tuned up or are already tuned up and ready to roll. </p><p>Pencils are getting sharpened. </p><p>And millions of kids are about to get something most adults never get anymore:</p><p>A fresh start. A new year of learning.</p><p>Think about that. Students get new supplies, new subjects, new teachers.</p><p>All kinds of fun, and discovery, and spitballs from the back of the class.</p><p>Meanwhile, what do we get? Nothing. As copywriters and business owners, we just keep working. Sadly, for us, there&#39;s no first day where everything smells like fresh pencil shavings and great possibilities.</p><p>Unless, of course, we build that first day ourselves.</p><p>So today, we&#39;re going back to school, but in a WAY different way than you did when you were a kid.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>SUMMARY</strong></p><p><strong>1. Recess</strong></p><p>- Buy something fun from an ecommerce site and take notes on every piece of messaging.</p><p>- Buy something else and enjoy it without taking a single note.</p><p>- 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.</p><p><strong>2. School Supplies</strong></p><p>- Pay for at least one AI subscription and actually use it.</p><p>- Start a swipe file, or clean out the one you already have.</p><p>- Get a real notebook and a pen you actually like to use.</p><p><strong>3. Books</strong></p><p>- Read Obvious Adams, by Robert Updegraff.<br><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T14VCJE">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T14VCJE</a></p><p>- Read a bestseller — something easy and fun.</p><p>- Read one of my books: <br>Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, <br><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00513MQ2G/">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00513MQ2G/</a><br>Breakthrough Copywriting<br><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548706957">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548706957</a></p><p>The Persuasion Story Code<br><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>4. Extra Curricular Activities</strong></p><p>- Go out to a movie and pay attention to the people, the film, and the marketing.</p><p>- Hand-copy some pages of fiction and some great copy, to get a sense of the rhythm and feel.</p><p>- Interview one real customer and write down their exact words.</p><p><strong>5. Free Time</strong></p><p>- Learn to turn your brain off from work.</p><p>- Binge-watch something on Netflix.</p><p>- Listen to a new kind of music just to rattle or soothe your brain.</p>