That’s my thing, by the way. Helping people with ideas, dreams and businesses with copy and direction. It started years ago. I met this lovely mother of two who had a day job, and also baked ring cakes and made postcards every Christmas. And I wanted to do something for her but did not really know what. (It was before Facebook. We had a life then, too.) I was in my corporate media job, but could see that what she was doing was outstanding.
Years later, a very good friend was redesigning his coaching practice and starting his first strategy courses. He’d basically teach how to flip the mindset switch and build a wow product for your ocean of clients. He had coached me before. I knew he had the stuff. And this time I was better equipped. I listened, asked questions, then picked up snippets from his own lines. Maybe occasionally rephrased them. Lined them up nicely in good old Socratic style. And served it on a platter. Bam, before I knew it, I was in business. Then we did his TEDx talk on music cracking the code for performance 500 years before business. It’s us in the pic below, on that very day.
And then, gradually, a tribe of unsung heroes came through: green energy advisors, apps, blockchain enthusiasts and software developers. They all have something in common with my baking lady: they put an idea out there to make somebody’s life a dollop better. They pour their hearts into their work and give it to the world.
I can think of lots of people like that: Oana Manolescu, the designer whose clothes are the skin I live in almost every day. Or Parul Macdonald, an articulate Random House editor turned coach for every enterpreneur out there wanting to write their signature book. You want them in your corner!
I’m a copywriter, by the way. I’ve always loved words and writing, I was just too busy proving myself on the corporate ladder to notice it. I did a mix of PR, marketing and sales for 17 years. Which is where my B-skills come from. I then got my online education with the entrepreneurial biggies and emerging stars: Marie Forleo, Laura Belgray, and Selena Soo.
Starting out is not easy. I know what if feels like when your number one relationship is your laptop. When your idea nags you to come out and keeps you up at night, but words just don’t sound right. And if that is someone you know, this is my cue.
I’ve decided to help 100 people in the next three months with copy and strategy. I will be offering 100 hours of free copy edits and strategy tweaks to anyone with an idea, project or business, the desire to see it through and, ideally (not necessarily), a drafted website.
If any of your friends need that, send them my way. I would love to help them. And thank you for wanting to see them succeed. I do, too.