Friday Followup and Whatnot

The clamor was so strong you could almost actually hear it! “WTF, Mike?” my Legion of Fan exclaimed. “Where’s the update of old copywriting projects you promised instead of writing something fresh?”
Institutional Architecture print and web gig: This is the copywriting project that I have been working on almost since I learned to write my [...]

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Business Lunch Indigestion

Somehow, within the span of my career, the business lunch has gone from being an indispensable part of the commercial transaction to being deader than disco.
Nostalgic? Not so much. Even at the peak of its power (think Don Draper, martinis, call girls, regret) the Client Lunch was a pain in the ass. Neither the client [...]

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Copywriter Safari

In darkest Charleston. I am hacking my way through the copywriting jungle of value addedness, wearing my lucky Hanes V-neck undershirt and Batman boxers, and swinging a machete as dull as my writing ability. My noble but entirely expendable native bearers struggle under the weight of my cargo… websites for clients in real estate, home [...]

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Justification

Not long ago I attended the summer blowout of a very famous  commercial cleaning and disaster mitigation business. Trust me, you’ve heard of them.  These are the guys that clean up after your business has had a fire or hurricane or something.
Big party, big beer-and-BBQ bash (because this is South Carolina, after all!) I met [...]

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What a Concept!

In interviews, and in general, I often claim that one of my strengths as a MarComm writer is “my ability to dive into an unfamiliar situation and quickly learn enough to market some product or service that I may not even heard of a week before.”
And the person I am speaking to says, “Fascinating!”
And I’m [...]

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Fade to Black

Are you a hyphenated professional? I always considered myself as one. Once upon a time I was a shooter-editor, then a producer-director, a manic-depressive, a writer-producer and, more recently a model-slash-actress.
Lately, though, I have have been reassessing my status. And it’s a funny feeling. My mix of business is exclusively writing these days, for [...]

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Wheels Up!

Remember what I said last time about just trying to keep a lid on things until my Cali trip? Ha!! So far this week…

I transcribed an interview for a new HVAC website.
I wrote some copy for the commercial custodial website.
I met a potential client by way of a Google hit. I’m not sure that has [...]

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Random Acts of Randomness

Here are a few random happenings at LivelyExchange Shadowy International Writing Cartel, a division of SarcastiCo.

A commercial janitorial website is turning the corner to complete-a-tude.
An HVAC contractor website is just beginning. I am interviewing the principals later today.
The healthcare sales newsletter rolls along, as always. Did I tell you that after three years, I have [...]

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Subject Matter Expert? Not Quite.

A while back, I wrote something called “A Mile Wide, an Inch Deep” that described my approach to research. It’s tricky learning just enough to get the copywriting job done, but not so much that the budget is drained just on research.  Simply put, the client is not paying me to become an expert on [...]

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In Defense of Cold Calling

Cold calling: waste of time or complete waste of time? Honestly, I think it’s a matter of managing your expectations.
Out of a dozen or so clients I work with regularly, I have met 8 of them by way of the unsolicited cold-call email.  I think there are two keys here: first, you have to write [...]

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