Stupid Ideas And The Rhythm Of Direct Response Copywriting With Glenn Fisher

Who was Glenn Fisher before he was a copywriter? 

I was an accountant/auditor. I was going through life writing reports about the financial systems of places in the local council. And then something broke in my head and I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore.

I wanted to write in some form or another. Since I liked creative writing, I decided to do a degree locally. Flash forward, I needed a writing job and knew I didn’t want to be a journalist. So, I applied for every job that had the word ‘writer’ in it and by pure chance I applied for an Agora job in London. The role was for a junior copywriter and I didn’t know what copywriting was at the time. It seemed cool and I got to learn about direct-response copywriting.

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Mental Health & Writing Insights From The Father Of Japanese Short Stories

He was upstairs in a bookstore.

Twenty years old at the time, he had climbed a ladder set against a bookcase and was searching for the newly-arrived Western books: Maupassant, Baudelaire, Strindberg, Ibsen, Shaw, Tolstoy…

This is the opening paragraph of a short story called The Life Of A Stupid Man by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

This paragraph hooked me into the work of the father of the Japanese short story because of the author’s vulnerability.

His short stories offer several mental health and creative insights:

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Avoid This Machiavellian Mistake When Creating Thought Leadership Content

Creating a big piece of thought leadership content like a white paper is a great opportunity for a business to connect with customers, develop leads and build authority.

It makes me reflect that there are many examples of books or texts throughout history that carried the same purpose as a white paper.

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is a strong example. Machiavelli wrote about what an effective ruler or prince should do in the ends justify the means approach.

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Blending Science, Creativity And Comedy In Copywriting With Justin Blackman

There are lots of great copywriters in the world and the beauty of the industry is that each has their own voice, unique style and way of doing things. 

Learning from other copywriters is a fun exercise for me and it was awesome to interview Justin Blackman, who is pretty fly for a write guy. 

Blackman has made a name for himself with voice guides and his scientific approach to copywriting. In this interview, we chat about the crossovers between science and creativity in copywriting, distinguishing yourself as more than a freelancer and the many flavours of voice. 

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