Copywriting Spelling Life & Me
It's funny how people get their knickers in a twist so easily. You see as I sit here in 31 degrees of sunshine in Tbilisi Georgia (see photo above) where we have a second home and where we are right now for the next six weeks I do wonder as I read Tolstoy's book 'confession' why some get so agitated and almost abusive over a spelling mistake to the extent they will furiously scribble an email to me in agitation and anger about what a hopeless, hapless amateur I am.
First of all I can't spell. I always got thrown out of English and made to sit outside by Miss (fatso) Harper for drawing spaceships when I should have been learning grammar. My grammar and spelling from a grammar perspective is bad bad bad
Yet here's a discovery I made... Bad spelling has never once held me back at any level in my life. With work, with clients and I have never and a woman say to me, 'if you can't spell properly this relationship's going nowhere'.
Clients pay me an amount to write one project what some copywriters have to struggle to get paid over a year. Never in the build up to being hired have I been asked did I get an A plus in English and what is my relationship with a dictionary.
One copywriter (actually more than one) wrote to me in anger. He said I was a 'f@£#ing brainless moron' because he had to work 14 hours a day 7 days a week for his clients and always religiously spent many an extra hour spell checking.
Was it my fault he was working like a victorian era slave and was also an expert at spelling and grammar (or so he claimed). Then I thought about the hours he was working and thought who really is the thing he said, me or him?
I work part time and have done for years. I travel where and when I like and have done for years. I get paid handsomely for creating art, science and magic with words and have done for years. I don't work endless hours but I've mastered how to do three things and spelling isn't one of them.
One: create a life I want to live Two: do one weeks work in one day Three: get paid highly for serving my clients well
And that's how I can leave my six bedroomed house back in the wet cold UK and fly over here to the hot and wild Tbilisi Georgia where we have a second home. I can carry on my life, get paid and serve my clients well.
One thing I do know is this; the art of writing copy is NOT related to good spelling. The art and science of writing powerful copy IS related to good conversation and connection to the targets that I write to.
So spelling isn't my thing, but creating a life supported by results is. My results have and are giving me a life that most would die for.
I live well. I get paid well.
My happiness is not measured by cash but measured on how I feel about things.
And these are the things I teach my own students and teach them well. We don't focus on wealth as in cash but we focus on wealth as in having a good life. That good life might be all about the money and if thats the case I help my mentors hit their targets. It might be about a good, steady life that creates a strong business and if that is what is needed that is what I teach my guys.
But I can tell you this the only people i have ever met that go on and on about spelling and grammar have usually been teachers of some kind and they usually have a few things in common.
- They hate their jobs
- They are underpaid
- They work crazy hours
- They moan about everything
So if you'd like to know how to create a magical life using words as a copywriter for hire or write your own copy I am doing one class and one class only. The last time I did the class was in 2006 and I won't be doing this class EVER again.
On June 1st tickets rise by £500. 9 seats have already gone in a week. I'd love you to join us. But if you need a grammarian please stay at home, boil and egg and do a jigsaw. Hopefully I will se you and 24 others for what will be an unrepeatable masterclass … EVOLUTION 2013 This is Alan from the wild wild wild Tbilisi Georgia where I am getting drunk on turkish coffee and other local delicacies.
Unrepentantly The worlds worst speller and ever eccentric
Alan Forrest Smith
Heres a snapshout of a typical georgian house. Our place is just behind this one. Notice the old Russian car? It belongs to my partners father who passed away.
