The Permission to Kick Ass Blog
Misadventures to Make You Feel Good About Life
I believe in eating your own cooking… most of what I’ve learned about how to live a “fearless life” (in quotes because there’s no such thing – people only THINK I’m fearless) comes from making choices (some of them pretty dumb) and taking action. And I’m sharing what I learned (plus any adventures I have along the way) in my blog.
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It’s time to kick Monday’s ass… Last week I had a couple minor meltdowns where I was pretty much useless for entire days at a time. That’s bad news because my income depends on me being able to show up and do the work, whether I feel like it or not. I imagine you might be in a similar boat,…
Read More ...I’ve always been good at what I call “zoom in, zoom out”. What I mean by that is… I can see both the 50,000-ft view and the detailed, up-close view, and zoom in and out to see how the pieces connect. And as a result of that ability, early in my career I became the dreaded “office harbinger of doom”.…
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It’s time to kick Monday’s ass… Day 3429856 (I mean 10) of self quarantine and the natives are getting restless. I strolled into my office this morning to this war of the whiteboard notes: But in typical Angie style, I ain’t mad. I’m channeling that feistiness into something productive. I made you a video about creativity in a time of…
Read More ...A long time ago, in a lifetime far, far away… Angie was a firefighter. Some of you will be shocked by this. Others will be like, “yeah I can totally see you with a pickaxe in your hands. Or a chainsaw.” If you couldn’t picture it before, now you can: You’re welcome. 19-year-old Angie, take a bow. Annnnnyyyyway… As I’m…
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Once, I was coming into the office on the weekend and I heard the start of the radio commercial I’d written a week or two prior. It was getting close to the end of the 30 second spot and it suddenly hit me… dear god, please say the name of the business. PLEASE SAY THE NAME OF THE COMPANY FOR…
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It’s time to kick Monday’s ass… Good morning and happy Monday! I’m back from a cool ass copywriter conference that happened last week in San Diego, and I gotta say… I’m so stoked there are so many of us talking about fear and mindset. I’ve long been a fan of the notion that before you can achieve it, you’ve got…
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It’s time to kick Monday’s ass… Welcome to the Kick Monday’s Ass weekly thing that’s not a newsletter. It’s all about getting you pumped up to tackle your week (even when it feels like it’s about time to run and hide AND HORDE ALL THE TOILET PAPER). First up… Kick Monday’s Ass Video This week I’m so stoked to share…
Read More ...I’ve always wanted to learn how to paint. I’d see these amazing works of art… online, in museums, even in restaurants and friends’ homes… and I’d just wonder. How ON EARTH do they do that? I tried to recreate that art on my own but I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and why I couldn’t get the…
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It’s time to kick Monday’s ass… Welcome to the Kick Monday’s Ass weekly memo (not much better than “newsletter” but it’ll do while I hunt for something better). It’s your big dose of “I got this” to help you start the week off strong. First up… Kick Monday’s Ass Video This week we (and everyone else in the world) are talking…
Read More ...Back in the day when I worked in retail, I had a pet peeve… and it was this: Almost every time our merchandising staff had a really cool offer on something, they wanted to advertise it in the worst possible place… the weekly circular ad. Yep, that bundle of junk mail you get in your mailbox weekly, or shoved haphazardly…
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What happens when you have to raise rates? I was talking to a coaching student about this recently. She was having a bit of a personal crisis over the fact that her new (perfectly reasonable) rates had scared away all her old clients… which put her in the uncomfortable position of choosing whether to keep pursuing higher paying clients, or…
Read More ...Value is subjective. There, I said it. And most of the time, we’re walking around arbitrarily assigning value to everything we see, touch, interact with. That grubby, unwashed looking person doesn’t make much money (that’s not always the case). That well-dressed person driving the Benz must make a lot of money (also not always the case). That meal at the…
Read More ...If you’ve got an offer out there in the wild, odds are you’ve encountered objections. And when you’re not expecting them (like when someone randomly replies to an autoresponder with a surprisingly personal message), they can be a bit discouraging or overwhelming. But I actually REALLY love objections. On my teams, I’ve got an “objection buster” reputation… and it’s not…
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What do you get when you cross a huge Disnerd (Disney nerd) with the chance to rock out on Halloween? Evil Queen jam session! In case you are wondering… this is the second night “after party” at Copy Chief Live, hosted by my friend and mentor, Kevin Rogers. The idea behind this after party and rock show is simple… most…
Read More ...When I was younger, I was a real Type A personality. I mean, you couldn’t tell it from the state of my ROOM necessarily (I know you’re reading this mom. Please stop laughing hysterically). But I wanted to be the best SO freaking badly. The highest grades. The best goalie during soccer time at PE. First chair clarinet. I even…
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My name is Angie. I was an overworked and underappreciated copywriter stuck in cubicle hell… commuting 2+ hours a day, working 10+ hours a day, often coming in on the weekends. I loved my work but hated the toxic work environment. The company had the classic “Silicon Valley mindset”, where the higher-ups were constantly emailing on nights and weekends, expecting…
Read More ...Awhile back, I felt this really strong calling. It might have something to do with the fact that I sit at home, alone in an office, talking to my cat for most of the day… But it struck me one day out of the blue… I wanted to get out and volunteer. Do something bigger than myself, meet some new…
Read More ...There’s this saying in marketing… Fortune is in the follow-up. On its surface it makes total sense – you get business by following up. Duh, Angie… why are we even talking about this? We’re talking about it because this is, in my experience, the intersection between “good business practices” and “it’s not personal” where so many folks get supremely uncomfortable.…
Read More ...Mo’ money, mo’ problems. RIP Biggie… those are probably some of the wisest words ever said on life and business. The funny thing about starting a business or making more money is, to me, this notion we get in our heads of “if only”. “If only I could make X, I’d be happy.” “If only I could save Y, my…
Read More ...Right about now, your news feed/email inbox is probably as clogged as mine. “For 2020, I resolve to…” “This year, I’m going to…” “My resolutions are…” Although I do think now’s as good a time as any to take stock of what happened in the last year and how this year will be different… I’m not going to join the…
Read More ...I won’t ever forget it… 2013. John Carlton’s Action Seminar. My first conference as an aspiring copywriter. Not too long ago, John Carlton posted those pictures from his event on Facebook (linked in the first line, above). At the time, he was simply a legendary copywriter I’ve admired from afar for years. More recently, I had the extreme pleasure of…
Read More ...When I sat down to write this post, I had an idea of what I wanted to say. Then I got one of those texts. If you’ve ever received one, you know what I’m talking about. The heart sinker. The time stopper. It was from my dad – one of my favorite aunts passed away over the weekend. I’m still…
Read More ...I have an announcement – and it’s something exciting, that I hope you’ll love as much as I do. If you don’t love it as much as I do, you’re definitely not invited to the after party for cake and vodka. But that’s OK too. More cake for me! You may have noticed that I like to passionately rant about…
Read More ...I was talking to a private coaching student of mine when the topic-which-shall-not-be-named came up: It’s a big, bad, ugly one that makes most people cringe: Money. More specifically, pricing. A lot of folks who start a freelance writing business see some of the successful writers off landing big contracts and think, “hey, I can do that!” Then when they…
Read More ...“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” I’ve heard this plenty of times over the course of my career – but it finally connected for me just last week. I had the privilege of attending Brian Kurtz’s Titans Master Class in Scottsdale, AZ. The presentations, discussions, and ideas generated (and freely…
Read More ...Have you ever wondered about this one? Is it possible to go in-house if you haven’t had a copy job before? The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is… that’s exactly what I did. And the good news? I didn’t have any kind of magical formula to follow… I was pretty much making everything up as I went…
Read More ...So I’m currently sitting at the Tampa airport, waiting for my flight home. For the past week-ish, I’ve been in nearby St. Petersburg, FL for the most fun marketing conference I’ve had the pleasure of attending… Copy Chief Live. Lest you think I’m exaggerating, here’s a smattering of happenings: Jonny Vance of the Harmon Brothers (the guys behind Squatty Potty…
Read More ...“Technically I’ve been writing my own copy for 2 years. But I don’t have any client work…” I see this kind of statement a lot with folks just starting out in business. It doesn’t have to be about copy necessarily… just swap in the field of expertise of your choice and it still makes sense. “Technically I’ve been taking my…
Read More ...I see a lot of companies out there focused on the marketing. Considering I’m a marketer, I’d say that’s a good thing. Keeps me in business. I like that. But if you think marketing is going to magically save your company, I’m gonna stop just short of calling you willfully deluded. In reality, marketing is only a PIECE of the…
Read More ...So in my last post I talked about shortcuts and magic pills, and how they’re rarely the instant boost they claim to be. And then I shared my personal shortcut – mentorship. Now, mentorship doesn’t negate actually showing up and doing the work… but a good mentor can help DRASTICALLY shorten the learning curve (and potentially prevent you from bashing…
Read More ...People love a good shortcut – that’s part of what makes the job of a marketer a lot easier. Unethical? Promising a magic pill? You’ll probably get a lot of sales… followed by a lot of [best case] disappointed/angry customers and [worst case] law suits or even injuries/deaths. Yikes. Not the legacy I want to leave, personally. Ethical? Got a…
Read More ...I just dated myself with that title… but for all my 90s kids, admit it. You sang that one too, right? It just seemed so RIGHT to choose that song because it’s so true. Everybody hurts sometimes. And everybody fails sometimes. And yet we all pretend like failure is something avoidable. Like we can simply “magic” our way past all…
Read More ...So last week I spent way too much time agonizing about sharing my story. In the end, I wrote it up and posted it… and got probably the most powerful reaction I’ve ever had to something I’ve written. If you missed it, you can check it out here. If you don’t have time to check it out, I’ll sum it…
Read More ...Strap in kids… it’s about to get heavy. It might surprise you to hear this, but my career trajectory was far from being a straight line from Point A to Point B… it was all over the friggin’ map. And at one point, I hit a very clear crossroads. I was living in the SF Bay Area at the time,…
Read More ...When I was first starting out, there was something that wasn’t really talked about in entrepreneurship and owning your own business: It’s friggin’ lonely. Sure, the bros bragged about Lambos and parties and working from the beach (#laptoplifestyle #douche). A few more genuine folks talked about the freedom and flexibility and fun projects. I was sold – that definitely seemed…
Read More ...There’s this interesting kneejerk reaction that happens when you’re thinking of ways to get people to give you money. Of course, there are a few exceptional people who either feel no such fear, or feel it and proceed anyway. But for the rest of us, that question of “yeah, but is this something people will actually pay me for?” can…
Read More ...“Marketing is just a bunch of bullshit from people trying to sell stuff.” It’s interesting when I hear folks say that (or worse, when I tell them what I do for a living and I see that “eww, used car salesman” look on their face). Let’s clear a few things up about legit, ethical marketing, shall we? ETHICAL (adj) – avoiding…
Read More ...I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been there… Screwing up the courage to share something you’ve been working hard on, and ask for feedback. And then that feeling of being sucker-punched when someone reacts critically. This happens often in copy and marketing, so I have seen folks develop an interesting self-defense mechanism to lessen the impact of the…
Read More ...I have this really cool bedside lamp – it’s a touch lamp with three lighting levels and I love it. The only thing I don’t love is that it takes specialty bulbs… G9 to be specific. If you haven’t heard of those, they’re pretty weird looking and sometimes a bit finicky: I was reading in bed last night and reached…
Read More ...I’m not a big fan of proclaiming any one thing “the secret” or “the thing” responsible for success. There’s no miracle button, no magic pill. And certainly no “secret” that, once unlocked, will suddenly put wind in your sails and take you to Successville. If you want something, you need to take every opportunity. And when I say that, I…
Read More ...To say I have a flair for the dramatic is a tiny bit of an understatement. It makes sense, considering it was once my dream to write for television. Mmmmm… drama. Delicious. So I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise that I am good a catastrophizing. Turns out this is a skill a lot of creative freelancers have… this magical…
Read More ...This week I find myself in a situation that I never dreamed I’d be in, not in a million years. I’m in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m wrapping up my last day at an event called the Titans Master Class. And what it is, is a business/marketing training/mastermind hybrid. It’s put on by people who have decades and decades of experience… veritable…
Read More ...Some thoughts to ponder this weekend, particularly on education. [WARNING: I’m fired up, swearing ahead] Recently I was talking to someone about my path to becoming a coach. It sparked an interesting discussion on education, training, certification. Or rather, it brought up the age-old notion that only folks with degrees and certifications are qualified to teach and guide others. I…
Read More ...I had a couple weird experiences within 24 hours, and I was surprised at how strongly they affected me. And it ties back to a little knowledge nugget that’s served me well over the course of my career… Kindness costs you nothing. It can seem daunting and maybe even a tiny bit overwhelming to be kind… like letting a few…
Read More ...Earlier this week, I was leading a coaching call with a badass group of up-and-coming copywriters. And one of them said: “I had a hard time with that last assignment. I just didn’t understand it, wasn’t connecting with it, and it took me a lot longer than I thought to get it done. I almost didn’t do it.” The funny…
Read More ...We’re all familiar with this situation: Hot stove. Curious kid. Concerned parent. Kid gets precariously close to the glowing red coils, and the parent says, “be careful, that’s hot!” Then maybe the kid looks at the parent quizzically. A quick back-and-forth glance between dad and imminent danger. Kid touches stove, gets burned, screams bloody murder. Most of us look at…
Read More ...Before you think I’m being pervy… I’m not talking about a potential sexual harassment case. I’m talking about being horrible at what you do. There’s actually a BENEFIT to allowing yourself to suck. Case in point, I just came across an interesting post from a frustrated copywriter: My trouble is getting started. I can’t seem to produce text rapidly without…
Read More ...Last week, I got a bit ranty about why you shouldn’t offer to work for free. (refresher: There should always be an exchange of value, whether you’re paying a mentor to educate you/shorten the learning curve, or you’re being paid/trained as a copywriter. Both you and your client/mentor will value your work more.) At the end of that post I…
Read More ...Recently I came across a question in a copywriter group that I see pretty consistently: I have no degree and very little experience so I’m willing to work for free, which I’ve already proposed to two smaller businesses but unfortunately, I’ve received no response. How would you guys go about this? Any tips/strategies? Here’s the problem with offering…
Read More ...I don’t know if anyone else thinks of starting a business as “revolutionary”. But I happen to think it is. Maybe mine is the hundred millionth freelance writing business to ever be started in the world, but it’s my small act of rebellion against the norm. It’s me daring to take back my freedom in the face of forty years…
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