This is the eighth in a 12-pack of simple, short and useful tips to help you write more better today.
Tool Eight: Call Courage Your Friend.
Please make note of my advice from last time:
"Don't be surprised to get stupid, shallow answers when you ask stupid, shallow questions."
There's a simple solution to cease the surprises.
Show some guts.
When filling out permits for new businesses,
owners
should also be provided a laminated card containing the answers to the
same questions sure to be asked to them by each of the 49 local media
representatives who'll call on them in the first few weeks of business.
In subsequent months and years, those same questions will be dusted off and brought out again and again.
Is it any wonder business owners hate advertising and constantly invent new ways to avoid advertising people?
Show some guts. Use respect, naturally, but
be that one person in your market who actually:
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Digs deeper.
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Has an opinion.
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Can quickly and clearly explain - without fear - why you have that opinion.
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Creates refreshingly evocative advertising based on that opinion.
Most entrepreneurs crave smart people who disagree with them, or heck for that matter agree with them but can tell them why.
You already know:
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the stupid, shallow answers.
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whether your company's new package has merit or just plain stinks.
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when to advise the restaurant to maybe take care of the rat problem before buying your ad package.
You
know, don't you? If you don't, quit. Now. But, if you're here - reading
this, I'm guessing you do. Stop letting it gnaw on your soul.
If someone else in your company's responsible for talking to the client, and you're just the writer, change that practice immediately.
Your
success or failure's directly proportional to how well you - as the ad
writer - knows your client and how well the client knows you.
Stop deluding yourself into thinking you're just an employee of your company.
You work for your clients, and your employer handles your insurance and taxes for you.
Work for your client. Your employer will thank you for it.
Call courage your friend. Shortly thereafter, you'll be calling new clients your friends as well.
Tool One: Listen.
Tool Two: Use Better Verbs.
Tool Three: Study Great Writers.
Tool Four: Three Shots of Adrenaline
Tool Five: Embrace Notebook Moments.
Tool Five Redux: Notebook Moment Hall of Fame
Tool Six: Write in the Language of the Customer.
Tool Seven: Show. Don't Tell.
 Read About Tim Miles
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