I have been reading through all your comments & as an aspiring copywriter, I thank you all for contributing to helping me understand more of what I should expect as I undertake my journey in exploring my potential,even if someone else benefits from it. .

I will hopefully,when I am accepted, be commencing my copywriting course at the beginning of September this year! I have come to know that my greatest fear, is facing fear & when I face that fear, then I have NO FEAR! Above All, I believe that the “One True God” in whom I believe, will raise me up above the hills & planes onto heights beyond what I will understand, even when I get there! That which we believe & are dedicated to is that which we will become & for this reason, I will continue to believe that all who belong to this family of "creative excellence”, through belief in what we do,will succeed even if only to the extent of growing to a point of understanding that this world is a playground, we play to win & what better prize of satisfaction can we receive, than to be content with the happiness of living out our purpose of doing what we love?

I’m right at the bottom but Its only a temprory situation because already I have reserved my place at the top. .I look forward to meeting with as many of you as I am blessed to,when I finally make it. .Its not an option, its a choice! And of cause I know that many will be thinking "You’re gonna be dissapointed when you finally get into the swing of things & realise that its not as easy as you’re assuming?" Not to worry, I’m prepared, I’ve made it to my late twenties against all odds, the question I’m asking is: since I have nothing to loose, what do I really stand to gain?? 4REAL!

I wish you all a creatively inspired day! We cannot choose how our days unfold but we can decide on how we choose to react to them?! Best Wishes & Regards,
Clinton Hutton

Thoughts came to me.

When one door closes another one opens

Letting go of the negative influences in life including business can be a hard hitting decision to make. Despite that problematic client, paying you, what are they costing you in terms of your self worth, time and money?

How much time are you investing for the client? Is this where you want to be in work? If you free up the space the negative client is taking, how can you make best use of the time? How will this increase your quality of life and business?

There are a lot of questions..

I have recently let go of clients as they were weighing me down in many ways. Not bad by any means were the clients, the required load for work was too much in terms of time and output for the reward.

In business, I believe in excelling, over delivering to keep the client happy and business growing. I will no longer take on someone no matter how slow work is, if I see a problem of a large nature occurring. Negativity..I will work with people who are open minded.

Refuse to work with someone who plays a game called "Yes..butt".
This is no matter what idea, suggestion you give them to a problem, after they ask for your help, they come up with excuses after excuses. Reasons for why nothing will work and continue to stay in that zone..very frustrating and challenging.

Sometimes, they really don’t want to get through past this stage. Often not realising they are doing this. This is a power play and I have had much experience with power play, office politics. No time for them anymore..better things to do in life…

New opportunities and ventures to create, see and do

Wishing everyone continued success!

As Randy Pausch once said, "Brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it bad enough to break through them".

Many people think success is easy. They think you can take a course and know all the secrets to getting everything you want.

But they don’t realize that, even if a course you take may make it a lot easier to success - it’s still hard and requires a lot of dedication!

Jeremy Reeves
http://www.controlbeatingcopy.com

People want validation from some external source, be it government or religious.  You make a point that I keep hammering home to my friends, You don’t need anyones permission to be successful.

  Ken
 www.kenstech.com

First, I am grateful for the opportunity to read your words of wisdom and encouragement.

I am considered an "Expert" on internet marketing and all things to do with the web, around my neck of the woods. Whilst I don’t see this, it has become my place in business as well as a consulting role.

That is the trouble…I have skills and don’t know where to position them in my business.

Writing Skills: -

Mentor…business planning and development Australian Women’s Network

Web Developer…content creation, articles, editorials, interviews, proof read magazines/manuscripts, SEO, plr and more.

Business…implement change in administration, public relations, event organization, media, short and long copy…private and government sectors in Australia

Written..communication, personal development, history to sex..plus many things in between. Technical manuals for software..etc

I have won awards online and offline, been extensively published and have a good readership.

I am also a mom of four active young children and now the sole provider for the finances in our family.

On our network we are bringing 20+ websites, 21 writers throughout the world..professional experts in their own trades.

Getting the basics together is no easy job.

Fear is a major thing for me to get through. People ask me how I do what I do, and I don’t have an answer. I know I will succeed, maybe not today or tomorrow, it is a daily walk. A belief and inner conviction that all is ok and will be ok. One of those annoying people who can see the good in the bleakest situation.

Every little stepping stone is a bit closer to the place where we belong. For a long time I stopped dreaming and went from one job to another..never really happy in what I did. Now, I am happy.

Knowledge, being like a sponge and absorbing as much information as I can.  Giving yourself permission to be yourself..the good, the bad and the ugly is so important.

The rest will come….

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy"..Martin Luther King

Great encouragement! One thing I’ve noticed about great people is most who overcame adverse circumstances to become successful had a strong positive influence in their early years. Usually it was a parent, but sometimes it was a teacher or mentor like Anne Sullivan who taught Helen Keller.

 It doesn’t mean those of us who had strong negative influences in our upbringing can’t overcome it. We have a much tougher battle including overcoming our feelings of inferiority. It’s like having to climb Mt. Everest instead of Pike’s Peak. We can do it but it’s not easy.

We see examples of lousy writing by successful copywriters and know we can do better yet still doubt our ability and talent. Sometimes the person who can’t do it excels at selling while the person who can, struggles with sales.

I apoligise for the length but if you bear with it I think the message will be very clear.

Put your name in it and sub the message.  Many companies will be doing this now.

I am going to patch in a recent email sent to me but first I would like to give some back ground.

I am a hardware and software tech who was employed by a company for 23 years that went belly up.  No it was not Enron.  The results are the same though.  My 401 after the dust settled was around $1700.00 before taxes and penalties. By the way also no retirement funds.

I have been employed by another company for about 5 years.

I was born in 1945 (makes me 39 years by the fuzzy math standard)

I don’t know if I can do the license business (purchased) or Total Package (not purchased until I can make money to do it), but the following is a real live email that I recently received by my "new" boss. (Who has called me multiple times for advice)

Following this is the email.  Read the bottom message first and the top will be my reply.  By the way, In case you didn’t catch it I did not say I was in sales.  Basically I am in repair.  Sales was actually discouraged because they really needed a tech in Texas. ….Until they went through three sales guys who basically didn’t sell diddly.  The parent company took contracts away from me to give to the new sales guys. (that means the money also)

You also  might  want to ask yourself why this company didn’t know what was billed for service (without asking me).

Here is the email:

I think everyone on this Blog can connect the dots….

—————————————————–
David, I believe a maintenance contract was sent (actually faxed) in June. The contract was on (DELETED FOR SECURITY BY ME) The amount was $1,035.23. The scenario was that someone else had sold them the equipment and they had a problem. I had billed them somewhere around $3000.00 for the repair and pre maintenance certification. I also sold them an additional thousand dollar maintenance contract which took them a  long time to get through their chain.  After several reminders from me they finally sent the PO. You may recall that we spoke about this and they have to renew again I think at the end of this year. Linda passed a copy of this contract to Greg and Ray per my request. My approach is to sell the whole package whenever possible. When I sold the (DELETED FOR SECURITY BY ME) account for instance, I sold a 3 year maintenance contract along with it. Of course the 3 year contract was paid in advance.   –Wayne  From: (DELETED FOR SECURITY BY ME)
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 4:35 PM
To: ‘Wayne Le Boff’
Cc: Subject: June billingWayne,We are trying to close out the year ending in June.  You only show having $100 billed for service in June.  Is there some additional billing that has not been sent in?  Hopefully there is because $100 isn’t enough to carry you.  –David 
 

But I refuse to believe that I cannot become a good copywriter; I will continue to press on, to learn, and eventually to become one of you. If only my self-confidence holds out….

Thank you for the help you provide to those of us who need it.

The idea is that successful and rich people are very good at promoting themselves and their products.  They believe what they can do or their product can do is of profound value to the customer.

And if it is not, as Steve Jobs found when he took the reigns at Apple for the second time, then you bust your ass to make your services/products the best in the world.

A much better perspective to be coming from than trying to persuade people to buy something you don’t believe in whether it’s yourself or your product.

Find the value. Find the value. Find the value.

Note to self…my mantra for the week.