Enjoy this 459-word “Micro-Interview” with copywriter, John Harrison.
Thanks, John.
Let’s get started:
"Do you have a work routine?”
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I’m up at 6, throw back my AG1 and protein shake, swallow a few pills I’m hoping will extend my life, go for a walk, put sunlight in my eyes, and return to my desk for 7. I thank me from last night for scheduling the day’s work. Usually he puts the hard work first, so I pour black coffee into a Tintin mug and start eating the frog. I post on LinkedIn at 1 so I like to be around to chat with people.
"What do you wish you'd known about your work when you first started?”
I think, nothing. But there is something I’ve discovered, something I haven’t yet figured out. How to convince people that words are as important as I think they are. After all they’re the tools we invented to get ideas, as precisely as possible, from one mind to another. How can the words not be vital?
“What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”
My biggest professional failure was to not cut my losses quick enough. I had fallen foul of the sunk cost fallacy when running my menswear brand. My heart wasn’t in it but my time and energy were. And that’s a trap.
“Has anything helped you shorten your craft's learning curve?”
Writing about writing. First I wrote a short blog post. Then a collection of chapters. Then a short guide. Then I began writing on LinkedIn, passing what I knew, to people a couple of steps behind me. There’s nothing that’s made writing clearer to me than writing about it.
“Do you have a book recommendation?”
William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well took me from running a menswear brand to my first copywriting job. The words in that book changed my life. I’m convinced that to be a good copywriter you don’t need much more than that book, high empathy, and low ego.
“Any parting piece of advice?”
On writing, become obsessed with your reader. Remember they’re lazy [looking for shortcuts] vain [looking for acceptance] selfish [looking to survive] and busy [overwhelmed]. Write for that person. Write for the worst case, because by default it’ll work for everybody else.
On life, choose your pain. The short term pain of failure or the long term pain of regret. I choose the former because it’s the easier pain to stomach and the only pain where success is possible.
