Micro-Interview: Josh Garofalo, Copywriter

EDITOR’S NOTE: Josh Garofalo is the SaaS copywriter and consultant for companies such as HubSpot, Wave, Hotjar, AWeber and dozens more. He helps with positioning, messaging frameworks, and the execution of core assets such as web pages, landing pages, and email campaigns that drive customer acquisition and retention.

Josh wrote up a great Micro-Interview for us, insightful and funny and vulnerable. I’m so glad and proud he stopped by. 

In 504 words, Josh shares: 

• Why 9 - 5 isn’t necessarily the way to work (especially as a creative)... 

• What every human being really wants… 

• What to do when all else fails… 

• And more…

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Thank you, Josh.

Let’s get started:

“What’s your work routine?”

On my best days, I wake up before 7 AM, have what I call a frothy coffee (similar to Bulletproof coffee), do my physio to keep low-back pain at bay, go to the gym, have an amazingly healthy smoothy, meditate, and then sit down at my desk to work in 25-minute increments while listening to Brain.fm.

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For the other 80% of my days, I check a few of the boxes above, forget about the rest, slog through what feels like work, open Steam mid-afternoon for a quick gaming session, and still somehow manage to get the most important things done (like we all do).

“What do you know about your work now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”

Working 9-to-5 or five 8-hour days, however you want to slice it, isn't THE way to work — it's one way. And it doesn't lend itself well to work that is creative and intellectually demanding. 

Now, some days are 8-hour days, many are 4-6 if I'm being honest with myself, and I'll work for 10-14 hours when my brain is firing on all cylinders. I also work 0-hour days, and these days tend to follow a 10-14 hour day.

“What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”

I wouldn't count it as a failure, but I was one of the first hires at a startup that ultimately failed. 

I found it quite difficult to write copy for a product that I was so close to. It was this failure to write copy in-house that inspired me to solve this problem for other companies by being THE guy to hire if you're in SaaS/tech.

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“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your craft’s learning curve?”

Voracious reading paired with hard-wired self-criticism. 

The latter has been both an asset and a liability in my life. I'm working to recognize when it's a liability and getting past it.

“What book has helped you the most over your career?”

As a teenager, I read How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie — and it serves as my foundation. 

Yes, there are many books with more tactics and strategy and content. But this book gets to the heart of the matter — people, even good people, are looking out for number one. They want to solve their problems, talk about their interests, etc.

“And your parting piece of advice?”

Unless everything is going extremely well for you — specialize. 

Choose a niche, plant your flag, own something the market deems valuable. It would be hard for me to calculate the ROI from a decision I made on day 1 — be THE person SaaS companies can trust with their copy, make it clear that this is indeed my focus, and find additional ways to serve this niche as my experience allows.

If it's of interest, I wrote ~9,000-word email series on the topic. It's 100% free and there's no pitch at the end. Get it here.

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