EDITOR’S NOTE: A renowned branding and tone-of-voice specialist, Vikki Ross has been writing Copy for major global brands for 24 years. She’s a Copywriting teacher, judge, mentor, and in 2017, Creative Equals named her one of the top 30 female creative leaders. In 2019, Women in Marketing gave Vikki a Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Marketing (Agency).

Through her #copywritersunite and #CopySafari hashtags and her @copynights meetups, Vikki has done more to empower Copywriters and champion Copywriting than just about any other person in our discipline.

I’m honored to have her kick off the VeryGoodCopy Micro-Interview series. In 443 words, Vikki shares:

How to cure Copywriter’s block…
Her no-BS advice for becoming a successful Copywriter…
Her biggest professional failure — and the invaluable Copywriting lesson it taught her…
And much more…

Thank you, Vikki.

Let’s get started:

“What is your typical writing routine?”

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I have two. One is when everything's going right and I just write. The words will wake me up very early in the morning and I'll finish a job by lunch.

The other one involves huffing and puffing at a blank page and wondering how on earth I got a job as a Copywriter. But then I remember I have tried and tested things I know will get me going, like a swipe file and hundreds of magazines that all remind me what words and sentences are. Going for a walk helps too — as soon as I step away from my laptop, I find the line I'm looking for.

The mind is amazing: load it with information and it'll do the work for you.

“What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”

It's not a huge failure but it's my biggest failure: I once presented a load of lines to a client thinking they'd be impressed with the quantity regardless of the quality. There were some shit lines in there but I thought that showing all of them looked good. It didn't. And it meant a shit line was chosen. It lived on the front cover of the client's mail order catalogue for six long months.

Moral of the story: only present work you want to run.

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

I haven't shortened any learning curve. There are no shortcuts. I am where I am because I work hard. I've always worked hard. People contact me all the time (like, every day) and ask me how they can become a successful Copywriter — I tell them to work hard and they disappear. It's not the answer they're looking for.

People think — hope — things happen overnight. They don't.

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

Every book has helped me over my career because each one is full of words and if I don't have words readily available in my mind, I can't write. So I tell everyone to read anything and everything — gossip magazines, pizza menus, trashy books, doctor's surgery posters — it all helps to get the words going.

If you're after some book recommendations, here you are.

“And your parting piece of advice?”

Don’t forget to look up and around. We’re in the business of talking to people and they’re all over the place so tune in: listen to what they say and watch what they do.

Your phone doesn’t need your attention — the world does.

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Micro-Interview: Vikki Ross, Copywriter