Biggest fuck up?
Get ready for storytime! My biggest fuck up is people-pleasing a shitty Creative Director.
This big ol’ fuck up started with some cold outreach.
I’m still very much at the start of my creative career, and in the midst of building a business from the ground up, I tend to take up some LinkedIn space and connect with people who I think would find Word Tonic handy to have near.
It was in one of these connection requests that I met Mr Shitty.
And he was not happy with the free event invitation I’d sent him.
I was inviting him to a GEN-Z Board of Advisors event I was hosting. This new program, I hope, will disrupt workplace hierarchies and diversify the usual group of people gathered at a board meeting. Only my initial event description was too specific.
I mentioned that stereotypically, a Board of Advisors is made up of old, rich, white men. He found it offensive, and in an attempt to build a working relationship with him, I changed my tune and altered the event description.
All is well. He doesn’t turn up to the event, but we still chat about what Word Tonic could do to ramp up his business game. He likes the ideas and wants to stick around.
For extra context, Word Tonic is known for its unhinged content. It doesn’t make sense to many people, but to our generation, it slaps. A large majority of our content is for GEN-Z, and our analytics ~ literally ~ show that the more unhinged we go, the more engagement we get. It’s bold, funny, and generally a vibe.
Weeks go by peacefully.
Suddenly, Mr Shitty slides into my DM’s.
We created a post about how we have sounds that our community members can press during a masterclass, including one that says, ‘Thank you, Daddy.’
Mr Shitty was NOT pleased.
In fact, he was SO offended he decided to give us some ‘quirky’ unsolicited advice in the form of 8 paragraphs in a LinkedIn group chat. He’s decided to cut ties with us over it.
Check out the receipts here.
He even decided to insult Junior Copywriters and GEN-Z as a whole.
It was intense.
And it all stemmed from me being a people pleaser.
So lesson learned: don’t change who you are to fit into a preconceived notion of who you ‘should’ be. The more unique you are, the more backlash you get, and that’s how you make a name for yourself.
Rant
Copywriting job adverts aren’t written by copywriters, and it SHOWS!
Copywriters wear many hats, right?
They create. They sell. They conjure up the irresistible.
So, when it comes to Copywriter job descriptions, why do they look as blank as concrete?
We’re looking at the same cookie-cutter bullshit ten times over. They’re lacklustre, monotonous and seriously don’t paint a good picture of the company as a whole.
If you’re looking for a Creative Copywriter, make something creative that’s actually going to catch their eye.
Also while you’re at it, stop advertising a Junior Copywriter role if you’re after someone with five years of experience. You’re not only blocking fresh emerging talent you’re putting us off the entire industry overall.
Useful Advice
First things first: don’t underestimate a GEN-Z woman.
Secondly, to any GEN-Z or fresh talent wondering if this is the right path in life: if you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll never know. Try it, or you’ll regret it.
And finally, to my anxious brain: go in with low expectations, and the big wins will really feel like BIG WINS. Small steps are better than no steps, so go out and do the thing with no expectation of anything in return, and you’ll have so many more happy days.