Copywriting Crunch Time

I had a fabulous time at Bootcamp, then a whirlwind to West Plains Ward Conference, and returned home with a determination to be more structured in my work. That meant getting up at 6am every morning and trying to be in bed before 10. For the most part it worked.

I had this super-huge deadline by Friday. I had to revise these emails and direct mail pieces for my financial publisher. Really that meant rewriting two completely—as they didn’t like the offer—and substantially revising 2 more. I really liked one of the two in its more original form, so I rewrite it and then used the three magic words in copywriting: “Let’s test it.”  Until we get reader response, we are only guessing what will be attractive to them. So I hope they will do an A/B test and we can see which one draws better… and it would be satisfying if it were mine.

I did get the project mostly done by Wednesday, and then most of Thursday was spent reviewing it for all the little typos and consistencies. Did I ALWAYS italicize the name and add that essential plural to the last word?  It’s the crazy detailed work that I like least.

I also got two articles out for my executive coach, researched technologies for my start-up, finalized and revised a website for them, and very quickly wrote a class description for my life insurance agent. She’s teaching how to use Living Benefits life insurance to invest in Real Estate. They were thrilled with my write up. Then I needed to revise it into a much more boring format… sigh. Next week: the HVAC newsletters must be completed.

Tom finished the porch roof and it looks great. The sad thing is that no one can remember what the old ugly metal roof looked like. The porch roof looks like it’s always been there.

They predicted bad rains coming up from Texas. We had Texas sized weeds in our garden and wanted to get them out before the rains. Well, we only got perhaps a third of them out… but we also only got some sprinkles. We had allowed the sweet potato vine to grow all over the garden. I pulled up the vines willy-nilly. Then I discovered that every place it put down roots… which was everyplace it grew, I think. It also put down sweet potatoes. I think we’re going to have to hand dig half the garden to find all the potatoes before we rototill. And it’s likely we’ll have volunteer sweet potatoes for years to come!

Tuesday, the tree trimmer called and said they could trim the tree at 1111 S. Church Street. The tenant was concerned the tree was diseased and would fall on the house. I didn’t want to lose all the shade. So they came and trimmed limbs back and cut out all the dead wood. While they predicted a kind of lopsided tree, it actually still looks quite good. I hope the tree will stay a live a while longer.

Friday, Tom was about to go shopping in town, when he got a call. One of the ward members wanted to cut down a tree close to his house because he was afraid the next ice storm would drop it onto his house. Alas, in the cutting process, the tree shifted and crashed onto the roof of his house. The only up side?  It wasn’t cold, icy, and raining. The down side was two new skylights in his house from tree branches, broken trusses and the back wall pushed out several inches. So Tom went over and spent 4 hours with about 7 other guys chain sawing, and dragging limbs off the roof and out of the house.

My friend has been working on her necklaces and we went to visit her at a local craft show. She’s excited about the prospects of the business. Lots of pretty things there. I had to ask myself, why will I pay extra money for a great front door keypad lock… but not $30 for a beautiful knitted and beaded scarf?  Warped priorities, probably.

Today I went to our ward for choir practice and sacrament meeting. Andrew Jiles had just returned from his mission in Provo, UT and was speaking. It was a good meeting. I left right after to drive to Ava and arrived just as the Relief Society lesson was starting. After church I taught a teacher development lesson for the Relief Society teachers. My basic question was: Do you know, when the sisters walk out of the RS room that they have understood the lesson and will apply it in their lives?  Then we spent the rest of the time talking about how we can get the Gospel principles into the hearts of the sisters and what evidence we might have that this was occurring.

It was a lovely drive through beautiful fall colors. The ward had a gorgeous maple tree.

After I got home, I took a short nap. Then our home and visiting teachers came, and we had various phone calls and letters to send out.