EDITOR’S NOTE:
VeryGoodCopy Micro-Interviews are back for season 2 — and one of my writing heros, the brilliant Ann Handley is here to kick us off.
Simply put, I’m honored.
Ann is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs and the author of the best selling book, Everybody Writes, which has been an enormous source of knowledge and inspiration for writers and marketers everywhere.
In just 798 words, Ann shares so much, including:
Her own 4-step writing process, which she uses to write anything and everything (feel free to steal it)…
The book every modern marketer must read…
And even her personal struggles with imposter syndrome…
“When I was starting out,” Ann told me, “I sometimes felt so hopelessly incompetent and uncomfortable that I kept thinking about the day when I’d be abundantly competent and comfortable.”
Please enjoy this funny, charming, and surprisingly vulnerable interview with one of the best content marketers in the world.
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Thank you, Ann.
Let’s get started:
1) “What’s your work routine?”
My day starts like yours, I'd guess. I am gently rocked awake at dawn by the calls of the downy throated songbirds welcoming me to the new day. I arise and dine on a firm scramble of eggs — laid that morning by my brood of heirloom hens. I sip coffee from the rarest Kopi Luwak bean, harvested deep in the Sumatran jungle.
So after that… you can imagine that I flit to my desk and dip the nib of my fountain pen in the corner inkwell, and the marketing insights and prose spills out of me onto the page with the same intensity as the yolks of those heirloom eggs spread across my breakfast plate.
Welllll... part of that is true. (LOL) I do start each day by writing -- before my day is hijacked by meetings and managing All The Things. I try to dedicate the first two hours of the day to writing. Some days that's easier than others.
I might be incredibly productive in a host of ways throughout my work day. But without those two hours to ground and center my day... I'm not as happy and fulfilled.
P.S. I don't have chickens (heirloom or otherwise). I don't have pricey coffee. Or a fountain pen. But I do write.
2) “What do you know about your work now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
I just stared at this blinking cursor for waaaay longer than I needed to.
But maybe this is the most important: I wish I realized that I've never been completely comfortable in my work. And that's a good thing.
Competent: Yes. Comfortable? No.
When I was starting out, I sometimes felt so hopelessly incompetent and uncomfortable that I kept thinking about the day when I’d be abundantly competent and comfortable.
I thought there’d come a point when I’d set the career cruise control to ON... and just fly the rest of the way down the highway. (Carefree, singing at the top of my lungs. Ariana Grande's "Successful" would be a good soundtrack to pair with my voiceover here....)
But it turns out that the more you master, the more you realize what you don’t know.
The more you understand challenges, the more you challenge yourself to learn more.
The more you hone your skills, the sharper still you want to make them.
You might be increasingly competent. But you're never totally comfortable when you're pushing yourself into new places.
P.S. I almost talked about relationships here. Also important. Being as generous and kind as you can to those around you is as important as being competent or talented or skilled.
3) “What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”
When I agreed to this interview I didn't realize the questions would be so hard. I'm going to need a Zoom therapy sesh after this.
<insert long silence while I think about this question>
My failure isn't around a specific incident. It's more about my once-chronic habit to say NO over YES. To opt OUT vs. opt IN.
That NO was rooted deep in soft, warm soil fertilized liberally with awkwardness and insecurity, and mulched with worry and self-doubt.
It took me a long time to realize that the soil was warm and cozy. But it wasn't really feeding me. Over time, I realized that saying NO meant I was letting myself down.
It meant I was limiting myself.
I was penning myself in.
I was avoiding what could be.
It means you stay in your comfort zone (and a comfort zone is a dead zone).
And that matters because to be loved means to be seen for who you are.
4) “What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your craft’s learning curve?”
Write four drafts to everything.
1. The Ugly First Draft. Barf it up! Get it out!
2. The chainsaw edit. Move the big chunks around on dollies and hand-trucks. Is it starting to take shape?
3. Surgical-tool edit. Finer editing. Each word must earn its keep.
4. Read it out loud. Does it sound like writing? If so, re-visit #3. Repeat.
I do this whether I'm writing a book or an Instagram post. (Not kidding.)
5) “What book has helped you the most over your career?”
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White. For two reasons:
1) It's the book that inspired me to become a writer.
2) It's the book that I tell every modern marketer to read, because it illuminates an oft-missed fundamental of marketing: Your story is not about your product... it's about how your product makes the life of your customer/audience richer and better.
6) “And your parting piece of advice?”
Is anyone still reading? If so, thank you. I appreciate you.
