I have to declare a major?

When I enrolled in college, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. Still don’t, but that’s another blog post for another day. Anyhoo, I was instructed to declare a major, so I chose economics. Why economics, you ask. I have no idea. Probably because the country was in a recession and I thought I might be able to find a job in that field four years later.

It took me about four hours in an economics class to abandon that career track. What was I thinking?

What next? Well, I was good at accounting in high school. Let’s give that a try. I couldn’t get to the counselor’s office fast enough to change my major after completing Accounting 101. What a snoozer.

Declared major #3: marketing.

This one I stuck with for nearly a year and a half. I completed all of the pre-requisites and figured to start the core marketing and business courses the final quarter of my sophomore year. That plan was derailed the day I walked into a buddy’s dorm room during winter quarter and saw him working on a storyboard for his advertising class.

They offer advertising classes at this university?

I had to check that out. I went to the College of Communication, School of Journalism and perused the course catalog. Not only did they offer advertising classes, they had an area of concentration in copywriting available within their Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism degree. Instantly, I had a feeling that I was going to declare a new major for the fourth time.

Rather than make a rash decision, I thought to myself; take that advertising class as an elective and make certain you have the chops for the profession.

Four weeks into the class, I was hooked. We discussed brainstorming, developing a unique selling proposition, the creative process, advertising design and layout, and persuasive copy. I loved it all and scored very well on most every assignment, particularly the copywriting exercises.

I had found my density, I mean, my destiny late in my sophomore year of college. True, it was far removed from the major I declared on day 1 of my college career (economics? really?) but the journey was worth the misadventures of the academic paths previously strolled.

What was academics became my profession upon graduation and I’ve been on that same path ever since, for better or for worse.

Speaking of worse…considering the economy today, is it too late to change my major?

LiveJournal Tags: college,major,economics,accounting,marketing,degree,advertising,copywriting,storyboards,unique selling proposition,headline,slogan,tagline

Making the grade

I remember when I first discovered I could write. It was in Composition class my sophomore year of high school. After a couple of days of explaining the concept of transitions, our teacher, Mr. Dennis Wisniewski, sent us home with an assignment. We were to write a three-paragraph essay on a subject of our choosing and effectively use transitions between each paragraph.

I can’t say this struck me as a particularly challenging assignment. I don’t recall the topic of my paper, nor do I recall it taking me long to draft, but I do remember being concerned with neatness. You see, back in the day we put pen to paper. Few families could afford typewriters. Even if your family was fortunate enough to own one, most sophomores hadn’t taken typing class yet, so what good was it?

I wrote my paper that evening in ink and turned it in the next day. I’m confident I was more concerned about whether Mr. Wisniewski would think my subject was stupid than whether or not I effectively used transitions.

Wrong!

The disgust was clearly evident on Mr. Wisniewski’s face as he returned our papers. Not one to hide his emotions, the man lumbered up and down the rows dropping, flinging and sometimes fist-stomping assignments on my peer’s desks. He had some choice words for a few of the students, and believe me, he was not being gracious. This man took his job seriously and he must have felt he seriously failed us.

What if I failed? As he drew close to me, I became very nervous. Suddenly, he was standing over me. He took a deep breath followed by a slow and exaggerated exhale. Then he spoke, and I noticed a definite change in his tone of voice. I was stunned. Mr. Wisniewski seemed to be giving me a compliment. His words escape me today, but as my paper came into view, what he wrote in bright red ink at the top of my paper seared into my brain:

Thank you, Mr. Beasley, for not making my evening a total waste!  Grade: A-

LiveJournal Tags: composition,transitions,writing assignment,teachers,grades,key messages,copywriting,headline,slogan,tagline,ghost writing,ad copy,scripts,freelance,marketing communications,social media writer,twitter

Fear the blank screen!

Just write. A professional colleague of mine challenges writers to do just that every day. Sit down and write on any topic. The subject doesn’t matter. Park your butt in your seat, get those fingers in position at the keyboard and let the words flow through them onto the screen. Any subject. Any length. Get to it.

Seems so simple. Then why do so many of us find it so difficult?

Doubt. Insecurity. Fear.

We doubt whether we have anything of substance to write about and we doubt anyone will care.

We are insecure about our writing skills and we are insecure about how other writers will view our writing.

We fear that hardly anyone will read what we’ve published and we fear that if they do, the world will discover that we really aren’t writers. Our doubts, insecurities and fears will be proven as justified.

Pretty heavy stuff. It’s also bunk.

My friend walked away from a pretty cushy VP position in a corporation and jumped into a freelance writing career without much of a plan and absolutely no parachute. He committed to himself that he would publish a blog post every day of the work week. He also committed to himself to make phone calls and appointments with his professional and personal network to let them know he was now available for paid writing gigs. He followed through on both commitments and soon enough his blog gained an audience and writing projects came his way. Two years later, he continues to publish a blog post every weekday. The result? He has a very comfortable freelance practice going, and his blog is bringing him business. Enough business that he rarely has to troll for projects.

Pretty amazing stuff.

I’m inspired by his success. I’m going to see if I can toss aside my doubts, insecurities and fears and write a blog post every weekday, too.

Yep, I’m going to just write. Starting today.

LiveJournal Tags: copywriting,headline,slogan,tagline,ghost writing,ad copy,scripts,freelance,marketing communications,social media writer,twitter