Hello all. It's about time that I started using this forum properly, as I noticed it is around a year since I signed up.
So first things first, I'm John. I'm a freelance copywriter from London (more on that later).
My path to this point started when I was young. At school, I was always more interested in money making schemes and extracurricular activities than doing any actual schoolwork.
I loved it, and I was actually on quite a valuable path, I just didn't have the right perspective to see it. The internet was quite new, and at 14 I was building websites, and selling things online.
Eventually, though, my parents put pressure on me to leave the internet alone and concentrate at school. I think they thought I just spent all my time watching dirty videos.
At 18, I got a job in a retail bank. Until one day, a customer screamed at me across the counter. "F*ck this", I thought. So I quit, and at a loss with what to do next I applied to go to uni.
I went to uni for entirely the wrong reasons. Mainly, partying and the chance to meet new women and live in a new area. I met a few women, so at least it wasn't entirely wasted.
Problem is, I completely F*cked uni up. I was just getting quite good at sports trading (or gambling), so spent most of my time doing that.
By the time uni finished, my degree was as useful as a chocolate teapot. Especially as the recession had just hit and things were tough in the job market. I searched for a job for 18 months with little success.
During that time, I started online ventures. Blogs, dropshipping, traded some more. They mostly bombed.
Then the girlfriend that I met at uni left me because she said I was going nowhere.
I become majorly depressed. Some days I physically couldn't drag myself out of bed. I felt like I had flushed my life down the toilet with my poor choices and lack of direction.
Anyway... eventually I managed to leverage my sports trading experience, and after practically begging, got a part-time job at the betting company I was a customer of.
Within 4 years, I had managed to work my way up to a good position. Family and friends thought I was doing fantastically well and had a great career ahead of me. I didn't really share that opinion...
1. I hated the fact I was providing real value for the business and not being respected for it. I would create and implement new products that would pay my wages x20. But barely recieved a thankyou.
2. Being someone with an addictive personality and working in betting wasn't ideal.
Then one day, the company announced they were restructuring. I was asked to re-interview for my position.
I had another "F*ck this" moment.
So, I decided to take redundancy, and start a business. What business? I didn't know, but I just decided to wing it.
In the meantime, I took a job as a roofer to pay the bills, and planned to start a business in my spare time. I wrote an ebook, started a blog, tried to start a FBA business. But really, I didn't know WTF I was doing. They all failed.
It was around that time that I found this place. I'd sit glued to my phone reading all the great threads on my journey home in the van. Then I'd arrive home, where I would literally drag myself over the threshold, aching, bruised, covered in shit. Sometimes actual shit...
It was actually a day that I was scrubbing bird shit from the roof of a building, heaving every time the stench hit my nostrels that I had yet another, "F*ck this" moment.
I quit the next day and decided to double down. It was probably the gambler in me.
A few weeks later, I saw a thread by @SinisterLex looking for a copywriting mentee. I'd been closely following his threads for a few weeks, and although I wasn't chosen, I decided to start on Upwork. I won gigs almost immediately with blog writing in the gambling industry.
But then a few weeks later, Lex started his Executive Contract Copywriter course. I jumped in like a rat up a drainpipe and I've been progressing ever since.
There have been moments when I've felt like an imposter. I've struggled with that a lot.
The words of a 'friend' rang in my ears. I'd told him I was starting a copywriting business, and his reply was:
"You can't just wake up one day, decide to be a copywriter and start a business with no experience."
Well, you can. And I don't feel like an imposter any more. A huge part in thanks to Lex for his guidance, as well as the support of the action taking tribe of people he has built who have taken one of his courses.
So, now... I'm posting and want to contribute because I feel like I finally have some value to add. I'm truly grateful for what this forum, the posters, @MJ DeMarco and TMF has helped me discover.
I've finally found my path.
Thank you!
So first things first, I'm John. I'm a freelance copywriter from London (more on that later).
My path to this point started when I was young. At school, I was always more interested in money making schemes and extracurricular activities than doing any actual schoolwork.
I loved it, and I was actually on quite a valuable path, I just didn't have the right perspective to see it. The internet was quite new, and at 14 I was building websites, and selling things online.
Eventually, though, my parents put pressure on me to leave the internet alone and concentrate at school. I think they thought I just spent all my time watching dirty videos.
At 18, I got a job in a retail bank. Until one day, a customer screamed at me across the counter. "F*ck this", I thought. So I quit, and at a loss with what to do next I applied to go to uni.
I went to uni for entirely the wrong reasons. Mainly, partying and the chance to meet new women and live in a new area. I met a few women, so at least it wasn't entirely wasted.
Problem is, I completely F*cked uni up. I was just getting quite good at sports trading (or gambling), so spent most of my time doing that.
By the time uni finished, my degree was as useful as a chocolate teapot. Especially as the recession had just hit and things were tough in the job market. I searched for a job for 18 months with little success.
During that time, I started online ventures. Blogs, dropshipping, traded some more. They mostly bombed.
Then the girlfriend that I met at uni left me because she said I was going nowhere.
I become majorly depressed. Some days I physically couldn't drag myself out of bed. I felt like I had flushed my life down the toilet with my poor choices and lack of direction.
Anyway... eventually I managed to leverage my sports trading experience, and after practically begging, got a part-time job at the betting company I was a customer of.
Within 4 years, I had managed to work my way up to a good position. Family and friends thought I was doing fantastically well and had a great career ahead of me. I didn't really share that opinion...
1. I hated the fact I was providing real value for the business and not being respected for it. I would create and implement new products that would pay my wages x20. But barely recieved a thankyou.
2. Being someone with an addictive personality and working in betting wasn't ideal.
Then one day, the company announced they were restructuring. I was asked to re-interview for my position.
I had another "F*ck this" moment.
So, I decided to take redundancy, and start a business. What business? I didn't know, but I just decided to wing it.
In the meantime, I took a job as a roofer to pay the bills, and planned to start a business in my spare time. I wrote an ebook, started a blog, tried to start a FBA business. But really, I didn't know WTF I was doing. They all failed.
It was around that time that I found this place. I'd sit glued to my phone reading all the great threads on my journey home in the van. Then I'd arrive home, where I would literally drag myself over the threshold, aching, bruised, covered in shit. Sometimes actual shit...
It was actually a day that I was scrubbing bird shit from the roof of a building, heaving every time the stench hit my nostrels that I had yet another, "F*ck this" moment.
I quit the next day and decided to double down. It was probably the gambler in me.
A few weeks later, I saw a thread by @SinisterLex looking for a copywriting mentee. I'd been closely following his threads for a few weeks, and although I wasn't chosen, I decided to start on Upwork. I won gigs almost immediately with blog writing in the gambling industry.
But then a few weeks later, Lex started his Executive Contract Copywriter course. I jumped in like a rat up a drainpipe and I've been progressing ever since.
There have been moments when I've felt like an imposter. I've struggled with that a lot.
The words of a 'friend' rang in my ears. I'd told him I was starting a copywriting business, and his reply was:
"You can't just wake up one day, decide to be a copywriter and start a business with no experience."
Well, you can. And I don't feel like an imposter any more. A huge part in thanks to Lex for his guidance, as well as the support of the action taking tribe of people he has built who have taken one of his courses.
So, now... I'm posting and want to contribute because I feel like I finally have some value to add. I'm truly grateful for what this forum, the posters, @MJ DeMarco and TMF has helped me discover.
I've finally found my path.
Thank you!
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