A Beard Story

The decision for the clean-shaven look was not a decision.

About 2 years ago, I shaved off my beard.

I hadn’t been beardless for 20 years or so.

This is not my chin. No photographs of my naked face were taken.

But 2 years ago, I exposed my face with an easily avoidable trimming incident that made me feel like an idiot. A beardless idiot. 

My kids had never seen my chin. I had a beard when I proposed to my wife and when I said, "I do".

My family was gonna ask, “Why?”

If ever there was a time for spin, this was it. 

When we do something potentially embarrassing, such as an inept attempt at facial hair trimming (which until that day I had done successfully a few times a week for a couple of decades), we want to tell the story -- or spin it -- in a way that puts us in the best light. 

Spin Doctor sez: I meant to do that.

I'm glad I don't have to do that in my family.

When they asked, I told 'em the truth: That I forgot to put the attachment on my beard trimmer and had carved a hairless swath from just under my left nostril to the center of my jawline.

Unfixable.

No choice but to continue until my face was fully exposed. To the elements. To the eyes of both friends and strangers.

What about the spin?

I have neither the time nor the appetite for that bullshit. 

There were some laughs at my expense. I couldn't help laughing, too.

It took a couple of weeks for the beard to grow back (I’m a hirsute fellow).

So, the beard is back.

And I’ve been less cavalier with my trimmer.

_________________________

This post was partly inspired by one of the coolest beards in the business: the one that occupies the chin of Bryce Main who wrote: Does Having a Beard Make Me a Better Writer?

Bryce Main

Expense or Investment

Everyone loves great copywriting until they're in charge of paying for it.

Even clients who appear to understand the value of strong copy can find themselves questioning that value when confronted with a tight budget.

Why?

If you’re making decisions about marketing, chances are your writing is at least adequate.

So, hiring a seasoned professional writer who doesn't come cheap can seem like an extra, perhaps unnecessary, option. Desirable yes, but ... given budget constraints maybe adequate will do ... hmmmm ...

While initial nervousness about budget makes the value easy to question, it doesn’t lessen the value.

Wins and losses are often decided by seemingly slight advantages …

Horse races are won by a nose …

Argentina won the 2023 FIFA Club Word Cup on penalty kicks after tying France 3/3 …

The Colorado Avalanche won the final game of 2021 NHL Stanley Cup championship by 1 goal …

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25/22 in the 2024 Super Bowl by scoring once in the first overtime in the game's history ...

Manchester City beat Manchester United 2 goals to 1 for the 2023 FA Cup ... 

Legendary coach Vince Lombardi described American football as a “game of inches” …

The difference between a company’s marketing being effective or delivering less than needed can also be a matter of inches.

“Adequate” doesn’t put you in the winner’s circle.

The investment in excellent copy, that might have seemed optional in the beginning, can be the advantage that gives a business the extra inches needed for success.

_________________________

For more ammunition to have ready when working with a client who is
 questioning the investment in professionally written copy: Bad Writing is Expensive

Ask for feedback BEFORE they see it

 

"I don't know; it just doesn't 'speak' to me."

"I'm not sure it says what we need it to say."

"Can you make it more 'today'?"

Non specific feedback is not helpful and tends to create a disconnect between the client, the writer, and the deliverable.

Consider providing a bit of feedback guidance when you submit your first draft by saying something like this in your email:

Anything can be changed, added or taken out, but please consider the following questions as you review the copy:

👉Are all the facts and stats correct?

👉Is there anything missing and, if so, what is it?

👉Are there any particular parts you really don't like?

👉Are all the features and benefits clearly explained? If not, please let me know what I've missed

👉Is the style and tone right for your prospects?

When you do this, you have a better chance of receiving useful feedback.

The Golden Rule

Never be afraid to ask for more detail,

otherwise you’re scrabbling around in the dark.

Hiring Qualifications

 

Will Any Agency Hire This Man?

He is 38, and unemployed. 

He dropped out of college. 

He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. 

He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy. 

He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year. 

I doubt if any American agency will hire him.

However, a London agency did hire him. 

Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world.

The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

That memo was written by David Ogilvy to one of his partners ... and the man described in the memo was Ogilvy himself, the man many refer to as "the father of advertising."

David Ogilvy

Ogilvy came to the US in 1938 and worked for Gallup’s Audience Research Institute. Ten years later, although he had never written an ad, he opened Ogilvy, Benson & Mather.

He went on to produce work for some of the biggest clients of the day: American Express, Lever, Shell, Sears, Rolls-Royce and built the agency into one of the world’s most prominent.

It sometimes pays to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.