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I had a different Saturday planned, but instead…
WordCamp Boulder.
Had fun and learned a few things. Part of the fun: I sync’d this blog to the WordPress mobile app so I can share a few short blurbs now and then–even if I happen to be, oh say…
Back at WordCamp.
Anyway. This post was just a test to find out if can use the tool.
Verdict: Not as easy as it first appeared.
More on that in the days to come.
KG
Posted in Blogging.
– July 14, 2010
Once in a while, to make conversation (usually at happy hour), I toss out this ridiculous claim:
“I’ve memorized an entire story by Ernest Hemingway.”
When someone skeptically says, “let’s hear it,” I clear my throat and deliver–as sadly as possible–these six words…
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Hemingway did write that. He also, allegedly, called it his best work. As a writing exercise, I started trying to craft “micro-stories” (I guess these tiny tales now have a popular name in the writing biz) but I find the six-word limit too challenging.
So lately, I practice with a 1,000 character limit. Still a real challenge, but I can breathe inside that space a bit. Plus, I can write them inside a Facebook comment field to surprise and/or annoy my friends.
If you’re staring at a copy deadline, you don’t want to use this method to prime the pump (or unclog the pipeline). Takes too long, and you might get really sidetracked on the creative piece, get fired from your copywriting job, and wind up a box store greeter. Which would stink. But during a break in the action, I love micro-stories for stretching the part of my brain that kicks in while I write.
The payoff, I think, is in several key benefits I can really use while I’m writing ad copy:
Here’s one I wrote a few days ago. FYI, if you’re a stickler, the title doesn’t count toward the character limit!
——— ——— ———
“That story’s gonna be the end of you,” a tired voice floated up the stairs.
He barely heard it…
The Writer stared at them. Seven, eight, nine sheets of—not paper, he thought. Dark grey, shimmery, perfectly square.
He slid a single sheet (it felt warm) to the middle of the empty desk. As his pen touched the material, a white spot appeared and began to spread.
Like an ink blot, only made of light, the Writer thought.
He pulled the pen away and the small pool of light began to ripple at its edges. It got brighter, too. Or was the lamp fading—yes, the room’s corners were going dark.
Almost disappearing.
The light-blob on the grey page pulled, shook itself into smaller drops and streaks. Oh what the—no, those are letters.
WORDS.
Suddenly the Writer knew what to do. And he had to do it fast.
He jerked open the drawer where he kept his good pens. Grabbing a handful, and the remaining grey pages, he yelled “Don’t wait up!”
Then the Writer was alone in a void with two glowing, floating words…
The End.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– August 24, 2009
Ken Grindall, Loveland-based Pro Marketing Copywriter
I’d love to tell your story next.
You can have me write every word of a big website or catalog. You can hire me to create a single, fast email or postcard. You can even simply bring me your ready-to-run content for a brief, budget-friendly professional consultation.
Before you spend a penny, we can talk about your marketing plans. Gather up your questions and ideas, numbers and needs, then call me during business hours (303-345-5254) or email me any time.
So, what makes me a value to your business?
Readers have responded since I began making up short stories at five or six years old. Today, even Colorado’s pro marketing community responds, as I write a regular column on Copywriting Careers for the Denver Examiner in addition to this blog. From the moment I got my first shot at writing sales content for a catalog retailer on the east coast in 1994, that company made millions of dollars a year using the content and strategies I created for them. After I moved to Loveland in 2006, a world-wide educational curriculum publisher based in Littleton used my writing in dozens of campaigns that tracked millions more in total sales dollars.
Want to see samples of my work? You can: Please, visit my online file portfolio to look at quite a few different campaigns I’ve created, plus a detailed professional resume/profile.
Now, I work at home here in Loveland, Colorado. As a start-up freelancer in the tightest business economy we’ve seen in decades (maybe in my lifetime), I can sure relate to my entrepreneurial neighbors as we all watch our revenues shrink. Nothing like my “salad days” in the comfy, corporate marketing world…
But I’m okay with that. Sure, I need to make ends meet. But I also want to help the small businesses in my community make all their ends meet, too. I’m really good at my job–and it’s great that I can write for clients all across the country from right here in Loveland, but–why not invest that value in my neighbors?
Here on this simple blog site you can find out a bit more about me, read testimony from business owners who’ve seen what my writing can do, and more. You can also subscribe to my new articles (via email or syndicated feed) to learn copywriting tips and advice you can use every day to create effective message marketing… in the end, you may not even need to hire me!
Like my “About” info says at the top of the right sidebar on this site, “Everybody wins.”
Some times, I even invest the profit from my writing to let me do my job for nothing (no kidding, I’m that into it). As I worked to launch my solo career, I made an early commitment to set aside a portion of my available time and energy to help a business who can’t afford a professional copywriter at all. Now, once each year, My Marketing Writer awards a customized marketing “makeover” to one organization at no charge. The Loveland Reporter-Herald ran a “Business Brief” on July 11 about the first winner, Anderson Medical Legal Consulting; you can read the whole story here. For 2010, the award nominations begin Tuesday, June 8 and end Sunday, June 20 with the winner announced to the media on Sunday, July 4.
Bottom line: As a neighbor of mine, your marketing results are far more valuable to us both than those of any long-distance client. I’m confident I can help you coax new revenue from your budget, but I want you to be convinced, too. That way, you won’t hesitate to bring me on board again, or recommend me to others in our community. Along the way, we all grow and our city and region thrives.
I’m excited to be here on the Front Range. If you’d like to consider how a bit of well-crafted writing can make a difference in your business, please get in touch. I’d enjoy talking with you.
Thanks for your visit,
Ken Grindall
Posted in MMW Introductions.
– July 11, 2009
We can deal with this.
One day, we’ll walk in the sun:
Rest for the weary.
–Ken, May 14 2009
Want more? Open the MMW Haiku Archive!
Posted in Haiku Archive.
– July 6, 2009
Rebecca Anderson, RN, BMS, CLNC
Rebecca Anderson is a Registered Nurse and Certified Legal Nurse Consultant in Fort Myers, Florida. She just launched her own private consultancy in December 2008. As excited as she is about the possibilities, this is NOT what Anderson had planned…
“I was about 14 months away from my 20-year anniversary with Naples Community Hospital,” Anderson said. “And they laid me off. I was as prepared as I could be, but we all know how tough the job markets are right now. I considered my options and knew I could use my expertise to serve Florida’s healthcare recipients and professionals as a private consultant. Here was an ‘open door’ I could walk through.”
Ken Grindall owns My Marketing Writer, LLC (MMW) and works from his home office in Loveland. He recently created the Janice Award for reasons he quickly admits are both charitable and self-serving.
“Looking for work, marketing myself… just wasn’t enough to fuel my engine,” said Grindall, who also writes for Colorado’s marketing professionals as the Denver Copywriting Careers Examiner. “I challenged myself to do some giving, as long as I was going to have all that free time and no income. Plus, my entire 15-year work portfolio comes from two long-time employers—I figured the payoff for me could be that a new finished piece can help round out my presentation.”
In his campaign to land a pro bono client, Grindall eventually also picked up several paying clients. Meanwhile, Anderson heard about the Janice Award (named for Grindall’s mother) when someone shared the “nominee rally event” link on MyMarketingWriter’s Facebook page. Though always shy to promote herself (until now), she’d already been putting serious effort into marketing AMLC… and said she could not resist nominating her own business.
“Nurses are not creative, for heaven’s sake. We save lives,” Anderson explained. “We also manage the entire healthcare industry. Now, I help healthcare patients and their attorneys analyze and interpret medical records, regulations and complex documents. I work to give them insight that can help them win legal cases. But… creative, I am not. When it comes to marketing, I need help!”
Anderson’s story mirrors that of MyMarketingWriter very closely. After an employer downsized by 30 percent, Grindall worked for five months to land MMW’s first client. The similarity between the two ventures may have been the clincher to convince the panel of judges. In the end, after thoughtful review of each entry, the panel recommended AMLC to the Janice Award’s namesake for final approval…
Janice helped inspire this event, so we named the award for her.
“Our family values giving to others very highly,” Janice said. “Anderson Medical Legal Consulting looks like a great choice to me. I’m excited to see what Ken can do for them, and so proud of everything he’s already accomplished.”
Now that AMLC can celebrate this win, Grindall and Anderson will begin to coordinate a significant marketing makeover. “I need help with my website, brochure, and marketing letters,” said Anderson. “I also need advice on how to make the most of my marketing efforts. Normal networking does not get me to my target market.”
To follow the story of AMLC’s marketing makeover in the weeks to come, you can visit or subscribe to Ken’s MMW blog at MyMarketingWriter.com via email or RSS feed. Congratulations again to Rebecca Anderson for becoming the First Annual Janice Award winner!
Posted in Blogging, Economic Issues, Events & Causes, Job Hunting, Networking, Prospecting.
– July 4, 2009
"Each testimonial shows the heart of Sonlight Curriculum, reflected back to us... and to other potential customers. They tell the Sonlight story."
While I wrote my drafts for a 2-part article about HOW you can replicate this company’s success with quotes, I had the chance to do some Q&A with Laura Lee Ellis, staff copywriter for Sonlight’s marketing team. At first, I thought I might integrate this interview with that article and its checklists.
On second thought, I realized it’s better to give you that how-to material as compact take-away content for your own personal copywriting toolbox (use the link in the Examiner logo below). If you’d like to opt out of throwing me money for those serious high-value tools, why not post a comment “and fund the conversation” instead! Just sayin’.
But I didn’t want to leave Laura Lee’s answers to my questions on the cutting-room floor. So now, you can catch the highlights on my “other blog” site…
Read my interview with Laura Lee on Denver Examiner
Posted in About Your Customer, From Denver Examiner, Prospecting.
– June 11, 2009
Yes, the rally is over. For 13 days, MMW accepted your nominations. Now, the judge’s panel is reviewing them all… watch this site (or subscribe to the feed by email or RSS, from the top of the right sidebar on any page) to catch the update when Ken Grindall will announce the winner over the July 4th weekend.
Update: Congratulations to Anderson Medical Legal Consulting! (Read the press release)
And, if you were one of those who submitted a nominee for the award, or shared this event with your professional and social networks… thanks again.
Here’s the event kick-off post, as I originally published:
Let the 1st Annual “Give Back, Pay Forward” event begin!
She helped inspire this event and the award that bears her name.
Happy Birthday, Mom! (That’s my mom, Janice.)
Today, I’d love to bring the tons of enthusiasm that’s been fueling me as this event grew from an idea to a plan. I’m sorry to say, I’ve just picked up a nasty head cold over the weekend. So I’m going to write this quick, before I succumb to another nap. But I did promise I would share all the pertinent details today, as we launch the 13-day window for nominations to find a winner for the 2009 Janice Award, so… fuzzy head and all… I’m going to make good on that promise right now:
First, here’s why I decided to load up my job-hunting self with another big project that won’t make any money (not for me, anyway)–
For me, this is not about the money. I believe it’s important to live my life in a way that serves other people. I’m not here to pad my soft, American-dream behind with comfy stuff and a lazy lifestyle. That’s come and gone for me, and the big lesson I learned was this:
My parents have been great givers my whole life. And not just to me and their other kids, but to their extended family, friends, church and community. It’s a very noble way to live, and I’m proud to be of that stock. It’s high time I did more to act like it. So, here goes!
I already mentioned that today is my mother’s birthday. My mom, Janice, is a very talented quilter. It’s her big hobby, her favorite thing to do. I’ve got two amazing, one-of-a-kind pieces from her. Janice’s quilts are spread all around our family, in fact. But she has also given some of her work away. She told me a story recently about some quilts that she and friends donated to a service organization that passes them on to families of wounded military veterans. I can’t recall a lot of detail on that operation just now… but I love to imagine soldiers home from Irag or Afghanistan to be with family, and getting that little extra comfort of wrapping up in a big, soft quilt that came from someone they didn’t know, who just wanted to give.
Janice also really enjoys that TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” I do too, I admit. It’s hard for me to watch, though, because it gets so emotional (on purpose, yes, and for good reason). That may be overkill in terms of giving back, but I won’t take time here to pick it apart or weigh in on some controversy.
Here’s the catch: I’m out of work myself, at the moment. I’m building a foundation here at MyMarketingWriter.com as a freelancer (or a “solo-preneur,” the new term I like). Right now, I can’t be the big philanthropist I’d love to be. Not with money, anyway. But I think our culture may be starting to realize–we can help each other in much more tangible ways.
I’ve been part of hands-on help before. I remember going to South Carolina back in the 80s, to gopher around construction sites where homes were getting rebuilt after a huge hurricane whose name I can no longer recall. I was part of a team that built a Habitat home in Nashville a few years later. Now, I’m not so young and limber as all that…
So, I’m going to give what I’ve got: a great bunch of copywriting skill, and a fair amount of very available time.
Who will YOU nominate?
More specifically, I will donate 20% of my writing time each week to the Janice Award winner, until we’ve completed a marketing content project designed by myself and representatives of that organization. That project may be copy for a webpage or series of pages, or an email campaign, or a new brochure… I can only imagine what we might cook up. The point is, we will do something that the winner can really use to create new visibility for themselves in their market.
You get to take the first step! Help me find a great organization or small business we can give this attention to, and hopefully serve to give their work a solid boost. From you, I need just a few simple details. When you submit your nominee, please give us:
There are several ways you can pass all that info on to our selection committee…
You can leave a comment on this blog post. I’ve set the system to “moderate,” so you won’t see your comment appear here on this page once you submit. That’s okay, it’s in there. But we are going to hold all the nominees secretly in our hat until we review them all, make the selection and announce the winner. To submit a comment, click the title of the post (to be sure you’re on the article’s dedicated page), then scroll down to the empty box labeled “leave a reply,” write your comment in that box and click the button marked “post comment.” Easy-peasy, and you’re done.
Or, you can send email to janice@mymarketingwriter.com. My mom doesn’t get those emails directly–but she is on the award committee, so she will read them all (ie, you can say hi if you want). This is an address we created just for the event, and for taking your nominations for the award.
You can even send a direct tweet to @storiesthatsell. Don’t know what that means? Well, then never mind. I’m just learning to use twitter myself, so let’s just say… if you DO know what’s up, you already know you can only send 140 characters. So you can’t really give us a complete nomination this way (why you think they should win, etc), but you can submit a link to a website or blog, or something. Without the added story behind your pick, the committee will need to be convinced solely by what we see at the link you give.
But hey, you never know. Plus, you can always “follow” us on twitter from there. Which is cool.
Alright, I think that’s all the info I’ve got for today.
There are some more details I will cover over the next 13 days, while your nominations roll in. Namely, once we’ve determined a recipient for the Janice Award, I’ve got a pretty serious questionnaire sort of conversation to kick things off as we work to figure out what kind of marketing content I can give them that will make a real difference. I may share that survey here, so you can know more about where things are going.
Doesn't look like he's got a cold...
For sure, I will also be blogging my way through the project, too. I love a great story, and I can’t wait to meet the characters in this one–and watch where the adventure takes us. Okay, that’s sappy, I know.
I’m gonna blame it on the head cold. Time for that nap…
Thanks very much for reading,
Ken
P.S. Have you spread the word yet about the “Janice” Award? Sure, not every one of your friends is going to want to know (or even care), but someone might. They may know another great outfit you could nominate. There are a couple ways you can “spread the love,” as it were. First, just below you’ll see several social/viral icons you can use to promote this blog post to friends, networks, and the world. Also, if you use Facebook, please come to this event’s Facebook page and send out invitations to those you think might like to follow along. While youre there, you can “fan” the MMW page too, and get regular updates right on your Facebook wall. Anyway, it’s all there if you choose to jump in! Thanks again…
Posted in Economic Issues, Events & Causes, Job Hunting, Prospecting.
– June 8, 2009
The best ad copy, the most compelling case for your business or product, is copy you can never write. No matter how hard you try.
About three years ago, I met a Denver area entrepreneur whose attention to—and work with—his customers’ feedback bests all I’ve ever seen…
Get inside Denver, with Examiners!
Now blogging on Copywriting Careers for the Denver and Colorado business markets
Read the full article, including the six requirements copy pros look for in a strong testimonial, on my new blog at the Denver Examiner. As a rule, I will not double-dose you with duplicate articles–but I do want to give you a chance to catch everything I’m serving up on copywriting practice. When I write something with a specific relevance to the Denver market, you’ll find it on my copywriting blog at the Denver Examiner. But you’ll also be able to visit this site to grab a direct link to get there.
By the way… if you missed getting a free copy of my 12-point checklist for crafting killer customer quotes (say that out loud fast a few times!), here’s your big re-do. I’m sharing the whole thing in this 2-part article. Copy it, save it, learn it, use it, and watch your marketing collateral perform better than ever.
Here’s one more link straight to the full article:
Testimonials (part 1): use these six filters to select your best customer quotes
Posted in About Your Customer, Blogging, From Denver Examiner, Ken's Writing Guides, Writing Practice.
– June 7, 2009
Click the image to visit Kerfuffle: the blog.
Paid by the word or
For the word, just want to use
“Kerfuffle” somewhere.
–Jenn Fields, 5/05/09
Posted in Haiku Archive.
– June 4, 2009
You have a compelling, inspiring story. MMW writes you into your customer’s own story in the “Best Supporting” role. Everybody wins…
MMW creates profit for clients, colleagues and friends through strategic marketing content for all media: websites, blogs, microblogs, social networks, emails and auto-responders, newletters, direct mail, whitepapers, catalogs, press kits, media scripts, typography and all flavors of “other content.”
Reach MMW at:
Email: ken@mymarketingwriter.com
Phone: 303.345.5254
"To say I was ‘blown away’ is an understatement.
What's Ken doing?
