17d (edited) • 💬 Discussion
Rod Satterwhite (from Copy That!) on Working in a Copywriting Agency
Both Nabeel and Matthew advise "beginners" to start with working in-house or in an agency.
And that's what I'm aiming to do.
Rod Satterwhite is a Brand Strategist at Wieden + Kennedy.
And a Copy That! Co-owner.
HERE ARE MY NOTES FROM MATTHEW'S PODCAST WITH ROD SATTERWHITE:
(Some of these can also be used when applying for an agency job ... subtly, of course.)
# HOW TO SURVIVE AGENCY WORK:
1. Take good care of your mental and physical health.
(Cuz agency work can often be overwhelming.)
2. Build a good relationship with your seniors and coworkers.
(You're in a team, you're in this together)
3. Be quick to respond to their messages and be available and collaborative. Don't be shy about it.
4. Just ask for help from your seniors or coworkers when needed. Even if it makes you feel stupid.
(They hired you cuz they saw potential, don't make them regret ot by locking yourself away.)
# MANY AGENCIES "HIRE" QUICK AND "FIRE" QUICK, SO HERE'S HOW TO KEEP YOURSELF UN-FIRE-ABLE:
1. Research and learn about the client and their business as quick as possible.
2. Look like you are working hard. (You're gonna work hard but you need to show it as well.)
3. Try your best to stay at a consistent level of quality work.
(Matthew: a friend who's an agency owner, the biggest thing they look for is consistent quality. )
So try to do 6-7/10 job consistently. That comes with more reps.)
4. Know what differences each client account has.
(Which one needs the whole project done, which needs to know steps you're going through before the project is done, which one wants growth and which one wants damage control etc.)
# HOW TO RAMP UP YOUR SKILLS FAST:
1. Dive into the deepend and FAIL fast.
(Know that you'll NOT be good in the beginning. Messing up will happen. Try to make mistakes fast and less each time.)
2. Start swiping from things the agency has already written so far.
(Ask your coworkersor seniors about good examples of that work.)
Read through them.
Pick and choose the ones you like as inspiration for your own copy.
As soon as you have something decent, show it to somebody on the team, get feedback.
Then iterate, iterate, iterate.
3. Tell them before hand that you gonna learn quickly. In order ro do that you would need to fail fast and get feedback to get better. Tell them that.
# BUILS SELF-TRUST:
1. Believe that you can do it.
2. Share your pieces with others on the team, see their reaction, get feedback. Use the good feedback (even the smallest praise) as personal validation.
For example, "the idea is good but..." that's a positive feedback to some degree.
3. More reps, more confident.
4. Rod's personal experiment: when they read your stuff and they smile or laugh, you dod GOOD.
# THINK FROM YOUR BOSS'S PERSPECTIVE:
1. Make sure your work is actually valuable and has the potential to perform, rather than just Creatively Cool.
2. Your boss needs to respond to somebody too (the client).
Make sure they look good doing so.
(E.g. make sure your copy is renewable. Structure it on the doc in different section for each piece and also with commentary, even when you think they know it.)
3. Be responsible for the task at hand.
4. Try to be a good team player. Be friendly and collaborate often in less-pressured times.
So that when pressure arises, you can efficiently work with each other as a team.
There you have it.
And I urge you to watch the full pidcast cuz they talked about more than just Agency Copywriting.
Here’s the link to the podcast: https://youtu.be/lxOMVdeCrUc?si=RLc70gjapswhXM6j
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Rod Satterwhite (from Copy That!) on Working in a Copywriting Agency
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Where copywriters launch their careers and master high-paying copywriting skills. By Matthew Volkwyn & Nabeel Azeez.
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