Welcome to the newsletter that delivers a weekly dose of story (and sometimes strategy) to help you feel better AND write better in your biz.

I’ve had a lot of minor injuries in my life.

 

Never anything too serious (luckily), but you know — 

 

Broken toes

Twisted ankles

A wrist I still can’t put weight on

Tendonitis

Shin splints

 

…like, the normal stuff.

 

But I have had ONE injury that was not normal.

 

And it all started at a karaoke bar.

It was the night of an old high school friend’s bachelorette party.

 

I’d already sung "Silver Springs" by Fleetwood Mac (which — I'll be honest — really brought the vibe of the bar down), and the bride had done a few songs by popular demand.

 

This was the summer of 2019, and every single one of us bachelorette partygoers was deeply obsessed with the “A Star is Born” soundtrack.

 

So it was decided, naturally, that we’d do a group rendition of “Shallow.”

 

I was washing my hands in the bathroom when I heard it come on. And I swear, I’ve never moved faster in my life.

I sprinted to the stage, making it just in time to sing…

 

🎵 Tell me something, girl, are you happy in this modern world? 🎵

 

And — as you very likely know since it was impossible not to hear this song every day during its chart-topping streak — this song starts slow… and then Lady Gaga just freaking goes for it.

 

 

Now, I have no idea how our performance was received by the crowd.

 

 

But I *felt* like Lady Gaga in that moment.

 

I’m truly a fairly good singer. (The proof: another friend had me sing a song IN their wedding that same year!)

 

Alas — and this, of course, goes without saying — I am NOT Lady Gaga.

 

 

Yes, my strangest injury of all was an actual, medically diagnosed vocal cord injury from singing:

“IN THE SHA HA HA HA AH LOWWWW, IN THE SHA HA, SHA LA LA LA LOW, WE’RE FAR FROM THE SHALLOW NOW”

 

at a volume (and probably pitch) my body is apparently incapable of making.

 

My voice was raspy / GONE for weeks. I mean, it hurt to talk. And after I finally got a diagnosis, I went to voice therapy.

 

I drove 45 minutes to a voice therapy specialist, once a week, for at least 2 months.

 

I had to do exercises each morning before I headed into work (where I had to use my voice all day because I was a teacher).

 

And I had to attempt not to catastrophize every 30 minutes that I’d never be able to sing again, because I really do love singing.

 

In the end, my voice did heal. I can — and do! — still sing. 

 

But I haven’t done karaoke since 🙃

I hadn’t thought about this story in ages, but it popped back into my head after I got sucked into watching A Star is Born last week. 

 

 

And other than swooning over Lady Gaga’s voice and getting emotional watching her character's dream of becoming a singer come true, I was struck by one thing I didn’t pay attention to last time.

 

At the beginning of the movie, when they first met, Bradley Cooper asks Lady Gaga if she writes any of her own music.

She does, she says, but she doesn’t sing her own music.

 

Then he tells her:

 

 

I think a lot of us — like, you and me — really do have something to say.

 

Something we want to use our platforms for.

 

A message we want to share.

 

A *thing* we want to be known for.

 

It might be directly related to what we sell. Or? It might not.

 

(Can you guess mine? 😏)

 

Either way, it’s something we believe our ideal clients, the people consuming our content, visiting our websites, and considering working with us, want to — and need to — hear.

 

So we embed it into our brands.

We make it a part of our values.

We try to work with people who get it.

 

But the whole “having a way to say it to have people listen to it” part?

That’s so much harder.

 

If you know what you want to say, but you don’t know how to say it  — *especially* in a way that will resonate and stick with your readers…

That’s where a copywriter can come in ✏️

 

Part of the copywriting process is asking you *just the right* questions so you can give me *just the right* insight into you + your brand…

 

Then I take your (possibly haphazard) brain dump…

 

 

 And turn it into copy that makes you say things like:

And I know it’s literally the middle of summer (I’m currently typing these words as I sweat in an un-air-conditioned house on an 88° day), but crunchy leaves and pumpkin spice everything will be here before we know it.

 

When September hits? Your ideal clients are going to be coming out of summer mode and looking to hire out that project that’s been sitting on their to-do list since March.

 

When October hits? Or, dear god, November? You and everybody else will be launching this and promoting that, running sales, and driving *all the traffic* to your website.

 

And when December hits? You’ll be looking back at your 2025 goals list — and hopefully feeling grateful you finally invested in that copy project.

 

So even though it’s 88° outside and I need to go take an ice-cold shower…

 

I *also* need you to think about what the sweater-and-scarf-wearing version of you needs.

 

And if that’s a new website (or a new welcome sequence or some new launch copy)?

 

 

I’m currently booking for mid-August and beyond — so let’s chat about getting your project done and to a designer before the first day of fall.

 

Shoot me a reply to chat or just head to my website to inquire, k?

 

 

📚 What I’m reading: I'm aaaalmost done with I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom (the “fast-paced, darkly humorous thriller” I started last week). It's been good, but I think I need to back to rom-coms for a minute after this one 😅

 

🏚️ What's happening post-tree: A bunch of REALLY 👎 stuff with contractors that I won't get into, but alsooo we move in 2 weeks! So lots of goodbyes, visits to our favorite Seattle-ish spots, and packing!

 

 

👀 What you really want to know: My website is officially going be like 18 pages *BUT* 7 of them are *DONE* and 3 of them are almost done and 4 of them will be pretty quick to write SO. Progress!

 

→ Website Copy: SEO-optimized, conversion-focused, conversational and true-to-YOU

→ Email Marketing: Weekly Emails, Welcome Sequences, & more
→ Launch Copy: Launch Emails, Sales Pages, and Onboarding Sequences

 

 

→ ONE website copy project

→ TWO email or launch copy projects