#118: Name Your Mission So You Can Claim It

“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”
–Leonardo Da Vinci

In This Issue:

Editor’s Note: I met Catherine Cairns the same year I met Krista – at the 2002 AWAI Bootcamp. What she did to land her dream client – which also happened to be her first client – has become the stuff of legend. The 12-page self-promotional letter that effectively used every copywriting trick in the book landed her a gig with one of the top mailers in the country: Nightingale-Conant. She remains one of their top writers today. Months and months ago, she sent me this tip. You know I’ve been planning a big transition since Bootcamp – from freelance copywriter to internet publisher. And I know you are likely plotting a transition of your own. So I thought a few words of wisdom from one of the most focused women I know might be in order…

Name Your Mission So You Can Claim It
by Catherine Cairns

One of the benefits of working with Nightingale-Conant is the access I get to all their products – the content is as life-changing for me as it is to my target prospect.

But in addition to products, they also offer some very helpful free services. One of them is their mission statement builder – and I highly recommend you give it a whirl.

Writing a mission statement is one of the most powerful ways I know to clarify your goals and find out what you truly hope to achieve.

Start by going to: http://www.nightingale.com and click on the Mission Statement button at the top of the page. It will take less than five minutes to walk through the questions. But the clarity it will bring into your life will last for years and years.

Once you’ve developed your statement, use it! It should act as a guiding light to make better decisions. For example, my mission statement stated I wanted $5K projects. From here, I thought, "What kinds of projects can give me this kind of fee? And who do I ‘really’ want to write for?"

For me, I LOVE self-help books, courses and audio program learning. I love writing for publishers that produce this kind of content. So I’ve decided to make a really defined niche for myself within the self-improvement market.

My new business card states — "Publishers! Sell More Books, Courses or Audio Programs! I specialize in writing sales-boosting direct mail kits and web/email promotions for the self-improvement market".

That’s really specific. It identifies the type of projects I’ll accept (all of which suggest a high fee). Maybe more important, it helps me to filter out the projects I don’t want. If a company who sells vitamins contacts me, I know right away, that’s not my ideal client. I "have" to say no to them no matter how appealing they are. Why? Because they’re not my target market.

Does this mean I have lost some work? Yes it does. A fundraising client was referred to me, and I had to refer them back to AWAI. But, it’s okay. I said no "on purpose" because I’m on a mission!

Creating your own mission will move you closer to your goals very quickly. It eliminates all the second-guessing most new copywriters go through. And it gives you the kind of laser-like focus that leads to success.

Catherine Cairns is a graduate of AWAI. She’s located in Ontario, Canada, but has been working with direct mail giant, Nightingale-Conant since April 2002. With several controls under her belt—in wealth, personal development, mind technology, and spiritual growth categories, Catherine continues to specialize in the self-improvement industry.

Resource Referral: Throwing Open The Doors To The Mentoring Program

I’ll never forget watching Katie Yeakle hand Krista a huge cardboard check for $10,000 when she won the AWAI spec challenge in 2003. (Actually, when I saw Katie slip her the “real” check to take to the bank, that left an impression, too.)

Not only was it possible to win such a challenge…but I was watching it happen to my friend. It felt very personal to me.

I had another moment just like that this year…but maybe even a little better. When Katie Yeakle announced the winner of the headline and lead spec challenge – the pre-cursor to the $10,000 prize – it went to Donna Kaluzniak. And Donna was a member of my mentoring program for the last three months!

Then, a few minutes later as I got up on the stage to sit on the Success Panel, guess who was sitting to my left? Bill Zoch – yet another member of the Copy Protégé Mentoring Program.

If you’ve been reading the CP for a while, you might remember that Krista and I started the program with some trepidation. After years of saying “no” to working with others – we simply felt too new ourselves still – we decide to give it a try. Watching Donna and Bill – and sharing the successes of all the people we’ve worked with so far – has been much more gratifying than we imagined.

So we’ve decided to open the doors to the program and add a few more people – we figured we have room for another 5-7 people. So if you’ve been thinking about it, this could be your chance. Send us your goals and a sample headline and lead (no more than two pages). If we think we can do you some good based on what we see, we’ll send you an invitation into the program with all the details. Drop us a line at admin@copyprotege.com – I suspect the spaces will go quickly.

Quick Copy Tip: Forget Files…Get Binders Baby!

On my way down to Delray Beach, I sat next to a very busy woman on the plane. She was organizing tax returns for her elderly parents – and heading down to Florida so they could inspect and sign them before the October 15th deadline. Having just organized my own taxes a few days before I was quite impressed she could pull off this type of activity sitting in the middle seat! My own process seemed to take over every surface of my house.

Then, she shared her secret with me. Binders!

Rather than keeping all these papers in file folders – like I do – she had one three-ring binder with tabbed sections, such as medical bills, bank statements, donation acknowledgements, etc. She explained to me that you could store anything this way much more efficiently. No more papers falling out the sides or getting shuffled out of order. And it seemed much easier to carry around.

So I’m moving a lot of my paperwork into binders as soon as I possibly can – you should give it a try too!