If you know me or skim any of my social media accounts for five minutes you’ll see I ain’t just “not woke,” I’m anti-woke. I can’t stand people who make victimhood their identity. They’re weak.
In my line of work and the circles I move in, I’m an ethnic and religious minority. And I’ve never been discriminated against for who I am or what I look like. Not because people may or may not have discriminated against me. But because I refuse to let the thought of being a victim enter my mind.
If you believe in ghosts and I don’t, and we both spent a night in a “haunted house,” waking up to strange sounds in the middle of the night would terrify you. I’d just go back to sleep.
Not only that, but I’m too good to ignore. Maybe you aren’t being discriminated against. Maybe you just need to get better. Oh, you don’t want to do the work? Well then, get f***ed.
That being said, I’d be a fool not to recognize the world is an unequal place. Take a look at this income distribution for copywriters around the world:
Source: The Copywriter Club
Copywriters in the “Global South” make half that of their occidental counterparts. It is what it is. I’m not complaining about it and neither should you. And if you’re a copywriter in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, or the Indian Subcontinent, the real question is: what are you going to do about it?
Freedom is Pay-to-Play
Wanna live life on your terms? Change your station? Be an entrepreneur? Work for yourself, when you want, and with who you want? You have two options:
- Be born in a “Western” country
- Be rich (if not born in a “Western” country)
Understand, freedom is a real thing and you can have it. But freedom is also a product to be packaged and sold, because marketers ruin everything.
“What you called love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.” – Don Draper
And the bigger your dreams, the bigger the price tag. Because some mofo out there knows if he shows up at the right time and finds a way to tie his product between current loser you and future baller you who’s living your dream, you’re gonna buy that s***.
If your dream is making a full-time income as a copywriter, expect to pay $1,000 to $3,000. If your dream is making $100,000/year, the price is $10,000 to $30,000.
Marketers with their schemes looking to carve out as big a slice of your wealth as you’re willing to part with. And as you grow and as your dreams progress, they know exactly what to say to you to make you part with bigger and bigger slices.
Done learning how to write copy? Now it’s time to join a mastermind. Wanna raise your effective hourly rate from $25/hour to $250/hour? You need a mindset coach. Need to work with wealthier or more prestigious clients? Better fly half way around the world to attend events and network.
The Strategists and the Labourers
Spend a few years in the marketing world you’ll realize there are two classes of marketer: the strategist and the labourer.
The strategist has advanced skills and knows all the right clients who pay the big bucks. He charges based on value. He gets paid royalties. And he works a 3-day work week. The labourer is the one the strategist delegates to. She gets paid by the hour is she’s lucky, by the word if she’s not. No royalties for her. And 60 to 80-hour workweeks.
This is an ecosystem in homeostasis. New marketers enter our world as labourers, pay their dues, and work their way up to strategists, so they can delegate to the next generation of labourers. And it would be fine this way if it was a true meritocracy.
The Class War
Copywriters and marketers in the Philipines, India, Pakistan, the Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Colombia, and elsewhere are the permanent labourer class in our industry.
By accident of birth and through no fault of your own, your exchange rate is their arbitrage. Your country’s average salary is their profit. Your cultural attitudes towards work and earning a living are their smug superiority over you.
And you, peasant, don’t get to ascend.
The skills you need are hidden in courses priced in the thousands dollars, 5 to 10 times the monthly salary of the average joe in your country. The practice and feedback you need are behind walled gardens of mentorships that cost tens of thousands of dollars. And access to the best clients happens at conferences and events everyone’s invited to, including you, provided you can spend $3,000 for an event ticket and $7,000 for a round-trip plus hotel, food, and other expenses.
No, peasant. They need you to stay in your place and not get ideas above your station. Otherwise how could they post Stripe screenshots of their 6-figure days?
Ever seen or heard this term in their ads: “automation?” Amazon automation, eCommerce automation, affiliate marketing automation, and so on? They’re referring to you. They’ve turned you into a unique mechanism. That’s what they call you: “automation.” Why do they call you that? Because they pay you so little it’s as if you’re software. You’re not even afforded the dignity of being acknowledged as humans.
Don’t get mad. Get better.
What $50,000 Worth of Courses Taught Me
There are only two things that make you a better copywriter, a more confident consultant, and a more successful business owner.
- Qualitative feedback from more experienced copywriters and marketers than you
- Quantitative feedback from your copy producing results
Both of these are contingent on repetitions or practice. The more reps you do the better you get. And as long as you’re getting those reps in, you will get better.
I’ve spent at least $50,000 on my marketing education. I’m pretty sure it’s more than that, but 50k is what I can confidently say. And after spending all that money, do you know what I realized?
Reps don’t cost $50,000. Reps are free, or almost free.
You can spend thousands of dollars learning every copywriting system there is but you’ll never be a copywriter until you put your sales message in front of a prospect and ask them to buy. You can spend thousands of dollars a month on mentorships that show you how to get clients but you won’t get a single client until you run those ads or send those cold emails.
You can’t buy the results you want. You have to work for them.
Next: Remote Work is a PSYOP