What 6 Weeks In Europe Taught Me About Copywriting (and Life)
... and why I'm questioning ending it all.
My wife and I recently arrived back in Australia after a 6 week European Extravaganza. Iceland was the highlight.
Here’s an glimpse into why.
We also adventured through England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece.
It was my 5th time in Europe. And during this “sabbatical”, I realised a pattern.
My life works in 4 year cycles.
Each one ends, and begins, with an adventure.
2008 in America for a MLB Camp was the beginning of a cycle of my life where I was finding myself (…and failing miserably).
2012 in Europe led to the beginning of my copywriting cycle that saw a transition into beginning The Academy in 2016, and growing it over the next 4 years.
Europe in 2020 (pre-COVID) saw me begin the next phase of my copywriting cycle that led to me working with some world-renowned businesses and helping to generate $400M+ in those 4 years.
And now, this 2024 Europe Trip has opened up the next phase …
… and I have no idea what it is.
My intuition told me to end the previous cycle.
Burn it to the fucking ground. Fast.
So I did.
I left the Copy Chief & Marketing Executive position I held.
And now, here I am. In the most dangerous and powerful position a human can find themselves in.
One where there is no thing - so there is the potential for there to be any thing.
I am grateful for the last four year season.
It was a harvesting of all the seeds I’d planted and the work I’d done.
That harvest allowed for the 6 week Europe Trip, and flying business class.
That’s a story for another time. But it was the catalyst that set off this “welcome to the new level, Nick” experience I am having.
In the past, my pattern would be to decide fast, act fast, and move onto the next thing.
Due to my experience, I see how this is juvenile and has actually limited me in the past. It caused me to find myself in sticky situations I actually did not want to be in.
A part of me is impulsive. Neither good nor bad. It just is.
This time, I choose to be different.
And this is creating a new challenge for me to overcome and solve.
One where I am finding myself feeling the sensation of being “stuck” due to the intellectual and rational energy I am using.
I have these copywriting skills. I have these crypto skills. I have these advertising skills. I have these high-performance and mindset skills.
And they’re at a level that honestly allow me to operate at a very high level.
But the question I am asking myself with sincerity and authenticity, for the first time in my entire life, is what do I want?
In the past this would always be jaded by other peoples perspectives and what I thought would look the best in their eyes.
I took the option that allowed me to be perceived in society in a certain light.
I don’t want to do that anymore.
Yet, because I’ve not experienced anything other than this, I am questioning my own level of sincerity when I come up with an answer.
I love copy. I love teaching. I love business. I love tech. I love crypto.
I love pushing the envelope and being an early adopter, at the forefront of the new frontier.
… and all of this is the content of what I am pondering right now …
The future I am leaning toward is going even deeper into the copywriting world.
My sole intent, if I do, is to educate the next generations with content around copywriting skills, high performance, mindset/beliefs, advertising, AI and business skills.
The mission is to provide them with content, resources, and mentoring they cannot find anywhere else in the world to help them build a copywriting business/be the kind of copywriter that guarantees them consistent, high-quality projects.
To create the greatest copywriting community and experience of the 21st century.
Essentially, it’s mentoring copywriters and teaching them the skills that allow them to be in control of the outcome - by being in control of the resources (that is, their attention, their effort, their time, and their money).
Tom Bilyeu tattooed a quote similar to this on my brain when I binged his old Inside Quest episodes.
The one thing keeping me from going all in on this and being a relentless honey-badger that is so single-mindedly focused on creating the greatest product of it’s kind in this industry is knowing if copywriters actually want it …
… I know they need it.
I also know the effort, time, energy, commitment, and sacrifices that are going to be required.
I am asking myself if I am willing to undertake those conditions.
The sole trigger, for me, is just one person wanting it.
If you’re reading this, and you want this to exist in the world, please comment and let me know.
One person is all it takes.
When I look at the current copywriting education landscape it’s all so fucking vanilla.
It’s one thing to learn the “table-stake” skills of copywriting.
It’s another to learn the skills that help you master it by getting the reps in, and a whole other thing to learn the business & personal skills that go into becoming one of the few copywriters in the world who get paid what they’re worth.
Knowing what copy is and what goes into landing pages, headlines, subject lines, sales copy, social media posts, and newsletter content is one thing.
Writing the goddam copy and knowing how to use it to build a high-quality lifestyle and freedom for yourself is another.
I know what it’s like to work for other people, and I know what it’s like to work for yourself.
One gives you true freedom - financial, geographical, and time.
The other gives you the illusion of it - where you eventually venture too far and hit the glass wall of the container they have you in.
The choice of which you experience is yours, and yours alone to make.
I know my choice. I have made my bed. I am committed to sleeping in it.
The question for right now is - what am I going to create.
With love and gratitude,
Nick
P.S: I thoroughly enjoy and am grateful for these periods in my life. As I reflect back I see them as a constant aspect of every 4-year cycle I have gone through.
This here, this is the highly uncomfortable phase - the newly formed butterfly fighting for its life to emerge from the cocoon … or the chicken fighting for its life to emerge from the egg. Any outside effort and the butterfly or chicken will die. It needs to overcome this adversity for itself.
This I know to my core.
The other thing I know is that this too shall pass. With writing, space, time in nature, and introspection the answer will reveal itself to me.
Over the coming days, and weeks, expect educational & entertaining content - as well as some more of these “journal” type pieces.