I responded to a snarky, FOMO-themed email by grading and lightly proofing it.

I love it when an email arrives and suggests a blog post that almost writes itself. Here’s a case in point.

A couple of days ago, around 4 a.m., an email arrived that caught my attention—because, you know, it was 4 a.m. And the subject line was CLOSING!

The email was from Cristian Mihai at Irevuo. Here’s the original text:

In 72 hours, I’m closing your chance to join The Basics of Blogging for Indie Writers for only $99. I don’t want you to miss out.

That’s why I created this course for you. But I only want serious people, who want my help. I want to help people truly get results and grow. So, is that you?

Just remember: in 72 hours the price goes up. If you don’t signup by then, you will have to pay twice as much to enroll.

Last thought – if you didn’t know, my course has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

 Your Name

As a writer, Cristian’s email pushed my buttons in all the wrong ways. So—to assuage my displeasure— I graded it and sent it back to him.

I’ve not received a response and I probably over reacted, but I do feel ever so much better. Because words matter.

By Stephen Brockelman

As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.

4 comments

  1. I like your proofreading and editing skills. This guy has one or two WordPress sites. He signed up long ago to follow my blog. I didn’t reciprocate.

    Reply
  2. Stephen Brockelman – Baltimore, Maryland – As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
    Stephen Brockelman says:

    Thanks, Neil. Sometimes it just feels good to not take the high road and ignore stupid.

    Reply
  3. Stuart Danker – Malaysia – A Malaysian writer who's been in the no-niche niche for a decade. His debut novel, Tinhead City KL was published in April 2021. www.stuartdanker.com
    Stuart Danker says:

    Oh yeah, this is taking the sales pitch a little too far. It reminds me of copywriters learning about power words so their following titles all have words like ‘TURBOBOOST’ or ‘SKYROCKET’ shoehorned into them. Well I guess he got what he wanted, because this _is_ a form of marketing after all, lol. Love your reply though!

    Reply
    1. Stephen Brockelman – Baltimore, Maryland – As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
      Stephen Brockelman says:

      Well said, Stuart. (Writing this post turned out to be a win-win for me: It gave me a bit of a sense of satisfaction and it introduced me to you.) I checked out your website and I’m thrilled to have found it. Your thoughts are solid and your sense of humor keeps me reading. Thanks.

      Reply

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