SMBNow blog invited me to write an article about myself, and my services. Where do I begin? Where do I begin?
Hands clasped together, face reddening with delight.
Here’s the Short Version about Me
I was born in Washington DC and graduated from University of Maryland. My husband loves to fish. Working in tech for 8 years, I’ve become very unafraid of dry subjects and the universe of high-gadgetry.
Here’s the Short Version from Wendy, My Editor
I’m a NoCal girl—born in the city of Fairfield, an hour’s drive from the ancient Redwoods. My husband, son, and I live in America’s Finest City—that’s San Diego, CA, in case you’re not up on your city slogans—where I sit at my desk each day and tap away at my computer. I edit business copy by day, but write detective noir under cloak of night. In terms of business background spent many a long year as a trainer in the mortgage banking industry.
Here’s What We Do
We write articles.
Aaannd, in the six years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve learned one thing:
People don’t give a sh*t about what you have to say until they know you care about them—their wellbeing, their interests and by extension, their clients.
You have to give people a personal reason to come back to your website. That takes passion and putting yourself in their shoes.
And all caring begins with listening.
True. Copywriting is definitely about tight, clean messaging. Copywriters like me keep an editor in the wings, and a software program for just such a purpose. There’s no doubt copy’s got to be easy to read.
But grammar ain’t everything.
Beyond the artistic, beyond the poetic turn of phrase, and the ten-dollar word section of the library—you come to the skunks-den of all copywriting failure.
The failure to listen.
When a writer doesn’t listen to the reader, her copy comes off like an end-of-the-night shout-down in a bar.
Nobody cares.
Boom.
So that’s what we do… me and my editor. We look for ways to help people. We dig until we find their honest pressing needs and write something they can use. That’s why we’re in business.
Greater than I have said it:
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
~ Albert Einstein
And the way that we do it—my editor and me—is to produce articles about things people want to read.
That’s it!
Nothing complicated. We have no aspirations to climb Mt. Everest or cross the Pacific on a Kon Tiki raft.
If you’d like to know more, please reach out. We’d love to hear from you!
Rita Mailheau, a copywriter of business articles, specializes in the Information Security Industry. She loves to walk the many parks found in her home city of San Diego, CA.