Copywriting.org Interviews Tahmid Nur

would say my copywriting discovery was quite the journey now looking back. It was August 2021, and I just decided to take a “gap year” off school. So I had to figure out what I was gonna do in the time being. I decided to apply for a sales job and got hired as an in-house sales development rep for an agency that sold PPC services to Amazon sellers. I went into that role confident knowing that the stuff I learned from reading Jordan Belfort’s “Way of The Wolf” book and his “Sales School” audiotapes would be able to help me produce results with ease. And let’s just say… I took a Mike Tyson punch to the gut on the first day. Here’s what happened (TLDR below): When I sat down and settled into my new role… I noticed that the script… The script that I thought I should’ve gotten the day before to take a good look at… Had a lot of flaws to it. So me being the perfectionist that I was… I ended up spending the first 2 hours editing the script as perfectly as I possibly could before I hit the phones cold calling Amazon sellers. (How ironic, it’s like I was meant to be a copywriter…) Anyway. Within that time span, the other 2 hires were able to book two meetings each. And I haven’t even hit the phones yet. But no worries, I got all the time in the world to prove myself. After all I did just get hired… it shouldn’t be that big of a deal right? If only. Lunch break hits and the manager wants to have a “talk” with me outside… “Hey you doing ok? How is it so far?” “Good good, just getting the hang of it.” He nods his head and to my surprise, he goes “You sure you’re alright?” “Yeah why?” Of course I’m alright. Kinda strange that he asked me that, but then he gave me the dreaded “talk”… “Well uhh, you kinda shot yourself in the foot earlier by going through the script. And it looks like the other two are here to stay since they were able to get a couple meetings in… And we don’t have the space to keep you all in here so uhh… if you’re not able to book a meeting by 5 then this might not be for you…” “Oh… okay… Sounds good.” It sounds like I just f*cked up so hard is what that sounds like… And now the pressure was on. And luck had to be on my side here or I was probably done… After the lunch break, I got back to the phones. Hungry. And you know how it is with cold calls. People don’t pick up, or when they do, if their attention wasn’t captured within the first four seconds, the autodialler would go to the next call… Not to mention the gatekeeper you’d have to go through by pretending to be a “friend” of the one you wanted to talk to. And before the break I actually got close twice. One time really close. But I wasn’t able to close (with a z) because I took too long transitioning from the qualifying phase into locking him in on Calendly. Do I blame the script? Maybe. But I’ll own up to it and know for next time to not be such a perfectionist and to just put in the REPS so you get as close to perfection. Clock struck 1… didn’t get one yet. But we still got time we’re good. 2 o clock… I’m due for one now right? 3 o clock… Still nothing. By the time it hit 4, the other reps and managers at this point were cracking jokes with each other and having a good time while I was still on the phones sweating it out. But at this point, all the luck ran out. The chances I had at the before the break were all I had. The rest of the calls were pretty much no-shows and instant hang ups. I honestly gave up and was just clock watching at that point… “Alright Tahmid, it looks like it’s 5 and you weren’t able to book a meeting…” Devastated, I pleaded, “If anything you don’t have to pay me today and I’ll come back tomorrow if that’s alright with you…” “Naah it’s all good bro, I’ll just pay you $100 for today. Just invoice me when you get home.” And just like that it was over. After a grand total of 8 hours on the job, I was fired on the spot. I shook hands and said the classic line… “Thanks for the opportunity and best of luck to you guys moving forward.” And as soon as I walked out the door, I went from being devastated to being unable to control my tears from flowing out as I walked over to the Yonge and Eglinton Subway station in defeat. It was honestly humiliating not being able to hold my tears in public. I really thought I had the potential to be great in sales and it was ripped away from me just like that. * TLDR; Got hired for a sales job and went in the role confident knowing I could do a great job with what I knew… But I messed up by not hitting the phones for 2 hours because I was too busy perfecting the script. At lunch, the manager says if I don’t get a meeting booked, I was gonna be let go. By 5:00, I wasn’t able to do it. Left the office devastated wondering what to do next. * I guess I learned my lesson the hard way. The hard hard way I might add. But now what do I do? I thought sales was the way to go… But there was no way in a blue moon I was gonna go and get ANOTHER sales job after what just happened. I can rip cold calls if I needed to right now but man that was brutal. But I had to learn SOME sort of skill that would make me valuable in the marketplace so I can earn the $ that I desire. So then I typed into Google… “best high income skills to learn” Coding? – Naaah. Web developing? – Nope. Graphic design? – Not my thing. Sales? – Yeah no. What about trade skills? – I thought about it but decided to push it as a last resort. But then lo’ and behold… I discovered copywriting. You mean to tell me that I don’t have to cold call anymore? That I don’t have to deal with people hanging up in my face and could just actually write words that get people to buy… Online? And it’s a highly lucrative skill? Sign me up. And since then, I’ve been a man of copy.