The Art of the Edit: How Copywriters Build Strategy at a Marketing Agency

Anna-Lynn is back and hosting this week’s episode of the FreeDive podcast! She’s joined by Christina White, one of our amazing copywriters here at Seapoint, for a deep dive into what really goes into strong copywriting at a marketing agency.

Together, they break down the art of the edit—from swapping revisions with the creative director, to navigating feedback without taking it personally, to finding the fun in the strategy process.

Whether you’re a marketer, writer, or just curious about how great content gets made, this episode offers an honest look at the craft behind the copy.

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Transcript

because our relationship has changed from that initial we're friends initial meeting. We like each other now. What do you do when you get feedback from me that kind of is like ooh ouch does it happen a lot? Like I honestly don't know. I am not that sensitive. I would rather just be told change this. Do it this way. Here's a thought. And there have been times when I send you something and you read it once and you go, "No, do it again. Try again.

We were just talking. I was just talking to a friend who told me that she likes to be in her home. It's peaceable. She doesn't want to leave. She'll probably never come and visit me in Georgia, which is fine. That doesn't hurt my feelings. And she's going to because she likes to just be at her home. And I get that. And I was talking to my Jason and I was like, man, after two weeks when we're home, we're like, get me out of here. We need to go somewhere. We need to go somewhere. I need to see other people. I need to leave. I need to go camp. I need to go to Atlanta. I need to go do something. Even if it's for a day, get me out. So, very opposite. That's funny. So, today are we can we start now? Are we starting? Sorry. I'm so not good at this. It's good. Yeah. Okay. So today on the podcast, we're talking to Christina. I'm here in Maine. Yay. Finally. So excited to finally have you on the podcast and to finally be back on the podcast myself. I know. It's been a while for you, too. Yeah, it's been nuts. But so this is great. This is great. Christiey's been holding down the fort for you. I know. She's been doing amazing. And I mean, really, it's who the people want. So, it's worked out. But we get to have you today. And so, tell everybody what you do here at Seoint. A co I guess a copywriter. Yeah. Team team creative. Team creative. Yep. She gets to work on my team, which I'm very excited about. And funny story, I almost was too prejudiced to allow that to happen. She didn't want to hire me, guys.

But it worked out. No, it's because um I was looking for a writer and so I went to Bill and was like, "We really need to hire somebody." And he was like, "You know, you should hire my sister-in-law, Christina." And I was like, "So not in the mood." I'm like, "Dude, you I need someone with experience. I need someone who knows because I had just come off of training." I think it was about three different writers. Um, and it was like six months invested of my time in addition to doing my other stuff, right? Um, and carrying the job of all these writers that I didn't have and none of them stayed. Oh, they're all they right. None of them stayed. So, you invested and I was like all that time and they're gone. One decided to move to New York. they had an opportunity to move to New York and um yeah and then someone else the rest of them they just went off in different directions and they were like I decided to do something which happens it happens is okay it was just like a perfect storm for me and I was like I need someone now they need to know what they're doing I'm not spending six more months you know mentoring and training somebody and end up with nothing right and so he was like oh you should hire my sister-in-law. I'm like, I didn't even want to interview you. I know. I remember cuz I walked in and Bill was like, "And Annaline's downstairs." And I walk in and you were like, I don't even know to be fair. I don't even know if you knew I was coming in that day. I did. You did. I did. And I was already just like, "Let's get this over with." Right. You were like, "Okay." So, I'll say hi. I'll be nice, but I'm not going to hire her. Belle, I know. Cuz you sat down, you were like, "Listen." Right.

And I'll be honest, in my head I was thinking Bill's already hired me, right? He's he said to me and he's like, "Of course you're going to get like the final vote because it's, you know, it's your team." Mhm. And if you don't if you if you don't want her, you know that that's fine, but I I I really think you should hire. And I'm like already thinking and I was thinking, you probably already did. And you're just telling me that. But I didn't I didn't I didn't say that to you, right? I didn't say that. I didn't say anything. I just went into it like, "Okay, so you're a writer. Okay, tell me tell me what what you've done." And I Yeah, I was a little bit I wasn't as welcoming as I usually am. So, I apologize for that. I was I have forgiven you. Thanks. I'm glad because yeah, I wasn't I wasn't super nice. And and then Bill had even said I I got frustrated with him because I was like, "Well, I I need to see samples of her work." And he he messaged me. He's like, "I told her she didn't need to bring any." Which I had samples and I'm so glad you had them. And I had them and I would have I I think I don't remember exactly. I feel like I did cuz I feel like I asked I may have asked him and he maybe I didn't. I don't remember. But I had them because I had been working writing short I think it was only 300word blogs for like home inspection sites. So they were small. I edited myself and then we did have another person come on to help us with that and I was editing her a little bit too. Yeah. So I had to find which ones I had actually written and not the ones she had written. And I sent them to you. Yeah. Right. I sent you. You sent them to me, but I don't think you had anything the day of like ready to show me. Maybe not. Maybe. I think I told you though. Yeah. And you said I do have stuff. I have written. But either he told you not to bring them or he told me that he told you not to bring. But it was just like word had come down from him. Oh, she doesn't need them. You guys just need to get in the room and talk together and figure it out. and like

and then I offered I said well let's just do a trial yeah period. I was like fine let's let's do that. I I'll I'll do a trial. Let's see. And now and I wrote one blog because you gave me like like here's what we do. Here's the brief. Here's this. All right. Let's pretty much like show me what you got. Exactly. I was like okay. Yeah. And I sent it in and I think I still remember your email. You were like wow. Yeah. You're not bad. I was like, this is I can work with this. I know. I remember I don't know why I was shocked because what you had shown me from the website stuff was good but we it it's just like a different animal you know writing for insurance and writing for the type of clients that we had and some I had already seen it just not translate for some of the writers who had come and kind of done trials with us before and so I wasn't expecting it to work anything and now funny story I'm years later. Can I have three of you? Can we somehow clone you? Yeah, it was probably one of our best hires, I think. At least for my team, I feel that way. So, I'm super stoked that we've got you and our clients have you because you've brought so much. One of the things that I love about you is you're always thinking ahead and you're thinking about the client, thinking about what they need and looking at what can I do to make this better? What can I do to align this more with their brand, where they're at right now, where they want to go? And a lot of times, it just happened again this week where we're talking in a meeting about next steps for a client, like where we want to take content for them, and you're like, "Actually, that's what I'm doing for my next blog for them here. What do you think of this?" And we're like, "You're already there. You're already where we want to go." So, it's just you're like hyper intuitive. And you just have to listen. Yeah. You just have to listen, I think, and take notes. Y even if meetings I'm on meetings and I listen and I'm not talking or I'm not presenting. My camera's off, but I'm just taking notes and trying to listen to what everybody say. Yeah. And different viewpoints. The client's viewpoint, your viewpoint, Mark's viewpoint, everybody on the team, Vanessa. Yeah. Bill, whatever anybody says, just try and pay attention and write it down because you will forget. Yes. So, I have like an ongoing on my iPad, like an ongoing clients, just a ever running list. Just try to listen to what people are saying and then keep thinking about it. Yeah. And I think that's so important because a lot of times you do like on the creative team, you get a brief which is handed down to you from an account manager who is face tof face with the client and who is in a lot more meetings than we are with the client when it comes to strategy and you know talking about analytics and stuff. So, what's in the brief is usually based off of those meetings and those conversations that we're not privy to, right? But I like that you recognize that a what any good writer should do is take the brief, but then think about, okay, so these are the numbers. These are kind of like the the core foundation pieces, but what can we build off of this? How can I make it my my own, their own, right? a new viewpoint, a different angle, right? Something that's relevant now because sometimes, not for every client, but sometimes a brief might be written and we may not get to it. I mean, in a couple weeks and in a couple weeks, a lot can change, right? So, we want to still think about what's happening now when we're writing it, what's going to be relevant, what what people are going to read and go, and every writer has their own voice and personality and kind of tone. And yeah, you have to give the client what they need and speak in their voice basically. But I think sometimes being able to and you do this very well like put yourself into it and give it a fresh take like because a lot of times the brief material will be it's very much one note and you can add so much more to it by taking it as like a starting point instead of like this is the Bible we cannot add to it. We cannot take anything away from it. Like this, we've said it before. It's like pieces of a puzzle. Like the brief is only one piece of your puzzle, right? And then your other pieces have to fall into place. And that's all the title, the extra words, your CTA, your subheadings, your image, all of that. They all have to come together to make a complete piece. Yeah. That's interesting. I just like that you see the big picture and I think that's what sets apart really effective writers and those are the ones, you know, I I want to just like throw more and more your way because I want to see what you're going to do with it because you have that ability not just to look at this is my little piece. This is my part of this. Oh, the big you see where you fit in. It's not just this is my assignment for the week. I'm just gonna put my head down and get out my 500 words or thousand words or whatever it is and hand it in and on to the next assignment. You're thinking about how does this fit in with a particular campaign that we're doing? How does this fit into the overall growth of this client? What is this going to do for them? what could it do for them? Like that's what you should be thinking about when you write, right? That's the whole point, right? And I think if you have other good ideas, you should say them. Yeah, I t you know I I know I I do I speak up. I that's an important point too when you're on a team sometimes. And copywriter I think some people think that it means that's all you do. Like you're not thinking about the strategy. you're not you're just channeling, you know, funneling words out and um just just doing that. And so I I think people find copyriter like a narrow job assignment, but it's not no not here. I mean maybe in some circumstances or for some people that's true that is their job and they're not started. Right. And when I started it was I feel like it's grown. That's true. I when it started it was let me learn, let me figure it out. And then I mean I remember it was it really started with just one assignment in particular because I had written it, I had submitted it, we had edited, it was going it was going to be put into layout and then it was the weekend and I remember thinking I have such a good idea. I wonder if we should do that and I wrote a quick one and I sent it to you over the weekend and I was like what do you think? Yeah. So, I remember and that was kind of a little bit of a turning point where I was like, "Okay, I have some good ideas." I I always write them down. I another document I have is if I'm writing something and I have an idea that could be used later on or for something else, I'll put it down and I often refer back to that. Yeah. So, I had that idea and I thought and it worked. It worked. It did well. It did well and everybody liked it and I was like, "Okay." Yeah. and we actually incorporated it into a as a regular part of what we did for that client because it was just it was fantastic. And that's what I think is important too, not being afraid to speak up and not feel like you're sometimes your ideas I mean I tell you my ideas all the time and sometimes they're not good. I have bad ideas sometimes but I'm like here's my idea. Right. Right. And a lot of times think is this possible? Yeah. And what works a lot of times I think especially I don't know if it's just our group but a lot of times what happens is someone will say something and it'll spark an idea from someone else even if it's a bad idea it ends up leading to a good idea. So not being afraid to like I love my idea for for one of the projects that I spoke up about came from something Kevin said in a meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I kept thinking about it and that's when I was like, we could do this. We could try this. It might work. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Speak up people. So, and we wanted to talk about a few things about because our relationship has changed from that initial. We're friends. We like each other now. Um, but sometimes as a writer and dealing with your creative director, you know, there's a lot of times I'm giving feedback or editing a piece of work that you've done. So, from a writer's perspective, um, what have I ever Okay, this is going to be interesting. Um, what do you do when you get feedback from me that kind of is like ouch? Have you gotten that before? Does it happen a lot? Like I honestly don't know. I I And I told Bill this too before he hired me. You slash you hired me. I'm not that sensitive. Yeah. I don't like I would rather just be told change this. Do it this way. Here's a thought. And there have been times when I send you something and you read it once and you go, "No, do it again. Try again." And that's okay because when I do that, you usually have a couple of points. They may not be a lot. Sometimes it's a lot. Sometimes it may not be, but you're like, try try this is more where we're going. And then I will say most of the time, the second time around, you do the Yes. Yes. This is this is it. This is it. Yeah. Uh, and sometimes I think I send you something and you're like, "It's good, but it could be better." So, you do a good job. You're a good editor. You don't You really don't you don't hurt my feelings, but I'm not that sensitive. So, that's probably a part of it as well. I think that's a huge part of it because I do know that my way of editing is I point out what I don't like first. Mhm. I'm not one of those editors who's like, "Great job on that opening, but I feel like what we might want to look at, see, I don't want that. I don't tell me that." And I think that's why we work so well together because I am just like, "This needs a change. That's not right. This is bad. Totally rework this section." And then I'm like, "Oh, I really liked what you did here, by the way." And I I do that when I'm working with Vanessa and our design team as well. There'll be, you know, I'll see design. We were working on ad work last night. And it wasn't until like we're half an hour into the back and forth that I was like, I really really like what you did with this, right? This part here because it it really connected the image with the what we were saying in the copy. And I look at that sometimes and I'm like, "Oh, I really hope I'm not coming across as you can't write. I hate your stuff." No, not to me. Maybe you have to have the other writers. Yeah. Sit down with them and talk on the podcast. But no, no, not to me. And there really hasn't there really I feel like there really just hasn't been any really big thing. I will say. Okay. All right. Be honest. I can take it. I can take it. I might cry a little bit, but it's not I don't know as if it's all you. Once in a while, sometimes something happens organizationally wise. Something doesn't get said and and we're not on all the meetings. So, sometimes something will get discussed in a meeting that I'm not in on and I don't know and it gets miss it gets lost in translation which is I'm remote. Pretty much remote. Yeah. And sometimes that can be a challenge. So when that happens, and I know you know what I'm talking about. I know exactly what you're talking about. And I just send like a little message like, "Hey, what happened?" So then it's not mad. I'm not mad at anybody. I'm frustrated. But what helps me is I just stop. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes that's just close my laptop. Mhm. Go for a walk. Stop working for the day. Go do something else. Yeah. I think that day I just stopped and I made soup. Yeah. I was just frustrated and I was like, but it all it really worked out in the end. It did. It was We both missed something and then I just didn't get filled in. It was fine. It was fine. I will say you'll never foresee point. And I feel like you'll never write something that won't get used right for the clients for C point itself for anything. Even if you write something and it's like uh but you keep it and eventually it'll pop up later something pops up. You can use bits and pieces or something. So it was fine. So that's that's probably and that's the most recent. Yeah. So that wasn't really an editor thing. That was just a that was a miscommunicate like we both missed a memo. We did and we were like, "Wait, what's going on? Wait, did you just write that for nothing?" Right. Yeah. And it was like, I just spent all this time on that. In my head, I knew even it wasn't for nothing because we would have used it at some point. But but those kind of frustrations happen, you know. Yeah. And and I think it's a good point like writing is always personal, but you don't take it personal. No, I don't. It's both at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be personal for everybody has. Yeah. And we have different viewpoints. I think Yeah. I mean, once in a while you may say an edit and I'm like, "No." But it's rare. It's rare. But I like that you push back because I think that's important, too, is you should feel comfortable enough to like speak up. I think so. Well, be like, "Are you sure about that? Is there room?" Because a lot of times if there's room, if it's just a preference, like I try to be it's not just if it's accurate and it's it may not be the way you word it. Even if it's not my preference, I'll be like, "Sure, let's go with it." Right? I try to be that way. Sometimes I'm like, "No, it really needs to be like this." You don't stifle the the voice of the writer. try not to, but I think I can come across I I try to warn writers before they come on our team. This is how I edit. I'm sorry. It's just how it is. I get right because I'm spread across so many different projects and managing a lot of things. I don't have time for the n like the small talk and I'm not a small talk person anyway and I'm not in my editing either. So, it's like we're going to get right to what needs to be fixed. you can speak up and talk back and like no one's gonna I'm not going to make you sit in the corner or anything, you know? I want to hear it. I want to hear what your thoughts are. And we're at the point where a lot of times you'll suggest something, but then at the end you'll say, "But you decide or your call will say that Markle when he edits." I Yeah. And I feel like we've built a lot of trust because I trust that you know what you're doing. I trust that you have a good grasp of the client. And I think that's important. to establish too because you don't have that all the time. Right. Right. But once you can establish that trust, then it's like more here's what I'm thinking. I can see where you're going with it. I'm just giving you this to consider. Yeah. And then it become it it's more of a collaboration than I think so. I feel like that. I feel it's a Yeah, it's a club. Yeah, definitely. Because we'll go back and forth. The way we do it is we have a Google doc and then there's comments on the side, right? Sometimes I look back at the conversations. We're like, "What do you think about this? What do you think about this? What do you think about this?" And I'm a big person on choices. Yeah. I know. I'm like, "What here? Do you like one, two, or three?" And I usually put the one I like best at the top. Yeah. And I feel like nine times out of 10, that's the one you pick, but every so often you don't. I think it's so funny because now that we've worked together for two years, like we learn each other's not I don't know if it's habits so much, but like how you work creatively. And that's one of the things that I really like about what you do is you do it's almost like a multiple choice. There's like here's what one way we could open this blog, but then here's an here's like a Bside that maybe, you know, maybe this will hit different, right? And I think it's so funny because there have been times when you've like secondguessed yourself. Yes. With copy several times. And I noticed that like that's one of the things that you do sometimes and I'll be like, "Oh, that was my first instinct." But I switch. And you know what's funny is a lot of times I switch things up like last minute. Yes. Like right before I go to email you and say, "Okay, will you will you edit for me?" I'll read it over and I'll be like, "Okay, let me just switch this." And then most of the time you'll be like, "I think you should put this here or you should say it this way." And I'll be like, "Oh, I had it like that." So that always does make me laugh. Yeah. So I'm always like, "Don't second guessess yourself." Go with your gut. Exactly. Because it's good. You have a good gut instinct. It is funny. So, how do you how would you say that you know when a piece is done when you're writing? Like what is it that like seals the deal for you when you're like, "Yep, this is good. This is good." Do you ever feel like it's done?

Because I do. Yeah, I do. I do because I tend to write out I do it like an outline for myself and then I kind of fill in the blanks and then I go and I make it sound better, you know, like I do really simple and then you fill in, you know, the fun words, right? You want to add adjectives or something to describe something. So then I go through and I fill that out and then I rearrange my subheadings five times, six times. This should go here. This should go here. This should go here. And then I try to get at it for like repetitive thoughts and sayings and feelings and all that. I I I and then I read it through and I read it through and I read it through and then I think when I read it through and I go, okay, I might change this, but I don't I'm not going to I don't have to. I'm not going to. A lot of times I'll be like, I'm gonna see what Anna Lynn thinks and and and go from there. And then you edit it and then we send it to Mark and then we we we present it to the client. So I guess I feel like a piece is really honestly done. Yeah. It's published. But on my end, I feel like it's done when the client is happy. Does that make sense? When they're approved. I don't feel like it's ever completely done done right until they they say it is. And sometimes we've had to go back and adjust wording. Things have come up. So, it's probably they're probably never I never done. I see that's I struggle with feeling like things are done when I write. It's different when I'm editing. I know immediately when something's at the point where it needs to be and it's done. Mhm. could see it. There's no confusion about it. Like there's no hesitancy. It's like, "Yep, we're there. Got it. Done." But when I'm writing, it's completely different. I cannot and I don't know why. You do you want to just keep adding to stuff? No, I think I'm I can't shut off the editor part of me when it's when I'm doing the writing. Makes sense. Um, like when I'm working on a campaign because you're switching gears. Yeah. Yeah. I then when I'm editing it myself, a lot of times I have to like I I will Deb's pretty she's a decent editor and I'll send stuff to Mark sometimes just because he's got so much experience and you know everybody needs eyes on their work and right I'll have you read it sometimes and be like what do you what do you think and But I constantly am seeing how I could reise something and see different ver to me I feel like there's every piece that we do there could be like it could be better infinite versions of it. True. You could take it so many different ways and I can see all those possibilities. Even within a client's tone of voice or a campaign there's so many different directions you could go in. And so when I, you know, we pick one and we write it or I'll write it, I keep thinking, well, what if what if I did it this way instead? Or how could I do this? Or could I have used a better word here? And I can't shut that editor part off. But when I do it for anybody, any other writer, when you edit our our pieces, you see I know instantly when it's done. This is good. It's great to go. That's so weird. I don't know what that is. There must be a word for it or neurotic or Google, right? Put this in. Oh, no. This is what I do. What am I? But yeah. So, but it's it's been fun like learning how you how you work. And it it's cool because everybody on our team is so wildly different in in their approach. And it's funny because I don't really talk to the other writers too much. Yuri and I will talk sometimes but brief. So everybody's kind of in their own little bubble. We are. Yeah, we all come together, but yes, we we we are. So it does make me curious to wonder about Yeah. their processes and how they work. And we I mean we don't talk right. Like we have a meeting. The writers don't have a meeting. I mean we have a creative talk about how terrible Annalin is, but we do not do this. Is there a separate chat where you guys talk about the writers point writers? Do you know what Anna Lynn said to me? Oh my god. I would love it if you guys had that. You would, wouldn't you? I would. No, we don't have that. Yes. Please get your frustrations out about me. I don't want people to be disingenuous with me. Like tell I love it when people just say how they really feel and just what they really think of me. Let me know where I stand. Like if you got a problem with me, say it. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. I'm doing something wrong. And I feel like that's something where like we work with deadlines a lot and it can get really stressful really quickly because a lot of times we have um I hate the word fire drill because it's such a corporate slang. Oh, but we did have a fire. That's what people would call them and and we have them a lot. I feel like I haven't been a part of too many. I feel like just but when they have been one it's like our team comes together in a very cool way. Yeah. But it gets super stressful for the writers and the content because a lot of times I'm a stickler for communication and I'm gonna be like sometimes our regular processes that take, you know, a lot of time to establish and just make sure all the decks are in a row. Instead, we're like all working. It's like we're just thrown into a room and we're right. I did that the other day and I thought if we have if if and when we do that again, we should just open a Zoom meeting and keep it going through the day while we're working, right? Because that kind of is what happens kind of. Yeah. But we're like messaging each other back and forth. The last one I was writing with you and then was it Vanessa was creating things and then you would send them to me and we would look and we would all talk. But I did think of that later. Next time we should just open an ongoing Zoom meeting and leave it open. Anybody wants to like jump in? But it's cool that we're able to like keep it keep it from getting like nobody's screaming at each other or getting mad at each other even though when miscommunication. Yeah. And what do you think like helps us keep it light and not descend into everybody's stressed out and then the team starts breaking apart and then forget getting the client work done because everybody's working on in separate corners of the room now because everybody's stressed out. Like I think Bill does a good job at hiring people. I think he knows I think he knows people's personalities. I think even even when you didn't want to hire me, I think he knew that we would work well together. And I think he he he takes the time to get to know people and he really observes and puts people in the positions and will hire people knowing like, hey, you're going to get along with everybody. I just think he can read people really well and is attuned to people's emotions, their feelings, and how they work. Yeah. So, I think that's how everybody comes together so well. Yeah. Is because he's the boss, he's the leader, and he just brought everybody together, and he knows he knows us. I think that's a huge huge part of it. And like you were saying before, like also I don't think anybody here takes it personal when there's any criticism. I think everyone feels like a team. Yeah. There's no like not having that my work. It's not my work. I don't ever think of it like that. I never do that. This is just me. This is my I am doing this is me. I wrote this. I always think it's all of us. Yeah, that's such a good point because when there's no there's no egos in the room, it's just about the work and I think that keeps it from being um from anybody going into like crisis mode when we have those times when we have to kind of come together really quickly and turn stuff around really fast. And um I ask all the time like is what I'm saying does that make sense to you or all the time am I coming across right cuz I I'm constantly afraid that I'm not coming across the right way and I very much to me you do. Yeah. You're always in Yeah. Does this make sense? Am I making sense? I don't know. But to me it usually does. I'm sure there's been a couple instances where I'll be like, "Sure." And I'll make the edit and you'll be like, "Oh, no. No, that's not what I meant. That's not what I meant. I said the wrong thing." But but I think everybody's pretty like really good at that, too. Is we're like, "Wait a minute." Like, it's not How could you not get what I'm saying? You know, there's just none of that happening. And I think that makes makes things go a lot easier. I think so, too. And I think so, too. highly recommend tossing your ego out the window if you want to do really good work, right? And it's not we I think the approach that we all take is how do we we're interested in making the agency look good, not ourselves, right? As individuals like there's no ladder here to climb, right? And helping our clients, right? It's all it literally is all about the work, right? And making the best work we can. and everybody's like, "Okay, here's how I'm going to contribute to it. How are you contributing to it?" And then everybody trying to make each other's work even better, right? We're team players. Yeah. I think that's so important because um it was funny. I refused to work for any big corporations because I couldn't stand the ego-driven focus on the work and just the backstabbing and the you know that whole environment which I think can happen so easy whether in marketing or any other like corporate environment it's I just absolutely was like I'm never going to work in marketing I'm never going to work in that profession because I will not work in that environment because it it's not it it's not about the work. It's a sad life if that's the environment that you work in. I think I think I think it keeps you from being the best creative person you could be because it's stealing a lot of your focus. like you're thinking about how to be competitive and how to make yourself stand out and I think it just steals from you can't relax too around your co-workers and have open communication and everybody feel honestly like feel like you're in a little bit of a space a safe spot too like I felt like when I was like getting to a point where I'm like I can speak out I was like oh I can speak out and nobody's nobody's going to mind well you're not a strategist you're a copyriter Right. So, I thought about that at one point. I was like, "Am I am I over stepping? Am I stepping on toes?" And I check I did check in. Everyone was like, "No, you don't have to ask. No, you don't have to ask. Please say what you think." And I was like, "Okay." Yeah. So, yeah, it's a good place to work. It is. Everybody should just work at Coint. Everybody wants to work at Seint, don't they? I think it's funny because every time we talk about like what works, we're like it's pretty much just how it is here. But I know that's not the case everywhere else. So it's like some of the things that we're talking about I think are valid for regardless of where you're working. M you know having good communication with your editor and your team, establishing trust and just being willing to speak up and allowing people to speak up. I think it just Yeah, that's really important. Yeah. And just if nobody has an ego, then you're not going to shoot down the best idea that's right. Going to commit you. Well, and if you don't allow people to speak up, you're going to have the same ideas. you're not going to have any new ideas, right? So, new people coming in, new voices. And that's the fun part about marketing, I think, is finding new ways to say what essentially all marketing agencies are saying. Everybody's talking about, you know, they're trying to do the same thing for whatever their product is. We're all trying to do the same thing, right? So, a lot of the same words are in use. You know, a lot of the same strategies are at play. So, what's the word elevated? You don't like that word elevated. I hate that word. Elevated. Level up. And you were like, "No." Nope. Absolutely not. Don't use that word. And you know what? I haven't used it since. Do you want to level up your campaign? I think that was a long edit you had about why you did not like that. I went on a rant and I was like, "Okay." I was like, "Do not slide those words across my desk ever again. I won't do it. I promise.

Well, so I feel like we've covered a lot. I think so. Yeah. So, we do a little part at the end of the podcast where we take a look at what's in your chat. Like, what have you asked chat GPT lately? Um, so what's in your chat? So, I feel like it's going to be really boring, but I will

I will look it up. Um, well, I was listening to Jason and Bill podcast yesterday and they were talking about the 67 meme. Oh my word. And I didn't know what it was. So, while I was listening to it, I looked up that. Did you find like the element on the periodic table? No. Like number 67? I can't remember the ele element's name, but the letters for it are ho. So, you're basically calling someone a hoe. Oh, no. GBT did to not That was my favorite explanation that I found so far. I did hear that you you shouldn't say it's not 67, it's 67. Yeah. So, I had not heard that. So, I looked at that and then they were talking about a the Neo, a robot, and I didn't know what that was. So, I looked that up and then my brother-in-law was like, "Next time you come, I want to get box seats to the Patriots game." And I was like, "That has got to be expensive." Yeah. Sounds like it would be. It is. We will not be getting box seats to the Patriots game. Let's just say that right now. Um, it's wholeium. That's the element. Holmium H O L M I U M that has atomic number 67. So it shows up as HO on the periodic table. So if you kids are saying these you call someone a I feel that is kind of like a nerdy smart like I I respect that if you call someone a 67 and you're using a nerd reference like to the periodic table I would be like can we be friends? I feel like mine said basically it's um it comes from a rap song and it's Yeah, basically nothing. Yeah, it doesn't really mean anything. It basically means somebody made it up. Yeah. And then I just have a lot of recipes. Oh, how to re reheat chicken wings in the air. I don't know how to do that. So, I would look that up. That's a good one. Restaurants in Boston because we flew into Boston. So, where did we want to eat? Uhhuh. one of my latest ones um because I'm still on a super restricted diet after my surgery which not a fun time. So I was looking up tuna is one of the things I can eat like tuna fish caught tuna both. Okay. But um and so my thing that I looked up for tuna was which one has the lowest mercury count so I can eat wild planet. Um safe catch. Oh, has the best cuz they test every single fish. And they're the only company to test each fish. So, that one I can eat twice a week. Exciting. It is when you can eat five things. True. No, it's true. It's true. And can you like add to your tuna? Like you can um like dill. Can you eat pickles? Nope. No. Tomatoes, cucumbers? Nope. Oh, boring to rice. Yeah. Dry tuna and dill. Yum. Life is good. It's the best. Life is good. So, I've I've been leaning on chat heavily to come up with something to be like, I cannot eat another bowl of rice. No. Like, please help me figure this out. And it's been so cool. It came up with like a pancake recipe with using with tuna and rice. So, oh my god, no. But it was with like banana and something. I have to go back and find it. But yeah, half of my chats now are all like, um, okay, what snacks can I can you come up with? And here's all of, you know, I'll input like all of my restrictions now on top of what I'm allergic to foodwise. And it's like, um, you can chew on air. No. And water, right? water and air. I did ask it for uh interesting facts about myself because Christy was wanting team member facts, right? So, I said, "Oh, but I don't use it enough and tell it my deepest darkest secrets. So, it doesn't know enough information about me." So, that was but I do have I don't know if it would know anything about me. And that made me laugh cuz I was like, "Oo, I need some facts. It'll probably have some like obscure food allergy or sensitivity that I have, but then everybody would know it's me because I'm the one who can't eat in the office, right? But speaking of facts, I have one for you to see if you can guess. I'm so excited. Okay, so which Seintoint team member twice found a snake in their bathtub? Oh, that's so rand.

And the story is wild. I can't wait for you to hear it someday. Yeah. Oh, you know the story. I know it. Okay. So, it's not But I know everybody on the team. I shouldn't have said anything. Okay. So, we know it's not me. It's not you. Okay. One down. 19 more. Little breadcrumb thrown you there. Yeah. Well, I get three guesses. I'm remembering. I feel like my thought process and maybe it's wrong, but I feel like we have people remotely in places where snakes are more common to be found in the bathtub. Or maybe not. Well, okay. Oh, I don't think it was in their bathtub, though.

See, this is Don't overthink it. This is a lot harder than it looks because I watch when I watch the episodes and the fact is at I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I know who that is." No, it's hard. It's a lot harder to think about. Yeah. Okay.

Dan. No. Good guess. Traveled a lot. Yeah. And he's been in weird places. I I don't think this is right, but I'm going to say Bill. No. Okay. They had a snake. That's a good story. In one of their first apartments they lived at, they had a snake. Really? I didn't think Amanda was ready to move, but I didn't think it was cuz I don't think it was in their bathtub. One more go.

Oh, such a long pause. I really want to get it right. I know that's the pressure. I really do, but I probably won't because there's it could really just be anyone at this point. Um, I'm trying to think if who did fax recently. My other guess would be Kevin, but you just did a fact that was Kevin. So, that's not my guess. I get one more. I'm taking that back. Okay. You shook your head.

Okay, you get one more. One more. No. Oh, see, I went with all the remote people who live in those places. All right. It's Deb. Deb. Yes. Oh, Deb. And she hates That's why you know the story. That should have been a hint. Hates snakes. They're like the worst. And she found it in her bathtub twice. I've never had two separate occasions. Never had a snake in my bathtub. See me? I would be like Christmas. Like best day ever. Like Maddie so excited for the snake. Someone sent me a snake. It was the best day ever. I know. I I I would want to move. We one time had a a little lizard like crawl through my bedroom. I know. I had to go sleep in the other bedroom that night because we couldn't find it and it was in the closet and all it and it I mean and you're just like it's going to run across my face. Yep. So, I had to sleep. It's going to nest in my ear. Yeah. No, I know. And I wanted to move, but it was not realistic. So, next time you see Deb, ask her story about the snake in her bathtub. Deb, when you listen to this and maybe we'll get her on the podcast. Maybe next time she's on she'll tell us about it because it is it's really funny like and seeing her tell it like I'm always dying laughing because Oh, I can't wait. It'll be exciting. Well, thanks for being on the podcast, Christina. I don't want to let you go back to to Maine or No, I'm in Maine. You're in Georgia. Yeah. I don't want you to go back to Georgia. You live in Georgia. We're gonna conspire to have Jason like break his leg in the hockey tournament. Yes, in the hockey tournament. For those who don't know, Jason is playing in Bill's hockey tournament. And he's only played once in his whole life. And he's old. You know, nepotism. So the the only way we'll stay in Maine is if he breaks something and my mom will have to take care of him and I will just have to come to see who's that chick that broke like Nancy Carrian's knee. The Tanya Harding. Tanya. Any Tanya Hardings out there? Can we please no? Can we maybe hire someone? It would be expensive, too. I would do it for cheap.

I don't want you to go. It's been fun. It has. I've enjoyed my visit. Well, thanks for being on. Good. We'll have you back and we'll do another episode. Sounds good. Thanks for having me. Bye, everybody. Bye.