April 15, 2021. 3:53pm.

My phone rang.

I checked the caller ID. A call from Florida, United States?

I pressed decline (Like you would have done. Because obviously, it was a scammer. Who did I know in Florida?)

My phone beeped again. This time, it was an email notification.

I checked the email… and a shrill scream escaped from my lips.

My phone rang again.

I picked up. But before I tell you what happened next, let me backtrack a bit.

I have a bad habit: I procrastinate. A lot.

I always wait till the last minute to do things.

I have a due assignment? I’ll wait till the class rep is blowing up on the class whatsapp group before I submit mine. I need to head out early? I wait till I have 30 minutes left before I dash off to the bathroom. I have a free trial expiring soon? I’ll cancel it right before… oops. They already charged me.

(The last one actually happened once. Thankfully, they were kind enough to refund me when I sent them an email. Follow my footsteps at your peril).

So when I stumbled on an opportunity to win $10,000 worth of credit to further my copywriting training… I knew I was definitely going to apply for it. Just not immediately.

Besides, the deadline was a month and a half away.

And according to the application guidelines, I had two options: a short form 500-word essay, or a long form 2,000-word essay.

I’d pick 500 words, obviously.

Which meant I had more than enough time on my hands.

Plus, I’m a writer. I didn’t need that much time to whip up 500 words.

There was no need to be in a rush to send in my entry. Or so I thought.

One week went by.

Two weeks.

A month.

A month and a week.

With one week left, I’d still not written a single word.

Tell me, Reader. The sensible thing to do would have been for me to start writing, right?

But yours truly, world champion in Procrastination Olympics, did nothing.

I kept it at the back of my mind. I thought about how I needed to write my entry. I fantasized about how I was going to start it and the clever things I would say.

But I never picked up my pen.

“I’d start later. I just need time.” I kept telling myself.

3 days to the deadline, I came to my senses.

“Fayo, what are you doing? Do you want this opportunity to pass you by?”

That very day, I opened a WPS office doc on my phone.

I went over the application document again to get familiar with the prompt…. only for me to come to a shocking discovery.

I’d read wrong. There was no choice. We were to write both a 500-word essay AND a 2,000 word essay.

At this point, I was starting to get tense, but I encouraged myself.

“You can do this. Writing a solid 2,500 word piece would be tough, but not impossible.”

On the day of the deadline, my first draft was done. I still needed to go over it and make edits, though. I spent the whole day working on it and barely submitted in time. I mean, barely.

Then I waited.

Now let’s go back to April 15.

When I checked my email, this is what I saw:

Get this: Not only was I chosen as one of the winners of the scholarship, I’d also won the "Clayton Makepeace award"!

(If you don’t know who Clayton Makepeace is, ask Jibiti. And if you don’t know who Jibiti is… well, I don’t know what to say to you. Okay, I’ll be nice. Check the 2nd postscript*).

Few days later, Wendy - Clayton’s wife and an extraordinary copywriter in her own right (who also chose me as the winner of the award) reached out to me:

Winning this scholarship was a huge launchpad for my growth as a copywriter.

Since then, I’ve earned thousands of dollars writing copy for clients all over the world.

But why am I sharing this story with you today?

1. Don’t disqualify yourself from any opportunity.

Imagine if I didn’t apply because I felt I wouldn’t win. Apply for the thing (whatever ‘the thing’ is for you. Let them tell you no. Or yes. Don’t do it for them.

2. Maybe you think storytelling is only for people interested in becoming content creators or starting a blog.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth, Reader.

Let me tell you this for free: Right now, there’s literally no industry where knowing how to tell a compelling story won’t help you.

And who knows if storytelling is the secret key you need for your growth right now?

That presentation at work. That scholarship application. That pitch to a potential investor. That interview you have on Monday.

What if your compelling story will make the difference that literally transforms your life… like it did mine?

3. We both know that recently, storytelling has become a buzzword that everyone now claims to be an expert on.

But you don’t want to be that person who’s fluent in all the hype around it, yet has no real skill.

I’ve been learning (and practicing) this for years now.

My copywriting career literally started with me telling a story that was compelling enough to convince world-class persuasion experts to give me $10,000.

So if you want to go all out in becoming an expert storyteller,

​It’ll be my joy to help you.​

​
Fayo

PS: In my upcoming storytelling workshop, I’ll also be spilling the secrets on what I believe made my entry so powerful, and how you can apply the same strategy to your stories.

If you join the interest list, you’ll get deets on the workshop before anyone else. Oh, and you’ll also get a big fat bonus that might even be worth more than the workshop itself.

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*PPS: Clayton Makepeace was the Messi (or Ronaldo? Whatever floats your boat. And yes, ‘was’— he passed away in 2020) of copywriting. He reportedly generated about $1.5 billion in sales throughout his copywriting career.

If you google “Top 10 copywriters in the world”, you’ll likely see his name on the list. Still so honored to have won an award in his name❤️

PPPS: I wish I could say I don't procrastinate anymore, but that would be a lie. But I've definitely gotten better since then... sometimes.

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