Yesterday, I stepped into the beautiful Librería Nobel — Nobel Bookstore — in Almería, Spain.
“Buenos días,” I said as I entered.
The owner, who stood behind the counter, smiled at me politely and returned my greeting. He didn’t recognize me at first. So I changed tack.
“Hola Rafa,” I said and then switched to English. “How are you?”
A look of surprise spread across his face. “John! Coño! What are you doing here!”
The owner of Librería Nobel is one Rafa Casas, who I’ve written up before in this newsletter as a Spanish A-list copywriter.
Not only is Rafa a skilled copywriter who has helped a bunch of clients make money, but he’s building up his name in true A-list style.
Along with his bookstore and his client work, he now runs two coaching programs, one to help Spanish-speaking business owners get set up online with their digital marketing, and another called Circulo Copy where he mentors a number of Spanish-language copywriters, including some well-known names.
This was the first time I was meeting Rafa in real life. But I have known him online for a while.
Rafa first got on my email list in 2021. He then went through my Copy Riddles course, back when I was still offering live weekly Q&A calls.
At that time, I ran a weekly contest for the best answer to one of the week’s Copy Riddles. Rafa won the first contest ever. (Among the three books I offered him as a possible prize, Rafa wisely chose my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.)
Then some time in 2022, I interviewed Rafa for my Copy Zone guide to the business side of copywriting. His story of getting started writing daily emails about books while his bookstore was locked down — and then turning that into paid client work — was both interesting and impressive.
We also had a short-lived language exchange after I moved to Spain.
He’s even translated my 10 Commandments book to Spanish, and we will be putting that out soon, as soon as the cover designer gets back to me.
Point being:
I started out this email newsletter with the vague aims of having a sandbox in which to practice copywriting and marketing, as a possible source of samples to show clients, and as a way of maybe winning some client work, back when I was still hungry for that.
And my newsletter has delivered on all those fronts.
But it’s also produced a bunch of amazing opportunities and outcomes I never could have imagined when I got started.
It’s resulted in great new relationships both online and in real life… people doing me solid favors without ever being asked… cool free stuff shipped to my front door… speaking opportunities… and even the occasional note from people who tell me that what I’m doing has actually changed the course of their life for the better.
If you want, you too can have something similar. At least that’s my claim, one I will work to pay off on the free training I’m hosting in a few days’ time.
The training will cover how I write and profit from this newsletter that you are reading now.
It will happen on Monday January 22, 2024 at 8pm CET/2pm EST/11am PST. But you will have to be signed up to my list first. Click here to do so.