Hannah Herd, 2017 Summer Copywriting Intern
People stumble all the time – over rocks, shoelaces, responsibilities or words. Though you probably don’t sit around contemplating the concept of stumbling in your free time, I think that stumbling isn’t always a bad thing when there’s someone to swoop in and help.
When friends asked me about my internship this summer, I initially stumbled over words when trying to describe this unique job to them. How was I supposed to accurately depict such a can-do, competitive company in just a few words? My answer usually ended up being a strangely worded combination of marketing and advertising and writing. Oh, and also making multiple pots of coffee (alcohol may have been Hemingway’s writing fuel, but I’m a strong believer in caffeine). My jumbled response left friends and family with a pretty vague understanding of how I spent my summer days at the office.
In truth, I experienced such garbled speech in describing my internship because I could not pinpoint just one thing that WordsFresh does for their clients. Sure, the obvious answers are marketing and advertising and writing – I wasn’t entirely wrong. However, my time here has given me a front row seat to this power-writing agency and all the wonderful things that they do to go above and beyond for those who are smart enough to work with them.
In the same way that I stumbled over words to describe the many things that WordsFresh does for their clients, it’s equally hard for me to pinpoint just one thing that WordsFresh has taught me this summer. From the benefits of different marketing strategies to the dangers of a fixed mindset, here are the top things that WordsFresh has taught me in my internship:
- Work to your strengths, not your weaknesses. Mary Pat Nimon, our President and Message Strategist, gave me this piece of advice at the beginning of my internship, and it is one of the most useful things anyone has ever told me. It requires me to know my strengths as well as my weaknesses, but to choose to capitalize on where I have the biggest impact. I found that when I focused on my strengths, I was able to achieve even more than what was expected of me.
- How beneficial the growth mindset really is. Coming into this internship, I was vaguely aware of the fixed mindset and knew that it was ineffective. However, I did not realize all the different ways that a fixed mindset stunts achievement. With a fixed mindset, failure represents a lack of innate talent or intelligence, making the creative frustrated and unproductive. By contrast, the growth mindset views failure as an opportunity to improve, meaning that each instance of feedback steps up your game. WordsFresh meets everyone with a growth mindset, and with that mindset, anything is truly possible.
- The value of learning as you go. Interning here this summer reinforced my belief that it’s perfectly ok to not know everything from the get-go. In the past, I have felt a lot of outside pressure to master a subject or topic before diving in, however, that’s not possible in many situations. Working for WordsFresh these past few months has shown me how much I enjoy a challenge. I loved receiving a project about which I didn’t have much previous knowledge, such as naming a product for an international brand and developing a complex social media strategy. It gave me the opportunity to learn through my research as I worked on the project.
- Creative work is the best work. I’ve always heard the expression that says if you find a job you love, then you’ll never work a day in your life. I discovered this summer that the saying is true! The type of work that WordsFresh does for their clients is noble and unique. It offers the opportunity to be creative in a way that benefits others in their own endeavors. Basically, they use creativity to help clients and get paid to do it. It’s a good deal.
- Creative people are the best people. Working in an office full of equally right-brained people is a lot more fun than any normal office job. It involves endless opportunities for brainstorming sessions around the couch and an ever-present background noise of someone typing away determinedly at a keyboard. Creative people are always creating.
- There is no such thing as too much coffee. In addition to my previous five points, there is nothing that I know to be truer than this.
So, if I had to pinpoint the one thing that WordsFresh does for their clients, it would be this: When clients are stumbling over words, WordsFresh takes on the challenge of making their message clear, no matter the subject. They don’t stumble over the words – they soar. Let them swoop in and help you like they did me.
Hannah Herd, 2017 Summer Copywriting Intern
People stumble all the time – over rocks, shoelaces, responsibilities or words. Though you probably don’t sit around contemplating the concept of stumbling in your free time, I think that stumbling isn’t always a bad thing when there’s someone to swoop in and help.
When friends asked me about my internship this summer, I initially stumbled over words when trying to describe this unique job to them. How was I supposed to accurately depict such a can-do, competitive company in just a few words? My answer usually ended up being a strangely worded combination of marketing and advertising and writing. Oh, and also making multiple pots of coffee (alcohol may have been Hemingway’s writing fuel, but I’m a strong believer in caffeine). My jumbled response left friends and family with a pretty vague understanding of how I spent my summer days at the office.
In truth, I experienced such garbled speech in describing my internship because I could not pinpoint just one thing that WordsFresh does for their clients. Sure, the obvious answers are marketing and advertising and writing – I wasn’t entirely wrong. However, my time here has given me a front row seat to this power-writing agency and all the wonderful things that they do to go above and beyond for those who are smart enough to work with them.
In the same way that I stumbled over words to describe the many things that WordsFresh does for their clients, it’s equally hard for me to pinpoint just one thing that WordsFresh has taught me this summer. From the benefits of different marketing strategies to the dangers of a fixed mindset, here are the top things that WordsFresh has taught me in my internship:
- Work to your strengths, not your weaknesses. Mary Pat Nimon, our President and Message Strategist, gave me this piece of advice at the beginning of my internship, and it is one of the most useful things anyone has ever told me. It requires me to know my strengths as well as my weaknesses, but to choose to capitalize on where I have the biggest impact. I found that when I focused on my strengths, I was able to achieve even more than what was expected of me.
- How beneficial the growth mindset really is. Coming into this internship, I was vaguely aware of the fixed mindset and knew that it was ineffective. However, I did not realize all the different ways that a fixed mindset stunts achievement. With a fixed mindset, failure represents a lack of innate talent or intelligence, making the creative frustrated and unproductive. By contrast, the growth mindset views failure as an opportunity to improve, meaning that each instance of feedback steps up your game. WordsFresh meets everyone with a growth mindset, and with that mindset, anything is truly possible.
- The value of learning as you go. Interning here this summer reinforced my belief that it’s perfectly ok to not know everything from the get-go. In the past, I have felt a lot of outside pressure to master a subject or topic before diving in, however, that’s not possible in many situations. Working for WordsFresh these past few months has shown me how much I enjoy a challenge. I loved receiving a project about which I didn’t have much previous knowledge, such as naming a product for an international brand and developing a complex social media strategy. It gave me the opportunity to learn through my research as I worked on the project.
- Creative work is the best work. I’ve always heard the expression that says if you find a job you love, then you’ll never work a day in your life. I discovered this summer that the saying is true! The type of work that WordsFresh does for their clients is noble and unique. It offers the opportunity to be creative in a way that benefits others in their own endeavors. Basically, they use creativity to help clients and get paid to do it. It’s a good deal.
- Creative people are the best people. Working in an office full of equally right-brained people is a lot more fun than any normal office job. It involves endless opportunities for brainstorming sessions around the couch and an ever-present background noise of someone typing away determinedly at a keyboard. Creative people are always creating.
- There is no such thing as too much coffee. In addition to my previous five points, there is nothing that I know to be truer than this.
So, if I had to pinpoint the one thing that WordsFresh does for their clients, it would be this: When clients are stumbling over words, WordsFresh takes on the challenge of making their message clear, no matter the subject. They don’t stumble over the words – they soar. Let them swoop in and help you like they did me.
