Contact me if you want to view feedback forms (joshua@inspiringwebcopy.com) of clients I've worked with in the past. I will only disclose forms of those who have given explicit permission--and your feedback form will never be shown to anyone without yours.

The discussions we had and the insightful questions you posed helped me greatly in writing the Artist's Statement for my recent photography exhibition. As a result, I have already received favorable comments about the statement itself. One viewer said it was the "best Artist's Statement I have ever seen; the way you connect abstraction and landscape photography to the ideas of Alfred Stieglitz and Minor White is unusually perceptive."

Nobody has ever commented on one of my Artist's Statements before. Working with you really paid off and helped me to clarify what I wanted to say. Thank you for your help!

            --Eric Myrvaagnes, photographer, Newton, Massachusetts

Here's an ad I did for The Zodiac Lounge:

Client Stories

I only do this work because my clients inspire me: a life coach with a vision of a forum for discussion of the books that have changed our lives, a poet who has allowed many other poets to reclkaim their true voices, an astrologer who organizes an alternative healing/psychic bazaar, an organizer for a conference on indigenous African spiritualities, a diviner who reaches into the earth for her spirituality; a West African shaman who was speaking at Harvard.

The Business-Savvy Astrloger

My first client was not an ideal client for me.

Why?

Because he already knew a lot about marketing. And he didn’t have any hang-ups about being big if it was going to serve his business and his clients. He was an experienced businessman and comfortable being aggressive.  I was caught in trying to empower someone who was already powerful.

He gave me a chance to write for him partly I think because of my star chart (he’s a professional astrologer, and my stars say I’m good at business—so there, Mom), and also because he cares about nurturing young entrepreneurs.

Still, at our first business conversation, I was nervous as hell. Surely he was going to find out I had no idea what I was doing.

But a little way into our talk I found myself riveted.

He organizes an evening gathering called the Zodiac Lounge, a bazaar at which holistic healers can offer small samples of their work, and shoppers can try as many as four modalities and healers in twenty minutes—much easier than schlepping to four different healers, spending 90 minutes and twice as many dollars, only to find out it’s not the right match. They also celebrate the birthdays of everyone under the zodiac sign of the month—Aries if it’s March, Sagittarius (that’s me) in December. Then they eat vegan cake and alcohol-free champagne and dance till late at night.

He began telling me that “unexpected magic” often occurs at these events. For instance, at the Scorpio party, thirty people showed up suddenly in the middle of the evening. How or why is a complete mystery.

What really grabbed me was his feeling of desire for community. He told me that many of the people who come to these events are city-bound, removed from nature; many are  Black and in some ways have been surrounded by limiting forces and messages. Then he began telling me about how one woman had cried while being sung Happy Birthday to, how the room full of strangers had suddenly become a community. “I want people to be energized, juiced, uplifted. I think so often people miss seeing the magic in their own lives, and it’s such a shame because there is so much there. I want them to be able to see that magic.” At that moment I suddenly saw the magic in my life, that here was a person I’d only met two or three times before and had at the moment a business relationship with, yet I felt profoundly moved by his passion. It was so joyful to hear his vision in fact, to bear witness to it, that I finally felt my whole day and my whole life had a purpose to it. Up to that moment I’d been feeling anything but inspired, guilty about not paying my bills or being a productive member of society when all I seemed to be good at was writing poetry that no one would ever pay me any money for. Now I’d listened to a great poem and been moved.

And that’s why, though I may not yet have %100-scientifically-verified market data to prove it (no one can ever cover all the variables, and any marketer who claims to be able to is exaggerating), I have an indisputable gut feeling that I have something to contribute and that there will be a real increase of profit in the organizations I work with.  I know these techniques have worked in other situations, and I am confident they will work here.  I am doing this work so I can hear more of your stories, your visions.

I have learned volumes more since that first client. I have had the benefit of learning from a few mistakes and have had some real triumphs, and I continually update my strategies to take both into account.  I keep a folder for interesting lessons learned from errors.