AWAI Member Wins a Check for $2,000 – and the Chance to Work with AWAI

Congratulations to AWAI member – and newly AWAI Verified Email Copywriting Specialist Jim Stripling.

After eight weeks of intensive live online instruction in the art of writing effective marketing emails in the Ultimate Email Copywriting Mentorship program, Jim submitted a Spec Challenge for an AWAI program showing off what he learned and …

Got a check for $2,000 from AWAI.

The marketing team will use his copy in an upcoming campaign for AWAI’s Barefoot Writer, with the potential for more work down the road. So not only was he certified as an email copywriter … but he landed his first client!

Says Jim of his win:

“I don’t have a writing background. So, going in, I just wanted to get a solid skill I could use to launch a career in copywriting – a skill that would give me the confidence to get out there and sell myself.

“During the course I thought I was getting a handle on what G was teaching, but when I got the email letting me know I was a finalist I was really shocked!

“Winning the spec challenge is so much more than I was hoping to get out of the class. More importantly, it’s given me a huge shot of confidence in moving forward with my copywriting career.”

The Spec Challenge was open to everyone in the Ultimate Email Copywriting Mentorship program, with the copy being created during the training itself, with feedback from Guillermo along the way. That was something Jim found to be a key part of the course. As he puts it:

“It seemed to me that here is where we were really learning the application of what G was teaching. By reviewing what we were doing right and wrong, he would give us his thought process on how to make the work better, stronger, and more compelling.

“For me, seeing G take an email that wasn’t working, find the essence of it that could and transforming that into something compelling – while explaining what he saw in that essence and how he would go about polishing it, is what I found most useful.”

As part of the program, members submitted final copy to be officially certified as Email Copywriting Specialists and were automatically entered into the Spec Challenge.

As Guillermo notes, there were many worthy entries. But again, congrats to Jim for edging out the competition. The AWAI team looks forward to working with him.