AWAI’s 90-Day Success Intensive:
How Three Carefully Chosen Rocks Can Catapult Your
Copywriting Career
By Wendy Abraham

It was 15 minutes to show time, and I suddenly found myself running across a busy street in San Francisco, frantically searching for the nearest Walgreens.

My mission: To find a box of Kleenex and bring it back to the Dalai Lama.

Never had a simple box of tissues taken on such importance, both for what it was about to do, and the nose it was about to serve.

His Holiness was about to give a teaching in an exhibition hall the size of a football field, and it was already standing room only. As one of the organizers of the event, my singular responsibility that day turned out to be the Kleenex run.

The teaching began, the sneezing abated, and the buyer of said Kleenex, who had been up all night preparing for the big day, promptly fell asleep.

I woke up just in time to hear the Dalai Lama’s longtime interpreter, Thupten Jinpa, say:

“The state of unknowing is infinitely better than the state of mis-knowing …”

And then I nodded off again.

Life Before the 90-Day Intensive
The State of Unknowing

It’s okay to start from nothing. We all do. And it’s okay to know nothing … at least initially. The Dalai Lama said so.

So long as you know you don’t know, you’re ahead of the game.

When it comes to training as a copywriter, you probably have “the state of unknowing” part down pat. But as a member of AWAI, you have access to a plethora of courses, dozens of certifications, and the biggest copywriting event of the year: Bootcamp.

The only thing you have to do now is decide which of those courses and certifications to take to reach your ultimate goal. Sounds easy, right?

The problem is, you may not even be clear about what those goals are. For most new writers, they morph by the minute.

Enter the No Limits 90-Day Intensive … and Three Rocks

Imagine you have a jar …

Now imagine you have three rocks to put in that jar … Let’s call those your next-step priority goals.

You also have a bunch of pebbles … Those are important things on your to-do list, but not critical to moving your big goals forward.

And finally, you have a bunch of sand, too … The non-important tasks that can feel like “work” … and make you feel “busy” … but are really a distraction to accomplishing your big goals.

Now, if you put your rocks in the jar first, you won’t have as much room for the pebbles and sand, right? But that’s a good thing — we want to stay focused on the rocks.

But … if you fill your jar with pebbles and sand first, there won’t be any room (i.e., TIME … ENERGY … RESOURCES) for your rocks. Not only will this keep you from making progress, it could be downright frustrating and de-motivating.

It’s important to prioritize your rocks so they’re getting the time and attention needed to accomplish them.

So Just What Is a Rock?

Rocks are the goals you set that will bring you closer to your ideal copywriting career.

A rock can be choosing a niche. Creating your LinkedIn profile. Finishing The AWAI Method™. Getting your first client. Making a steady $5,000/month.

Each rock needs to be specific and something you can make progress on within a 90-day period.

These rocks will keep you on track. They’ll inform the choices you make regarding where you spend your time and resources.

Rocks are the outcomes you decide you need to realize your copywriting goals.

Your job is to identify them. Embrace them. Nurture them. Realize their potential.

And then break down the steps you need to do to achieve them within the next three months. Some you’ll finish sooner than that. Great! Pick your next rock and start working on that.

Others may take longer to see the final outcome … but you need to break down the steps you can take now to move closer to it in the next 90 days.

Power to the Pebble!

While our rocks get priority in our jars, it’s just a fact of life that we have to deal with some pebbles and sand, too.

Unlike rocks, the mere thought of pebbles and sand doesn’t overwhelm you. They’ve been distracting you and keeping you from finishing your main tasks for years — and they love it.

Pebbles and sand are perfectly happy being the center of attention. They know they’re low maintenance. Kind of like mindless ironing. You do get something accomplished, but in the end it’s just a pressed shirt.

Pebbles typically show up on our daily to-do lists …

Items like: catch up on emails, return phone calls, update website, attend some meetings, google everything there is to know about procrastination …

Pebbles certainly need to be acknowledged — but you just can’t let them take over your days.

Probably the greatest use pebbles have as you move towards a successful copywriting career lies in helping you identify what is not a rock.

And Then There’s All the Sand …
The State of Mis-knowing

Sand is all the “busy work” …

Sand is hands-down the greatest challenge of all. It’s all the social media scrolling … the rearranging our offices … the “I just need to get this done, then I’ll get started” that is so easy to get lost in. It makes us feel like we’re being productive, but in fact, we’re just wasting time.

All the things that were supposed to “just take a second,” have suddenly taken six hours out of your day that could have been spent working on a rock.

Sand can easily take up the whole jar, and pebbles can wheedle their way in, too, but rocks — all three of them — need to be kept front and center. You need to put them in the jar first.

One of the greatest perks of having three solid rocks, each with its own clear mission, is that:

Rocks give you total permission to say NO to all the sand! All the “busy” work.

You’re never finished replenishing (and then replacing) rocks. Goals may change. Ideas of what constitutes reaching those goals may change. But at least you’re on top of them. Even if they morph by the minute.

The point: Focus on the most important things first. Don’t get bogged down in all the minutiae.

The Ultimate Rock-Spotting Cheat Sheet

So just how do you know when you’re staring at a rock, and not a pebble or some sand?

Real rocks give you clarity on the three things you’ve identified as your biggest priorities.

Real rocks give you focus and energy.

Real rocks are do-able and achievable. (More on that in a moment.)

On the other hand …

Imposter rocks will overwhelm you.

Imposter rocks will drive you nuts just thinking about all the steps it will take to get to the real rocks.

Imposter rocks will make you want someone else’s rock. You’re convinced that even the most novice of copywriters is already way ahead of you, rock-wise.

Imposter rocks claim they’re the pinnacle of all your dreams. No need to aspire to anything beyond them.

In the end, if you look closely, wannabe rocks are just pebbles and sand masquerading as rocks. They’re lying in wait, eager to lead you astray in the direction of all the shiny objects.

How to Catapult Your Copywriting Career in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Make your rocks do-able and achievable.

Aim for the big goals but focus on each of the tiny steps you need to take to get there.

Make each step small enough to be able to measure your progress and your results. And be sure to celebrate along the way.

You may not complete all three rocks in 90 days, but you can make great progress. You can gain clarity every day about which rocks are real, and which are just pebbles or sand.

Step 2: Decide which step should come first.

Your goal on Day One of the 90-Day Intensive is to choose, after serious consideration (and much excitement), your very own three rocks — your topmost priorities to reach your goal.

To help you fine-tune your choices and ensure you’re on the right path, you have the opportunity to work directly with Katie and Rebecca as part of the 90-Day Intensive. Here’s a look at how my time with them went …

Katie and the Zen Moment

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”
— Ram Dass

My own Zoom meeting with Katie was slated to last half an hour. Instead, she took one look at my list of priorities — all 30 of them — and, with a knowing sigh — the kind born of years of experience working with new copywriters — broke the news: “There is waaay too much sand in here …”

She followed that up with how everyone else in the program had way too much sand, too. (Big relief … there was hope for me yet.)

Barely 10 minutes into our meeting, with laser-like focus, she blew away all the sand — and suddenly three shining rocks appeared.

And just like that, with 20 minutes left on the clock, her incisive assessment of the situation made the remaining time unnecessary. I went from a Type A to a Type Zen, and now had 20 extra minutes to work on a rock.

Rebecca’s Come-as-You-Are Party

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
— Winston Churchill

Where Katie makes zeroing-in on the three most important rocks in the universe tailor-made just for you seem easy, Rebecca reveals the overall connection between the 90-Day Intensive itself and the rest of your life as a copywriter. And she does it with such panache.

Just when you want to throw in the towel, convinced that the rocks you’ve identified are ultimately un-doable, enter Rebecca …

Arguably one of the most upbeat and encouraging leaders at AWAI, Rebecca unapologetically puts the words “fun” and “screwing up” in the same sentence. She gives the green light to go at your own pace, enjoy the journey, and let yourself “fail,” or at least get lost, no matter how many times it takes, until you find your own road back to the copywriting career you envisioned all along.

You still have to put in all the hard work to identify and work towards your three carefully chosen rocks each day, but that overarching “a-ha!” moment comes when you realize the connection between the 90-Day Intensive and your copywriting career at large.

The opportunity to work so directly with Katie and Rebecca is perhaps the biggest reason of all to sign up for the 90-Day Intensive. They give it their all and inspire you to do the same.

Step 3: Be kind to yourself. You can’t control the results. Get over it.

Be focused, be motivated, but be realistic. Most of all, be kind to yourself as you start this journey.

You may not complete all the actions you’ve identified as your top priorities, but so long as you keep inching your way towards them, starting with taking the 90-Day Intensive in the first place, you’re moving in the right direction. You can be proud of having come this far.

Ultimately, though, the result of all your efforts is out of your hands. It’s up to your prospective clients. They may not want or need your help right now … but they might in the future. The point is that you can only control so much.

The one thing you know for sure is that you made every effort to make that rock come to life.

And Finally: Keep the Momentum Going!

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there."
— Will Rogers

Focusing on the rocks first thing every day keeps you from getting sidetracked by all the pebbles, and definitely by all the sand that can quickly fill up the whole jar if you’re not careful.

If you follow the 90-Day Intensive program, by the end of 90 days, you will have made progress on your own unique set of rocks as you continue to move towards them, mindfully and methodically.

That’s it. It may not be easy, but it is simple. You can make it as complicated and time-consuming (and off-track) as you like by pouring a ton of sand into the jar first, but then what’s the point?

One Last Monk Moment

One of the most colorful (literally) public outreach events I organized when I ran the Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford, was a week-long creation of a sand mandala by a group of lively Tibetan monks who had just arrived from India.

The public had a rare chance to watch the monks meticulously create a representation of the perfect universe at the Cantor Arts Center, over the course of five or six days, in real time.

Prayers were said, incense was burned, and the sand mandala, which had by then been swept into a pile of colorful sand on the last day of its creation, rested peacefully at the bottom of an urn.

As soon as the urn was turned over, the sand was tossed by the wind into the Pacific Ocean, symbolizing the impermanence of life.

The ceremony was conducted with a solemnity not often reserved for the destruction of a universe.

The Cantor folks were horrified. They had been making plans to put the sand mandala on prominent display long after the monks had come and gone. I hadn’t told them about the fate that awaited all sand mandalas … and they, in turn, never forgave me.

The sand slowly disappeared into the ocean mists.

Rocks, I later learned, last millions of years before they disappear.

My new mantra: Let go of the darn sand, already.

And thanks, Katie and Rebecca — you Rock!

If you’re someone who just can’t seem to let go of sand, sign up for the 90-Day Intensive. You’ll get to work directly with Katie and Rebecca, hear firsthand the collective wisdom of six luminaries of the copywriting world, do some major soul-searching about your three rocks, and begin to work towards achieving them, knowing you’re on the right path.

By the end of 90 days, you’ll be able to distinguish between a rock, a pebble, and a grain of sand. It can only help catapult your copywriting career.