A lil trip to Mejico

CopyHour Late Night Hey {NAME} -- Since it's Cinco de Mayo, let's talk about Mexico. I went there last week. It actually feels kinda strange to tell you that. Here's why... People in different cities, states and countries are experiencing different versions of this pandemic. I know my friends in Texas have a different outlook with less restrictions. My wife's family near Philadelphia would probably be shocked if I told them I crossed the border (even being vaccinated). There was definitely some weirdness when we told them we were going to Maui earlier this year. Mexico itself even seemed a little surprised to see my friends and me. "You're here to play golf?" I guess there hasn't really been a ton of tourism where I went -- Ensenada and Valle Guadalupe. And the covid procedures in Ensenada were definitely stricter than they are in San Diego. There's an important lesson here. You, in your bubble, are experiencing, accepting, tolerating, disapproving of certain things that A LOT of other people aren't. This is why I tell folks to watch Super Bowl ads if they can. It'll give you an insight into how the mass audience of USA generally thinks. It also explains why it was a shock, or wasn't a shock, how close the Presidential race was. Good copy taps into your audience's bubble. A good person uses that knowledge carefully and for the benefit of everyone involved. On a very unrelated note, my Spanish was about what I expected it to be... así así. So so. I've been using the Duolingo language learning app for 398 days in a row now but I hadn't gotten any real life experience until this trip. I definitely understood more. Was more confident talking in the future and past tenses. But I fell short when it came to any sort of street food ordering and small talk. When you're just studying and not actively talking, you tend to freeze up trying to get everything grammatically correct. You struggle to quickly communicate what you want. Plus, unknown words and slang take you out of the vibe of the convo. I experienced this way back in the day when I was living in Argentina and Colombia. I'd see other foreigners taking Spanish lessons and working through grammar. I took the opposite route and just went out to bars and parks and tried communicating with people. My grammar was terrible. My sentence structure was awful. But I could interact and as a bonus it often made people laugh. The point -- studying is great. Do it. But when you go to implement what you've learned it's going to be clunky af. You'll need to remember to just communicate the point without judging yourself or having it be "perfect". To hell with grammar. I'm assuming you'll be able to connect this point I'm making about learning Spanish to copywriting. Vamos! - Derek Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( CopyHour.com, 340 S LEMON AVE, 5007, WALNUT, CA 91789