As I mentioned in last month's issue of The Levison Letter, during the pandemic, I've decided to hold off on giving copywriting advice.
So here goes . . .
Many years ago, I got a call from a woman I'll call Marge. She was an assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications at a major San Francisco firm. A huge firm!
Marge told me that she had an extremely large budget that she wanted to spend in her current budget year. In other words, she was in a use-it-or-lose-it situation. That's why Marge said I should charge her a huge fee that she specified.
When I delivered the copy she told me that she really loved my work and had two more projects for me.
Then the tremendously profitable projects really started to roll in. She gave me so many assignments, at her specified high prices, that I could barely keep up with the work.
So, as a very small thank you, I took Marge to lunch.
As soon as we sat down, Marge ordered a glass of wine. After finishing it, she ordered another one. Then when the main course arrived, she ordered a vodka straight up. No surprise that she soon started showing the effects of the drinks.
She started slurring her words at which point she paused, and with a wicked gleam in her eye, asked me . . .
"Do you know who you are?"
Wait a second. Who I was? Stunned by the weird question, I answered "No," and wondered where she was going with this.
Then she leaned over the table, pointed her finger at me, and in a conspiratorial whisper said . . .
"You . . . are . . . my . . . revenge."
Her revenge? Did I hear that right? Mystified, I very calmly asked her, "How am I your revenge, Marge?"
She then proceeded to tell me how she thought that she deserved a promotion to full Vice President but was unfairly passed over.
She was furious and bitter about this perceived injustice and decided she would take revenge on her firm. How? By urging all her vendors to charge extremely high fees for their services.
At that moment, I finally understood why she actually told me what high fees to charge. She wasn't trying to use up her budget or demonstrate appreciation of my writing skills. She was using me to screw her company!
I certainly wanted no part of her revenge scheme and never accepted another project from her. (I later learned that not too long after these events took place, Marge was fired.)
So what did I learn from all of this?
That in business, you almost always get to work with terrific, honorable people. But every so often who shows up?
Marge.
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That's it for now my friend. More reports from the front lines next month.
