When I’m not writing copy, I teach courses in persuasive writing at Portland Community College. I'll have 30 people in a class made up of everyone from fresh-faced high-schoolers doing "early college" to 20-something vets on the GI Bill to moms-of-six finally able to focus on school to 72-year old ex-POWs who are thinking of retiring from their shipbuilding(!) business. (That last one only happened once, but still.) And here’s the thing: Spending time twice a week in front this crowd makes me a better copywriter. For starters, it forces me to think about how to reach a diverse audience. And it reminds me that without an understanding of the way people see the world, you’ll never reach them in any meaningful way. Every class, I’m making a pitch: asking my audience to buy into an idea, and to believe in it in a way that spurs them to action. As creatively as possible, I lead them toward our destination until they're (hopefully) seeing something in a whole new way. Doing that takes research and planning. Lots of it. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men.... But it's OK. Because it turns out being up there in front of dozens of people has helped me get pretty good at recognizing when something isn't working, and at being reflective enough to understand why, and at then making the needed (sometimes instant) adjustments. Teaching also constantly reminds me how much courage it takes to write a shitty first draft. The importance of digging and dredging everything up, however messy, so that you get down beneath the surface b.s. and mine the fertile volcanic stuff. And lastly, I’m a better copywriter for having to constantly instill in students the kind of Sisyphean persistence that real revision takes. Rallying them to remain undaunted when looking at the big ol' hunk of who-knows-what they’ve unearthed, and to keep an open mind as they attack it, play with it, mold it, and keep chiseling away at it until it looks like George Washington on a horse.