Editing myself

I've been doing the same thing for a long time. I'm not talking about avoiding writing these blogposts — although since the last one I posted was November 11, 2025 I suppose you could make an arguement for it.

What I'm talking about is copywriting. Creative directing. Endless meetings. Town halls. You know, the ad game. I used to tell the wife if I was still writing commercials when I was forty to just shoot me. Clearly I had blown past that deadline.

So last year, when a certain leading cybersecurity company I'd been a creative director at for three years, and I'm not naming names — CrowdStrike — laid off 5% of its staff, which if you're keeping count came out to 500 people (apparently the only breach they couldn't stop was trust), I found myself in an interesting position. Was I going to take my newly found expertise and look for another job in the cybersecurity world? Head back to an advertising agency after five years on the client side (yes the math adds up - before CrowdStrike I was at Epson for two years)? Do nothing, or do something completely different.

The answer about the next step building a future version of me came in the form of my great friend and writer extraordinaire Cameron Day. For reasons I will never know and will always be eternally grateful for, Cameron asked me to edit the second volume of his wildly entertaining, brutally honest and endlessly entertaning advertising survival guide trilogy pictured above, Spittin' Chicklets.

Then he asked me to edit the third one.

And a book about his f*@ked up adventures from the ad trenches.

And his wild ride as an AI anarchist in his book co-authored by AI.

I happened to mention to my former client and close friend Pete Wendy how much I was enjoying this new endeavor thanks to Cameron, and come to find out Pete was writing a book his own self and asked if I would edit it.

I love it when momentum decides to do its job.

This is the book Pete wrote. I think you'll find it well written and extraordinarily edited.

As The Fixx like to say, one thing leads to another. You're welcome Jim DeCorpo (inside joke, don't even try).

Cameron referred me to his friend John Long, who, you guessed it, was in the process of writing a book about legacy brands and what they need to do to survive.

The book is called Zombie Brands, and is packed with exceptional writing, insights and solid advice for older brands looking to survive in the new world.

The thing about this newfound career is the pressure is on and off at the same time. I don't have to come up with the idea and write it. I get to shape it, and work with writers who care deeply about their work, but who don't want to suffer while improving it.

So what am I saying? I guess it's be open to things you haven't tried before. You never know where they'll lead.

Looking at that last line, I think I may have a future writing fortune cookies. Do you know anyone?