Thread by @heyblake

I quit my job.

And I found a new home as CMO at @copy_ai

Let's celebrate with 2 things:

→ I'm giving away 10 lifetime accounts to Copy (see the very last tweet)

→ A mega-thread on the weird journey that led me here

Let's get it started 👇

8 years ago, I was living in the south of France.

I lived in Carcassonne, Geneva, Bordeaux, and Lyon for 6 months each.

When I moved back to the USA to start college, I realized something kinda big:

I had ZERO pro skills or an idea of what I wanted to do.

Since I spoke French, I lucked my way onto the French team of a Utah-based SEO firm.

This was my first foray into marketing, and I did NOT intend to do it forever.

But I kept moving on to new marketing opportunities.

SEO firm
↓
Agencies
↓
Freelance work
↓
In-house

That stretch lasted just under 7 years.

I lived in:

Salt Lake City, UT
Destin, FL
Huntington Beach, CA
Austin, TX
Back to UT

Which brings us up to date.

I saw this AI company floating around on Twitter called Copy-something.

Seemed cool, whatever.

Until I saw their "Build in Public" approach and their MRR numbers skyrocketing every week.

I started using the product.

And holy crap. It was amazing.

I started seeing this dude Paul on my timeline pretty often.

One day he made a hint that he might be starting to hire soon.

Honestly, I wasn't looking to move on from my job at that point.

I was pretty content and doing good things at Talkdesk.

But I DMd Paul anyway to see what the scuddlebud was.

This is how it all started:

Then I got this message shortly after:

Let me be perfectly honest about this:

We Zoomed maybe a grand total of 3 times.

Yes, I'm serious.

Things clicked. It was clear this was my next move super quickly.

But lemme layout all the major thoughts I had about joining, positive AND negative.

PRO:
I got to serve as CMO

CON:
I've never been a CMO before. What if I flop?

PRO:
The pay would be good

CON:
My wife and I were legit scared about whether or not we'd have company health insurance

PRO:
I'd have the autonomy to build a team and grow a vision

CON:
The vision of the copy is still super young and there isn't much to work off of

PRO:
I'd get to work with uber-talented people like @PaulYacoubian and @chris__lu

CON:
I barely know those dudes

PRO:
I'd get to work on a product I actually use myself

CON:
I literally couldn't know less about AI and GPT-3

PRO:
I'd get to join a startup and challenge myself to learn new things

CON:
I had a job at a stable company and this was pretty risky

PRO:
It would be an acknowledgment of my skills and capabilities, a real ego booster

CON:
There's a super high chance I'll fail a lot in this job

PRO:
I'd get the chance to build this thing in public

CON:
People will see me suck in public

PRO:
Creating content would no longer be a side hustle - it would be my way of life

CON:
The pressure is on to create consistently great stuff

There were tons of other questions, but you get the point.

This decision was easy in retrospect, but I still had a long way to go from being interested to being hired.

I'm stoked to start his journey.

And I'm bringing you along the way!

I will be working in public the whole time, showing you the cool stuff that works and all the flops as well.

You'll learn how to be a great CMO (hopefully), and what NOT to do.

Now, what you came here for:

The lifetime account for free.

I'll give away 10!

To enter the contest, just:

1. Retweet the first tweet

2. Comment with your best video congratulation video OR shoutout using this link to record (it's super easy): testimonial.to/blake-emal