Three copywriting career regrets from a 23-year veteran

Executive overview

Sean McIntyre spent over two decades in copywriting and direct response marketing, including a stint running a division at Agora. His early career was shaped by three costly mistakes: limiting his work to "artsy" niches, launching ventures before he had the capital to absorb failure, and spreading himself across too many goals at once.

The corrective is not complicated. Expand your copy skills deliberately, save throwaway capital before going entrepreneurial, and cut your goal list until hitting fewer goals actually produces more.

Chasing artistic purity while ignoring commercial copy is sawing your own legs off.

Regret 1: Avoiding commercial copy for too long

• Writing only for art shows, bands, and niche blogs felt authentic but blocked career growth for a decade.
• Artsy ambitions and sales copy are not mutually exclusive — the sacrifice was unnecessary.
• Every additional copy format learned (sales letters, VSLs, Facebook creatives) is transferable and expands client access.
• The market right now favours creative strategy and video copy over email; email-only writers are leaving opportunities on the table.
• Adding a skill to an existing client relationship is far easier than finding a new client for that skill.
• Copywriting is a skeleton key: persuasion and writing competence compound across any career path.

Regret 2: Starting a business too early without capital

• Launching an agency while simultaneously managing editing work and a corporate role meant half-assing everything.
• Working 5am to 1am seven days a week contributed directly to the end of his first marriage.
• The fix is not experience or skills — it is money. Specifically: $50,000 you can afford to lose entirely.
• That $50K is not savings or investments. It is committed capital — gone the moment you deploy it, no regrets if it fails.
• With $50K you can hire help, buy ad spend, and be taken seriously by potential partners and suppliers.
• First ventures usually fail. The point of the capital is to buy those failures fast, extract the lessons, and have enough left to try again.
• If losing $50K would crush your life, you are not yet ready to start.

Regret 3: Doing too many things at once

• Spreading across seven simultaneous projects produced no meaningful results and no sleep.
• A marketer's blunt question — "When are you going to stop fucking around?" — clarified the problem instantly.
• Doing more things in more directions does not accelerate progress; it cancels it out.
• Narrowing goals each year correlates directly with hitting more of them and gaining unexpected opportunities.
• Fewer goals create focus; focus creates the compounding results that scattered effort never can.
• The principle applies equally to business projects and personal ambitions.