Always more to learn, plus trailblazing women in business & media and copy resource of the week

Hey, hi, howdy, and welcome to Issue #45 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

In today’s edition:

✨ This week in … work thoughts?

✨ Trailblazing Women in Business & Media: Kristin Kenzy

✨ Copy Resource of the Week: Words that Sell – 41 Copywriting Templates

✨ Just for Fun  

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This intro section desperately needs a new name!

I’m still trying to determine what I’m going to call this here newsletter intro section now that “This Week in Freelancing” no longer fits, but until I do, I guess I’ll bore you with how my new job is going. 😊

So far, it’s great. I’ve had intro “get to know you” meetings with 8-10 of my colleagues so far, with more meetings scheduled for next week. Everyone seems very cool and completely … sane. Which is more than I can say for other workplaces I’ve been part of, lol.

I’m also enjoying being part of a team again more than I could have imagined. Who knew?

There is nothing quite like brainstorming marketing campaign ideas with 6-7 other smart, creative people who each have a different area of expertise – social, PPC, SEO, copy, design, analytics and beyond.

No matter how long I’ve been working in some form of marketing, I find there’s always more to learn.

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Trailblazing Women in Business & Media: Kristin Kenzy

Kristin Kenzy is an entrepreneur and storyteller who writes the newsletter Drunk Business Advice*.

[*FYI: ln addition to the inline link above which takes you to her newsletter opt-in page, as of this writing, it looks like there’s also this link to a newsletter opt-in page as well, which is a slightly different landing page. Either way, you should be able to subscribe to her newsletter using one of those two handy links if you so desire!]

Rob Marsh, who hosts The Copywriter Club podcast and recently had Kenzy on the show, describes her newsletter this way: “In it, she combines interesting marketing take-aways with fantastic storytelling that makes me (and thousands of other readers) look forward to it each week.”

Agreed. I subscribed a couple of months ago, and it’s one of my new favorites. And I read a lot of newsletters.

Kenzy was once a competitive figure skater, and according to her website, she’s started companies in real estate development, tech, media, professional community building, “and even did the soul-crushing corporate thing on a few occasions.”

I love what she says on her landing page:

You're already smarter than 99% of the "business influencers" on the internet. ​

So you can keep scrolling through LinkedIn's insipid insights...

Or you can subscribe to Drunk Business Advice for free - and actually learn something.

If you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll notice the skilled storytelling and the spot-on business & marketing takeaways, of course, but you’ll also get a big ol’ helping of personality.

That’s so smart, because it makes a newsletter – or any kind of copy – memorable.

Adding personality to your website, newsletter, emails, social copy and more is something I’ve been recommending to clients for years, and Kenzy does it very well.

So, take this as your example of how it’s done if you want to try it for yourself.

And that’s all I got for ya on this trailblazing woman.

I realize this mini-profile is very light on additional sources & details. I did some digging online, and unlike with other mini-profiles I’ve written, I couldn’t find much else about Kenzy with the exception of her newsletter, website, and the podcast episode, all linked here, plus her LinkedIn profile. 

But kudos to her for keeping a low online profile.

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Copy Resource of the Week: Words that Sell – 41 Copywriting Templates

Need to write a headline, subject line, product description, email or other copy for your business or project, but feeling totally uninspired?

This collection of copywriting templates + examples from other successful marketing campaigns might help get you out of that “Argh! I have zero ideas and don’t know where to begin!” funk.

Templates include those for:

· Headlines

· Email subject lines

· Calls to action

· Product descriptions

· Social media copy

· Welcome emails, cold emails & sales emails

· Plus, other copywriting formulas and swipe files

Check it out here:

Words that Sell: 41 Copywriting Templates For Marketers (2025 Update)

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Just for Fun

If only I could be half as ambitious as these smart, industrious kids!

They’re 15. Wait Until You Read Their Newspaper. [New York Times gift link]

The Ditch Weekly, a paper by middle and high schoolers in Long Island, is covering the Hamptons from a new angle.

On a Saturday morning in May, five hard-nosed reporters filed into an office on the South Fork of Long Island and picked up their red pens.

For two hours, they combed through the drafts in front of them. Clunky sentences were tightened. Inelegant adjectives were cut. Powdered doughnut holes were eaten, and mini bags of Cheez-Its, too.

This was the final proofreading session for an issue of The Ditch Weekly, a seasonal newspaper about Montauk that is written and edited by locals ages 13 to 17. Its staffers had gathered to put the finishing touches on their first paper of the year, which would be published over Memorial Day weekend.

The paper’s expenses are supported by advertisements that the teenagers sell to local restaurants, real estate agents and surf shops.

Harry Karoussos, the paper’s 13-year-old head of sales, said that he and Billy usually walk into stores with a copy of the paper and a three-page media kit. A degree of transparency is required when he calls business owners to make them aware of advertising opportunities with The Ditch Weekly.

“I have to, like, notify them that I’m a kid,” he said, estimating that he had made at least 40 sales calls this year.

Despite industrywide headwinds, The Ditch Weekly is “very profitable,” said Charlie Stern, the paper’s chief financial officer, who at 17 is something of an elder statesman on the staff.

You really want to read the entire story if you can.

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That’s it for this week, my friend.

As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate you!

Be well. Stay curious. See you again in two weeks, on August 10.

Warmly,

Kimberly