About Judy

Remember when businesses lived—or died—from word of mouth? Mrs. Jensen on the corner told Mrs. Stewart across the street about that amazing deli down the block.

People actually talked. They listened. They trusted each other’s advice.

Then came mass media. The bigger guys sold their stuff with newspaper ads. Radio and TV commercials.

The owner of the tiny roofing company couldn’t afford that so he printed up 1,000 full-color brochures and mailed them out.

It’s different now. When’s the last time you made a buying decision based on reading a brochure? Do you sort the mail standing over the recycling bin, tossing all those postcards and READ THIS NOW! offers? Me, too.

With the marketing fire hose aimed at us, no wonder we try to defend ourselves.

Hit the mute button when the commercial comes on.

Delete those fakey e-mails that use a mail merger program to insert your name (like you’ll be fooled into thinking they know you). That hypey, no-value “newsletter”? Unsubscribe.

Those websites with the sales messages with the yellow highlighter and the huge, red, centered headlines. And exclamation points!

Your readers are jaded. Suspicious. They’ve been taken for a ride before and, by George, if they think it’s going to happen again? Click—they’re gone.

I like to take a more friendly approach. A message with a human behind it. No hype. No marketing jargon. No clichés. Just simple but engaging text that makes your reader say, “They can solve this problem for me? That’s exactly what I need.”

I love to walk alongside bright, talented solopreneurs and small biz owners to give them an online presence that gives them a serious shove from average to astounding.

I help creative professionals and service-based companies with web copy that stops their prospects from skimming and scanning and gets them reading to the end. Filling out the website contact form. Picking up the phone.

I can help you if:

• You want to present yourself as a professional but you feel you are hiding the things that make you unique.
• You know you do awesome stuff, but not enough people know about it.
• You want to show up online in a way that doesn’t make your visitors nod off—or click away.
• You know what you want to say, but you just can’t make the words dance.

I’m a copywriter who gets the marketing part. I believe in asking the right questions and making you an equal partner in the process so your authentic voice shines through. Because that’s what your web visitors are looking for. A real person.

I have been a professional writer for more than 20 years. I have written for event planners and third world development organizations and everything in between. I’ve taken technical “doctor-ese” and turned it into language their people without medical degrees can understand.

And I love figuring out the best way to position a small business to attract the clients they were meant to be serving.

But, in the end, it really doesn’t matter how much a copywriter knows about your field or industry. Because good copywriters take in new concepts like breathing air. What matters is how curious they are, how much they know about what makes people open their pocketbooks, how inventive they are and how well they put words together.

A couple more things about me. I was a volunteer mentor for an elementary school-aged child for three years. I traveled to sub-Sahara Africa as manager of writing services for an international third world development nonprofit. I’ve been a teacher and a principal. And I live on Anderson Island, in south Puget Sound, Washington state

Oh. And I can juggle and say, “Four knives will be sufficient” in Swahili.