Big projects, small steps, great results
Develop your own Project Manager skills
From the bottom of my heart mind
Fresh stories from a Spanish Copywriter.
Couple of years ago, I joined a huge project on the automotive industry
A field I didn’t know much about at that time. Then I became something similar to an expert. Now I’m planning to buy a new car and, definitely, that experience helps.
When I say huge, it was really huge: 250+ product descriptions involving SEO, marketing copywriting, localization and creating content from scratch. And all super technical and very car specific.
At first, it was chaos. When I saw all that and the timeline we had, I was like “no way, this is impossible”. I had other clients to take care of, a trip to U.S. booked and, as I mentioned, no experience on the field.
But the copy lead was AMAZING (great professional, great person), it was well paid and I had a good vibe about it, so… I went all in.
After I did my research, I put the “Project Manager” mode (lucky me, I used to lead a team myself so I had some skills for it). This is what I did.
I calculated a scoop of hours I needed and how much copy I was able to write by hour/day/week.
I identified which parts could be replicated (technical aspects, for instance)
I created a document with the main source of information, including the most relevant websites + my own research.
I made one of the best spreadsheets I’ve ever made. Well organized, with different colours for the different sections, words counters and all.
I worked in batches, each of them with few brands.
And I established my own deadlines.
Just after ALL OF THAT, I started the actual writing work.
I was the first copywriter to have all the content ready. They even used my spreadsheet to organized their information and the copy lead was delighted about it. It saved me tons of hours and gave me the mental clarity I required.
So my advice is this: try to do your work in a way that is easy and comfortable for you. This might involve a lot of “no-specific-localization-work” at first, but will pay off.
Market-in
Resources to reach your peak level.
💡How many times do you check DeepL on a regular day? They just presented their last report about the state of the localization and translation industry. You can check it out here.
Outside the desk
Where the magic really happens.
🎤 On Tuesday I was in a cool marketing event, with talks from Google, Estrella Galicia, Platanomelón or VICIO. I’m not really into the networking thing, but it tried my best.
🥘And tomorrow I’m meeting 2 amazing copywriters that also live in Valencia. I e-met them 5 years ago and tomorrow will share some beers and paella.
🤓 As always, spending more time outside the desk gave me some new ideas for inside the desk. Stay tunned.
Make it global, baby
If you want to work with me, this is the way.
🚀 Want to take your brand to the next Spanish level? Hit the “reply” bottom and let’s talk.
📬 Want to appear in one of the next issues? Let’s see how we can work it out.
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All the best for the rest of your week,
💙 Ricky from Textonality.com 💙