Interview: Director of Engineering at X - Daniel O’shea

Covering the power of minimalist design, repurposing content, balancing search and feed strategies, using self-interviews for quick videos, leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT and Grok, and justifying tech splurges like the iPhone 16 Pro based on daily use.

Showing client work in a simple chart can increase conversions by 10-20x. How a sales page should grow. Viral posts often lead to funny comments. Selling courses adds work, so offering support makes them more valuable. Lastly, a high-protein, low-calorie drink can be a tasty, healthy choice.

With Q4 2024 approaching, it's a busy time for retail. Stay organized with a to-do list and sometimes share my crossed-off tasks online. Good We often discuss tools like Productive Therapist's updated "Magic Script" in our Weekly Office Hours.

How a quirky advertisement, industry insights from a tech leader, effective branding strategies, home gym tips, and evolving marketing tactics can inspire creativity and success across different aspects of life and business.

How Elon bought his company. What they are working on. Check out the full notes here: https://copywritingcourse.com/courses/interviews/daniel-oshea

Discover the power of concise content with insights into working with freelancers, leveraging psychological triggers for marketing, and balancing short and long-form content. Learn how simple tweaks, like shortening a sales video, can significantly boost engagement, proving that sometimes, less is more.

The complexity of modern advertising agencies, a networking success story featuring Nick Gray, the shift towards short-form content, managing negativity on social media, the benefits of hiring freelancers over agencies, and a success story from a copywriting course.

Nick Gray is the master of developing a great friend network, we go over some of his success in this area, his book The Two Hour Cocktail party, and his past business successes. See the full blog post and long notes here: https://copywritingcourse.com/courses/interviews/making-friends-nick-gray/0:00: Start0:05: Making T-shirts with friends faces for $20 is an amazing investment.  2:00: The t-shirts started with Noah Kagan and I made custom shirt with an iron-on paper, but then started using Canva. 3:20: Nick Gray is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met, it’s difficult to describe him and all the fun he brings. 3:40: He started a company called MuseumHack which he sold in 2019, and also helped build his family's aviation company from the ground up before selling it to a big private equity company.”4:20: “I’ve been on more private jets than anybody but they’re all broken.”4:50: His engineer dad built a product in their basement that shows an in-air flight display (like you see in airlines) but for private jets. Nick joined as employee #1 and helped grow it to 80+ employees before selling in 2014, then got an earnout from the company. 6:30: Working with a family business was very informal, and while there was a small amount of butting heads overall it was a great and fun and easy experience and in fact BROUGHT HIM CLOSER TO HIS PARENTS than ever.8:16: Nick’s involvement for Flight Display Systems (FDS) he took over marketing and international sales. He learned everything on the fly (no pub intended).9:00: Middle East clients had INSANE private jets and essentially unlimited budgets. People would request showers, glowing floors, and all sorts of things and they would engineer it and build it. Their bread and butter was in-flight entertainment. Nick’s dad figured out how to make the standard $70,000 “Flight Map” for around $10,000.10:53: Sales all came from a small network of aviation professionals and tradeshows, specifically one called NBAA which his whole family would all go to every year. 11:34: Nick did something innovating with pricing in the aviation industry. Talking about prices was considered uncouth, so he zagged and made Best Buy style giant price tags at their tradeshow booth. Other booths were making fun of them, but their booth was completely full of end customers! 12:53: Nick learned to be very upfront by asking: “What do you need, what do you want, what can we do for you?”14:17: Do you still think tradeshows are still the best way to get leads? Yes…but “conferences” are hard, but “tradeshows” are super profitable. 15:13: If Nick ever started a business it might be a tradeshow (not conference) because you can monetize them so well. 15:40: For Nick’s 42nd birthday he threw a “Birthday Conference” where people paid ~$1,000 to come to a three day event, and it was really cool high up people and felt like an expensive conference. Price anchoring for conferences is very hard. He sent out a survey how much people would pay and it always ends up at $1,000. Unless you get very big sponsors it’s hard to make big money with conferences. 17:04: There’s nothing like meeting in person to connect with a person. Something still very different from online. We went to a HubSpot conference and met a lot of people we knew online in real life. Even brief moments of meeting IRL are impactful.18:48: In early 2000’s the only way to hear amazing people speak was at a live conference. But with the rise of TED, YouTube, and podcasts all of a sudden you could hear BETTER versions of these in person speeches. The benefit of conferences quickly shifted from hearing a speaker to meeting other conference attendees. 19:51: We went to a conference where we saw some famous names, and honestly it’s better to listen to a podcast than the live...

A traffic incident led to finding out Optimizely builds websites, highlighting the value of tying profits to clients' success. Charging by performance is more profitable. The Daily Stoic's podcast studio shows tech's impact. The market's shifting from selling knowledge to offering services. August is great for joining Copywriting Course, with many recent success stories.

The 1977 Apple Marketing Philosophy, SaSS business strategies. Nev's revenue streams, content creation, and customer acquisition. The joy of a carwash. How to stay organized every day. Thursday Office Hours.