Father’s Day is approaching and, if you don’t mind, I’d like to do something a little different with this episode of the Build Your Copywriting podcast.
We lost my dad on Father’s Day last year and CCA students have probably heard me talk about how integral he was to me getting into copywriting to begin with.
So, this week’s episode of the podcast is a short tribute to the late, great, and very missed Mike Krawczyk. Never fear: Next week we’ll be back with our regularly scheduled straightforward copywriting content but..this week I just felt called to share a bit about my dad with you and the rest of our community.
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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[01:25] This is a little bit off the topic of copywriting and I suppose maybe a little bit self-indulgent.
[01:50] I wanted to talk to you today because it was last Father’s Day that we lost my dad. It was actually on Father’s Day. Seems that he held out to go on that day. He was a sentimental guy. I want to share a little bit about my dad, Mike Krawczyk.
[02:22] My dad was a marketing director and he would bring home extra work and he would have me help him out, give me some feedback and help me hone my copywriting skills. Even though it wasn’t until several years later that I realized that you could actually write copy for a living.
[02:57] My dad was someone who always loved writing. He was on the the school newspaper in high school. He majored in journalism in college. After college, he went to go work at Milwaukee Repertory Theater in their PR department.
[03:30] He loved theater so much, and he actually wrote a play in his late twenties when he and my mom were together before my brother and I came along. After he retired he would talk about writing another play or writing a book. Writing was very much a part of his life.
[03:50] I loved to write as well. My brother actually also loves to write. Writing and literature, and theater was always a very much a part of our family.
[04:00] When I was in high school. We went on a senior retreat and as a surprise parents in advance wrote letters for us to read at the end of the retreat, which was, was lovely. My dad actually wrote his letter to me in the form of a video script. It’s about him reflecting on me growing up.
[05:05] A few years ago he was diagnosed with dementia. It is hard not just for the person suffering with it, but for the family members. For my mom especially, that was a hard, a hard, hard job.
[05:50] If you are caring for someone with dementia or you know someone who’s caring for someone with dementia, a good friend of mine, Dr. Natali Edmonds has a program. It is called Dementia Careblazers, and she is there to support caregivers. Check her stuff out and pass along that resource to anybody you know, cause it is a hard, hard, hard job.
[07:00] I have a video of us playing Trivial Pursuit together. He couldn’t put things together and the four of us were sitting around playing and he’s still participating and we’re all still laughing together.
[07:23] The week before Father’s Day, he just went into steep decline and couldn’t speak anymore and couldn’t really get up and we could all be there with him.
[08:00] If you are someone who has benefited in any way from this podcast, the resources that we have put out, learning about copywriting it’s because he existed.
[10:00] I just wanted to mark a year without him. And I wanted to make sure that anyone who bothered to listen to this knew that he had an impact.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“He would bring home extra work and he would have me help him out. That’s how I got my start in copywriting, How I got some of my initial training.” – Nicki
“Anything that we have put out? It’s because he existed. Mike Krawczyk was here and he was my dad.” – Nicki
Mentioned in the Episode
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Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
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