How to Please Your Customers:
Hopkins’ My Life in Advertising Wrap-up

My new boots came in the mail. They were far too small. I felt like a kid again and my feet had grown over the summer.

These boots had everything I wanted. Leather, waterproof, and insulated, I expected to keep them for years. But of course, they had to fit right.

Winter Boots are a necessity around these parts. Image "What's Down There?"by James, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
Winter Boots are a necessity around these parts. Image “What’s Down There?”by James, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

Luckily, the online retailer made the exchange simple and free. I mailed the boots in to try a second pair, and I waited.

It was going to be a cold, snowy Thanksgiving in Wisconsin.

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My Life in Advertising: Chapter 3

Chapter Three of Claude C Hopkins’ book, My Life in Advertising.

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Hopkins opens Chapter Three with a story. The summer after highschool graduation, Claude C. Hopkins took a job as a school teacher on the weekdays and a preacher on the weekends.

“The saver & the worker get the preference of the men who control opportunities. And often that preference proves to be the most important thing in life.” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising

One weekend his mother’s strict congregation asked him to speak. Claude had developed new ideas about religion, different from his strict upbringing. He knew this opportunity would test his relationship with his mother. Claude spoke at the church anyway. His mom was, let’s say, not happy. She took him to a restaurant and broke up with him.

Hopkins couldn't afford to eat regularly, and craved hot pie for dinner. Photo "Mmm... chicken pot pie" by Jeffreyw, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
Hopkins couldn’t afford to eat regularly, and craved hot pie for dinner.
Photo “Mmm… chicken pot pie” by Jeffreyw, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

Continue reading “My Life in Advertising: Chapter 3”