About Me — The Personal Version

Okay, here’s the personal version.

But if you’ve dodged my opt-in boxes so far to make it here, we’re making a deal:

You’ve gotta get on my list if you read this page, ‘kay?

Okay. (I’ll hold you to that.)

Look, few people know me really well. Because I’m an introvert. And my two best friends are an American dude who lives in Oregon, and a Japanese chick who lives in Osaka (and doesn’t speak English). Go figure.

But if you’d like to join the exclusive club of people who know a lot about me, feel free to read on …

Warning: this is PERSONAL stuff. You may well read it and recoil in horror. Fine, that’s your problem. Or you may think, “well, I don’t agree, but at least I can respect that.” Also fine by me.

So without further ado, here’s what you’d find out about me if you got to know me.

I’m a Christian. In a real, deep sense. I worship Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. I read the Bible every day, ten chapters — a mix of the KJV (though I’m not KJV-only anymore), the Greek, the Hebrew, and sometimes a Japanese version for kicks. I don’t pray anywhere near as much as I should, but I try. No, I’m not here to preach to you. The Persuasive Page is a copywriting business first and foremost. But as a Christian, glorifying God and inviting others to share in that view is a common theme in my life. So don’t expect that worldview NOT to come through in what I write every now and then. If this offends you, I’m sorry.

I’m married to Hayley — my not-quite-high-school-sweetheart (we met in the first month of university, so it’s close). We have two kids so far: a son Eli (born 2017) and daughter Esther (born 2019).

I have very few strong opinions. One of my strongest opinions is that most people have opinions stronger than they warrant. That is, most people are totally incapable of seeing how they might actually be wrong. I hate when people feel free to share their strong opinion with me as if I agree. Totally random example: anti-vaxxers. I’m as pro-vaxxer as they come (my wife is a doctor) BUT I have anti-vaxxer friends and I openly admit they have done more actual research into the topic than 99% of people ever will. To me, all I can say is I trust what the doctors say, but I haven’t done the research for myself so I can’t be sure. Yet most people will just jump to bashing anti-vaxxers because “everyone knows they’re wrong”. I find that way of thinking fundamentally idiotic and yet far too common. Same with many, many topics, like global warming, creation/evolution, KJV-onlyism, anything political, you name it. I have views, but I am always open to the possibility I could be wrong. So if you come to me with a view I consider crazy, I will say, “You know, I don’t agree with that, but I could be wrong.”

I adore the Japanese language. It’s been my biggest passion since 2015. I studied it in high school, then quit for 7 years, and forgot everything down to the alphabet. I picked it back up on a whim in 2015 and taught myself entirely from scratch. I’m fairly fluent nowadays, and I’m raising my kids to speak Japanese, despite having zero Japanese blood or family or whatever. Like I said, one of my two best friends is a Japanese girl called Risa and she doesn’t really speak much English at all. My favourite manga/anime are 進撃の巨人 (Attack on Titan) and コードギアス (Code Geass). I think I’ve watched the entire series of 寄生獣 (Parasyte) 19 times.

I love other languages, too. I taught myself Esperanto in two weeks on Duolingo back in 2016. I also read Koine Greek and to a lesser extent Hebrew — those are the two original languages of the Bible and I learned them so I could read it in the original. It’s a lifelong endeavour but rewarding.

When I was a teenager I used to have a music project called Summertime’s End. It was a little cringe-y, especially looking at it now. So I can play the guitar and piano. (I can’t sing to save my life though — Melodyne was my saviour.) If I had an alternate me, I’d spend time writing more songs and producing more music. As it stands though, that dream is kind of dead for now. And it involved a bit too much self-idolisation for my liking, so I’m kinda glad it’s dead.

One of my long-term projects has been to memorise the New Testament. I fell off this a bit in 2019 and didn’t make much progress. I have about 33% of it down. It takes constant work, an average of an hour a day over the past few years. I use the flashcard app Anki (which I also use to keep my languages fresh). 

I can’t decide whether I’m a ‘creative person’ or a ‘logical person’. You might think that as a copywriter who does all this language and music stuff I’ve just described, I’m a creative guy. But the truth is, I was excellent at school and got my Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering with First Class Honours. The maths subjects were always my strongest and I frequently topped the class. I really thought Engineering was my dream career … until I discovered that my engineering job at Chevron was little more than a glorified spreadsheet manager. If I’d gotten a job that actually involved more maths, perhaps I would have stayed there.

And of course, I love copywriting. Ever since I found out about this art in 2015, it’s fascinated me. I think marketing is a wonderful thing when done ethically. I love the idea of words being this powerful force that can move people. It’s a blessing to be able to do it to support my family, and to share whatever gifts I have with other people. 

Okay, so that about does it. Now you know me better than 99% of people who’ve ever met me. So it’s time to hold up your end of the deal: if I sound like the kind of guy you could get along with — or at least the kind of guy that you disagree with, but can respect and learn from as an authority on copywriting — put your email in the box below to start getting my daily emails.