Last week, I packed up my wife, three kids and (unnecessarily) half our entire house for a four day trip in Tampa Bay, FL 😆

If you missed my AirBnb Fiasco story, you can read that here.​

But what wasn’t a fiasco was the incredible dinner I got to enjoy hosted by Brian Kurtz with other legends.

(Doberman Dan, Troy Broussard, Wendy Makepeace, Kevin Rogers and 13 others)

We were in this private room in the back a beautiful Spanish Brick style restaurant that looks like it had been plucked straight from 1905. But in the best way possible.

As we’ve all settled into our seats, the waiters are squeezing the lemons and olive oil together into our salads.

The conversations move from who we are to what’s working in our industries to AI.

WE CHAT ABOUT AI FOR A WHILE...

And I gotta say, I was two-elbows-on-the-table leaned in on every word from the conversation.

Because everybody had such contrasting opinions!

(But we didn’t bicker like the girl scouts on Twitter 😅)

The copywriter next to me told me how she’s investing thousands of dollars to build a Copy Chiefing bot that can GRADE your copy and rate it’s level of potential success.

Echee waw waw!

But then the gentlemen across from me, whom we’ll leave nameless, (Troy, it was Troy Broussard), told us how he BLOCKS the word “AI” from his Low Stress Trading community because he wants THINKERS not DRONES.

Like I said, massively contrasting opinions.

But the one thing that seemed to be the consensus across the board is that the Golden Days of “hiring a copywriter to create a direct package” is behind us.

Not in a somber, woe-is-me, bytchy about it kinda way.

But in a “hey that was great, here’s whats next” kinda way.

And AI plays a massola part in that, obviously.

In fact, I made a video about this just a few months ago you can check out here.​

I started the video with this statistic:

OUCH!

A bite as nads, indeed!

So what does that mean for you, my dear copywriter?

Is the Goat hanging up his hat? Am I taking my army of copywriters somewhere else?

Yes.

I quit.

I’m leaving copy.

My new niche is —

LOL I couldn’t do it. So close.

Almost gotcha, did I get ya? 😜

Listen, muchacho.

Do I think you’ll make a killing being a freelance copywriter for clients in 2026?

No, no I don’t.

But I 100% believe you can shove your pockets full of green stuff and have a ho’ bunch of fun if you go down one of these two paths…

1 - Attach your copy skill to a desired sales medium

Like building funnels, Klaviyo flows, youtube script writing, meta ads.

Master a specific style of technology and customer acquisition powered by real copywriting and you my friend will rake in dolla dolla bills.

Or…

Build your own business in the Creator Economy. The fattest and fastest growing economy in the entire world.

Pick the thing you’re passion about, solves a problem, people will pay for it and your good at it.

Start writing on Substack or posting YouTube videos.

Build an audience. Move that audience to an email list. Sell that audience something they want. A community, a cohort, coaching, course. Lotta ways to do this.

You can do all of this with writing.

And if you like the sound of that but have no idea how to move from client work to creator work...

I have a community of almost 90 CopyCreators who are doing just that.

Growing their own audience and email to sell their own stuff.

If you want Yours Truly as your coach and a community of people with ya…

​CLICK THIS LINK TO CHECK IT OUT.​

See ya inside?

Your CopyCreator friend,

Alin “Building His Own Thing” Dragu

P.S. I’ll give you my 30-Day El Copy Goat Guarantee. If you join my club and are not absolutely BLOWN AWAY by how good it is for a measly $50/mo… you can hang out for 30 days and I’ll refund your money back.