Here’s when I realized I’d be one of the best email copywriters on the planet.

I was re-reading The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joe Sugarman.

(Which I highly recommend you read, read again and re-read at least once a year)

Smack dab on page 11, it says this:

My whole life I’ve been told to lock in and forget everything else!

If you wanna get good at anything, you have to be utterly obsessed with that one thing.

Which has it’s own merits.

But when it comes to writing, it’s an entirely different ball game.

Especially for copywriters.

Yes, you need to write a caboose ton of copy to get good.

But the biggest mistake I see copywriters make is…

ONLY READING & WRITING COPY.

Let me show you what I’m talking about.

There’s a famous painter named Grant Wood.

He’s most well known for his painting called American Gothic.

But only a few years before 1930 (the year he painted American Gothic), Grant was just another Impressionist wannabe. Until 1928 when he visited Germany and saw paintings from this fifteenth-century artist called Hans Memling.

Grant Wood had an epiphany.

He wanted to start incorporating the smooth finish style of the Netherlandish Renaissance into his own style.

This completely transformed his paintings.

Just a few years before visiting Germany, he painted this:

Water. Trees. Oil. Reflection.

Looks like everybody else’s stuff.

Then after being inspired by Hans Memling, he painted this:

And American Gothic.

Which both turned him into a one of the most famous artists to ever live.

ANOTHER QUICK EXAMPLE.

Vincent Van Gogh.

If you saw what he was painting in 1886, you would absolutely never guess it was a Van Gogh.

None of it has the swirling vivid colors you think of when you see a Van Gogh.

So what changed him?

He went to Paris and saw the Impasto Flowers of Adolphe Monticelli and the bright colors of Paul Gauguin.

His eyes were opened.

He immediately started implementing that style into his paintings.

Here’s Van Gogh in 1883:

Here’s Van Gogh in 1889:

DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED?

He followed the wise words of Joe Sugarman and let his curiosity get injected into his work.

Such it is with writing.

If you only read and write (or God forbid prompt) copy… you’ll sound like everybody else who only reads and writes copy!

You’ll never have your Van Gogh moment where you find your style.

This is why I teach copywriters to read widely.

My writing style has been heavily influenced by many people outside of the copywriting world.

These short spiffy one line style emails? John Mark Comer.

My world building and character arcs? JK Rowling.

Pacing? Pierce Brown.

My bombastic-out-of-this-world energy? Matt Dinniman.

And dare I say…

TASTE IN YOUR WRITING IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IN 2026.

Taste in copy, ads, emails, article or what have you is the #1 way to back hand slap AI trolls and cook up stuff people would swiftly snort.

It’s the only reason I have 5,000+ reading my emails daily.

Cause if I just did what everybody else did and prompted Claude Diddly to write my stuff…

No one would read it.

It’s what Van Gogh did before visiting Paris.

It’s what Grant Wood did before visiting Germany.

You need to develop your taste.

And if you want a fantastic place to help you do that, I highly recommend checking out Orange Book Club.

A Skool community I launched just a few days ago where you read any book, any genre. Fantasy. Fiction. Business. Literature. Classics. Comics. History. Religion. Lit RPG.

And you take all that reading and create your own style.

If you want to check it out:

​START YOUR 7-DAY FREE TRIAL INSIDE OF ORANGE BOOK CLUB!​

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As soon as you start your free trial… you instantly get:

✅ My #1 best selling book, Meaningful Marketing ($25) for free

✅ The Orange 100 — a hundred highly curated must-read books in this life time

✅ #30DayReadingChallenge course to build a daily reading habit

✅ Monthly Live Book Club Calls

✅ 50% recurring commissions for every person you bring in

After your free trial, it’s a measly $10/mo.

Cancel anytime. Or enjoy forever.

Click that button above to hop in!

You’ll see some great people in there already =)

Your friend,

Alin “The Van Gogh of Email” Dragu