NOT a Dilbert Drone!
Brian Oschner, Denver, Colorado, USA

Growing up on a wheat farm in Kansas, Brian's fatther told him repeatedly: “Whatever you decide to do in life – if it's here on the farm, or something in the big city – get on your own.”

Later on in life, after working for coorporations, he came across Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This re-affirmed his father's wisdom and in February 2005 he began working for himself as a copywriter.

"I realized success at a corporate job was often about how well you played company politics," says Brian.

"And the dirty little secret about college is... it doesn't teach you how to be an entrepreneur, or how to invest wisely. It teaches you to be a well-programmed, obedient, subservient Dilbert Drone who's at the beck and call of your employer.

His favourite movie reflects his rebelious nature: Braveheart. And he's a fan of the ol' Duke of Hazards TV show.

Normally mellow, he can get excited and worked up about certain topics: Crooked politicians and Wall Street bankers, the fallacy of “modern” Western medicine — to name a couple.

In his hot sheet, find out: Why he prefers copywriting clients from Mid-West and South and... How a typical workday would go (including a three day weekend each week).

He also included some fascinating writing samples. The first one tells why he believes the FDA stands for the Food and Drug Administration – not the Health & Wellness Administration.

A sample of his financial writing explains why "Newton's Law of Gravity applies to investments."

Lastly, he included a provocative piece about the 45-Year Plan: "I never totally bought into the myth of what I call the '45-year Plan,'" writes Brian. "Where you work diligently and loyally for an employee... and you retire in the lap of luxury, riding off into the sunset on your golf cart by your house on the country club. Yeah, right."

Click here to download Brian Oschner's completed exercise sheet. Print out a copy and bring it to the class. Then grab Tian Yan's below...

Born the Same Day as David Ogilvy
And Looks Like Harry Potter
Teh Tian Yan, Selangor, Malaysia

His friends say he looks like Harry Potter (that's Tian Yan on the left and Harry on the right).

Coincentially, the Harry Potter series is one of the few fictions Tian Yan has ever read. He's usually spends his liesure time immersed in marketing and copywriting books, sites and courses.

His birthday falls on the same day as the godfather of direct-response advertising, David Ogilvy. Could Tian Yan be the reincarnation? How else could one juggle university WHILE creating copy that converts as high as 30%?

He's written copy mainly for clients in Malaysia in the internet marketing arena — a niche, he says, he wants to get away from. He's frustrated by clients who outsource the whole marketing responsibility to the copywriter and then don't contribute input to help him complete the work.

He practiced Wai Dan Gong (a form of chi gong) for 6 months under the tutelage of a 94-year old master and plays the the erhu, saona, sheng, and piano (Chinese ochestra).

His favourite film is The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and his favourite "TV" program is TED.com.

"When people meet me for the first time," says Tian Yan, "no one can guess my race or nationality. I speak English with an accent (sometimes a funny accent)... People will comment that I look Malay, Indian, Chinese, or Chindian. Finally, when I speak a word of Chinese, people will be in shock because it was unexpected."

He outlines one of his most memorable experiences in his hot sheet — a 21 day trip to India. He met Dr. Mani Sivasubramaniam of the Children Heart Foundation.

He visited many large IT companies. He asked Sanjeev Bikhchanadi, the CEO of Naukri.com (the Indian version of JobStreet.com) why most online businesses failed. Click here to download his hot sheet and found out Bikhchanandi's response.