Some people use the week before the holidays to travel, go shopping, catch up on work.

I used it to collect brains.

Where there was just one single, solitary brain (mine), now there are ten bountiful, powerful brains.

Their names are Grae, Alison, Kat, Libby, Marissa, Heidi, Anissa, Jessica, Kathlyn, and Annie. And they are amazing writers who will now be collaborating with me on a project basis here at Copylicious.

Yeah, I know that’s a lot of brains. And I don’t expect everyone to begin writing all at once.

But my theme for this year is “Why not?”

In keeping with that philosophy, I’d like to slowly begin rolling out copywriters on small parts of projects throughout the year. My hope is that, by teaming up with another writer for each client, I can:

• Distribute the work evenly
• Keep working with as many ideal clients as I can handle
• Create better results for my clients

HOW IT CAME TO THIS

I’ve always been an independent person. In fact, I was so independent I didn’t know it. “She always seems like she’s off in her own world,” I once overheard my 5th grade teacher tell my parents. I’ve never wanted to manage, supervise, be responsible for others. Telling people what to do? I’d much rather work with them than on them.

All of this is to say I never thought I’d ever, ever subcontract to another writer. Ever.

But then this year happened.

And I realized a few things about myself.

Four things, to be exact:

1. I LOVE what I do and the people I work with. What I love most about working with my clients is that we become collaborators. By working together, two people create something better than what either of us could have produced on our own.

2. I have what Colleen Wainwright calls Eyes Bigger Than Stomach Syndrome. When it comes to taking on projects for ideal clients. I just can’t say no. And when I do, it hurts. On the plus side, giving out referrals to other copywriters made me a few friends, and got me some free, priceless advice from copywriting legend Ivan Levison, whose newsletter you should subscribe to immediately.

3. My dog misses our daily runs. I miss our daily runs.

4. With strategic collaboration, I could take advantage of 1, 2, and 3. Bringing in smart, savvy people to work on specific parts of projects would help me and my clients. These writers wouldn’t be “underlings.” Who gets anything out of that? Rather, they’d be collaborators whose perspectives complemented mine. Copywriters who gleefully flung fresh ideas at every project. Everyone wins! Even Harley.

HOW I FOUND FRESH BRAINS

These writer-collaborators came to me in a rather unusual way. I’d like to share it with you.

It all started when my business coach, Kelly O’Neil, advised me to write an ad like I was looking for a date.

My first thought: That’s ridiculous.

My second thought: That sounds like fun!

Once I got over myself and my fears of finding only random, scary people on Guru, I got excited about the types of people I might actually be able to attract.

After all, if I found my fella online three years ago, why not a copywriter?

So, I wrote a “personals ad” to my ideal writer-collaborator and sent it to a friend, Havi Brooks at Fluent Self. “Do you know anyone like this?” I asked her.

She then posted it on her blog, which tends to attract smart, creative, idealistic types.

Here’s what my ad said:

Wanted: Copywriter-Collaborator

I’m looking for someone smart who knows how to write and isn’t a flake.

You’re crazy about books. You collect active verbs. You obsess over the order of words in a sentence.

And you have this knack for getting people to believe in your crazy ideas. Maybe you convinced a hundred people to sponsor your charity ride. Or you persuaded investors to fund a puppet show production. Or you sell tamales.

Whatever it is, you’re interested in things. Lots of things. Maybe too many things. And it would be nice to have another income stream—and a learning opportunity—that rewards curiosity and enthusiasm.

That’s where I’m hoping we can help each other.

For the past year, I’ve been suffering from what people keep telling me is a “good problem.” My copywriting business is now taking up my evenings and weekends. I want to keep growing, but I can’t do it on my own. Enter you.

I’d like to collaborate with you, smart, non-flaky writer. You’ll get a flat-fee for each project, and also a quarterly performance bonus.

I’ll handle all the client stuff and the strategy stuff and the marketing stuff. Your job, and your only job, will be to write (and self-edit!). You’ll write websites, lead-gen emails, landing pages, white papers, and more.

This could take up to 12 hours a week of your time. Or less. Or more. Let’s work something out. I’m looking for a long-term relationship that helps both of us grow.

If you’re new to copywriting but have been writing as long as you’ve been walking, I will help you.

We will collaborate. And at the end of the day, you will get paid well for doing what you love.

Future writer-collaborator, I hope you’ll introduce yourself.

Within 3 days, I had gotten nearly 80 responses from people all over the world.

I knew Havi had an extraordinary audience, but this kind of amazed me. After much thought and many conversations, I narrowed the list down to 9 people to start working with.

I found one more person on my own, whose dating blog I’d been reading for the last 2 years. She’s definitely a keeper.

Lesson learned:

Just because everyone else does it this way, doesn’t mean you can’t do it that way.

In fact, if doing it that way feels fun and comfortable, you’ll almost certainly get better results. I was only planning to find one or two people, but when 10 emerged, I had to reinvent what I thought was possible.

If I’d done the traditional job post on Guru, Craigslist, forums, lists, I would have gotten BLAH, which no one wants.

By taking a chance on a ridiculous idea, I helped not just myself, but also 10 other people in this blankety-blank economy. (BTW, if you haven’t seen it yet, this NY Times article is going to inspire you all year long. I read it several weeks ago and still can’t stop thinking about it.)

So, why not act on one of your own ridiculous ideas this year?

And, if one of those ridiculous ideas happens to involve marketing your pants off—well, 11 fresh brains are ready to do your bidding.