I’m Back.
Let’s Talk About Why I Left.
In 1995, Michael Jordan sent a two-word fax to the world: “I’m back.” No press conference. No apology for the eighteen months he spent playing minor league baseball instead of basketball. Just two words, and the planet stopped.
I haven’t posted here in a long time, long enough that some of you forgot you subscribed. I owe you an explanation, and along the way, the one thing every copywriter needs to understand about disappearing: there’s a fine line between mysterious and forgotten, and I walked past it.
The Myth of “Staying Mysterious”
Every copywriter falls in love with mystery eventually. Apple before a launch. The founder who “goes dark” and reappears with an origin story. Absence creates a vacuum, and people fill vacuums with curiosity.
But mystery only compounds if there’s a story running underneath the silence. Jordan’s silence had baseball inside it. Apple’s has a product roadmap. Silence with nothing underneath it isn’t mystery, it’s just absence.
Where I Actually Went Wrong
I told myself I was “staying mysterious.” The truth is less flattering: showing up felt exposing, so disappearing felt safer. That’s not strategy, that’s avoidance in a strategy’s clothes.
Here’s the distinction I missed: showing the outside of your world builds interest. Showing the inside builds trust. You need both, on a rhythm people can feel. I went full outside ‘polished, occasional’ then went fully silent. No inside, no outside, just nothing. That reads as “they quit,” not “they’re mysterious.”
The Line, Precisely
Show enough of the inside that people trust you’re real. Hold back enough of the outside that people stay curious what’s next.
Too much inside, all the time, and you’re noise nothing to look forward to. Too much outside, and you’re polish with no proof, which reads as hollow. Go fully silent, and you’re neither. You’re just gone.
Jordan’s silence still had to be backed up on the court, immediately, against people who doubted him. The fax bought attention, not credibility. That got earned after.
What Changes From Here
No more disappearing without a reason I can name. And no more mistaking “polished” for “mysterious.” I’d rather show the messy parts of building a copywriting practice than keep performing having it figured out.
I’m back. Let’s get to work.