I did a whole lot o’ nothin’ on Saturday, and it was really freaking nice.
At one point I was catching up on Crime Scene Kitchen, aka my longtime celebrity crush Joel McHale.
And at one point in the show, the bakers have to come up with something I’d never heard of, but should have by now:
Atlantic Beach Pie.
The fact that I have never heard of this thing is, quite honestly, ridiculous, because I only live a couple of hours from Atlantic Beach aaaaaand one of the restaurants that put the pie on the map is right here in Chapel Hill.
Crook’s Corner, for anyone who’s interested.
Or at least it was on the map here. Some combination of covid and retirement put it under, I think.
Crook’s was pretty popular here for a long time. They had this fancy menu in this old southern restaurant kind of feel.
I can see why people liked it so much, but the price tag put it pretty far out of my reach.
And on the rare occasion I was gonna drop $30 on a meal, it was gonna be at the Turkish place down the street, not Crook’s.
But I digress.
We are all introduced to the Atlantic Beach Pie, sometimes called a boardwalk pie.
It’s kind of like a key lime pie, except it’s made with a mix of lime and lemon juice, and the crust is made with saltines, not graham crackers.
It seems strange I guess, but if you’ve ever been to a North Carolina beach, the saltine crust would somehow make sense to you.
I don’t know why. It just does.
So anyway. I looked up the recipe to make one for myself, and it seems surprisingly simple.
Eggs, citrus juice, sweetened condensed milk, and the pie shell.
So I got the ingredients, and if all goes to plan today, I’ll be making one.
Will report back.
Basically nobody had heard of the Atlantic Beach Pie (except one team, who won the safety bake and got to skip the elimination round).
It seemed complicated and weird before looking into it.
It wasn’t until I read up on HOW to make the dang thing that I realized how easy it really was.
A good recipe can make anything doable. This is my major theory on life.
Good instructions will get you a long way to good output.
True in the kitchen, and true in copywriting. Especially long form.
When you are staring down the barrel of your first sales page, it can feel elusive and overly complex and pretty overwhelming.
I talked to someone recently who told me he cried the first time he had to write a VSL (which is basically a sales page in script form).
Hashtag relatable.
But when you have excellent guidance, the right ingredients, and the openness to experiment and see what happens…
You’re likely gonna do ok.
And if you want some help along the way, then check out Copy Chief.
It was built by freelance copywriters FOR freelance copywriters, but really it’s ideal for anyone who’s writing copy and running traffic to an offer.
It has some stuff sectioned off for the freelancers, but the copywriting training itself is absolute gold.
Pair that with the forum where you can ask questions and get feedback or critiques, and you’ve got everything you need to get sharp copy skills and a better chance in the market.
There’s also a job board for those of us looking for work in marketing. Some of these gigs are ONLY offered to Copy Chief members because of its reputation.
Anyway. That’s enough fan-girling for one morning. I’ve got a pie to bake!
You can get into Copy Chief for just $150 to start and there’s a 30-day guarantee on it, so if you decide you don’t like it, you can refund and get out (as long as you’re inside the window).
But I think you’re really gonna like it.
Here’s my link:
