Fruit purveyor Cushman’s sells its delicious products through a combination of catalogs, space ads and other channels

By Alicia Orr and Editor In Chief

Among the lessons from the course that Cushman still uses today: the “Rule of Two”—Don’t copy someone else’s idea if you’ve seen it used only once. Wait until you see it twice.

“I also learned about writing copy, in particular about staying away from ‘we-we’ letters. I know it sounds funny, but there’s a good technique that works for doing this that I still use today. Circles and squares: Put squares around all the words in your letter or copy that refer to we—including I, us, the company name, etc. Then circle all the words that talk about you—for example, the customer, or use the person’s name. The balance should be about one-third ‘we’ copy to two-thirds ‘you’ copy.”