TL;DR — I've got 3+ years of direct-response copy under me (Lume Labs), and where I actually stand out is the research side, sophistication, awareness, psychological levers, that's what lets me write killer DR copy. I've put around £15k into learning this stuff, and that's the proof I'd point to more than anything else. I've got 3+ years writing direct-response copy for info/coaching brands and ecom; where a lot of my success has come from understanding how to do proper research based on sophistication, awareness, and psychological levers. They let me build hooks that actually earn attention, and write toward a mechanism instead of just throwing claims at a page. That's probably the hardest skill to teach a strategist... What I don't have yet is a stack of live ad accounts with your name on the results. I recently went through a Meta DR bootcamp to bridge that (AdTok) and built full creative briefs off the back of it, including competitor research, angles, hooks, ad scripts & statics. To sharpen my CS skills.