Self Taught University
Self-taught Marketing workspace

Area of Study

Self-taught Marketing

Attention, persuasion and brand building — learned in the field.

Marketing Stories

The Cheat Code to their success

Advertising founder and research-driven copywriter / 01

David Ogilvy Learned Advertising Before He Had an Agency

A stove salesman, an apprentice chef, and a researcher became advertising's best-known advocate for doing the homework.

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Illustration for the story of David Ogilvy

Direct-response pioneer and author of Scientific Advertising / 02

Claude Hopkins Made the Customer Response His Classroom

Long before digital dashboards, Hopkins insisted that an advertisement should face the evidence of what customers actually did.

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Illustration for the story of Claude Hopkins

JS&A founder, copywriting teacher, and BluBlocker entrepreneur / 03

Joe Sugarman Turned Product Curiosity Into a Sales Engine

He sold unfamiliar electronics by making the explanation as absorbing as the invention.

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Wine Library TV creator and VaynerMedia cofounder / 04

Gary Vaynerchuk Turned the Wine Counter Into a Media School

His marketing education began with customers buying bottles and expanded into a daily experiment in earning attention online.

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Author, media strategist, and Daily Stoic cofounder / 05

Ryan Holiday Built His Marketing Education Through Apprenticeship

He studied the machinery of attention, then built a business around work designed to outlast a news cycle.

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Illustration for the story of Ryan Holiday