11/25/2025

Episode 03 - Opposite of Expert: Greeting Cards

Nov 25, 2025

Welcome to Opposite of Expert, a new series from The 33 Project.

Opposite of Expert is for curious generalists. Each post will tackle a new subject you may know nothing about! Instead of aiming for mastery, the goal here is modest: learn just enough to hold a relevant conversation. In other words, tickle that part of your brain that likes to learn something new.

Let’s talk format. In each post, I connect with one person who is an expert on a subject and I ask them three questions. They then provide short, thoughtful responses so we all get to sound a little bit smarter. Instead of the traditional back and forth interview style, these expert guests have gone ahead and sent me either voice notes or short video responses to my questions. This way you get to hear/see it straight from the expert.

The goal is to drop new posts every Tuesday. Feel free to comment on subjects you want to learn more about and share feedback. Enjoy!

Hello hello. Today we’re stepping back in time to the early 2010s. You’ll get to meet my friend and writer extraordinaire, Erin Canty Ryan. Erin spent those years as a humor writer for Hallmark Greeting Cards.

For today’s Opposite of Expert, we dug into process and writing specifically for the physical card medium. It is, maybe unsurprisingly, a massive business. Let’s get to it.

I’ve sent Erin my questions and she has so kindly taken the time to thoughtfully respond with answers that will undoubtedly make all of us more capable of holding a short, relevant conversation on the topic of: GREETING CARDS.

Card written by Erin during her time at Hallmark

Question 1: Can you walk me through the process of creating a greeting card from idea to print. Is it a bunch of people sitting in a room throwing out jokes and then someone frantically writing it all down? And then do you just categorize them into topics and have some designer take the words and draw out cards? How does it actually work?

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-3:59

I love that I know what a CAM is now!

Question 2: How is writing for a greeting card different from writing for other formats? You’re obviously a skilled writer across formats and categories. What makes one an exceptional greeting card writer specifically?

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-3:14

Side note, two of my favorite formats for Erin are newspaper columnist and as a children’s book author. Check out her incredible books here.

Question 3: What’s the most controversial card you’ve ever written? Why was it controversial and did you expect it to be?

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