3 Keys to Unlimited (Really!) Copywriting Success (Episode 288)

Speaker A: Are you ready to learn the keys to copywriting success? Whether you're brand new to copywriting or you're ready to break through to new levels of income, welcome. You are in exactly the right place. My name is Nikki Krazik, and I've been a copywriter for more than 20 years, writing for multi billion dollar companies, solopreneurs and every size business in between. And through the comprehensive copywriting Academy, I've taught more than 12,000 students to build thriving copywriting careers of their own. And hey, that makes us the number one all in one online copywriting training program. On this podcast, my co host, Kate Sitars and I are sharing the tips, tools and tactics you'll need for your own copywriting success. And if you haven't yet, make sure you get our free video training. It's the same one all of the students on this podcast started with. And it's where you should start too. Find it@freecopywritingtraining.com. and now let's get to the show. Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the build your copywriting business podcast. Hey there, Kate.

Speaker B: Hello.

Speaker A: Hello, hello. Um, guys, we are sharing something a little bit special today. This is a workshop that Kate and I did actually probably a year or so ago. And we had kind of hidden it away. It was in one of our email funnels. Admittedly, I came across it the other day and said, hey, Kate, maybe we should share this with some people. Maybe she thought it was a good idea. Uh, you know, she's still on this.

Speaker B: We create a lot of content. I feel like things often that they go missing. But this was a nice surprise. It's like finding an Easter egg on, you know, Christmas.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: And surprising.

Speaker A: And I hope it's a, uh, Easter egg filled with candy, not an actual hard boiled egg. Anyway, so what we have for you is the recording of, uh, this presentation we did. It's called three keys to unlimited. Really Copywriting success, Which I, uh, will say that when it's written, it makes

Speaker B: a lot more sense. Really?

Speaker A: Really, really. It makes a lot more sense. But the concept is unlimited copywriting success. And these are truly the three keys to it. So I know that sounds really possible. It's really possible. It is, really. Exclamation point in parentheses.

Speaker B: It does sound like proof. Exactly.

Speaker A: We're living proof. We do it every day. It does sound like a big promise. But, uh, as you are about to hear, we absolutely follow through on that promise. So if you are ready to learn the three keys to unlimited. Really? Exclamation point in parentheses, copywriting success. Then you're in exactly the right place because here we go. We're going to spend the first probably half of our time together, so doing some, doing some teaching, some information that, that you kind of need to know to have a base to get started. Um, and then the second half, I know some people have sent in questions and you guys are welcome to ask questions. We will answer questions as fast as we can and with the highest quality. There's the high quality, but with speed as much as possible. Okay, so with that then I'm going to share with you my screen. So, uh, you know, the, the thing is sometimes when I title things, I title things as, uh, a copywriter and I, you know, unlimited copywriting success.

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker A: And I felt the need to put in really, because it sounds so like everybody's gonna make a million dollars. But when it comes to the goals that you have for yourself, the goals really are maybe not literally unlimited, but you can. If you want to be part time and you want to bring in an extra two, $3,000 a month, great. If you are thinking, yes, I want to do this full time, I want to be a full time freelancer, you know, you. That can be a six figure career. It can be. And then some of our students move beyond that and start subcontracting. And then Kate has a. We have a podcast episode. If you guys haven't checked out our podcast, the build your copywriting business podcast, check it out. But there's an episode that we did with Kate where she dug into her numbers in 2020. It's just so funny about this. I know.

Speaker B: I get so uncomfortable.

Speaker A: So uncomfortable.

Speaker B: But hopefully it's valuable for anyone that listens to it just to, uh. Yeah, she did.

Speaker A: We're still working on some money hang ups with Kate. We all have our money hang ups, but she got into the multiple six figures that year in 2020. You know, pandemic, main pandemic year. They feel like all pandemic years now.

Speaker B: But.

Speaker A: So we're not this.

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker A: It sounds a little bit hyperbolic, but it's really not. And, uh, we've, we've taught so many students how to do this that we can say definitively that, that it is very likely that whatever your goal is, it's possible. Again, if your goal is like, I want to hit six, seven figures writing copy to one on one clients. Okay, that might not be. But eventually, if you want to scale to an agency, that might be possible, you know, or if I Want to hit, like, multiple six figures in my first year? Okay, probably not. Let's be realistic here. But we do have students who, if not get to six figures in their first year, get close, and then hit in their second year. So there are a lot of possibilities. However, that said, you'll notice that subhead, how to overcome the secret blocks that may hold you back, which is probably the biggest thing that our students come up against. So we're going to dive into that in this session. So, you know, when we talk about success, as we're talking about like, ooh, six figures, or an extra amount per. An extra amount per month or that kind of thing, we all have personal ideas of what success means. It may be a monetary goal, or it may be something else. It may be something like being able to have an income, an adequate income and spend more time with your kids, or, you know, Kate was freelancing and living in Germany. Maybe it's being able to take work and being able to travel more, maybe even travel full time if you want to. Your personal idea of success is what's going to drive you. So it's a really good idea now to spend a little time thinking about what success would actually look like for you, what success would mean for you, what changes, like I have here, what changes would it make in your life, and what goals would it achieve? This is where we get into something that we talk a lot about is the big why, which meaning, why are you doing what you're doing? Because it's so easy to dig and be like, yeah, I'm going to do this. This is great. And then kind of led. The motivation wane, Right? We've all done that. Oh, yeah, I'm going to learn a language, or I'm going to go to the gym, and I'm going to, you know, get really, really strong or any number of things, right? But then the motivation kind of wanes and other, uh, things get in the way. And the sofa is so appealing. I always talk about Cheetos on the sofa, even though I can't remember the last time I've actually had Cheetos. Mostly because I can't have them in the house because Cheetos are way too good that Nutella can't have them in the house. But there's stuff that gets in the way. And one of the ways that we try to combat that is by remembering what our, um, big why is. What is the thing that. That is driving us toward? What is the thing that is driving us? What. What matters to us in Our lives. So whether it's now or whether it's after this call is over, do take some time to think about what success would look like for you, what it specifically would look like for you, not anybody else but you. Because it can tell you that no matter what it is. Again, I gave you a couple of caveats a little bit earlier, but it's very likely. Unless you're saying, I want to make $7 million in my first whatever, it's perfectly possible it can be done. If you're saying, I want to build up a, uh, part time freelance business and I want to bring in an extra two or three grand a month, Absolutely can be done. I want to become a full time freelancer and make six figures or whatever. Or I want to be a freelancer and I don't need to make six figures, but I want to be able to work from wherever I want to, whenever I want to. Absolutely can be done. We have students that are doing all of this and, or have experienced all of this, and we'll talk about it a little bit more. But you guys are probably here because you have the sense that copywriting is a very in demand field. Sometimes we'll put out our Facebook ads and people will be like, but isn't this going to flood the market with copywriters? Which I'm always, uh, a little bit, um, flattered by. I love that they think that our program could flood the market with copywriters, but there is, there is no, we couldn't. If we were a hundred times as big as we are, a thousand times as big as we are, there's no way we could flood the market. There's so much need for good, skilled copywriters and so very few good skilled copywriters to do that work. And Kate, I realized I'm like, motoring on, so feel free to just hop in at any moment. Kind of used to that. But she has so much to offer. I want to just encourage you to just cut me right off. But so as you're thinking about what your goals are, I do want you to know that those goals are possible. I know that that's one of the first things that come up in our mind. Like, well, I'd like that, but I don't know if that's really possible or I don't, you know, maybe that's impossible for some people, but not for me or. Well, no, no, it is, it is possible. It is doable, and it can be done by you. So I want to set that as our baseline and I was going to

Speaker B: save this, but I think Heather, I'm going to put you on the spot. Heather. But I know Heather wrote I'm caregiving, um, for my 89 year old mom and I'm not sure if I can hit deadlines and care for her at the same time. So, so that's a great, I think great concern, valid concern. Um, but a lot of things come up that prevent us from thinking it can be done because we think oh, I could do it but I have this other thing I need to. Far more important caring for family. Absolutely. Than any job. But. And to not get into deadlines too, too, too quickly. But we, we throw up our own roadblocks is all that's to say. And so when it comes to deadlines, you're the one in control of deadlines. You, no client, no client, if they're doing, they're organized, needs something tomorrow or in 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever. Even small projects that come my way, I have it, uh, just a policy because I'm booked out with, with work. Two weeks from now is the first I will start on any project. If a client came to me today and said hey, we really want to work on this, we want to work with you. Great house. Two weeks from now. It sounds far away, but it's, but it's not. Um, and so you, you have control over that. So I want to set that, that ease there that, that concern aside about deadlines specifically, but then also just point out for all of us because we all do it of like oh yeah, like I, I could go to the gym and do this, but I have this other thing that's preventing me from doing it. And so often it's me just getting in my own way and saying nope, nope, I can't do it and throwing up. It's that resistance that comes up. So.

Speaker A: Mhm. Yeah, exactly one. You know, we have, we have students in all different places. We have students who are dealing with chronic fatigue and dealing with um, with other health issues. Chronic health issues that are still able to meet their goals because we, they learn how to balance their schedule and balance their time and balance their energy. So there, there are always going to be things in our lives for no matter what it is that we want. Right. There are always going to be things in our lives that come up and seem like good reasons. I don't mean to, I don't mean to air quotes because they feel like good reasons why we can't be successful at something. But there are very few things in Our lives that are literally blocking us for being successful. You might have to get creative and you might have to plan a little bit differently than other people might. There might, you might have some limitations, but you don't have roadblocks. If you are, if you are here and you're on this call, and then it is very likely that you don't have literal roadblocks, that you're not going to come up against brick walls that will stop you from being successful. Uh, this is something we talk about a lot that, you know, people will say, um, won't have go into it too deeply because we do have a podcast episode on it, which is, I think, one of my favorites. But sometimes people say, why I'm scared to get started because I'm scared I'm going to fail. But the fact is that the only way to fail is, yes, if you don't get started, right? That's pretty. Like, you can't be successful if you don't get started. Right. But also once you get started, the only way to fail is if you stop doing the work, if you stop doing the outreach, if you stop refining your pitches. And we'll talk about pitching a little bit more. And I know sometimes people like, ah, pitching, it's totally different than what most people are doing or most people are teaching. If you stop telling people that you're a copywriter, if you stop being willing to just get a little bit outside of your comfort zone, that's the only way in which you fail. If you stop taking action. And in that case, then failure is entirely a personal choice. So if you're thinking, well, I'm, I don't know, I'm nervous about this because I don't want to fail. You have complete control over that. Just keep taking the actions. And that's one of the things that we teach and a lot of the support that we give. Sometimes you're gonna, you're gonna see success real quickly. You'll, you'll send out a pitch and you'll get work right away or you'll talk to someone. I mean, how many students we have this. They'll finally tell their family and friends. And a friend is like, oh my gosh, so and so owns this company, they need a copywriter. Let me connect you up. Um, but if you have failure in the back of your mind in this scenario, I want to make it really clear that it's only an option if you let it be that you have complete control of that in this scenario. And you know, you guys have seen the Stuff that we send out, you know, that we teach our students everything that they need to build successful copywriting careers. And we, um, are, and we're constantly adding stuff. Just this afternoon I uploaded some, some examples of me giving feedback on landing pages. And so they had those resources and where we, everything, all the tools, all the information and then all the support as well. We're twice monthly coaching calls and all that kind of stuff. However, with that. So like I said, how to hone skills and build those skills and how to build a portfolio, get experience, find land clients, how to price your services. Truly, truly everything. And if someone's like, hey, what about this? Then we go, ah, great, uh, point. We add a resource there. We are driven by helping people be successful by getting people to the place that they want to be. But we've, we've taught 8,500 students. But because we've taught that many people and we have all of that information, we know that if learning the skills were all it took to be successful, if like you just had to learn skills and then you're a, uh, then you're a copywriter, then if that's all it took, then it would be the same. Then like, oh, all you need to do to be a professional chef, you just follow the recipes. Easy. No problem. No problem. And we know that that's not, that's not just it, right? There's, there's more that goes into it. So there's more that goes into it. And um, as we said, some, you know, and I wish I hadn't written roadblocks here, maybe roadblocks, but roadblocks in the sense of there's a way to get around it, but when you first encounter it, you might go, whoa, um, maybe there isn't a way to get around this. So maybe speed bumps rather than roadblocks or detours or boulders in the path. We're getting really, really cartoony. And that's what we're going to dig into in this session. We're going to talk about the three things that you need to be successful, successful. And we'll talk about the kind of the easy solution, the things that, not easy, but the most straightforward solution, and the things that we teach you. But then we're also going to talk about some of these roadblock, roadblocks, slash, slash, speed bumps that can get in the way and how you're going to get over them. So let's dig into this. The three keys to unlimited, really copywriting success. So the first one, you can't be successful if you don't control your own opportunities and your income. And we see this a lot with, with people who've tried to be copywriters in the past, or frankly freelancers and other industries, but who don't really understand how to get clients right. And the thing is too, is that I don't. That's nobody's fault. There aren't a lot of programs out there that are teaching that at times there are programs that are saying, or even just piece of information saying, oh, go on upwork, because upwork is where you're going to find all your clients. The problem with up, uh, there's so many problems, upwork, but in a nutshell, one of the biggest problems is that you end up putting together proposals, really great proposals. They have to be written. Well, you're a copywriter and then you're also bidding against dozens of other people and who are driving the rates down. So best case scenario, you get work for much less than you should be working for. Worst case scenario, you spend all your time sending out proposals and you never get the work either one of those. And even in both of those scenarios, you're sitting there waiting for people to post jobs on these websites, or if you're going on indeed, and looking, you're waiting for someone else to give you opportunities. And it's never a safe place to be, it's not a reliable place to be. And you're not in control. But you, uh, can be in control of your income and your opportunities. So the easy solution is the value based pitching that we teach. So I think most people think of pitching. I don't know if you get. Because I own a business, I get a lot of pitches on my inbox and they're all very smarmy and very, very focused on them and very clear that they haven't researched me or researched my business. They're just, they're like instant deletes. That is the way that most people do pitching. Value based pitching is about, is about immediately providing value to the potential client of, of uh, giving them ideas for things that can benefit their business. Not telling them how, but telling them what they could do to benefit their business, doing the research, being genuinely enthusiastic and giving them ideas and then saying, hey, I'm a copyright, I'd love to talk through this. I have some other ideas. If you like, we can hop on a call, you know, whatever. And obviously in the course we go much more in depth into that, um, as well as give feedback in the Facebook group and on our calls. But the whole Concept is you take out anything that is salesy, anything at all that is salesy, so that you're basically showing up with nothing but value. And that's why so many of our students get responses to those pitches, thanking them for sending the pitches. And when you do that, you, you're, it's not you waiting for someone to post on upwork or someone to post on, it's you being in charge of the opportunities. If you have more free time, dial up your pitching and you can make more money and all that kind of thing. Or if summer comes and your kids are home and you want to spend more time with them, no judgment.

Speaker B: If you want, spend less time with that.

Speaker A: Just kidding. I know you love your children, but you can dial it down, send out fewer pitches, and as September, uh, comes, dial it back up again. You get to be in control of it. So that's the easy solution. But the bigger challenge is that self doubt that comes up right immediately we'll be like, all right, just have to pitch. And probably too, you were like, all right, pitching sounds like something I can do. But I will tell you what's going to happen when you get to that point in the course. You're going to start going, oh, uh, uh, well, I don't know, am I ready to pitch? Am I good enough yet to pitch? What if they don't like me? What if they tell me not to email them ever again? What if they had been, uh, all of those things? So something that Kate and I really want to make you understand is that you are going to feel this at some point in building your career. You are going to feel this. But first of all, it's not a sign that you're not meant to do. It is, uh, natural. There's literally a part of our brains and we have a whole course on this within the course. But there's literally a part of our brain that kicks in anytime we try to do anything outside of our comfort zone and that tries to make us go right back to where we were. Even if it's something that logically we want. I want to be a successful copywriter. As soon as you start doing something a little bit outside of your comfort zone, that part of your brain kicks in and goes, maybe you shouldn't, maybe you weren't meant to do this. Oh, they're probably not, you're probably not good enough for this, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to let you know right now it's natural. And I would be deeply concerned if you didn't Feel this at some point, Deeply, deeply concerned. It's part of the process, but that doesn't mean that you can't move past it. So the way. One of the things that we talk about a lot with our students and we give them support in the Facebook group and on the calls, is that the important thing to know is that you don't develop confidence before you do something. You develop confidence by doing it. If you are going to sit and. I mean, we've all done this at some point in our lives, right? Like, I'm just going to sit and wait until I feel ready to do it. I'm going to sit and wait until I feel confident enough to do this. If we sit and wait for confidence to come to us, we are going to be sitting and waiting indefinitely because the confidence doesn't, like, magically come to us. The confidence comes by actually going, okay, I'm going to do it. And then another thing that we talk about a lot is reframing the effort level. A lot of our, uh, newer students, uh, I know I'm moving fast, but we have a lot of stuff to get in. But a lot of our newer students especially, will say things like, well, I'm, um, worried about setting up my first pitch, because it's just. It's going to be hard. But is it? You know, building the transcontinental railroad is hard. Lifting a car off of. I don't know why you'd be lifting it, but lifting a car is hard. But sending a pitch, you do research and you write your pitch. And obviously we have not really templates, but guidelines. Then you can get feedback on your pitch before you send it. But sending a pitch is literally pressing the send button on your computer. So that's one of the things that I really want you to start to reframe is the words that you use about things. Is it hard? Probably not. Maybe it kicks up a little bit of fear, but the work itself is not. It's not hard. And once you start doing gets so much easier and you get so much faster at it. You may say, oh, I'm so nervous about my first pitch. And then you send it. And then I guarantee before you know it, you'll be knocking out pitches without even thinking about it. You'll be driving down the street and go, oh, new company. Ooh, okay. You might even be able to knock out a pitch there on your. I mean, not while you're driving. Not while you're driving, but pull over. And, uh, then you might be able to knock out a Pitch on your phone. It's like anything else. It gets easier. As long as you anticipate that you're going to feel, you're going to feel some self doubt and that's okay. That's part of the process. Can't tell you the number of students in the group who post about feeling nervous and who post about not being sure they can do. And the cool thing is, is our Facebook group is incredibly supportive. So that if you post that you're nervous, other people are going to chime in and say, yes. Oh my gosh, I was so nervous too. And then I just did it. And here's where I, um, am now. And also to you, often the same students were like, I was so nervous. They come back two weeks later and they're like, I got my first client. Because it's all totally possible. Okay, Key to. So this is probably one of the biggest secrets to secrets to success. But it's so simple that people overlook it. To be successful, to get to your goal, you have to take consistent, effective action. It's like on the gym, right? If you want to build your biceps, you can't go to the gym once and be like, all right now, now I'm going to be strong. You have to take consistent action to get where you want. But you also have to take effective action because there are all kinds of little stuff that will get in the way and will. Our brain will be like, no, no, no. You totally have to do that. Like, oh, okay. Well, I haven't built my website yet and I haven't started pitching any clients. But you know what I really should work on today? I should work on my logo and then, because, um, okay, so I have to hire a designer to get my logo and then I have to. And then I should respond. I should probably pull a bunch of people about the logo. But guess what? You don't even need a logo. So it's effective action and being. Getting clear. And if you're not clear, ask, hop on a Facebook, hop on one of our coaching calls, or ask in Facebook, get some feedback. Um, make sure it's effective action. Things that are actually going to move your goal forward. So the easy solution, you follow the steps, we give you the steps. Okay, great. You've gone through the foundations course. Awesome. You have done the action sheets. You practiced your skills. Now you're building your online portfolio. Great. Now here are the steps to create spec ads. So you have pieces to put in your portfolio before you're paid for work. Okay, great. Now here's how you start pitching your initial, your first clients. Here's how to. Here's how to price all of it. You just, you follow the steps. So, like, easy, right?

Speaker B: Uh,

Speaker A: but again, we get into that taking action when you're feeling, ah, unsure, because that's another thing, like, you know what you have to do, and you might even want to do it, but you're feeling unsure of yourself, you're feeling unsure of, uh, your value as a copywriter. You're feeling unsure. I mean, let's face it, there's so many things that our brains will kick up. We, we see it so many times that students will be like, but what about, what if I apply for this job and then they want me to do it, they want to hire me for the job immediately, and then I can't give. They're going to want me to start in two weeks, but I can't give two weeks notice from my current position.

Speaker B: That.

Speaker A: Just spiraling, right? Just spiraling. And I'm, um. Certainly all of us are guilty of those kinds of things in our regular life, but taking a step back, gathering ourselves and figuring out exactly what we're unsure about. So taking action when you're feeling unsure is the challenge. One of the things that we talk about and one of the things that we teach in our bust through your fears and blocks course within the cca, which we strongly recommend the students watch again and again because fears and blocks are going to come up. We're humans. Much as I wish that eventually be like, I have no more fears and blocks. You just encounter different ones as your comfort zone gets bigger, but you can learn how to get past them faster, which is the key. So one of the things that we talk about a lot is taking absurdly tiny steps. Steps that are so tiny that they don't kick up any resistance at all. If we're talking about. All right, so many students, like build website on the, on their to do list. It's a big project, and what ends up happening is going, I just don't know. And then they procrastinate and they just, uh. And it becomes a thing, right? So when you get to that point with anything in your life, by the way, this is a life tip. But anything that you look at, it just kicks up so much resistance that you can't even. You can't even look at it on your to do list, the. The first thing that you want to do is break it down into absurdly tiny steps. And I'm emphasizing absurdly because the steps should be so tiny. That you almost roll your eyes at putting them on your to do list. So talking about building your website, your first step might be open a, uh, new browser tab.

Speaker B: Great.

Speaker A: Put in squarespace in that browser tab. Open another browser tab. Put in wix. Open another browser tab. Put in verb. Next, each of those are steps. And then, okay, next one, go over to Squarespace and look at their templates. What I'm getting at is they should be so tiny that you're like, all right, well, it's okay, yeah, I can do that. Or once you do that, then you start getting momentum. And if you need to break down the entire project into steps that tiny, fine. One of another thing that we talk about a lot is that you can complete a marathon. Which actually, as I'm saying this out loud, maybe I should stop using this example because I have never completed a marathon. But metaphorically, you can complete a marathon by taking baby steps. Like inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter centimeter. As long as you keep taking those steps, you will eventually get it done. And it may be that some projects you do have to keep taking absurdly tiny steps, but because they're so absurdly tiny, you don't, you get, you don't get any of that self doubt, you don't get any of that, oh, I don't know if I can handle this or not. But, but also what happens just as often is that you start taking those absurdly tiny steps, your brain starts going, oh, this is not as big of a deal as I thought it was. You get some momentum and you keep going. But the key is that you keep going. And so that's one of the big tools that we teach our students. So key three, this is kind of getting back to what we were talking about earlier. What you're looking for, what your goals are, what success would look like to you. So, so P3 is that you know what you want and you are committed to getting it. Not a. Well, maybe I might do this. Yeah, I guess, like, I'll, uh, I guess I'm gonna put some effort into this. But like, it's okay if it doesn't really work out. Uh, uh, if we go into anything with that kind of attitude, we can't possibly expect to get good results. Right? But if we go into something and we say, okay, this is what I want, and uh, know that it's possible, I've seen, I've seen examples of other people doing it. I'm a little nervous. I'm m going to, I'm going to own the Fact that I'm a little nervous, I'm a little unsure, that's okay. Nikki told me this would come up and it's natural. I'm still going to have to keep telling you just so you know, but and saying okay, no matter what, I'm going to take the steps and I'm going to get there. I will do this. I'm committed to it. Having that commitment makes a huge difference. And it's not even a commitment to like to the outside world. First of all, just making that commitment to yourself and saying look, I am going to do this even if I'm nervous, even if I'm feeling self doubt, even if other stuff comes up on my schedule. You don't have to put in hours a day to get to your goal. I'm um, going to keep taking action and I'm committed to doing this. So the easy solution is to set goals that matter to you. So again if it's, if money is not a goal for you, fine. Maybe it's being able to go to all of your kids soccer games whereas previously you had to miss them because you had to work. Or maybe it is monetary goal or maybe it's any number of things. Right. I'm trying to think of uh, some of the goals that I've seen students write down. I think one of them was vacations

Speaker B: often come up of just for, especially for part time folks of just hey, I want to have enough client work that I can take a vacation every year with my, my family to wherever we want. That's a big one. Mhm.

Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah, there was something, I think one of them, I forget which call this is on Kate. I wish I remember it but someone, there were a couple of people who were like I want to pay off my parents mortgage. Uh, and then I think then someone else was like oh my gosh, I want to do that too. Like just really cool stuff. What goals would really matter to you? What goals make you go like oh my God, that lights me up, I want to do that. So keep those in mind and refer back to them. Whether that's part of your big why or whether it's kind of supplemental to it. Refer back to those goals. But also the deeper challenge is to continue to achieve after you reach your first small goal. Because there can be that element of like all right, I reached you know, a thousand a month and then we just kind of let ourselves coast or we start to go all right, I did that but I'll never be able to do more. And in fact we Were just having a conversation with our next level Mastermind members and they were talking about that they're huh, feeling that same thing. One of our students was saying I consistently hit right about 10,000amonth and I cannot seem to get my mind around doing more than that. She's like, it's like I believe that I'm here. I uh, believe that I can do this, but I can't seem to believe that I can do any more. And so we worked through some stuff there with her but there are all kinds of things that we get to a point and then we just can't seem to go. Not can, but we stop ourselves from going any further. So again we're going to come back to that big why? Because when you reach your first goal and that's great and celebrate that, celebrate every goal. I think that's one of my, I mean I have a lot of reasons to love the Facebook group, but that's one of the things that I really love is to log in and be able to congratulate people who are like I got my first client or I sent out my pictures and I got this many calls back or whatever. But once you hit that, keep going. It's in that sense it's, I was going to say it's a perpetual marathon but again as a non runner that sounds really awful. Like deeply, deeply awful. But uh, it's a continuum. This is now how we live and we get the opportunity to keep achieving bigger and bigger goals because it you will. Before you get to your first goal there will be all that self doubt. You go, I don't know if this is possible. And then you'll get it and you'll be like wow, yes. And then between here and here, with your next goal you're going to be like, I don't know if this is possible. And then you'll get it and then the same thing will happen. But the key is to keep being willing to just push yourself a little bit more and get to that next step. Get out of your comfort zone a little bit more each time. And the best way to do that is to number one, to stay focused on your big why but also to, to reach out, to talk to your community, to ask us questions on coaching calls and to get that support. One of the things that we've started to talk about with our Mastermind students and talk more about with our CC students is the concept of expanders. Because it can be easy to be like, well, I don't know, uh, what kind of person would actually Be able to do that. But then when you log into the group and you see someone post like, I just had my first $3,000 a month or something like that, you go, oh, my gosh. I was just, you know, commenting to that person or commenting, uh, on one of their posts, and we were having a little conversation on Facebook, like, wait a minute, that person is just a normal person like I am. So if a normal person like I am can make $3,000 a month, then. Then it's possible for me too. So viewing or allowing other people to help expand what your possibilities are not to compare against, but to, but to, uh, but to offer you an opportunity to think bigger.

Speaker B: Um, I want to jump back to. I know Heather asked about deadlines again and figuring out how long projects will take. And, um, you know, giving it became enough wiggle room again. That's the beauty that we're setting them. And no client generally is. I've had clients and I always joke about this. This has happened more than once where, uh, they'll. I'll say, nope, actually, I can't make that because they have a certain date in mind. Two weeks, three weeks go by. They're like, hey, actually, are you still available? We completely pushed our timeline. That happens all of the time. I would say nine out of ten projects I've ever turned down come back. Um, one came back an entire year later. They were just that off with. It was an agency and their client. Whatever. Wild. But the thing with deadlines too, and when we set them, even if it's a small project, what I tend to do is I always say sleep on it. Time. You want time to sleep on that copy and look at it. Fresh eyes. Um, giving yourself. Even if you think it's going to take m. It might take me five hours to write this.

Speaker A: Great. Give yourself a week you get.

Speaker B: No client needs something overnight. Typically, if you want to deliver that service, of course we talk rush fees and things like that. Um, but it's not necessary because you're in control. They can't just tell you, hey, you have to do this tomorrow. Unlike in an office where that might be the case, where you have a little less wiggle room on that. And as you go through the course and you're doing practice and you're practicing copywriting, you kind of. You start to time yourself is what we recommend. Just to have a rough. You know, that's not apples to apples. There may be meetings or time to revise and feedback and all of that sort of stuff. But at least the writing Time you'll start to get an idea of, okay, this is roughly what this took me from the concepting and brainstorming through writing a first draft, through writing a second draft and whatnot. So you can start to gauge and have a better sense of roughly how long it'll take.

Speaker A: Exactly. And I want to just emphasize too that that is part of what you're going to learn. You're going to learn how to have that initial conversation with the client, how to figure out what reasonable ah, pricing is for you, how to present that pricing to the potential client, how to, what to say if they're, what to say if they're like, yep, absolutely, let's get started what the next steps are from there. What to say if they're like, ooh, I don't know, that's a little bit out of our bud. Cause that does not mean no. What to do in that scenario. And then how to set up your discovery call with them to get the information that you need and the whole process. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker B: The first submitted question, what advice do you have for making pitches? First email. Sound value adding and conversational opposed to salesy pitch. Sales. Sales pitchy.

Speaker A: I mean the, the thing is is that uh, I would love to give you that full training on this call.

Speaker B: Training.

Speaker A: It's a multi video training but, but in a nutshell it's what we're talking about when it comes to that value based pitching is pulling out anything remotely salesy and staying focused on your client. And again we go very in depth in the course but it's all about making it about your club, your potential client, not about you. So that you are showing up in their inbox as a solution, not as like one more thing for them to deal with. Mhm.

Speaker B: What do I need for writing copy and submitting to a client? In other words, do I need Microsoft Word or something else? Also how do I send the copy when it's completed to my client? Good news. You don't need a lot.

Speaker A: Yes, exactly. Very little. Yeah, you need, you need either Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Google Docs are free, right?

Speaker B: Google Docs are free and you can download as a Word doc, which is what I prefer to do. I just don't like my clients, uh, in my Word Doc or my Google Docs. Once I send it to a client, if I, if I have some clients that love Google Docs, I'll open up another one to do any revisions or that sort of thing because I can't perform copy if I see another little icon up in My Google Doc. There's no way.

Speaker A: But don't watch me while I write.

Speaker B: Yeah, but it's flexible. And then you just send, you send it through to your M client via email. So you need.

Speaker A: I would say probably I would find it easier to work on a computer. I do know there are some people who work on iPads instead. As long as you can, I just have them the big keyword. And then the only other thing really is that you will or the only other cost, cost or need is you will set up your own website again. Full training on that as well as plenty of get feedback on your site and the calls and you can see the feedback we've given. We have like years worth of coaching call recordings. But you'll need to set up a website and that will probably cost you about 15 bucks a month and it will pay for itself thousands of times over.

Speaker B: Yeah but we'll go through all Google Drive is free as well. It's always good to have a cloud based storage system even for your personal photos things that you love. To keep it on your desktop is just a recipe for waiting for something to spill on your keyboard or whatever. And then sometimes they can recover it, sometimes they can't. So throwing everything to the cloud is the way to go. Do you send invoices to your clients once a project is done? Yes, and we have a template for that. Super easy, super straightforward. People get freaked out about payment. We have a podcast on ways to accept payment. It's really less stressful and I think we, we make it out to be. Of course everything feels stressful if you haven't done it before. But that's why we cover that feel stressful.

Speaker A: If you haven't done it, you don't know how to do it. Yeah but the good news is is there's, there's steps for everything.

Speaker B: The last submitted question and then we'll jump back to the chat and we asked one of our Canadian students, I want to preface this. We are not tax experts, tax professionals. Please consult a tax professional for any of your tax questions. Obviously we can guide you based on our experience and we have tons of advice. But we like to say that because we are not certified CPAs or I'm not sure if it's the same thing Canada cpa. But the question was I'm from Canada so I assume that every project I should should charge goods and services tax. So our one of our many resident Canadians kindly answered for me that taxes in Canada are a separate line item and for service based work the amount of tax will depend on the province in which it's being delivered to, not that the, the province the service provider resides. So for example, she lives in Ontario, but she has a client in Manitoba. So she charges Manitoba tax on its own line item, um, while providing the GST HST number. So hopefully that answers.

Speaker A: So Canadians get a bookkeeper to give you a hand.

Speaker B: They.

Speaker A: That's another thing that you can write off. And it. Well, I assume you can write it off, but it will pay for itself many times over. Americans don't have to worry about it. New Zealanders. Do we have any place in the uk? I did three, I believe someone from uk yeah. Um, but unfortunately we do not know the tax code there. But in us this is. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Yeah.

Speaker B: Nicole asked, could you go more into depth about the portfolio building support that is offered through the course? I know we just briefly touched on that, but yeah, we take you through writing each page for yourself, which writing for ourselves, as you all find out, or maybe already have writing about speaking about yourself a little more difficult than writing for a client. So, um, going through what each page should have, how it should be laid out, how you should talk about your portfolio pieces, your contact page, all of that. I don't know if that answers your question.

Speaker A: And then sites to explore. Mhm.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: How to build out the spec pieces for your portfolio of your work before you have paid work. And then like we were saying, you can submit your portfolio for feedback on one of our coaching calls. We do twice monthly coaching call, twice monthly.

Speaker B: That's it. Right.

Speaker A: Twice a month coaching calls. All of a sudden. I thought it sounded like once every. No, not once every other month. Twice in one month. And then we also have a Facebook group.

Speaker B: Yeah. So like Mickey said, the portfolio reviews, you can submit it for review. People have submitted them multiple times. We go through and we give you feedback on each of the pages. Chantel asked, and I think this is a great question. Uh, everyone's nervous about this, about not having a background in marketing sales. Neither did I. Uh, and so what if I'm on the phone with a client and don't understand marketing terms that are used? The great news is we have a course on nailing your client calls within the cca and all of these courses, we're saying we use the term courses. They're all within the CCA course that you're. You're getting all of it. Um, but a lot of times clients, they have internal language or there are multiple ways to say certain things. So if. If you don't understand a. You go to the group and you can be like, hey, they said this. But it's also perfectly like, hey, I noticed you mentioned this. I'm not sure I've heard that term before. And then they tell you it's totally fine and reasonable and no one's going to think you look foolish. I. I promise. Promise.

Speaker A: I would say probably 98% of our students, maybe like 95, but still high number, don't have any background in marketing or advertising or anything like that.

Speaker B: Do you have a podcast in our module in the CCA that discusses how to prep for tax season? In the past, I've shied away from self employment because it seemed complicated. Promise. If I can do it, you can do it, Amelia. And I'm not. Not to downplay. I think I'm a pretty smart person, but all that's to say is, it is. Again, once you demystify it. I believe we have a podcast with a bookkeeper that's really helpful just about keeping business and personal accounts separate, so it's a little bit easier.

Speaker A: I.

Speaker B: Almost positive we have stuff in the CCA on it. And again, well, we did our.

Speaker A: We. So we do free events just for students. So we have our pitch blues on January, and we have our Freelance Summit.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: Y. Last year's Freelance Summit, we had a bookkeeper who dug into that as well, and all the recordings are up there. So for, you know.

Speaker B: Yep. And then this year, we had someone speaking just about finances in general for freelancers. That was really helpful in talking about different options there. So.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Do we go into exactly how to do it? No, because that is not our.

Speaker B: We're not tax pros.

Speaker A: We would get into big trouble. But we give you resources, and it is exactly like Kate said it is. It's not difficult. It's one of those things that. It's scary until you dig in. And also, if you're like, I don't get it. I don't. You know what you can do? If you need tax help, you are earning money, which means that you can take a hundred, maybe 200 bucks of that and put it toward an hour with an accountant or an hour with a bookkeeper who will get you all set up with what you need to do moving forward. Yeah.

Speaker B: Heather said she was exposed to a lot of copywriting, but has not mastered it yet. What are our thoughts on that? You need to practice. It's great if you have some baseline understanding of it, but it's the key is to understanding the concepts. Features versus benefits, calls to action. What is that? How to write effective ones and then to actually do it. You know, we have, um, I think we've talked before in the past about hand copying ads, and a lot of people say, yeah, just hand copy an ad. And that doesn't really help you. Right. You're just copying. It's like when a teacher in grade school is like, copy this word five times. That might be great for spelling, but to actually start to notice what's in your inbox. Go to your inbox after this call. What emails are in there? What is it saying? How could you potentially rework it and do it in a way that's more effective if you are the target audience? Or imagine if you're on an email list, you are the target audience. But if you're not looking at it, okay, here's a billboard I saw. Who is that made for? Who are they trying to speak to? How could I speak to this audience better? And, um, practice.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. You have to understand the principles in order to wield them. You have to understand what the principles are and why in order to start really getting creative with them and taking them into. To higher mastery. Basically use them in more, more and more effective ways. Yeah.

Speaker B: One more question. Do you need to be on Facebook to get the training? No, the training is not on Facebook. The community is on Facebook and there's a lot of value there. But you can absolutely attend the coaching calls and the courses off that. So you don't.

Speaker A: I will say that we do have some students that are not on Facebook because they don't want to interact, um, at all, but they join Facebook just for the group. And that's all. Like, they don't add friends or anything like that. They just, just on the group. So maybe something to consider if that's. If that's something. Okay, we are going to hop off. We, uh, hope that this was helpful. We hope this gave you some, some things to think about. We'll be sending out that email soon. We're really looking forward to working with you guys and getting you started and getting you to these goals and to. To whatever success means. Means for you. So, yes, uh, thank you so much for joining and we'll. We'll talk to you soon. All right, bye, everybody. Like what you heard? Subscribe to the Build you'd Copywriting Business podcast. So you never miss any copywriting tips, tools, or tactics. And if you think copywriting might be right for you, check out our free on demand video training@freecopywritingtraining.com we'll catch you in the next episode.