9 out of 10 copywriters never hit the six figure mark. That is, they are stuck earning less than $100,000 a year. Why? Because, while they’re good writers, they don’t have the business skills to run and grow a successful business. For the 408th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, we wanted to share some of the amazing things copywriters are doing in their businesses with the help of The Copywriter Accelerator. This proven, 8-part program has helped hundreds of copywriters learn the business skills they need to build the business they want. We’ve chosen three copywriters to share their biggest takeaways. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.
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The Copywriter Accelerator
Full Transcript:
Rob Marsh: We’ve been teasing it on the podcast and in our emails for the last month or so—so it’s probably time to make it official, The Copywriter Accelerator is open for new members right now. If you are new here or you don’t know what The Accelerator is, stick around for a minute so you at least have the information you need to decide if this is the right program for you.
If you already know about the program and want to jump in this year, go to thecopywriteraccelerator.com now to get all the details.
For those who don’t know, The Copywriter Accelerator is not a course or a membership. It’s our proven, 8 part, cohort based program that ensures you have all the business skills you need to succeed as the owner of a copywriting business.
You’re almost certainly already a good writer… but that’s not enough to succeed. If clients can’t find you, if you don’t know how to talk about what you do so you attract them to you, if you don’t have the systems in place to make sure you get the work done for them, it’s pretty easy to fail.
And that might be the reason that 9 out of 10 copywriters and content writers never grow their business to the six-figure mark. Let me repeat that, 90% of copywriters never earn $100,000 from their business because they don’t have the business know-how it requires.
They’re great writers, but not yet great business owners and that’s why we created the Accelerator program. It’s designed to help you build the skills to ensure your success.
More than 350 copywriters have gone through the program and used the modules to update and improve their businesses. And if you’re struggling to grow your business, it might be time to visit thecopywriteraccelerator.com to learn more about this program.
Earlier today I was scanning through a few of the past episodes with copywriters like Justin Blackman, Chanti Zak, Zafira Rajan, Kirsty Fanton and a bunch of others looking for some of the things they said about the accelerator program. I wanted to share their successes…
I was going to clip a bunch of these interviews together so you could get a sense of what is included in The Accelerator, but then I remembered an interview we did a while ago with several former members of The Accelerator sharing what they got from the program. So without further ado… let’s roll the tape…
Kira Hug: We’ll let these copywriters introduce themselves in a moment, but first, let me just say, if you’re tempted to skip this episode, because you’re not interested in this program, it could be worth giving it a quick listen because many of the takeaways they share about the changes they’ve made to their businesses apply to copywriting businesses at every single stage. And these writers are doing some pretty cool things in their businesses. You might be inspired by what they’ve done, and maybe even borrow an idea or two for your own business.
Rob Marsh: At this point in the program, we would usually say something like this episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Accelerator. And then we would tell you all of the reasons why you should consider joining. We’re not going to do that today. Other than to say that after listening to this episode, take a moment to visit thecopywriteraccelerator.com and see what this program is all about. And see for yourself whether or not it’s something that you should consider for your business this year.
Kira Hug: So, let’s jump in with our guests. We are so excited today to be here with some of our Accelerator members, members who are currently in the program, which we’re about to wrap up this month. And so before we dive into this conversation and ask you all a bunch of questions, can you take a minute to introduce yourself, all three of you? Just share name, where you’re located, your copywriting specialty, and then bonus points if you want to share a favorite movie or book, optional. Tori, why don’t you kick this off?
Tori Autumn: Hi, my name is Tori Autumn. I live in Washington DC and I focus on launch copy and website copy for course creators and coaches. My favorite book, I’m actually getting into that book the Four Thousand Weeks right now. It’s scary to think of life like that, but it’s also great to think of my time management.
Kira Hug: Yeah. Such a great book. I feel like when I hear Four Thousand Weeks, it makes me think that we have more time than I thought, but I’m like, wow, we have Four Thousand Weeks. This is great. So much time available.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. Until you do the math, Kira, and figure out that you’ve lived 2000 of them and…
Kira Hug: Rob, I didn’t do the math. I didn’t do the math. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Rob Marsh: You’re welcome.
Kira Hug: All right. Thanks Tori. And Demetrius, can you introduce yourself?
Demetrius Williams: Yeah. So I’m Demetrius I’m from London. I specialize in website and blog copy for retail tech businesses. And I read so much. But the last book I just read was Atomic Habits. I literally read that in less than a day.
Kira Hug: Oh wow.
Demetrius Williams: And I’ve basically used it to tone down my procrastination. I have a shun for procrastination sometimes. So habit stacking to get rid of the bad habits has been a really good thing for me in the last couple of weeks.
Kira Hug: All right. Thanks Demetrius. Peta, what about you?
Peta O’Brien-Day: So, I’m Peta O’Brien-Day and I’m from New Bri, which is a little bit west of Demetrius in the UK. I focus on helping entrepreneurs write nurturing copy for their businesses and help them build authentic relationships with their customers in the health and lifestyle space. In terms of books, I’ve got a tiny person at home, so I haven’t read a lot in a while. But I have just finished Caitlin Moran’s More Than a Woman, which is incredible. She’s fabulous. She’s so funny. And she writes about politics and social justice and feminism and all kinds of things. That book is about all the different things that we have to think about as women in the 21st century and how much we have going on and what we can maybe do to make it a bit easier.
Kira Hug: All right. Well, I am adding that to my list for sure, Peta. I need that one.
Peta O’Brien-Day: You would definitely love her. She is fabulous.
Kira Hug: All right. And so let’s just kick off this conversation. As I said, you’re already in The Accelerator program. Let’s go back in time to when you initially joined around four months ago. I’m just curious to hear why you joined. Where was your business at the time when you joined?
Demetrius Williams: I’ll go first. I think I just started, I think I was a year into freelance copywriting and I just got to a ceiling basically. And I just didn’t know where to go next to level up in terms of my processes and how to get more clients. And I’ve been listening to the podcast for about a year and I’d always wanted to join The Accelerator, but I think I missed the last one. So I had to wait for the next one. Joining The Accelerator, it basically challenged me in how I’ve worked on my processes. And it’s allowed me to get a bit further than some of my other freelance friends who have taken like three to five years to get where I want to get. So I basically joined, so I wanted to, instead of get five years to better my business, I’m going to get it down to at least a year.
Rob Marsh: That’s awesome. How about you, Peta?
Peta O’Brien-Day: When I heard about The Accelerator, I’d started out in Upwork with my $35 blog post and I’d managed to work my way up to having some own clients that I’d cold pitched. But it was in drips and drabs and same as similar Demetrius I want to fast track things. But I didn’t have a huge amount of time. I had a little girl at home, I still do and had only about 15 hours a week to do the training or any courses I wanted to do and my actual client work. So I wanted to find something that was accessible, that was easy to digest, but that gave me massive amounts of value. I knew that in January I was going to have a lot more time because my little girl was going to nursery and I wanted my business to have all the background stuff ready to go, the processes, the niche, the branding, everything ready to hit the ground running in January and really make things explode.
Tori Autumn: Well, I’m a little bit shocked that you’re making me think back in 2021, but no. I started because I very much felt like an order taker. When I read about the sales emails and sales page for The Accelerator, it really put words to what I was currently going through. Just feeling like I had to settle for low budget copywriting projects. And it was mainly because I felt like I needed to prove myself in the copyright industry with lots of different projects and also not really knowing what to charge. So my biggest goal was knowing how to describe myself as a copywriter, what type of niche I want to go and also blended with the other part of my business, which is self love coaching. So that also involved the brand messaging and how to price my package and how to work through my own processes.
Rob Marsh: As I listen to you guys talk about it, there’s a couple of themes already that seem to be coming out of the reasons why you joined. One of them, Tori and Peta, you both mentioned low budget projects and trying to get away from those. Could you talk a little bit about what you’ve learned in The Accelerator? Has it helped you think about your pricing and either raise it or help you make plans to increase your prices so that you’re not stuck with those $35 blog posts, the low budget projects?
Peta O’Brien-Day: Sure. So much. Obviously there’s a modern on pricing. And so you get the chance to think about the value of what you are bringing and how you can organize your packages and your services to make it to show the value that you’re bringing. But the biggest thing to me was the mindset model on that and the encouragement and the push to realize that your business is actually a business and that you are not just a little freelancer surfing the job boards, writing a few words and sending them to people. You are a real business and you are a real business owner and you have skills and talents, and the work that you send your clients and the partnership that you have with them has massive value. And that gave me a lot of confidence to put my neck out and ask for more money, essentially.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. How about you, Tori? How has it made you rethink your prices?
Tori Autumn: Yeah. So similar to Peta, I really struggle with the pricing because of the mindset. And so the mindset module was helpful, but I also realized how much I wasn’t giving myself permission to charge what I wanted to charge. I thought that if I wanted to charge $5,000 for a launch copy, I have to have certain type of clients or a certain amount of years under my belt. But with the price and module, those things didn’t matter. It’s about finding the right clients and also not having to explain myself in what I do so much. I realize right away with my pricing, oh, if I’m having to prove that copywriting is great for your business, you’re probably not the right client. And you’re probably not going to see the value of charging these prices. So I think that that really was a big paradigm shift for me, knowing that you can charge whatever you want and those clients can find you and not bat eye at your prices.
Kira Hug: And maybe we can make this actionable for anyone listening too, because we’re talking about mindset and mindset can feel so big. And so is there one step or anything that you would share with anyone listening who’s struggling and does feel like that struggling freelancer and does not feel even close to that business owner? One thing they could do today or this week?
Peta O’Brien-Day: I think for me, it would be, when we are doing copywriting for clients, we are told to lead with the benefit. But I think we rarely do that when we are trying to get clients ourselves. And I think that’s one of the things that helped me at the beginning, was to go through just on a piece of paper by myself, the benefit that I was bringing to my clients before I pitched them. And then I was able to go to them and say, “No. These are the deliverables and this is how much I want you to pay me, but this is the benefit that you are going to get out of working with me as a partner.”
Kira Hug: What about you, Demetrius, is there anything that you would recommend to shift that mindset?
Demetrius Williams: Again, I think I’d mirror what says as well because I would also explain the benefits, but also explain the value as well in relation to the client specifically, the value and the benefit.
Rob Marsh: So, another theme that I picked up on as you guys were talking about the reasons why you wanted to join The Accelerator was just the idea of speeding up your progress. Demetrius, I think you specifically said you’re in a place in your business where other people are just arriving at after three to five years and you’re short cutting the process. Peta, you said something similar. Talk a little bit about that too. What specifically have you done that has helped you shortcut all of that time out of creating a business that’s working for you?
Demetrius Williams: I think for me it was honing in on my niche. Prior to The Accelerator, I was just doing web copy, blog copy, emails, product descriptions. This broad spectrum of copywriting. But when I focused on my niche, which is for retail tech clients and using my skillsets in digital marketing specifically SEO, it really helped me honing onto the broad spectrum of clients that I could get to help me increase my price and also knockling down on certain processes as well. So instead of just cold-calling blanket emails to a list of clients, I’ve now put some structure in how I cold-call to clients.
So, I’ve got quite a big database of clients that I want to pitch. And it’s just taking the time to go through some of these clients in a bit more detail, looking at their websites, looking at what they need, how much value I can bring to them and crafting tailored emails to each of these clients to call pitch. And it’s really helped me in getting leads. So just before Christmas, every day for about a week and a half, I sent about 10 to 20 emails from my list. And I had a sequence as well of about three to five emails within the sequence. And I managed to get about four calls and I got four leads and I managed a bag two clients as well. Those were my first high paying clients as well.
Rob Marsh: Well done. Nicely. Yeah. Good progress. How about you, Peta? What have you been able to cut out of that development process?
Peta O’Brien-Day: So, I think partly for me it was the permission to spend time on my business. So life’s busy and just with being a copywriter, the focus is often on doing client work and just keeping things ticking over. But having signed up to The Accelerator, it gave me permission and a little bit of a push to spend time and bring power on my business to carve out a couple of hours a week because you’ve made the investment, the resources are there and you have to justify taking time away from client work for a little while to do it now. Because otherwise, the time’s gone. Having you and Kira and having a massive amount of other accelerated members to bounce ideas off, it’s not going to be there forever. It was that push to do it now. Otherwise, I think probably I would’ve done similar things in bits and pieces like over the next couple of years and it would’ve taken a lot longer and not been as effective, I think.
Kira Hug: What about for you, Tori?
Tori Autumn: Yeah. For me, I struggled with wearing a different hats in my business. Well, the most part of being a copywriter, I was just the copywriter. I wasn’t really the CEO or managing the bookkeeping effectively. So within this program, within my copy crew, I ended up hiring a virtual assistant, I got an accountant, got a graphic designer. Things start really turning as well so that I can focus on not just the copywriting, but the overall marketing strategy and actually set aside a time each week in blocks to work on my business was the biggest benefit for me. And also the community of people. It’s something about having accountability partners that really helps keep people on task and keep the big picture and the vision ahead. And so this was also the other biggest reason I joined, because I wanted to find other copywriters who are in similar stages of me, but want to go big with their business.
Kira Hug: Yeah. I definitely want to talk about the time you all have invested in the program and the accountability that’s baked into it. But first let’s talk about what has surprised you the most as you jumped in. We’ve all enrolled in different courses and programs and you jump in and you’re like, Oh, I was not expecting that for good and for bad. So was there anything in particular that stood out to you as a surprise in this program?
Demetrius Williams: For me, it was the community and collaborative nature of The Accelerator. Because I’d been in other programs before, but it was very much, “Welcome to this program. Here’s your video, here’s your products to do. Submit it, you get graded and marks. And here’s some development areas.” But in The Accelerator it was very much, “Hey everyone, here’s this group of people that are on the same mindset and how their businesses are and how they want them to grow. And we’re going to work together like a mini community and we’re going to all work with each other and collaborate to reach our goals at the end of the program.” And I was not as really surprised about it. It was one of my favorite things about the program as well.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Yeah, definitely. I think the access that we got to other people’s perspectives and other people’s advice was just incredible. And the amount of access that we got to you and Rob, just to be able to ask you questions and to get feedback and critique on our copy. The amount of face to face live calls that we got was amazing. Because like Demetrius said, there are lots of courses where you sign up and there might be a quick chat, but then there’s a lot of videos and everything’s virtual in a pretty faceless sense. But this felt like a proper community. Weirdly, I was also surprised that there were more than two English people in the program.
Demetrius Williams: They were like four or five.
Kira Hug: They were good amount.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Yeah.
Rob Marsh: I think about five six of us.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Yeah. We got like a little encleave going on and it’s cool. But that was a big surprise and it was really nice because so much of the cooperating world that I’ve checked into in the last couple of years has been over in the States, which is fine. And you’re all very, very lovely, but it’s quite nice-
Kira Hug: Are we?
Peta O’Brien-Day: … to know. You are. I know you are. You’re not quite as reserved as we are. But it’s nice to know that there are other people in my country that I could, I don’t know, jump in a car and go and have coffee with, which we’re going to do at some point.
Kira Hug: I was going to ask you if you all have hung out yet, if you’ve made that meet up happen.
Peta O’Brien-Day: No. Not yet. There’s been a bit of a pandemic going on.
Kira Hug: Great. That thing is happening still. Tori, any surprises for you?
Tori Autumn: Yeah. I would say having a lot of challenges and wins in common with these group of copywriters. And also, I think a lot of us who suffer from comparisonitis tend to put other copywriters on pedals because of their clientele or how much they make. But I found myself really admiring my peers, really admiring their courage with their challenges and how they show up in their business and how they push the envelope. So I’ve actually found a group of people who I aspire to be and who have similar niches as me.
Rob Marsh: Tori, you mentioned being able to share wins. I’m curious from the three of you, what are the big wins that you throughout this program. Maybe starting with you, Tori, what is the big thing that you’ve walked away as you graduate and the biggest change that you’ve made in your business?
Tori Autumn: Starting before I felt ready, I started pitching my dream clients and I got a couple of yeses from that. And also figuring out my niche in terms of where’s that intersection lobby between self-love coaching and conversion copywriting. So I’m really excited about that. I would say those are the top two.
Rob Marsh: Demetrius, you mentioned you’ve landed a couple of big clients, any other wins?
Demetrius Williams: Even though I’ve managed to land some big clients, I think biggest win for me is my increase in confidence. I think my confidence is supercharged. I think I mentioned to you guys before about just working in the retail and fashion industry. My confidence was knocked down a bit and I think I’ve had issues of imposter syndrome. But because I’ve been able to really identify my values and my skillset, and being able to communicate how valuable I am to clients, it’s really boosted my confidence so much. Personally, I don’t think you can put a price on that.
Rob Marsh: Yeah, for sure. How about you, Peta?
Peta O’Brien-Day: Yeah. Kira saying that the sales page that I wrote for a client was good. I think I floated around on cloud nine for a week after that one. I was like, “Oh, my-”
Kira Hug: That was great.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Thank you. But apart from that, similar to Demetrius in terms of confidence, but specifically making my business feel like a business off the back of the assignments. So streamlining my processes, making myself feel like I actually know what I’m doing, but in a way that… I’ve always been really worried that to be taken seriously, I have to not be myself. And I quite like being myself. So it’s been really lovely to build this kind of professional business that is a proper business that I can be myself in. Because we’ve talked about branding and we’ve talked about positioning and niching, and all of it has been focused being you, being an individual and what you specifically bring to the table that nobody else can bring. So finding your weird.
Kira Hug: And you mentioned a handful of the modules that we dig into in the program. I’m just curious what was your favorite module, if you all don’t mind sharing? What was your favorite module and why was it that particular module?
Peta O’Brien-Day: I really, really liked the branding module. It felt a little bit like therapy.
Kira Hug: That’s what we wanted. That’s exactly what we wanted.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Yeah. It felt like digging into things that I wasn’t even sure that I knew about myself. And like I said, being able to bring that into my business. That was a lot of fun.
Tori Autumn: Yeah. I would say the branding module as well. I enjoyed thinking about what would I look like on 11 versus being very quiet and introverted. And also the last module of putting us out there, that visibility piece was very helpful for me in terms of thinking about, okay, which ways do I want to market myself? Which way feels attainable for me and which way is also pushing the edge for me to get out there. So those are my two.
Demetrius Williams: For me would be the first module, just the mindset because it laid the foundation of not only how The Accelerator program would be, but also how my business would be as well. Once I’ve nailed down my mindset and how I work, then my business is on a great solid foundation. And also finding my niche. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be focused on such a unique niche in terms of retail tech. And it’s just literally opened up a whole host of different types of clients that I could work with. And each client is different, which is what I like. I’m not really into working with the same sorts of clients over and over again. I like variety. And there’s like so much variety in this niche I’ve got. And I’m super happy about that.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. One of the modules that we teach is all about creating a package that is specifically targeted to your ideal client. As you guys work through that module, tell us a little bit about one of the packages that you’ve created. I know we’re just coming out of The Accelerator, so you probably haven’t sold a lot of them. But just talk a little bit about that process as well. Tori, what did you build?
Tori Autumn: I created the launch recipe, which has, it has a couple of things. So it has the research, which is the voice of customer interviews and also just some customer research, and also includes webinar invites, show ups and promo emails and sales page. The name is also similar to my coaching program, the self-love recipe, but I like that because I’m a big foodie. So it helps with my brand positioning. Like also wanted to promote food in my brand, but also go to package for anything that’s launched copy for course creators. And that was challenging only because I got overwhelmed with the so many options that I can put into that package and how to price it. But I’m right now at $5,000 with that, which sounds like a scary price for me, but it also sounds like a good price. So part of that module helped me with understanding for myself, at least what is a good price that I can charge, what is a great price that I would really want to charge. And so that’s the main package that I put together.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. I love that. Retail tech sounds like an interesting niche, Demetrius. What a package appeals to that clientele?
Demetrius Williams: I focus on bolstering my clients’ online visibility through organic search. So I mainly focus on web copy and blog copy and content and SEO marketing. So my packages split into tiers. My signature package focuses on landing pages and blog pages, like a set amount of blog pages and landing pages and home pages. And it’s also victim of that. There is a content marketing order and then there’s a detailed SEO order as well. So I log into their Google analytics and their search console, and I dig deep into how their website is performing and look at key areas and how I can optimize and improve it. And I also a detailed next steps as well with the SEO on content audits.
Rob Marsh: Peta, how have your packages changed?
Peta O’Brien-Day: So, I have gone all in with the youth work theme. Before I was a copywriter, I was a youth worker for 15 years. And my new brand takes all the listening and empathizing skills that I learned as a youth worker, and uses them to build relationships between businesses and customers. So my package is the tuck shop brand experience, lots of very inviting pictures of sweets on my page. It’s focused on entrepreneurs who have built a successful business, but they’re still doing everything themselves and they want to start handing things over. But that’s quite difficult to do if they’ve not spent that much time thinking about their brand voice, what makes them unique and how somebody else could write in a way that they write. So my package starts with a brand discovery call to dive right deep into who they are.
Then they get a brand communication guide that covers their target audience, how they think, what they like, what the industry is all about, pause it into a guide on how they talk that they can handle that to any contractors or freelancers that they want to work with going forward. I write them a brand story. So I take all that information and craft into a really compelling about page that helps them sell that story and build that connection with their audience. And then I start off the process of helping them communicate with their audience to blog posts and to email and newsletters to build those connections. And it is $2,750. It’s quite exciting, but the packaging module was a little bit terrifying.
Kira Hug: Can you elaborate why was it terrifying?
Peta O’Brien-Day: Well, once, I got it all written down, it was fine, but I think getting to that point, I wasn’t sure that… I think it was a confidence thing. I wasn’t sure that I could bring enough value to the table to put it into an actual package. But talking through the process with you guys and going through the module blueprint helped me pull together all the value that I do actually bring to clients and the unique ways that I work, the frameworks that I have, and really helped me to put together something that I think is really helpful for my clients and brings an awful lot of value. But it was quite scary.
Kira Hug: So, we get a lot of questions about time and how much time it takes to participate in The Accelerator to actually get any results. And this is something that is different for everyone, but I’d love to hear from all of you. What did your time look like each week, or how did you even set it up so that you had the time to focus on your business development? Who wants to kick it off?
Tori Autumn: I’ll start. So I initially had a four-hour block on Mondays to devote to this program and also my business. And some weeks that worked, some weeks that didn’t work. But what I found was helpful for me was going with what time of the day or week really works for me. So it was a lot of late night writing, late night thinking, because through this program I realized I’m nocturnal. No. I just really like working at night and it’s where my creative juices really flow. So I did a lot of working in about maybe two to three hours a week with the program. And some weeks I skipped which I didn’t beat myself up on because I know that I could just catch up. It wasn’t super time consuming, but did help with, it was a lot of critical thinking.
The biggest part for me was also creating time to implement what I learned. Like now I have the questions answered and I turn into homework. Then what? So I had to, during my night hour, find out times when I can actually make those small tweaks on my website, update my social media or update my packages and process and really how I’m going to now with the new knowledge and value of myself that I know how am I going to present that to prospective clients. So it was part actually doing the work, but now implementing it that gave me about two to four hours a week with this program.
Demetrius Williams: I think I’m the opposite of Tori. I’m very much a morning person and I really love having structure of my day. So I think in module one, actually, when we’re talking about mindset, I just basically blocked my whole calendar for the week. And most of the time that I focus on The Accelerator was first thing in the morning or an hour or two during lunchtime. And by doing that, I was able to take a good chunk of time throughout the week to actually focus on The Accelerator. And by doing that, I’ve now actually implemented that calendar structure into my working day as well for my business.
Kira Hug: What worked for you, Peta?
Peta O’Brien-Day: You probably don’t want to know my answer. I am not the perfect student when it comes to this kind of thing. I’ve got two kids at home and my sister-in-law came to look after my daughter for a day and a half a week. So with that and nap times, that is my time for client work and anything else that I want to do. So I listened to quite a lot of The Accelerator videos whilst cooking dinner. There is now quite a lot of tomato sauce on my laptop screen, which I hope won’t do too much damage.
Basically, as much as I would love to have been able to block out time and be really, really intentional about it, far too much of it was on the fly for my liking. There were a lot of late night website update sessions. I did a lot of the blueprints whilst making sure that my daughter didn’t spill hummus all over herself. But you know what? I made it work. I handed everything in on time. I probably did spend about three to four hours a week on doing all the blueprints and the modules and making the changes. It was just in much smaller chunks and much less organized.
Rob Marsh: I mean, I know you said we wouldn’t want to hear that answer, but I actually love that answer because it’s very real and it shows that even if you don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to a program like The Accelerator, you can still carve it out in small chunks and make it work. So I’ve been impressed by what you’ve accomplished. And just hearing how you’ve accomplished it, it makes it even more impressive to me. I like that.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Thank you.
Rob Marsh: So, another thing that we talk about in The Accelerator is branding. Obviously creating a brand is literally a lifelong process. Brands change over time and they evolve. And so the time that we spend in The Accelerator talking about that is pretty shortened, but we try to give you some things to think about. And I’m curious what each of you will be doing as you move forward with your brands. Where are you taking them? Are you going to be doing some unique photos? Is there a theme that you’re thinking about? Peta, I think you mentioned that you like that module. Maybe we could start with you. Where does your brand go from here?
Peta O’Brien-Day: Sure. Like I mentioned, I’m really hanging onto the whole youth work vibe and relationship building, sitting down on a sofa, drinking coffee, and eating lots of sweets at the tuck shop, which might be British thing. Come to think of it. But I don’t know. Do you guys have tuck shops at youth clubs?
Kira Hug: I don’t know what that is. But that might just be a me thing.
Peta O’Brien-Day: I might need to work on that for the American market then. But anyway… So I’m planning a brand photo shoot at the end of January. I’ve got a friend who is incredibly good at graphics. And I have come to realize that as much as I can see in my head what I want on the screen for my website, I can’t make it. So I’m going to get him to come and help me create something that feels like me in terms of design as well as tone. I’m happy with my brand and how it sounds in terms of tone of voice. It sounds for me, it’s authentic. It gives across my vibe and the way that I want to work with clients. But I think my task for the next couple of months is to take it up a notch visually and work on things like getting my framework out there. So I’ve got a framework that’s inspired by my youth work experience. The plan is to talk about that on podcasts and decent guest blogging and up the visibility of my brand that way.
Rob Marsh: I like it. How about you, Tori?
Tori Autumn: I want to do a photo shoot probably in March, around my birthday with lots of food and something with a self-love brand with it as well. And one thing that stood out to me in the program that helped me with understanding how I want to present my brand or more so position my brand is when Kira talked about how you can niche yourself through your values as well, that became like such a big pivotal moment for me, in terms of understanding what are the type of clients I want to work with and how much can I express myself in my brand and in my messaging with my core values. So I want to talk about how I’m very feminist and very into wellness brands and self-love. And I’m a big foodie and a big nerd. I like knowing that I can give myself permission in terms of having a lot of fun with my brand, because we all started our businesses for various reasons, but one is because we can truly do what we want with it.
Rob Marsh: Demetrius, how has The Accelerator helped you rethink your brand?
Demetrius Williams: It’s really enabled me to, again, like Tori said, marry my own personal values with my brand. I’m very big on personal connections and building trust. And I’ve realized that a lot of my retail technology clients are the same. They’re very much about making connections, especially when it comes to the technology that they make, because their technology is going to be in retail stores, whether it’s a holographic mirror that helps customers pick the right size for their clothes to a wifi payment system within their store. It’s all about that human connection with the retailer. So I’m working on mirroring connections and building partnerships and trust within my brand. And I have a friend who’s a graphic designer, and I think Peta said the same thing about not being a graphic design profession. I know bits of it, but I’d rather have a professional to come and work on that with me. So I’m going to work with her to build a good concept for that.
Kira Hug: We touched on accountability and community earlier in this conversation. I just want to circle back to that and find out if anyone one’s open to sharing how we helped build that community and facilitate that connection with other copywriters in this program. Because again, I know community is something that we all talk about and how important it is, but how does that actually happen and how did it happen in this program?
Demetrius Williams: I think one of the best things about what happened with The Accelerator was that you guys are just going to speak to each other, just like schedule 50 minutes and just everyone just have a chat with each other and introduce ourselves. And for me, as much as I’m about connections, I’m not very good at meeting people for the first time. So shoving us in the deep end, it really like opened us up. Some of us felt like we’ve known each other for ages. So just putting ourselves out there and being really collaborative within like the first module was just really great for me?
Kira Hug: I like that. We threw you in the deep end. It was like, well put.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Oh my goodness. The meeting greets were terrifying, but they were fabulous. Like getting to know so many different people. And also for me, because I was time starved, the permission to keep them to 15 minutes was really, really helpful because it would’ve been lovely to spend hours chatting to everybody. But knowing that you could say at the end of 15 minutes, I need to go and talk to eight other people now this afternoon. And then I haven’t managed to circle back to everybody that I’d like to, but I’ve managed to schedule longer calls with people through the course and catch up with people at different times. So my daughter was awake at 1:00 AM the other night, but Lindsay was awake because she was in America. So I chatted with her on Instagram for a while, while I was trying to get at my daughter back to sleep.
But I think one of the things that really built community for me was with the coaching calls Q and A calls, the fact that you guys gave us so much time to present our wins and our struggles and ask our questions. And I felt like I got to know so much about so many different people through those calls and to tap into what they were doing with their businesses and how they were struggling and get to know who they were as people. And when you paired that with module blueprints like the branding one, so I now know what type of bird everybody thinks that they would be, which was actually a lot more insightful than themselves.
Kira Hug: That is important to know, right? It’s important to know that.
Peta O’Brien-Day: It was. Definitely. And I found lots of other people who, if they were animals would be wolves. So I’m thinking of starting a pack. Those kind of little touches were really great for me.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. Hearing you talk about the meet and greet, it’s funny to watch people as we talk about that. And there’s probably about a quarter to a third of people who have that fear in the eyes, right? It’s like, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? And yet at the end, almost every single person is like, “This is the best thing out of The Accelerator.” Just because you get to know so many other copy writers that can support you and your business as you continue to grow. Okay.
So, one last question from me, Kira may have a couple more questions, but I’m curious, you guys have gone through it, you’ve finished up all eight modules. The only thing we have left is a graduation call. But if you were talking to somebody who’s thinking, okay, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, or maybe they missed out like you mentioned, Demetrius, on the last time. They’re like, For sure I’m getting in on the next time. What advice would you give to them as they’re thinking about, okay, should I? Shouldn’t I? Or maybe a reason why they should think about seriously joining The Copywriter Accelerator. Tori, let’s start with you.
Tori Autumn: Well, there are lots of great reasons. The first one, if you want to just be a freelance copywriter who works for other people, then be that. But if you actually want a sustainable business and actually feel like you’re a CEO and that you can grow and have leverage to do lots of other big dreams, then join us.
The other thing was going back to the community piece, the copy crew was extremely helpful for me. Not just because of they were my peers and we get to talk about our challenges and wins and things that we have in common, but also being able to have someone critique your work and critique your copy and give great feedback other than Rob and Kira, or other than other copywriter mentors that you look up to is really beneficial. And it helped me because it helped me look at people differently and look at us as a community versus like, oh, I can only go to this person because they’re in that mentor space. We all became mentors to each other. And I felt like that was very critical at how I looked at my business, how much value I brought to the table and how I want to move forward with my niche and launch copy.
Rob Marsh: Demetrius.
Demetrius Williams: Only the boost of confidence that I mentioned before. But I was really able to hone in on my skill set and what value I provide for my clients, because I never really showcased that at all prior to The Accelerator. I was really able to leverage that, to increase my rates. And I definitely wouldn’t have increased my rates to the point that they are now without The Accelerator program. And I’ve met some friends along the way. I mean, Peta and I are in a copy group in slack and everyone in that copy group, we’re now in a WhatsApp group together. And we’re just going to continue our accountability group after the program as well. So it’s just been a really, really valuable experience.
Peta O’Brien-Day: So, I would say that you’ve just got to jump. Doing anything big with your business is scary. But with The Accelerator, you’ve got a roadmap to take you from floundering around in the dark to success. And that’s ridiculously valuable, not just in terms of money, but in terms of mindset and confidence and connections. All the things that we’ve talked about in this chat. And like Tori said, having different people in the group with you mean that you have so many and perspectives, everybody comes from a different place. Everybody’s had different experiences and everybody’s got particular specialism and skillsets. And the ability to tap into those to find answers to struggles that you’re having with your business and the ability to work with two experts who have done this before, they know what works and they put you in the right direction is priceless.
Kira Hug: We’re going to do a lightning round. So just relatively short answers, which is hard for us to do. So last question for all three of you, what are you most excited about your business in 2022? What excites you the most? Tori, can you kick it off?
Tori Autumn: Most of my business growth will be my personal growth as well.
Kira Hug: Demetrius.
Demetrius Williams: I think the same as Tori. For me, it’s growth. It’s business growth and personal growth.
Peta O’Brien-Day: Me having the time this year to put into practice all the incredible things that I’ve learnt. Yeah. That’s what most excites me.
Rob Marsh: Yeah. I mean, thanks to you guys, Peta, Tori, Demetrius for joining us just to talk about your experience and also for showing up and doing so much work in The Accelerator community. We are thrilled by the success that you’ve had so far and are really looking forward to seeing what you do with your businesses in the coming year. The foundation that you’ve laid through The Accelerator, you guys are completely set up for success. And so we’re really excited to see where that goes. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. We really appreciate it.
