Classroom to Copy #12: A 30-Day Gameplan to Get Closer to Your Copy Dream
5:46PM Jun 20, 2023
Speakers:
Tania Yeo
Keywords:
copywriting
copywriter
portfolio
clients
copy
linkedin
niches
easier
clarity
focus
left
website
call
podcast
feel
specific
efforts
episode
step
teaching
Hey, how's it going? It's Tanya and I'm back again with another episode of classroom to copy. And today's episode is inspired by a recent call I had with an acquaintance from LinkedIn. So I'm not gonna like enumerate the details of the call, but a theme emerged that inspired today's episode, which is if you only have 30 days till school begins again and you have to get back to work and get back to teaching. What are the biggest, most needle moving steps you can take right now? To bring you closer to copywriting. So, obviously this is unique to each and every person. And it all depends on where you're at in your journey. Are you still teaching? Do you have no certain plans to leave yet? Or you've saved up some money you're you feel financially secure enough to leave, you've cut back your hours at school, and you have more time to devote to copywriting or maybe you've left and you're still looking for work, right? You're still looking for clients, looking for that consistent source of income. So what I'm about to share with you, I believe can apply to these different stages that you might find yourself in when you're leaving teaching and you want to move into copywriting. Obviously, one I'm going to share with you is also you have to tailor it to your unique situation. I don't know your situation. I can't proclaim to know your situation. But there are just some fundamental things that underpin your successful transition into teaching no matter where you're at in your journey. And I think that these fundamentals are easy to forget. So let's get started. Okay, so the first step is that you've I'm assuming they've already gotten clarity that copywriting is for you. If not I suggest taking the teacher Career Coach quiz and listening to the podcasts on that website because you can vicariously explore different career paths just by listening to those podcasts doesn't take you any extra time. If you're traveling to work, you know, when you're cooking, or doing some chores, you can always listen to a podcast and check out other career paths. If you're not sure if copywriting is for you. My FAQ page answers that my last episode was also about whether or not copywriting could be for you. So that's step one, get clarity, because if you don't have that clarity, your efforts are going to be scattered and dispersed in like a million different directions. And remember, if you're giving yourself this timeline of 30 days I'm not saying that you're going to break into copywriting in 30 days, but we need a direction to focus your efforts in in the next 30 days. So the next step is how are you going to create that sense of security for leaving Are you going to cut back hours at work? Do you need to save money? Do you need to start a budget for the next few months? It's going to be different for each person. So never feel that pressure that you have to leave immediately if you don't have that sense of security and an off ramp and the plan. But make sure you have that. Alright, so here's the biggest factor that the biggest thing that I think will make a difference in your journey and if you don't have this you're not going to make the most use of the next 30 days. Excuse me the next 30 days before you have to get back to teaching or whatever is the next step in your journey and that step is focus. It's going to be hard because when you're stepping into a new field especially one with as many niches and subcategories as copywriting. It's natural to feel overwhelmed. It's natural to feel like oh, I have to master everything. Otherwise, you know I won't get enough clients. And it's also hard to focus because, you know, you you there's this fear of missing out. So when when I talk about focus, it doesn't have to be forever right so and what I mean by focusing here is to pick perhaps a specific industry you're drawn to that you want to write copy for. Maybe it's a type of copy, like website, copy, email, copy sales page copy. But my point here is to take some time to ask yourself, you know, which types of copy and industries stand out to you the most because the more specific you can get with this ever everything else gets so much easier. So I mean, ask yourself, what do you want to get out of your copywriting career? Do you want more pay? Do you want to have more fun and creativity in your life through writing? All of these factors determine you know the types of niches and copy that you might get into. And if this is the very beginning of your journey, just remember you're just trying it out. You're trying it out for size. You're Not You don't have to be you don't have to go to your grave as that one email copywriter who writes only for gardeners and I'm just making up an example. You're just trying it out for size. So that and you know some people have this thing again some writing samples or building up a portfolio of samples for imaginary clients. I would highly suggest not taking the attitude. Yes, I know your time is valuable. I know that your effort and your labor are valuable resources. But if you're new to this, you also need practice and building that portfolio is a great way to practice. So I'm jumping a bit ahead of myself but once you have that niche and type of copy pinned down here's why everything else is going to come so much naturally and more easily to you. Because firstly, you can generate a list of your dream clients within that niche. So if you're attracted to working in the e Commerce Industry, and even then there's so many types of E commerce right like maybe clothing, online clothing stores, or selling shaving products and things like that. So how broad or narrow this is, well, you know, it really depends on what you pick, which is why having a community to bounce ideas off of is really important. I know that when I wanted to expand beyond financial copywriting I had a list and then I went to my mentor Kevin, who runs copy chief, and he could tell me immediately which of these niches were lucrative and which were not. So that's why community is really important. That's why having a sense of direction is really important. Because if you can tell people what you want and what you want to do, and what services you want to offer is just that much easier for people to help you or which brings me to my next point is that much easier to know exactly which which clients you want to attract. So, and knowing your dream clients has like, I'm sure there are multiple benefits, but two main benefits here would be number one, you know what to put in your portfolio. You can go to your dream clients website, or store and look at their products and then create writing samples that are kind of for those products but you don't mention their name. You don't make it 100% The same. And when they read your portfolio, they're going to feel like wow, this person's this person's services are tailor made for me and a person this specialist must know what they're doing. They must be an expert and therefore I should hire them. And then the second thing is in your LinkedIn profile in your website, or any other ways in which you plan to
advertise yourself to the world, it could be Upwork could be LinkedIn, right? You get to position yourself in a very specific way that helps you stand out from other copywriters so that you're not just another email or website copywriter who's you know, there's like there's so many of us out there, right? It will be that much easier for your ideal clients to find you on LinkedIn and to know that you were made exactly for them. And if it's a full time position, right, if it's not freelance but a full time position at a specific company. You can also you know, think of how you can tailor your resume and specific lingo in your resume and phrases just for that client. But you see, none of this matters if you don't have focus and clarity of who this client is. And like we always say in copy, you know, you should always be writing as if you're writing to just one person. Your copy should feel like a conversation with your prospect. And this in this case, your prospect this is your client. And if you're not clear on who that person is the copy that you use to advertise your services to the world is going to be vague. It's going to be it's not going to connect. So if you have precious little time left, you know just 30 days to get yourself that much closer to transit transitioning into a copywriting career. This is like the single biggest step you can take its focus and just telling yourself hey, I have 30 days. I'm going to try this out. I'm going to imagine that I am a Facebook ad copywriter for authors try to out for size. See how much easier this to know. Okay, what courses do I need to take or what YouTube tutorials might help? Because then now you know, okay, you just want to focus on Facebook ads and in writing for authors. You'll know exactly what to put in your portfolio. You can start actively looking for people to network with on LinkedIn, you can even tell your friends and family Hey, so I'm thinking of offering Facebook copywriting Facebook ad copywriting services to authors. Let me know if you know anyone who might need help with that. So yeah, that's my, your the one thing that you can do in the next 30 days, like a 30 day game plan, just before school starts or if you've already left, you know, a way to speed things up in 30 days and to focus your efforts more is to really have lots of clarity in what it is you're going to offer the world. And remember that it doesn't have to be forever. You're just trying it on for size and if you don't like it, at least you had you've started practicing. You've gone through the motions of what it is to build a portfolio or to connect with potential clients. Yep, so that's just my two cents on the process. I hope that this was helpful. Tomorrow I'm going to be hopping on a call with Chris or kowski, the email copywriter and you'll get to hear the episode next week. You might also notice that I'm staying off social media more because I haven't a huge opportunity right now and I'm trying to make the best use of it. So I will be cutting down episodes to twice a month while I'm working on this big big project. But I'll still be here. And if you have any questions at all, just feel free to email me that's the best way you can get ahold of me. And I will do my best to answer your questions on this podcast. Because you know, the more questions you ask the more teachers out there, you know, we'll be helping. All right. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you next week.