I once put the F word in the subject line of an email
that I wrote for a client,
a client with a very wholesome brand voice
and an even more wholesome audience.
And let's just say it did not go over well.
But even that wasn't as bad as these five common mistakes
that keep new copywriters stuck, broke, and unsuccessful.
Keep watching.
Hey Posse, what's up? It's Alex
and oh, I am feeling a little spicy today,
my friends. Lately I've been seeing a lot of comments,
or should I call them complaints, by new copywriters
around the internet.
Like why is it taking so long
to find a client when it's really only been like two months
or, oh, all I can find are stupid jobs
writing social media captions or blogs
or clients that I really am not excited about
or, well, they wouldn't pay me $80 an hour, so I told them,
no, I know my worth.
And so, so, so many more things
that honestly make me cringe a little.
Now, you know, I like to keep it real.
So in this video, I got to tell you some hard truths about
making it as a copywriter today.
And yes, some of these might sting like just a little bit,
but this isn't to call anyone out
or make you feel bad if you're
guilty of any of these things.
I mean, hey, in the beginning, it's all new
and it's all scary,
and it can be really easy to fall into these traps.
I know I have done it a lot.
I want nothing more than to see you succeed.
That is why I started the Copy Posse.
So please take this video
as just a little loving kick in the butt
to help you better understand the mistakes
that are likely keeping your income capped at a certain
level, working your butt off and not seeing any results,
saying yes to unfulfilling
or low paying projects when you should be saying no
or worse, endlessly searching
for clients without ever getting hired at all.
So in this video, I share some common traps
that you might be falling into, and then some mindset shifts
and reframes to help you get to the next level.
So let's dive in.
Trap number one, I call the shortcut slow down.
Yes, this is a big one.
Everyone wants to learn copywriting
and get rich as fast as possible, right?
And hey, that goes for just about everything.
Everyone wants the easy button.
Everyone wants to go to sleep tonight
and you know, wake up tomorrow as a brand new copywriter
and be rich and super successful working
with their dream clients.
So we do everything we can to find the shortcuts.
Instead of reading the books,
we read summaries of the books.
Instead of taking that course
or membership, we browse Reddit.
Instead of doing the work
and learning why copywriting is powerful, we use AI
and then we wonder why the heck it's not working out for us.
Look, no one ever said that becoming a copywriter
or building the business
of your dreams is an overnight thing.
If you think it is, your expectations need a bit
of a reality check
or you just need to watch this whole video.
And honestly, the cold truth is that in
that time you're spending searching for the magic button,
you could get way farther ahead
by just doing like the uncomfortable work.
Yes, your search for shortcuts is slowing you down.
Instead, use that time
and effort to go deeper past the surface level stuff.
You have to write bad copy before you can write good copy.
I say that all the time.
So read the books, take the courses, network at events,
put yourself out there,
join a copywriting community to get support and guidance.
And what's amazing is that if you do those things,
you can become a great copywriter faster than almost any
other traditional career path.
And I really, really believe that.
In fact, I have students who have gone from $0
to $10,000 a month in as little as six months to a year,
but it is because they did the work.
They invested time, money,
and energy into understanding good marketing,
understanding good copywriting, storytelling, and branding,
and all the things that make you a highly paid copywriter.
And they did it right here. Yes, right here on my channel
that is exactly what I teach.
So you are already in the right place.
If you're not already part of the crew, you know what to do.
Go ahead and subscribe below,
and don't forget to hit that bell
to be notified when my next video goes live.
Now, let's talk about trap number two,
I call it the DIY delay.
So another common mistake is having
what I call the "lone wolf" or the "DIY" mentality.
Now listen guys, I get this one like super deep
because this was me for a really, really long time.
When I first started copywriting, I had such,
such a hard time asking for help.
I don't know who I was trying to impress
or what I was trying to prove,
but I had this like "I don't need anyone.
I can do this on my own" chip on my shoulder.
And honestly, it's humbling
and even a little embarrassing to admit that now
because the cold hard truth is
that I was freaking terrified.
I was scared of failing.
I was scared of asking for help
because what if I asked for help, then
that would mean I was trying something new
and then if I failed, everyone would know it, right?
I was scared of putting myself out there.
And worse of all, I was scared of letting people down.
So I came up with every single reason in the world why I had
to do it all on my own, put my head down, learn the skills,
grow my skills, find the client, scale my business.
As someone who by the way, had zero experience doing any
of those things, I really thought that I just had
to do it myself and that I only wanted people
to know I was doing it once
I had already been successful at it.
It doesn't work that way.
I felt like maybe I just wasn't going to be good enough
or smart enough, which by the way,
is just imposter syndrome.
And it really wasn't until I started investing in myself,
so joining memberships and hiring coaches
and taking, you know, other programs
and joining masterminds,
that my business really started to take off.
And looking back now, it's so obvious that of course,
in order to get to the next level in our lives
and our businesses, in order
to do something we have never done
before, we're not born like experts at anything, right?
We need support, we need mentors, we need accountability,
and we need community.
We need people walking the path with us.
So yes, of course you can like white knuckle your way
to success for a while,
but if you haven't already experienced this,
let me tell you, it is exhausting
and so much easier
to give up when no one is encouraging you along the way
or keeping you accountable to your big goals.
So if that is you, start right now surrounding yourself
with people who are doing what you want to be doing.
When you do that, you become more of who you want to be,
of course, because you're surrounding yourself with people
who are who you want to be
and are further down the path on that journey.
All right, moving on to trap number three,
what I call the glamour myth.
So I cringe a little bit when I hear new copywriters
complain about writing for boring projects,
or companies who don't have some epic mission
to change the world,
or agencies who don't care about branding
or clients who just don't feel in alignment
because their products
or services are in a niche
that maybe they're not passionate about.
And then in the same breath, they complain
that they can't find any clients.
Hello?
When you're a new copywriter, a writing job,
any writing job should absolutely be celebrated.
It's such backwards thinking to go into copywriting
and expect that you'll get your dream job writing
for your dream client in your dream niche like
immediately, right?
Starting a new business of any kind is not glamorous like
that perfectly curated social media world might
have you believe.
The truth is it takes work
and sometimes you got to kiss a few frogs
before you find your prince charming client.
We have all been there.
So if you are just getting started,
stop being ultra selective about the type
of jobs you'll accept.
Stop expecting dream clients
to hire you immediately without any experience.
And honestly, take any job to gain experience as long
as they aren't like douchey or scammy
or totally compromise your values
and work your way up to writing for the jobs
that bring you joy.
In fact, I will bet that you get to
where you want to go faster that way than saying no
to opportunities while you wait for your dream client
to like just magically appear.
In fact, one of my favorite stories is from my Launch Pad
Season One grad Sam, who literally said yes
to everything in the beginning.
He was brand new, he was just getting started.
His first writing job was from Fiverr, where he was hired
to write 1000 variants of an email for 100 British pounds,
which like isn't much more than a hundred
American dollars, right?
He of course hated it
and wondered what in the hell he was thinking.
But then he later went on
to close a 1000 pound job on Fiverr,
and within a few months he was making $16,000
as a freelance copywriter.
And today he runs his own successful email marketing agency.
So as I like to say, first get paid and then get picky.
You got to start somewhere.
And what better way to start than to practice
and perfect your writing skills with jobs
that maybe you're less excited writing about.
Because let's be honest, it's easier to write about stuff
that you love, but great copywriters can
write about anything.
All right, moving on to trap number four,
what I call the boundary backfire.
Yes, boundaries.
It's a buzzword right now and for good reason.
It is really important to set and respect your boundaries
and of course the boundaries of others.
However, sometimes I feel like this "respect my boundaries
or else" mentality really backfires
and actually keeps new copywriters stuck
by their own unrealistic expectations,
especially around pricing.
Are your prices actual boundaries
or are they simply preferences?
I mean, of course I would prefer to be paid more money,
but this is something that you really need to decide, like
where is that level for you?
And I know there's a lot of talk out there about charging
your worth and owning your value,
and let me just come out and say it.
You are worth like a bazillion gillion gazillion dollars.
I am not here to argue that.
But sometimes the value
that you get back from a client is actually less about
how much money they are paying you
and more about the connections, the authority,
and the experience that you can get from that relationship.
So it's a really nuanced conversation,
and I'm absolutely not saying
that you should compromise your wellbeing or worth
or just arbitrarily lower your rates
so that you get more clients.
That's not what I'm saying. But in the beginning,
when connections, authority,
and experience are incredibly valuable to you, in fact,
priceless, it would be wise to be more fluid
and creative with your pricing strategy based on
what feels good versus
what other people say you should absolutely be charging
for a project or a deliverable or what
so-and-so is charging.
Remember, you can always raise your prices over time
as your experience and your expertise grow,
and you get to decide when and how and why that happens.
Now, I told you the story of
how Sam did his first copywriting project
for way lower than he should have charged.
And yes, I could have told him that,
but he didn't know until he went and did the damn thing
and learned that lesson.
What irks me is when a new copywriter hears about another
copywriter say, making a thousand dollars a month
for some email copywriting,
that's just like some arbitrary number I threw out there.
So they think that, okay, well that's
what I should charge then no matter my level of experience,
even if I'm brand new and just starting out.
But it doesn't really work that way.
Pricing is impacted by so many factors, including, yes,
like I said, your experience and your expertise,
but of course it's also impacted by how badly you want to work
with this particular client
and how that relationship could open future doors for you.
Listen guys, I made $800 a month full-time, full-time
as an intern at Mindvalley for the first, you know,
six months or so of my job there. I could have scoffed
and rolled my eyes and walked away.
But instead I said yes, and I did have some savings.
So I'm not saying that I just like went with it
and that that wasn't, you know,
that was going to be enough to live off of.
I did have some savings saved up.
So ultimately the decision is yours
and you have to make a decision that you feel secure with.
So I really want to, you know, point that out.
That is very important.
So I said yes to the job, to the internship.
I got promoted three times,
and when I left the company,
I was the Creative Director making much, much,
much more than $800 a month. Not
to mention the path that that job
and that internship led me down.
So rather than quoting high, hard balling
or refusing to negotiate, which is not a good look
especially if you're brand new, think of your price
as a starting point,
a way to start a genuine conversation
and find a price that feels great for you both, no matter
what everyone else is telling you.
All right. Now moving on to trap number five,
what I call the one-way highway.
Come on, be absolutely honest.
Are you really looking for clients everywhere?
Are you telling everyone you know about your new
copywriting business?
Are you having meaningful conversations, checking job boards
and connecting with potential clients every single day?
If you are putting all
of your client-getting eggs into one basket,
not planting seeds everywhere
and often, putting new irons in the fire just one by one,
or following just one way or method to find your next client
or any other analogy
or metaphor that works here,
you can just insert that right here.
You are making it a lot harder on yourself,
I promise you that. My most successful students literally
look for clients everywhere,
literally. Everywhere and all the time.
So much so that they're not even actively looking,
they're just making it part of their dialogue.
I love this recent share from one
of my Launch Pad season fivers. She posted, "Today
I went to film my experience on a workshop I did last year
with an organization that helps young people break into the
marketing industry.
I struck up conversation with the lady that facilitates it,
asked how it's going," that's key,
"And she revealed to me her pain point.
'It's hard to translate what we do
and why it's important into words.'
Well, I told her," this gave me goosebumps,
"Well, I told her how much I enjoyed my time with them,
that I'm in a copywriting course and I'd love to help.
She seemed happy, but I genuinely thought she was just
trying to be nice.
When I was leaving, she reiterated that she'd get back
to me on it, and another girl
that was there asked me if I'm looking to collaborate
with an art director.
So moral of the story, Alex is right,
obviously" she said that, not me,
"Just tell everyone you know." Let me tell you,
it's copywriters with this mentality
that hit $10,000 a month
and more, less than a year after starting.
And the truth is that level
of success is 1000% possible for you too.
If you stop falling into these traps
that I talked about in this video, start planting seeds,
and remember, there is not one right way to find clients.
There is not one magical source
where like all the best clients in the world hang out.
I envision like there's like this secret place online
where it's like only good clients hang out.
It's not how it works.
Different methods work for different people,
and based on your personality type,
there are countless strategies that you can try
that will feel really good to you, right?
Without having to do what everyone else says they do.
Like if cold outreach isn't your thing, that's totally cool.
You do not have to do it.
I have so many students
who don't use cold outreach to find clients.
So if you want to discover how to find copywriting clients
with more ease
and confidence, I have something really, really fun for you
to try out. My team
and I actually created a new 30 second quiz
that reveals your unique client attraction formula based on
your personality type, hidden preferences
and secret strength.
And you can take this quiz right now
for free at the link below.
I cannot wait to hear about your results.
Come back, comment below and let me know what you got.
I hope you enjoyed this little tough love session
and that it was helpful for you on your search for clients.
I will see you next week with a brand new video.
Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right, guys.
If you enjoyed that video, make sure
to check out the next one for me right here,
and you can click right here to get a free gift. Looking
for your next client,
but tired of hearing all the same old advice?
Are you sick of browsing Fiverr and Upwork for hours on end?
I asked thousands of copywriters in my community
to share the weirdest
or the most unexpected way they found a client
and here's exactly what they said.