How Are You Looking at Growth?

Eman Ismail is our guest for the 245th episode of The Copywriter Club podcast. Eman is an email copywriter who has quickly become a go-to expert for all things email copy. Eman made the transition from feast or famine freelancer to CEO by implementing VIP days into her business. If you want to make the switch to VIP days and day rates, don’t miss this episode. Here is what else we cover: Going from charity worker to charity freelancer. The difficulties of being a mom and owning a business. How to let your network know what you do in a way that’s not uncomfortable. Shifting niches and how to attract your ideal customer. The fastest way to level up your freelance business. When being booked out doesn’t mean paying the bills. Hitting the first 5k month and shifting your mindset to get out of feast or famine mode. How niching down can be terrifying but bring in more clients than ever before. When to increase your prices and invest in yourself. The secret to making the most out of your investments. The number one way to maximize all of the coaching and courses you go through. How to shift from a project-based model to a VIP day model. The better way to structure VIP days to allow for maximum results. Why you should hire someone for the service you provide. Perfecting your systems and processes and learning from others. Finding your ideal work schedule and allowing enough time for research. Selecting an online platform where you can find your ideal clients. The importance of a marketing plan. Whether your a new copywriter or you've been in the copywriting space for awhile, you'll get actionable advice on building your business. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Think Tank Eman’s website Copywriting resource guide Full Transcript: Rob:  There's no doubt that you've heard the phrase overnight success, and usually when people talk about this you're saying that there's no such thing. Success takes time, and finding it overnight is incredibly rare, if it happens at all. Today's guest for The Copywriter Club Podcast is Eman Ismail, and Eman recently gave a talk at TCC(N)IRL, that's our event, about how she went from being completely unknown to being the name on everyone's lips in less than a year, and during a year when we had a pandemic. It wasn't overnight, but it happened incredibly fast, and she shared what she did to make that happen, partly in this interview and also in that presentation, available with the IRL recordings. But before we talk to Eman, let's talk to you just a little bit about the Copywriter Think Tank, that's our mastermind for copywriters and other marketers who want to do more in their business and their work, whether you want to build a more robust copywriting business with better clients and better projects, and of course better way, whether you want to add on something like a podcast, or a course, or something like that, or even if you want to build a mini agency or some other kind of business model that you've been thinking about. Those are the kinds of things that the people in the Copywriter Think Tank are doing all the time. If you're ready to surround yourself with people who are thinking bigger about their business, then you should visit copywriterthinktank.com. Sign up for a quick information session. There's no hard pitch, I promise, and maybe you can join this group of extraordinary business owners too. Now, before we jump into our conversation with Eman, you'll notice that Kira is not here, and that's because Kira is actually having a baby today. So, we unfortunately aren't going to have Kira for the next couple of weeks as we talk about the things on the podcast, but I am going to bring in other people on our team, other copywriters that we know and want to be able to share some of their thoughts about the interviews. So, while it's just me, Rob, today, starting next week we'll introduce you to other copywriters as we talk about the things that our guests share on the podcast. So, having said that, let's jump into our conversation with Eman and ask about her story and how she became a copywriter. Eman:  I was managing the communications department for a local charity, and I was copywriting, I was doing a lot of marketing, creating their videos, and running their social media, which I hated but was part of the job description. As I was kind of doing this job, I realized that it was the copywriting side of this that I really loved, but didn't know that you could get paid to do it. So, I kind of discovered that people will pay you to write their websites and write their emails. I also got really hooked on the idea of, because it was a charity, I send out an email and then money just floods in in response to this email, and that feeling was really addictive. I asked my manager back then if I could do more courses and learn more around copywriting, because I was really passionate about it, and it was always kind of like, "Yeah, we'll talk about this in a few months. Yeah, maybe." Meaning no. So, with that, and then on top of that I had to do a commute to work every day. My son back then was two, so it meant that I wasn't seeing him very much. I was leaving my house at ... Oh gosh, I was waking up at 5:00 AM, leaving my house with him at 8:00, dropping him off at nursery. I was on the motorway really early, or highway, really early on in the morning and I wouldn't get home till about 8:00 PM. By the time I got home, so he'd already been picked up by a childminder, he'd be asleep on the couch waiting for me to come home. Yeah, he'd refuse to go to bed until I got home, and he'd do his best to stay awake and could never stay awake for me. So, I'd come home every day and he'd be asleep on the couch, and it was I fell into a depression. I just kind of spiraled, and I was really unhappy with the way things were working out. I was in this job where I was being, I was working all day, and then I was being messages all day and night on WhatsApp and weekends, and I was expected to do additional work on weekends, and on holidays and things like that, and it was just not where I wanted to be. I remember thinking I took this job so that I could create a better life for me and my son, and yeah, it's great having a bit more money, and it wasn't a lot more, honestly, because I didn't get paid that much either, but I wasn't seeing him anymore, and it just felt like this is not worth it. This isn't what I signed up for. So, I did speak to my manager and asked him about working from home more, he said no, asked him for a pay rise as well, to which he said not that figure. He wasn't happy with the figure that I asked for, and he said, "I don't quite think you're there yet." Was his actual answer, and I remember just in that moment thinking, "Well, I actually think I'm far beyond that. I was being nice with the figure that I asked you for." And so yeah, I realized that it was time to go. It was time to go. So, I resigned. I had a month's notice to work, so I worked that month. I told people on LinkedIn that I was going to be a freelance copywriter, because at that point I had no savings, I had no other job lined up. I'd already tried to set up a copywriting business a couple of times and it had failed, so this was actually my third attempt, and I just remember thinking like, "This has to work. I have a son now, it has to work." And I had a lot more motivation for it to work, like I had to get it right because now it was about creating a lifestyle for me and my son, it wasn't just about money anymore. So yeah, I told people on LinkedIn that I was going to be a freelance copywriter. Is anyone looking for one? I actually got quite a few responses and found my very first client on there. The day that I resigned, the day that I actually finished working for that charity, the CEO messaged me a couple of hours later asking if he could hire me as a freelancer, so that was great. So, that charity also ended up being one of my very first clients. By Monday I had another client that in was working with, and then it just kind of snowballed. So, initially I found myself working with a bunch of small charities, which wasn't the plan, but because of my network it just happened really naturally, and I was just grateful to kind of have clients at that point, but I knew that I wanted to expand and didn't want to stay in that small kind of charity world. So, that took some time, but it was great that things started moving pretty quickly. Rob:  So Eman, when you compare the previous times that you had tried to start a copywriting business where you had failed, and this time where you succeeded, what was the difference? What made it so that this time wasn't another failure? Eman:  I think firstly I had people to look up to. So, I'd started listening to Belinda and Kate's podcast, Hot Copy Podcast, and just knowing that it was possible, that there really were people out there who were copywriters and who were making a good amount of money made it feel like it was really possible. Around that time I also started listening to this podcast, so this is a few years ago now. I just listened to this podcast and listened to the interviews and realizing that this can happen. Why can't it happen for me? That was a big game changer. The Hot Copy Podcast was a big part of it because they were really great in sharing tips and strategies around how to actually get started and they really demystified the whole thing for me and it became a case of okay, I think I can actually do this, I can see how this would work, and now I just need to execute. So, on top of being way more motivated than I've ever been to make it work, it was also a case of I'm inspired by a whole bunch of people.