Follow Up Series

Steph Trovato is our guest on the 329th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Steph is a copywriter who has been able to scale her business to $300k a year in just 3 years. In this episode, she shares the tools, strategies, support, and systems she’s put in place along the way to make it happen. Here’s a breakdown of the conversation: How Steph went from marketer for dental practices to freelancer and copywriter. Why she had to make the jump to full-time in her business and how she earned her first clients. Her pitching method – 100 pitches a week?! The most important step in the pitching process. How long she had to pitch before her business was sustainable. Her mindset and perspective shifts as she went full-time in her business. The transition from one-off projects to robust retainers. Can you be profitable and NOT be a launch copywriter? The power of being upfront about your pricing. How to set up a profitable retainer for your business. The reality of finding the perfect work schedule for your business and lifestyle. Steph’s mamba mentality – her approach to business, resilience, and dedication. Is it a sacrifice forever or just for a season? Here come those boundaries again… Why are they so vital for business growth and success? What really is a CEO retreat and how does affect business? How Steph breaks down her CEO retreats and how she stays productive. Why you need to find a supportive group of people who understand what you do. Creating goals that aren’t monetarily based. Creating truth to your purpose and the power you give to those around you. Tune into the episode by hitting play or reading the transcript. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Join The Copywriter Accelerator waitlist The Copywriter Think Tank Kira’s website Rob’s website Stephanie's LinkedIn The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Free month of Brain.FM Full Transcript: Rob Marsh:  Is it really possible to make six figures writing copy? How about three times that much. You might be thinking, "yeah, it's a possibility, but only after decades or longer of cultivating the right clients and developing your sales skills." That's certainly one pathway there. But our guest for today's episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast did it in just two years while primarily writing websites and content, not sales copy. Copywriter, Stephanie Trovato shares how she launched her business as a side hustle during COVID, then went full-time to avoid going back to the office. Two years later, she just cleared over $300,000 in her business. Steph told us how she did it and she filled us in on her CEO retreats, how she manages her time and family, and how the Copywriter Think Tank helped her do it. Kira Hug:  But before we get into our interview with Steph, we want to talk about our sponsor for this episode, The Copywriter Think Tank. So I have all this promotional copy in front of me that I should read about the Think Tank and how amazing it is. But I think it's better just to listen to the episode because Steph is a Think Tank member. She's in year two of the Think Tank, and I think she is one of the best examples of what the Think Tank is all about. It's about figuring out what else is possible for your business beyond the basics and beyond what you ever thought was possible for yourself and for your family, and for your own business and for your revenue. And so if you resonate with anything Steph is sharing in this episode, consider a Think Tank mastermind and apply. We'll jump on a call and discuss whether or not it's a good fit for you. But I think the best way to sum it up is like the Think Tank attracts people like Steph who want to challenge themselves and think differently about what they're building and explore what's possible for you. So, hope you can check that out if you're interested and we'll talk to you about it soon. You can learn more by visiting copywriterthinktank.com. Rob Marsh:  Okay. As we usually do, let's kick off this episode with some details about how Stephanie built a business that honestly earned $300,000 last year. Stephanie Trovato:  I ended up as a copywriter because of COVID. I always did copywriting because I'm a marketer and I used to do dental marketing and wrote the website copy and social media and all that stuff. And I always liked it. And as a kid, I always liked writing in general. So I thought freelance writing would be a good way to earn some extra money because I was tired of waitressing to pay for daycare in addition to my full-time job. And so right before 2020, I started freelancing for Huffington Post. I made 150 an article and it was like so much money, like I have made 700 in one month and I was like, "oh my God, I could pay for daycare. This is so great. This is so much money." And I decided to do it right from the beginning, so I made myself into a little LLC on December 30th, 2019, and I opened a business account and did all that. And then we all know what happened in March of 2020. And from there I just went full force because I didn't have a job because no one was allowed to go to the dentist. I had nothing else to do. So I was like, "well, I'll see what this is." And in the beginning it was interesting because it was a lot of messaging because people didn't know how to talk about COVID or how to approach their customers or the take they were supposed to have. And from there I just blew up. Rob Marsh:  So let's dive into that a bit because going from writing content for Huffington Post for 150 a post to blowing up, it feels like there's a piece missing there. So what did you do in order to leverage those first few content things that you had done into additional clients? How did you use that to find that next client and then to keep laddering up? Because clearly, and we'll get to this, your business is not made up of writing content for $150 a post anymore. Stephanie Trovato:  Correct. So what was really great about Huffington Post is it had a byline, which has this proof, it’s social proof, it shows that you know how to write and it shows that you really did it. And so I had, by the end of December, I had seven bylines. So from there I took a pitching course, like a cold pitching course and learned what pitching is, how to do it, who to target, how to target, like research, what to write, all of that. And I had a big Google sheet of a million people that I wanted to pitch and I sent 20 pitches a day and I started with lifestyle brands because that's where my bylines were. And I also reached out to someone I used to work with at a previous company, and she was an editor at Apartment Therapy and they had a bunch of articles like that also. So she gave me a continuous one and I had a byline there too. So every time I sent a pitch email, I had my proof. I was like, "here's where I wrote for this person and here's where I wrote for this." And that is what slowly gave me the courage to keep writing. Kira Hug:  So can we break it down for anyone who's not familiar, like what is a byline? How did you get the first seven? I mean, I know they start to build and it's like, "well, look what I've done here." But at the beginning, how did you start to get the first few? Stephanie Trovato:  So byline is when you're the author of the article and your name is listed. It's great. A lot of companies don't do it, but a lot do. And the first article I wrote was for holiday content. And a friend of mine had posted on her Instagram story, like a friend needs help writing articles. I didn't know who it was for, what it was for. And I was like, sure, why not? I found out it was the Huffington Post. The editor gave me the first topic and then she was like, "if you have any ideas, let me know." So a lot of editors in those types of publications except pitches and ideas. So I had a few ideas for gift lists like if someone just lost somebody and gift list for new parents and things like that. And she was pretty open to it and said yes to everything. And that's how I got so many, because she had like, like those kinds of publications, they just have a budget for the month. So they're like, here I have, you can write five articles. And I think I just got lucky in that way, and that's the only time I'll say I was lucky because after that it was hard work. But at the beginning it was luck. Rob Marsh:  Yeah. Speaking of hard work, 20 pitches a week is a ton. Stephanie Trovato:  No a day. Rob Marsh:  Oh, sorry. 20 pitches a day. So- Kira Hug:  That's intense. Rob Marsh:  100 pitches a week. That sounds nuts, I think to almost, even if you've got a system. So let's talk about that pitch. How much of each of those pitches was original? What were you doing? How did you identify the clients? Let's really go deep on this system that you used to get yourself out in front of the clients you wanted to work with. Stephanie Trovato:  Sure. So I made some buckets. So I had my lifestyle content bucket, dental marketing and healthcare in general. And then my previous experience in marketing operations and startups and digital marketing in general, like more agency side. So I had those little buckets and I literally would just sit there and Google digital marketing agency near me, digital marketing agency in this town, in that town, use different search terms and see what came up. There's millions. And then from there I would go see if they had a blog, if they did, great. Because in the beginning I just pitched blogs. So I would see if they had a blog or not. If they did, I would see how often they updated it. You could kind of tell, like a lot of people put the dates so you could see if all of a sudden it just totally dropped and you're like, "oh,