How Did You End Up in Copywriting?

Juliet Peay is our guest on the 333rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Juliet is a personal brand coach and copywriter who helps her clients “unfrankenstein” themselves, so they can show up authentically online. When it comes to building a business, your personal brand can be the key to attracting your ideal clients. Here’s how the conversation went: Why Juliet decided to start a blog about local business and how it opened up a full-time job opportunity. Freelancing on the side and when she felt ready take the leap in her business. Doing something because you think you’re supposed to. Going from a reactive to a proactive client search and why mindset plays a key role. Finding the right social media platform for your business. Do you have to send hard pitches? Building relationships with people using LinkedIn. How Juliet landed a ghostwriting retainer project. The fine line between personal branding and copywriting. Her personal branding process – what does she use with clients? How personal should we get online? Is there a line we shouldn’t cross? How to find a middle ground when sharing strong opinions and viewpoints. One project at a time vs. balancing multiple deadlines. Implementing shorter deadlines for proposals and sending this key piece in your proposal routine. Hiring a VA + using Dubsado for business. Learning from client mistakes and the necessity of having contracts Common misconceptions around boundaries and how they improve your customer service skills. Finding contractors to make your life easier. Juliet’s cut and clear approach to problem-solving. The struggles of keeping up with the opportunities and not yet having the bandwidth to make it happen. Tune into the episode by hitting play or reading the transcript below. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Think Tank Kira’s website Rob’s website Juliet's website Nikita's episode  The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Free month of Brain.FM Full Transcript: Rob Marsh:  A lot of copywriters start out doing copy as a side hustle while they work at a real job, and as the work piles up, they quickly realize that they could probably be making more money doing the side hustle full-time. That's what happened to today's guest on the Copywriter Club podcast. Juliet Peay started a blog as a side hustle, got a bit of traction, and then started doing copy projects all while working her full-time job. Then she realized that what she was making as a freelancer was double the hourly rate she had in her real job, so it was time to jump. Juliet shared how she made the jump, plus she also told us about feeling trapped in a niche, how she sets boundaries, and her unique approach to making connections on LinkedIn. But before we get to our interview, this podcast is sponsored by the Copywriter Think Tank. That's our mastermind for copywriters and other marketers who want to do more in their business, whether it's something like stepping out on stage, creating a new product, your own podcast or video channel, building an agency, a product company, anything like that. Maybe you just want to become the best-known copywriter in your niche. That's the kind of stuff that we help copywriters do in the Think Tank. To learn more, visit copywriterthinktank.com and fill out the application there. Before we get to the interview, I also need to introduce my co-host for this episode, Nikita Morell. Nikita is known as the copywriter for architects. She was our guest on this podcast a long time ago, it was episode 136. She's a former member of the Think Tank and I'm just excited to hang out with you for 30 minutes again. Nikita, thanks for joining me and welcome back to the show. Nikita Morell:  Thanks, Rob. I can't believe it's been so long. It's been a while. Rob Marsh:  It's been way too long. I've been watching what you do on LinkedIn and on your list, and of course, we'll talk a little bit about niching I think later on here, but you really truly have done an amazing job niching your business and filling a need and finding a spot for you that's very unique, I think, in the world of copywriting. Nikita Morell:  Yeah, thanks Rob. I'm really excited to talk about Juliet's story today because I think I identify with lots of different things that she's gone through. So yeah, excited to get stuck into it. Rob Marsh:  Well, fantastic. Let's kick our episode off then by listening to the first half of our interview with Juliet. Juliet Peay:  I guess how I ended up in copywriting was that I loved writing, like all copywriters do. I got my degree in journalism because I felt like that was the smart and practical thing to do. I thought maybe I would go into politics, or journalism, or even have a talk show someday or something. I felt like college was the time to get that smart degree. I, after college, found myself in a lot of marketing/receptionist jobs. I didn't really get the marketing jobs that I thought I was getting because they would be presented as a marketing job and then in reality it would be a small business that needs that two and one. So I did gain good experience from that, but I also didn't know how to get what I wanted out of those experiences because I was young. I was told you work somewhere for 30 years. If you do all the grunt work, you get promoted, and I kind of just went by that typical corporate advice and also that the degree was like the check mark. After a few years of doing that, I decided I really want to do writing, and every time I send my resume to agencies, they say, "Where is your portfolio?" And I keep coming up with nothing. So I decided to finally do something about it and I just started writing on medium.com, I started writing on LinkedIn. I eventually decided to hone in a little bit on one topic. So I started a blog in my hometown, which is in Greenville, South Carolina. So the blog was called greenvilleenthusiast.com. Around that time, Covid hit, and so when everything got shut down, I had been doing restaurant reviews, and then was thinking, well, how am I going to keep making use of this if I can't go anywhere other than do some takeout stuff? So I pivoted and decided to do a small business campaign. So I did Faces of Small Business and I would kind of highlight the family profiles behind these restaurant owners that were reacting to Covid. Later, I did a series called Faces of Black Business to show where we could support Black families and Black business owners, and that got a lot of traction for my blog, which was really exciting. I picked up some freelance work along the way. I was doing that from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM. I did finally get a full-time marketing job and thought this is it. I did that from 9:00 to 5:00, but then after a year of doing both freelancing and full-time marketing, I decided to take the leap into freelance copywriting. I'm still here. I'm loving it. I've struggled with everything that every copywriter has as far as choosing their niche or finding their niche and kind of nailing that down. But long story, still long, that is my copyright journey. Rob Marsh:  Okay. I have a couple of really quick follow-up questions. Best burger in Greenville, like your food reviews. Juliet Peay:  Oh, that's such a good question. Oh, man. I feel like I owe it to my local community to choose a local place, but it's not coming to mind. So I'm going to have to cop out and say I really like either Five Guys or Bad Daddy's. Rob Marsh:  Okay, fair enough. What I really want to ask is, back when you were thinking about doing a talk show, tell me about the ideation there. What did you want to talk about, is it just general stuff or did you have something specific? Juliet Peay:  I didn't have anything specific. I just know they had one of these huge posters of why you should major in communications, and one of the things on the bullet points on that board was a talk show, and I thought like ooh, I could be Oprah, or Ellen, or be on The View or something. I'm a chatterbox and that seems like a perfect fit for me to just have a job talking. I do feel like when I had the blog, I did try to pivot it into an interview and I did maybe two episodes and was like, I don't like this. It's a different type of stress for me. So people have said before, "Why don't you host a podcast?" And I'm just like, "I don't know." It didn't land. Kira Hug:  Okay. So when did you make the transition and go full-time in your copywriting business? Juliet Peay:  Yes, so that was June 2020 is when I took the leap of faith. Yeah. Kira Hug:  Okay. And then when was the moment where you felt like, okay, I can really do this thing, this is real? Do you remember the context or any specific moments or details around that? Juliet Peay:  Yeah, so also I will say I think it was actually June 2021, so my bad, June 2021. But yeah, the catalyst for me being able to go out on my own was, for one, just the burnout and the exhaustion of trying to do it all, do everything. I had a friend ask how much are you making on your freelancing, and I hadn't really calculated it. To me, every project was just kind of exciting, extra pocket money, but I think when I calculated how much I was making in that 10 hours a week, the hourly rate was at least double what I was making full-time in corporate America. Then I also signed a ghostwriting book deal that was going to be at least four to six months of a pretty hefty retainer client. So that helped me feel like it was financially viable to take the leap. Rob Marsh:  And will you tell us what kinds of work are you doing in your business right now? Juliet Peay: So now I focus on websites, sales pages and emails.