I've Moved Away From Fantasy as an Adult

Tiffany A. Ingle is our guest on the 301st episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Tiffany is a conversion copywriter and brand strategist who finds much of her creativity from the world of fantasy. In this episode, she walks through how copywriters can tap into their most creative energy and create strong, authentic-to-them brands. Here’s how the conversation goes: What is a brand and why do you need one? How Tiffany helps people with their big picture strategy. Tiffany’s process for networking and connecting with others as an introvert. How this one thing is inevitable through building relationships. A natural approach to get to know new people and actually maintain the relationship. Why fantasy can help you become a better business owner and copywriter – And how it will help you become more resilient. How to apply the CRAVE framework to your business and create a strong brand. The process of packaging deliverables as a brand strategist – What goes into it? How to sell something that doesn’t have a direct ROI but an opportunity cost. The importance of anchoring your brand story to your business. What mistakes are copywriters making when trying to create a brand? How to tap into fantasy (+ book examples). Therapy and boundaries and how they’re helpful in business. How to build your toolbox for mental health and negative events. Why you shouldn’t tie your goals to these factors. Running a business, home-schooling kids, and balancing life – How does Tiffany do it all? Tune in to the episode to find out. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: How to Find Clients Workshop The Accelerator Waitlist The Copywriter Think Tank Kira’s website Rob’s website Tiffany's Linktree The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Free month of Brain.FM     Full Transcript: Rob Marsh:  After working as a copywriter for a few years, a lot of copywriters find that the title copywriter doesn't really fit all of the work that they do. Yes, they use words to help their clients communicate the right messages, but often they do a lot more than that. The strategic problems that they solve are bigger than headlines, body copy, and calls to action. They may help with content strategy. They may help with offer creation or with brand strategy. That's what Tiffany Ingle, our guest for today's episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, does for her clients. In this interview, we asked about her process for discovering and telling better brand stories and what she shared will be useful for anyone who helps clients write and tell their own brand stories. Kira Hug:  But before we get to our interview with Tiffany, you may have seen an email or maybe a couple of emails from us about our new intensive designed to help you find clients consistently. Rob, I just want to share why we created this new intensive. We could have created many different new products, but why did you feel like this one was important? Rob Marsh:  Well, we actually surveyed our email list and we had about 150 people just respond really quickly with the thing that they would like to see us do, the number one question that they're struggling with, and more than half of the people who responded said they wanted help finding clients, help with leads and the process of going through how do they even pitch or land those clients. We've spent a lot of time putting together basically a workshop series that addresses that need and will give everybody who joins the tools, the training, and a system for habits that will make it a lot easier to implement this on a daily or a weekly basis in your business. Kira Hug:  Yeah, it's great if you know that you need a system that can help you find and then book clients consistently and you're struggling with this maybe because you just don't find the time to do it, or maybe because you're trying different strategies that just aren't working. We put together these seven different phases in this system that will all work together to help you to land these clients consistently. If you want to find out more information about this, if it sounds like something you could use, don't wait because we're going to kick off in early August and jump in soon. You can check out all the information by jumping into the link and the show notes. Rob Marsh:  All right, let's get to our interview with Tiffany. Tiffany A. Ingle:  I became a copywriter at the end of 2019 after a few years of being a freelance writer, and I've had the privilege of writing copy behind the scenes for digital entrepreneurs and SaaS companies, content agencies, authors and speakers. I really enjoy writing copy, and I think I do a pretty good job at it, but I realized that the part I love most about my work was helping my clients strengthen their brands. I guess from a personal perspective, when I first got started as an entrepreneur, I spent so much money on all this training over the years to try to learn how to run a business. I always felt like I was getting really small pieces of the puzzle. But since I didn't know what the full picture looked like, I couldn't put it together. Tiffany A. Ingle:  I didn't have a strategy for marketing myself. I didn't have a compelling story to serve as the unifying message for what I need my audience to believe about me. I didn't have a way to easily build out and test new offers. And that's all because the one thing I hadn't learned how to do was build a brand. Without a brand, you won't be in business for long. The more I worked with clients and I got into things like research and positioning and voice and messaging and offer optimization, I realized that I was more concerned about how the work I was doing on a launch or on standalone assets fit in with their overall brand strategy. I decided to move away from execution and to really focus on those foundational elements of running a business. Rob Marsh:  When you say you moved away from execution, you're still executing, but you're executing on something different, right? You're not doing as much copy. You're doing more strategy. Am I right in that? Will you talk a little bit about the difference as you see it? Tiffany A. Ingle:  Yeah, that's correct, Rob. There was a time when people would come to me for launches or they want sales pages, things like that. And now when I work with people, it's typically just to strengthen their brand. We put together a roadmap. I do that kind of work, or maybe we'll focus just on the messaging because the messaging really ties everything together. As far as doing a lot of the projects that copywriters typically do, I have not been doing that as much lately. I'm really enjoying helping people put together a big picture strategy for how they're going to grow their businesses. Kira Hug:  Tiffany, I want to go back to 2019 because that was a good year. Let's go back in time. How did you get your first few clients? How did you build in those early months as you were gaining traction in your business? Tiffany A. Ingle:  My first clients were actually people that I knew just from being in different circles, different business circles online. I approached them and asked if I could do some case studies for them, because that seemed like a really good way to dip my feet into the copywriting waters. But then a couple months later when the... This is like the end of 2019 when I started. A couple months later, the pandemic was a thing. I had been thinking about joining Copyhackers Copy School for a while. I decided to go for it because I was stuck at home, like everyone else. And then I was able to get some clients through that, other copywriters who needed some help. It just kind of took off from there. I mean, anytime someone asks me now like how I've grown my business, my number one answer is just networking. I just really take a lot of time to get to know people and just to build connections for the sake of just making a new friend and inevitably that leads to more business down the line. Rob Marsh:  I want to go a little deeper on networking and making those connections, because this is something that a lot of us struggle with, even when we have a good business that everything seems to be going well. It feels sometimes like it's really difficult to create new relationships or to reach out to new potential clients. Tiffany, what are you doing to actually do that? Obviously, we're not necessarily talking about pitching here, you're- actually creating relationships and friendships and connections. How do you do that? Tiffany A. Ingle:  I'm a professional community member and group chatter. I love just hanging out in places where I can meet people who are doing amazing creative things. I always let people know if they want to do a Zoom chat or even like a good old-fashioned phone call; I'm always down for that. I've even recently started meeting people locally, which has been pretty fun and just a little surreal, because I never thought I'd be running my business offline too. But no, I let people know I'm open. I guess, other places where I've connected with people include LinkedIn, Twitter, just joining conversations there. But yeah, mostly just being a part of really cool communities and showing a genuine interest in people and also letting people know I'm open to teaching things, even if it doesn't directly align with my business goals. If I can share something that I know to help someone else, I'll do it. Kira Hug:  Maybe we can break this down even more because I know this comes naturally to you and I feel like you do have so many great relationships and this is where a lot of your projects come from. But for some copywriters, it's just it doesn't come as naturally. When they hear you say group chatter, I'm not sure how you worded it,