TCC Podcast #45: Building Authority and Showing Up with Zach Spuckler

This is the 45th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast and we're joined by online business expert Zach Spuckler. As you listen, you’ll see that Zach’s energy and enthusiasm is contagious—and it quickly becomes clear why we booked him for the show. Zach shares how he started his first business at age 12, started a food blog and a few other businesses before deciding he needed to work in a business that he loved. In the interview Zach talks about: •  how he knew it was time to do “something new” in his business •  how he built his “authority” as an expert (and what you should do to build yours) •  his process to ensure he focuses on the most important things first •  his approach to discipline and showing up every day •  what his idea of great copy is (we think it’s spot on), and •  how he uses funnels in his business Zach also shares his thoughts about what beginning copywriters can do to get their businesses off the ground and the massive difference a team and systems can make for your business. To hear it all, simply click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Sponsor: AirStory Heart Soul Hustle Amy Porterfield James Wedmore Jeff Bezos (Amazon) Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity Full Transcript: The Copywriter Club Podcast is sponsored by Airstory, the writing platform for professional writers who want to get more done in half the time. Learn more at Airstory.co/club. Rob: What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That’s what Kira and I do every week at the Copywriter Club Podcast. Kira: You’re invited to join the club for episode 45 as we chat with online business strategist Zach Spuckler about starting a business from scratch with no list and no prospects, how to create Facebook ads and funnels that work, the critical part discipline plays in a successful business and how we can think bigger about our businesses. Rob: Hey Zach, Kira! Kira: How’s it going? Welcome Zach. Zach: Thanks for having me. Rob: Yeah, it’s great to have you here. Zach: I am excited to be here. Kira: Zach, I think a great place to start is with your story especially for people or copywriters who don’t know who you are and what you’re all about. Zach: Absolutely. So my story interestingly enough starts about 10 years ago when I was about 12 years old. The only reason I remember that it starts when I was 12 is I made my first dollar online and I had to use my dad’s social security number because I wasn’t actually old enough to get paid yet. So really he made my first dollar online. I just cashed the check and did the work so to speak. Over the last 10 years, I started and I’ve done everything online that you can imagine in terms of dabbling. I don’t have extensive knowledge of everything, but if you can make a buck doing it online, there’s a good chance I’ve tried it. Whether it’s website flipping. I did some affiliate marketing through Amazon for a while. I used to run some niche sites. I was in a direct sales company that I still get a tiny almost not worth mentioning commission check for most weeks. I’ve done food blogging and digital courses in the marketing space and out of the marketing space. I’ll fast forward to save time a little bit, but about a year and a half, two years ago, I was running a food blog. I kind of hit this wall where I loved my food blog so much. It was starting to generate revenue. People were coming to me asking me about how to get more reach on their blog. We’ve got Pinterest pins now that are up to 10,000, 20,000 re-pins. We were getting featured in some major publications in the food blogging space. It was all really fine and dandy but I started to kind of burnout. The best way I can explain it is if you’ve ever had a hobby that somebody offers to pay for and suddenly it becomes like no fun at all. A lot of us it’s like you’re really great at baking and then you decide that you’re going to sell your cupcakes and then suddenly you hate the kitchen. Well that kind of happened to me. Like quite literally I started to despise the kitchen. I didn’t like my food blog. I wrote this post that I was going to take a three month hiatus. I really went soul searching at that time if you will to say, “What really lights me up?” At that point, I’d been online so to speak for about seven and a half, eight years which is a really long time to be in an industry like this. Digital marketing and studying marketing and I said, “What has really been pushing me to keep going? Why am I even still here?” Because by all outside perspective, the food blog was going great. It was starting to earn money but I wasn’t happy. So what was I doing wrong? I really evaluated what had been making me so excited about the prospect of being online. I realized from day one it had been the marketing. With my niche sites, it had been studying SEO. In direct sales, it was being one of the first people in my downline to kind of dabble with Facebook ads to land prospects. When I was building out websites, it was getting really clear on creating up back link webs to drive traffic through websites and rank higher in Google. You can’t really do that anymore. It doesn’t work. I realize that learning all these intricate systems and strategies is what was really getting me excited. So fast forward to the start of my current company Heart, Soul and Hustle, we started it and you said something in the intro that I’d love to touch on which is like we started with no list, no massive success in the industry, no million dollar company to speak to, and my core vision was I know enough about marketing. I’ve made money in several spaces, industries, strategies. So I’m going to teach people what I know, how I know from where I am now. From day one, I’m just going to be really transparent about how I’m doing, what my results look like and people who naturally gravitate towards me will and people who think I’m not a big enough expert or I haven’t done it long enough or just don’t resonate with me fully, they’ll kind of repel away. So about two years ago, we launched our first digital course. It was on Periscope. I was doing Facebook ad management. I was getting about $1,000 a week in clients. We launched that course saying, “I can’t teach you much but I can teach you how I’ve been making $1,000 a week for a month.” That snowballed into our first six figure course. Then I got to talk more about my passion which is Facebook ads. We’ve released that course which I have to double check the stats but I believe that’s our second six figure course or it might be the third one. Then as people started to attract to me, we released another course on launching with five day challenges which is something that I just love. That has become our third six figure course. So we’ve got these courses out there. That kind of led me to where I am today where I’ve just always operated from let’s have fun. Let’s be transparent and now I get to do cool stuff like beyond podcasts and do launches and get paid to travel and all that good stuff. Rob: Zach, we’d definitely want to get into all of that. You mentioned the self-evaluation that you went through and asking yourself “What are the things that really lit you up?” Can you walk us through that process just a little bit more deeply? What were the questions you were asking yourself or what did that look like as you went through that process? I imagine a lot of people reached that same point in their business even copywriters. It’s like, “I don’t enjoy this anymore.” I’m just really curious what that evaluation really look like from your standpoint. Zach: The big thing was I just stepped back and said, “Clearly I’m not lit up or happy doing …” At the time, it was my food blog. For anybody listening, one post on the food blog is anywhere from a 12 to 20 hour commitment. That’s assuming you get the recipe down pretty quick. You have to photograph it and you have to develop the recipe. You have to taste test it. If you’re like really hard core which I was not but if you’re really hard core, you have taste testers and you seek out features. Then once you publish it, then the real work starts because you have to go out and you have to request features and submit your photos and create your pins. Basically, I was doing a lot of stuff that I was doing and I was saying, “What is the means to the end? Why am I doing this? What do I love?” Really, in this process, there’s things that kind of light you up. I think the best analogy is like people who love running which I still don’t get. I don’t get how you can love running, but I do like to run which is funny. I like to go out for a run. Like probably later in the day today I’ll go for a run. The prospect of running is not thrilling to me. I don’t think it’s thrilling to a lot of people, but then there’s those weirdos who love it. Hopefully, you’re not one of them and offended, but maybe you are. It’s cool. Like, what is it about running that I love? Well I like feeling good afterwards. I like getting outside. I like the feel of the sun on my face. It’s that same parallel in whatever you’re doing right now. You don’t hate everything you do. There are facets that you don’t like. It’s just like people who work a nine to five even. They’re like, “I don’t like my job. I don’t like my job.” I can’t tell you how many entrepreneurs I know who are like, “I feel so isolated.” I’m like, “Well you didn’t hate your job. You hated the work at your job but you love the sense of community. So you need to find a way to duplicate that in what you’re doing now.” That’s basically what I did. What is lighting me up?