TCC Podcast #123: Our Latest Quantum Leap with Kira Hug and Rob Marsh

For the 123rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob change things up a little bit and go “guest-less”. After a short discussion about what’s going on in our own copywriting businesses, we talk about we’re working on and what we’re most excited about—with special attention paid to our in-person event coming up next month. Here’s what we covered in our discussion: •  the pain of juggling two businesses •  getting back into things after taking a step back from client work •  what we might be testing on LinkedIn this year •  taking a Quantum Leap •  the genesis of The Copywriter Club In Real Life •  when it doesn’t make sense to make a Quantum Leap •  the people we’re seeing make Quantum Leaps right now •  why we’re “all in” on The Copywriter Club •  a few tips for making your own Quantum Leap • why you have to join us at TCCIRL this year To listen to this entire episode, click the play button below. You can also add it to your favorite podcast app. And if you’re a reader, you can scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Think Tank Michal Eisikowitz Kirsty Fanton Linda Perry Derek Hambrick Raven Douglas Robert Lucas Justin Blackman Sorcha MacKenzie TCCIRL19 Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity   Full Transcript: Rob:   This podcast is sponsored by The Copywriter Underground. Kira:   It's our new membership, designed for you to help you attract more clients and hit 10k a month consistently. Rob:   For more information or to sign up, go to thecopywriterunderground.com. We do not have an intro for this episode. I guess we're just going to wing it. Kira:   Is that your intro? Rob:   I think that's our intro. Yeah, why not? Hey, everybody. Hey, Kira. It is Episode 123 of The Copywriter Club Podcast, and it's just you and me today. Kira:   Yeah, it's just us, just more quality time together. I love it. Rob:   That's right. Kira:   I just want more time with Rob, all the time. Rob:   Which is hard to do, because we live far away, and we both have separate families. Yeah, we squeeze in what we can. But I have a question for you, Kira. It's been a long time since it was just you and I on a podcast episode, last summer. What has been going on? What's changed in your business over the last few months? Kira:   That's such a big question. A lot. I think in that last episode I was talking about how painful it was at the time, and I think the pain is still kind of there. It's just changed. I've made a lot of improvements to my business, but I'm still juggling two businesses, so I think if you're juggling two businesses and a family, it's just going to be a bit painful. But I am transitioning towards The Copywriter Club and focusing more time and energy on The Copywriter Club. I'm just not fully there yet. My time is still very much split. I probably had the busiest fall ever with my copywriting business, which was probably silly, just taking on a lot, building out a team, doing all the things I kind of told myself I wasn't going to do, and then I just did it all and took on a lot. Now I'm trying to trim that and just focus on building this business and this community that we're both so excited about, but making that transition is very messy for me. That's it. Rob:   One of the things I love about you and your businesses is that you're just a doer. I mean, a lot of times you'll say you're not going to do stuff, and then you just go ahead and do it, but you have this vision of what you want to accomplish and the people that you want to work with, and you go out and you make it happen. I think that's really admirable, even though sometimes it squeezes you for time, and it's hard to accomplish everything sometimes. Kira:   Yeah. Well, that's a very positive way of looking at it, thank you. But no, I think that that's what I do really well, and that's also what will hold me back and drive me crazy, so that's also what I'm working on, is just looking at how I operate and really questioning just a lot of things in my life and business. I kind of view this upcoming year as just a year to question, just question everything, because I think it's really easy just to fall back into what comes naturally and your habits, and even your strengths that could end up holding you back from where you need to go. What about you, Rob? What's been happening for you? Rob:   My business hasn't changed drastically. We launched The Copywriter Underground at the end of October, and because of the work and the attention that I've tried to play there, I've backed off on taking as many clients as I did through the previous nine months of that year and the year before. I've done less client work in order to support what we're doing in The Underground and The Think Tank and all of that. That's not really a major change, but my business has definitely changed. I'm to the point now where it's like, ‘Okay, time to get back into client mode because I need to be able to pay the mortgage and support my kids and wife,’ and all of that. Yeah, so my focus this year is primarily, like you were just saying, on doing new things with The Copywriter Club, and we've outlined a few things that we want to accomplish this year that we haven't done in the past, which is kind of exciting, but also just getting back into the habit of working with a couple of clients each month to make sure that there is money in the bank. Kira:   Yeah. You said it's not a big change in your business, but it has been for you, because you have focused so heavily on building the infrastructure for everything we're doing in The Copywriter Club, the membership, event logistics for the event coming up in March, so much of that, and it would not happen without you. This isn't me thanking you, although I should thank you every day because you do so much for The Copywriter Club to build it, but I think that's a pretty big change, because you have taken a step back from the client work for a couple of months to really do the hard work, the not so ... I mean, it's the messy work, too, to build what we're building. I imagine that your day looks very different with what you've been doing over the past few months, compared to what copywriters typically do when they're just working with clients. Rob:   Yeah, definitely. Yeah, and there have been a lot of back-end type things to figure out, to make sure that they're working. It's been a great learning experience. It's tough. It's been fun launching The Underground, and getting to know the almost 200 copywriters that are hanging out in there has been awesome. It's been a great group. Yeah, it's been good few months, and time to get serious again about moving forward with my clients. Kira:   What does that look like for you, getting serious about moving forward with clients? What do you have to do to get that engine running again? Rob:   A big part of it, I'm reaching out to clients that I've worked with in the past and just touching base, making sure that there are things that I can help them with, letting them know the types of projects that I'm working on, so there's that. Another thing that I ... I'm going to say it publicly, so this is going to make sure that it happens, is I'm going to be trying to do more outreach on LinkedIn. Kira:   Me, too. Rob:   Not necessarily like reaching out, pinging clients and, ‘Hey, glad we could connect, and now I've got this thing to sell you,’ but trying to put a little bit more content onto LinkedIn, doing what Michal Eisikowitz has talked about and done. She's somebody that we obviously admire a great deal, what she's been able to build with LinkedIn, so doing more of that. Kira:   Yeah. I was never a fan of LinkedIn, but I've got to say, LinkedIn is the place to be right now. I feel like it's just where ... I hear about so many people finding great leads and just publishing great content, and I just never thought it was a sexy platform. I just kind of felt like my people weren't there, but I feel like they've made updates, and it's the place to be. I haven't- Rob:   It is sexy, though. It still is sexy. It's kind of- Kira:   It is not. I don't know. Rob:   It's kind of like the nerdy little brother of social media. Kira:   I don't know. Rob:   But it's definitely a place where a lot of businesses are. Kira:   Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm also focusing on ... Well, Michal's going to help me build out my profile because I haven't touched it in years, so I have a bunch of messages in there. My profile looks ridiculous and so amateur. She's going to help me fix it up and figure out how I need to play in the LinkedIn space and what makes sense. Rob:   That's awesome. Kira:   Yeah. Actually, she'll be speaking at our event in March, TCC In Real Life, which we're definitely going to plug as much as possible throughout this conversation, because it's our second annual event, and we're taking a leap and going bigger with this event and just want it to be a huge success. She's going to be one of the speakers, because she has exploded her business over the last year or two and done incredible things, and LinkedIn has been a really helpful platform for her to build her business. But she's just one of the copywriters we know who's just excelled in such a big way, and she's done it through hard work and just being very strategic and saying no to a lot of things, and also juggling four kids, too. I'm just amazed by her. Really excited about her. I'm sure we'll mention some other speakers, too. Rob:   Yeah. You're jumping right to the event, but let's back up for a second. Kira:   I just jump. I just jump. Rob:   You were saying that we're taking this leap thing,