TCC Podcast #273: The Key to Fast-Tracking Your Success, Putting on Your Business Owner Hat, and Building the Foundations in Your Copywriting Business with Tori Autumn, Peta O’Brien-Day, and Demetrius Williams

On the 273rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, we’re joined by 3 guests. Peta O'Brien-Day, Tori Autumn, and Demetrius Williams join the show to talk about their experience inside The Copywriter Accelerator. The Accelerator Program is our signature program to help new-ish copywriters build the foundations they need to have a successful copywriting business. Whether you decide to join or not, this episode is filled with actionable advice no matter what stage of business you’re in. Here’s what we talk about: How The Copywriter Club Accelerator can help transform your business. Why people decide to join + how you may feel when you’ve hit a ceiling in your business. The key to fast-tracking your business. Hint: Systems and processes play a big role. How to go from order-taker to business owner (and stay that way). 3 books you may want to add to your bookshelf in 2022. The secret(s) to shifting your money and pricing mindset, so you can increase your prices. Why it’s important to dedicate time to your business AND business development. Balancing the different roles you play in your business and outsourcing what you can. The benefits of accountability, and how it will propel you forward faster. How branding yourself can be like therapy. Should you start before you’re ready? How to juggle life and business while going through an immersive program. Niching yourself based on your values. Creating packages that feel good and don’t overwhelm you. Why it’s a good thing to change your brand over time. The best time to invest in yourself. Hit play or check out the transcript, so you can jot down and implement the advice in this episode. Ready to hit accelerate on your business? Check out the Accelerator by hitting the link below. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Accelerator The Copywriter Underground Peta's website Tori's website Demetrius's website    Full Transcript: Rob Marsh:  If you're a regular listener to The Copywriter Club Podcast, you know that it's rare for us to have more than one guest on a single episode. But today we're going to do things a little differently. We've invited three different members of the current cohort of The Copywriter Accelerator to join us, to talk about their experience in this transformative program. Kira Hug:  We'll let these copywriters introduce themselves in a moment, but first, let me just say, if you're tempted to skip this episode, because you're not interested in this program, it could be worth giving it a quick listen because many of the takeaways they share about the changes they've made to their businesses apply to copywriting businesses at every single stage. And these writers are doing some pretty cool things in their businesses. You might be inspired by what they've done, and maybe even borrow an idea or two for your own business. Rob Marsh:  At this point in the program, we would usually say something like this episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Accelerator. And then we would tell you all of the reasons why you should consider joining. We're not going to do that today. Other than to say that after listening to this episode, take a moment to visit thecopywriteraccelerator.com and see what this program is all about. And see for yourself whether or not it's something that you should consider for your business this year. Kira Hug:  So, let's jump in with our guests. We are so excited today to be here with some of our Accelerator members, members who are currently in the program, which we're about to wrap up this month. And so before we dive into this conversation and ask you all a bunch of questions, can you take a minute to introduce yourself, all three of you? Just share name, where you're located, your copywriting specialty, and then bonus points if you want to share a favorite movie or book, optional. Tori, why don't you kick this off? Tori Autumn:  Hi, my name is Tori Autumn. I live in Washington DC and I focus on launch copy and website copy for course creators and coaches. My favorite book, I'm actually getting into that book the Four Thousand Weeks right now. It's scary to think of life like that, but it's also great to think of my time management. Kira Hug:  Yeah. Such a great book. I feel like when I hear Four Thousand Weeks, it makes me think that we have more time than I thought, but I'm like, wow, we have Four Thousand Weeks. This is great. So much time available. Rob Marsh:  Yeah. Until you do the math, Kira, and figure out that you've lived 2000 of them and... Kira Hug:  Rob, I didn't do the math. I didn't do the math. Thank you. Thank you for that. Rob Marsh:  You're welcome. Kira Hug:  All right. Thanks Tori. And Demetrius, can you introduce yourself? Demetrius Williams:  Yeah. So I'm Demetrius I'm from London. I specialize in website and blog copy for retail tech businesses. And I read so much. But the last book I just read was Atomic Habits. I literally read that in less than a day. Kira Hug:  Oh wow. Demetrius Williams:  And I've basically used it to tone down my procrastination. I have a shun for procrastination sometimes. So habit stacking to get rid of the bad habits has been a really good thing for me in the last couple of weeks. Kira Hug:  All right. Thanks Demetrius. Peta, what about you? Peta O'Brien-Day:  So, I'm Peta O'Brien-Day and I'm from New Bri, which is a little bit west of Demetrius in the UK. I focus on helping entrepreneurs write nurturing copy for their businesses and help them build authentic relationships with their customers in the health and lifestyle space. In terms of books, I've got a tiny person at home, so I haven't read a lot in a while. But I have just finished Caitlin Moran's More Than a Woman, which is incredible. She's fabulous. She's so funny. And she writes about politics and social justice and feminism and all kinds of things. That book is about all the different things that we have to think about as women in the 21st century and how much we have going on and what we can maybe do to make it a bit easier. Kira Hug:  All right. Well, I am adding that to my list for sure, Peta. I need that one. Peta O'Brien-Day:  You would definitely love her. She is fabulous. Kira Hug:  All right. And so let's just kick off this conversation. As I said, you're already in The Accelerator program. Let's go back in time to when you initially joined around four months ago. I'm just curious to hear why you joined. Where was your business at the time when you joined? Demetrius Williams:  I'll go first. I think I just started, I think I was a year into freelance copywriting and I just got to a ceiling basically. And I just didn't know where to go next to level up in terms of my processes and how to get more clients. And I've been listening to the podcast for about a year and I'd always wanted to join The Accelerator, but I think I missed the last one. So I had to wait for the next one. Joining The Accelerator, it basically challenged me in how I've worked on my processes. And it's allowed me to get a bit further than some of my other freelance friends who have taken like three to five years to get where I want to get. So I basically joined, so I wanted to, instead of get five years to better my business, I'm going to get it down to at least a year. Rob Marsh:  That's awesome. How about you, Peta? Peta O'Brien-Day:  When I heard about The Accelerator, I'd started out in Upwork with my $35 blog post and I'd managed to work my way up to having some own clients that I'd cold pitched. But it was in drips and drabs and same as similar Demetrius I want to fast track things. But I didn't have a huge amount of time. I had a little girl at home, I still do and had only about 15 hours a week to do the training or any courses I wanted to do and my actual client work. So I wanted to find something that was accessible, that was easy to digest, but that gave me massive amounts of value. I knew that in January I was going to have a lot more time because my little girl was going to nursery and I wanted my business to have all the background stuff ready to go, the processes, the niche, the branding, everything ready to hit the ground running in January and really make things explode. Tori Autumn:  Well, I'm a little bit shocked that you're making me think back in 2021, but no. I started because I very much felt like an order taker. When I read about the sales emails and sales page for The Accelerator, it really put words to what I was currently going through. Just feeling like I had to settle for low budget copywriting projects. And it was mainly because I felt like I needed to prove myself in the copyright industry with lots of different projects and also not really knowing what to charge. So my biggest goal was knowing how to describe myself as a copywriter, what type of niche I want to go and also blended with the other part of my business, which is self love coaching. So that also involved the brand messaging and how to price my package and how to work through my own processes. Rob Marsh:  As I listen to you guys talk about it, there's a couple of themes already that seem to be coming out of the reasons why you joined. One of them, Tori and Peta, you both mentioned low budget projects and trying to get away from those. Could you talk a little bit about what you've learned in The Accelerator? Has it helped you think about your pricing and either raise it or help you make plans to increase your prices so that you're not stuck with those $35 blog posts, the low budget projects? Peta O'Brien-Day:  Sure. So much. Obviously there's a modern on pricing.