TCC Podcast #96: From DJ to Financial Copywriter with Ridge Abraham

For the 96th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob talk with copywriter Ridge Abraham. Ridge recently left full time employment with The Agora and now works freelance for financial clients and is taking on clients in other fields as well. You’ll want to listen to this one if only to get all of the books Ridge recommends as we talked. In this wide ranging interview we talked about: •  how Ridge went from Los Angeles DJ to financial copywriter •  how his very first mailed promotion pulled $7 million •  how he uses swipe copy without stealing ideas •  his writing process •  the projects he works on today—since he left Agora full time •  how he structures his compensation for the projects he takes •  what he does to connect to potential clients •  how he keeps his skills sharp today •  his thoughts about mentorship and why it is so important •  what he’s learned from his famous dad—Jay Abraham •  the “unbelievable” mistake he sees a lot of other copywriters make •  the failures he’s experienced and how to know when to give up •  several ideas to try if you want to write in the financial niche We also asked Ridge about what he thinks will happen to copywriting in the future and he turned the question back on us, so we shared our thoughts as well. To hear this one, visit iTunes, Stitcher, or download it on your favorite podcast app. Or you can simply click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:   Agora Financial Great Leads Influence Made to Stick Money Map Stansbury Research The Oxford Club Cremes and Lotions Steal Like an Artist A Technique for Producing Ideas Joe Schriefer Abbey Woodcock Ian Stanley Gary Bencivenga Jay Abraham The Dip Chanti Zak Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity Full Transcript:   Kira:   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 Rob and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Rob:   You're invited to join the club for episode 96 as we chat with copywriter Ridge Abraham about his path into financial copywriting, what he did to generate seven million dollars with the first campaign he ever wrote, why he's so hard to find online, and the most important lessons he learned from his famous dad. Kira:   Ridge, welcome. Ridge:   Thank you guys. Thanks for having me. Rob:   It's really good to have you. Kira:   We were joking before we started recording about how Ridge is the hardest person to find online. We had to scour the internet to find you. Ridge:   That way you guys can't ask me those trick questions. Kira:   I know. Ridge:  It's even been easier to find Paris Lampropolous online, than it is to find me, which is saying something because he hides. I think he's got a bigger body of work than me, I don't know. Kira:   So let's kick this off with your story and how you ended up as a financial copywriter. Ridge:   Okay. So it's actually a pretty funny story. So, like I was telling you guys, I went to school for music. I was really into music production, songwriting. I was DJing. I was living in LA, and I really want to play shows. I wanted to travel and do stuff like that, and it is tough right out of college. If you want to be like an entrepreneur in the music business, it's very difficult to make it and you're often times broke. So I was working this internship at ... It was like a subsidiary of Hans Zimmer Music for Film studio, and I hated it. I was the intern that every day I would just go and get people lunch. I was just like the gopher. Worst job ever, miserable. I was really like, okay, I need to figure something else out. So I was listening to a lot of entrepreneurial podcast an...