TCC Podcast #68: Getting Things Done with Ashlyn Carter

Copywriter and calligrapher Ashlyn Carter joins Kira and Rob for the In 68th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast and wow, does she deliver. In just a couple of years, she's built a six-figure business that is growing like crazy. In this interview, she shares: •  how she went from agency consultant to PR publicist to freelance writer •  what she learned from working with companies like Delta Airlines and Chick-Fil-A •  the difference between working with corporate brands and personal brands •  her struggle to do everything right, the repercussions, and how it led to the work she does today •  the process she used to break away from the negative behaviors that tied her down •  what happened when she chose a niche and had to fire some of her clients •  how she had to adapt new processes as a business owner (as opposed to being a freelancer) •  when she knew it was time to create a digital product •  the questions she asks to keep her team focused on getting things done •  how she organizes her time to get more done •  her onboarding “magazine” that sets boundaries and outlines processes And as we often do, we also asked about a couple of her non-copywriting hobbies. She sold us why she does calligraphy in addition to working as a copywriter, and the lessons she learned from dancing that have made her a better copywriter. To hear Ashlyn tell it, click the play button below. Or scroll down to read the transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Toggl PowerSheets Strengths Finder Rest by Alex Pang Jenna Kutcher James Wedmore Todd Herman's 90 Day Year HoneyBook Amy Porterfield Anne Lamott Chuck Close Malcolm Gladwell AshlynWrites.com 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. Kira: What if you could hang out with seriously copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea 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 us episode 68 as we chat with copywriter Ashlyn Carter about what she learned managing crisis communications for brands like Delta and Chick-Fil-A, how choosing a niche has affected her business, the process she used to break her own negative behaviors, and how dancing has made her a better copywriter. Rob: Ashlyn, welcome! Ashlyn: Thank you so much! So excited to get to talk to y’all today. Rob: We’re excited to have you! Kira: I know, I know! All right, so, Ashlyn, I think a good place to start is with your story, of course, and how you ended up getting into copywriting! Ashlyn: Yes, so it turns out that if you chronologically file magazines under your bed growing up, you’re a shoe-in for a journalism major, so I went into college, like, no doubt what I wanted to be. I wanted to work in magazines. I wanted to do editorial stuff. So I was a print major in the journalism school in 2009, which, I’m sure all of us who work in this industry—that was a tough year for publications. So I promptly went back from my senior year, switched to the publications track, and knew that that’s what I wanted to do. Right out of college, I worked as a traveling consultant for a women’s organization. I worked the ultimate dream of working in—I grew up in Alabama so the big city of Atlanta is where I wanted to be—I wanted to work an agency life in Atlanta, so I did that! And was in agency for about four years all together and worked as a publicist as well for a chef and his slew of restaurants and then I moved on to working on my own! There are a lot of ups and downs and valleys but that, in a nutshell, is what happened. Rob: So I’m curious about your agency experience. The kind of clients that you were working on, the kinds of projects you did there... was it PR focused? Was it copy focused? Tell us a little bit more about that. Ashlyn: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, I look back on agency life and I loved it so much. It’s like an incubator of sorts and it teaches you so much. You know, I wasn’t there that long all together, but it was a full service firm, so we did everything in-house, from public relations and pitching to more marketing-driven campaigns to experiential events for our clients and also, being in Atlanta, I was primarily on the Delta Airlines account, Chick-Fil-A, those kind of brands—Coca Cola in-house. So those were what we were working on. And I did a lot of customer communication for Delta Airlines, so crisis communication there is really fun because you’re planning for things like, what if an airplane crashes? What are we going to do? What’s our game-plan? But also, high-value customer events, which was really fun planning those—I really enjoyed it. But my favorite part, which I didn’t even realize that it had a name, being copywriting—it was just writing marketing words, right? But crafting the email communications that we would send out to SkyMiles and Value members and writing the website for the Delta.com relaunch when we did that a few years ago, and other SkyMiles program initiatives. That was primarily my wheelhouse and what I was working on, but I did get my feet wet with some pitching. Kira: So what did you learn from crisis communications at Delta and the customer communication during that time, working with these big brands like Delta, Chick-Fil-A, that you KNOW that you’re using today in your own business? Ashlyn: Yes, so one of the biggest things that I think that agency teaches you, and I know that there’s other fields that do this, like law, but tracking your time. I think as you move into an entrepreneurial space, our time is money! And when you have to bill time with the quarter hour and you do that year after year... I still keep timesheets for myself and my business. I’ve used Toggl before—there’s tools out there—but to me it’s just easiest to write it down. And if nothing else, it keeps me accountable. And it helps me measure how long client projects take. That was one of the biggest lessons—I do think there’s like a post-traumatic period where you have like, I remember folding laundry at times after working in agency and being like, I bet I can do this in a .25, you know? Kira: (laughs) Ashlyn: And that’s not helpful for anybody. (laughs) But it did stick with me. So that was one thing that I learned. I also learned quickly how to voice switch back and forth which, I think is integral as a copywriter with multiple clients. You quickly have to be able to chameleon brands and brand voices. I didn’t realize that that was part of my education until I had this student ask me one time, “How do YOU switch?” and I was like, I have never really thought about that! You just switch. But that is something I think that I didn’t realize that I learned. I learned a lot about project management and I think the biggest takeaway though is, how to behave as a business owner. Like I said, I can’t speak highly enough for that agency—it’s, the name of it is Jackson Spalding—it’s a mid-sized communications firm—locations all over the US, but based out of Atlanta. But the founders there just had an expectation of behaving that I just watched from afar and it really got engrained in me. We had our core values on our desk—everybody did—in a little frame, and one of them, I remember, was “We tell the truth.” And I think that just sunk into me over time. And even now, as a business owner with a team, you know, it’s so easy, especially online to you know, just shore up that email with a few extra things, I think, but I constantly remember that and I can’t shake Jackson from my head and what he stood for and I do think that I learned that if you don’t cast a crooked shadow, it’s a lot easier to operate your business and go to bed at night without any regrets about the way that you’re running things. There was just a lot that I learned from watching him. Those days were hard, though, I do think I got bosses that edited, you know, like any job where you have an editor and you get it torn apart and it’s bleeding and it’s like a murder scene, but you learn how to write. Rob: So I’m curious if you saw a difference in working in PR with companies and then working with the celebrity chef, you know, where you’re working with a personality. Is there a difference in the kind of things that you do for a personal brand versus a company brand? Or is it basically the same process? Ashlyn: That’s a great question. So, when I switched from being more agency-based to being more in-house, yes. I think I learned what it’s like to work for a personal brand, right? And that was everything that Ford would do, I was constantly watching, you know, how is he going to say-what is he going to say in this interview? Have I prepped him well for this? It kind of takes everything that was going on in a corporate setting and pushes it into just, one single focused point and that was this man. He was the brand. And all the restaurants were built around him. So I learned how to market a brand and a personal face, so that was really different for me. I’d never really done anything like that before. It came with its own set of challenges, but yeah. I would say that that’s the biggest difference: going from having the opportunity to have lots of different stories to tell to learning that you’ve got to get really good at the stories that go with this person and making him—pushing him forward as you know, the face of the brand—and having a good relationship with him. Because I’ll be honest, there were times when I had to, you know, (laughs) he’s a classic entrepreneur type.