TCC Podcast #77: Processes, Niches and Investing in Yourself with Christine Laureano

For episode 77 of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob talk with copywriter and marketing specialist Christine Laureano about her business, what it’s like to work with different niches that are completely different (makers and engineers), and a whole lot more. Here’s what we covered in our time together: •  how she went from the corporate world to maker to marketer to copywriter •  what she did to deal with a devastating personal tragedy •  the importance of carving focused creative time out of your day •  how she created systems to support her work and produce results •  the difference between working with big clients and small clients •  how she conducts her discovery process to uncover additional work (she gives a specific example) •  the process she went through to land a recent engineering client •  how she deals with working in more than one niche •  what she does to find clients who can pay within her niche •  why she is involved in more than one master mind group •  how she stays upbeat all the time (this is great advice) She also explains why e-commerce is such a rich opportunity for writers today—the growth in this sector makes it hard to ignore. To listen, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Copyblogger Angels by Silver Ravenwolf The Copywriter Accelerator Danny Iny Teach and Grow Rich The Copywriter Think Tank Joanna Wiebe The J Peterman Company Seinfeld Ba6marketing.com Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity Full Transcript: Rob: What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters, 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 77 as we chat with copywriter Christine Laureano about her path from business owner to copywriter, writing for engineers and other technical clients, how she uses her coaching experience as a copywriter, and how she stays so positive through the ups and downs of business. Kira: Welcome, Christine. Rob: Hey, Christine. Christine: Hey, guys! Excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Kira: Yeah, welcome! Rob: It’s great to have you here. Kira: All right, Christine, I know you have a really interesting path and story and we’d love to share it with our listeners. Christine: Oh, yeah, the winding path. Okay. Well, I am probably one of the oldest copywriters in The Copywriter Club. My path started back in the 80’s, way before the internet, when marketing was still done with maybe a computer, but pen and paper; rock and chisel. But I graduated college with a marketing degree and a minor in computer science. So not only was I into the marketing end of it, but I love the tech stuff. So I ended up getting a job at Xerox, and I did the corporate thing for several years. From there, I go down to a very, very technical job as a marketing exec, managing executive for accounts for an electronics distributor. I worked really closely with engineers, I worked with purchasing, I worked with production and manufacturing, and I did that for a really long time and that satisfied my technical need. And of course, the writing that I did for that was really that boring, dry copy. It was proposals, it was the stuff that I hate to think about when I look back on it. And then from there, I ended up having a family. And this is where everything kind of turned and the reason I talk about it like this is, I know everybody has life lessons and things and tragedies and things that happened in their life that forced them to pivot, and I had one of those. Our first daughter ended up passing in daycare. So my life completely, completely changed. I spent a month on the couch, literally,