TCC Podcast #274: Embracing Your Inner Viking to Get What You Want, Being an Artistic Entrepreneur, and Writing Holistic Copy with Anna Rosa Parker

On the 274th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Anna Rosa Parker joins the show. Anna is a brand alchemist and wordsmith who helps artists and creatives develop their brand personality using a holistic approach. In this episode, she uncovers how she uses her background and roots to get what she wants and how we can step into our own inner Viking. Here’s what we chat about: The shift from actor and screenwriter to copywriter. Feeling pulled in many directions and being multi-passionate. How knocking on doors can help you acquire new skills. Why Anna decided to leave acting and the mindset that led her in a different direction. How you can use the open-door policy to ask for what you want. Why you need to learn how to be fearless and how to step into your inner Viking. The equality in CEOs and janitors. The benefits of being in the marketing space, and how it can satisfy your ever growing desire to learn. Taking big chances when you don’t have a direction and how community can guide you when you feel lost. The difference in doing copy WITH vs FOR you. Is it a service you should offer? How you can utilize parts of your past into the present and future. The pros and cons of working with agencies. The key to writing holistic copy. Anna’s process in working with artists to find their brand identity. The underlying definition of creating a brand. Attracting clients by being 100% yourself and knowing exactly who you want to attract. Podcast creation and how it came about. Working with a partner who connects with your artist mindset. The struggles of being an artist and how to overcome them. The difference between building a business as an artist vs a marketer. Tune into the episode to find out how you can step into your inner Viking to ask for what you want. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Accelerator Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Anna's website Justin's website Episode 33 Episode 202 Full Transcript: Rob:  There's a book that we've referenced on the podcast in the past a couple of times. It's called The Alter Ego Effect, and its author is Todd Herman. And the big idea from the book is that you can adopt a different identity to help you show up in new ways in the various roles of your life, kind of like Clark Kent and Superman. Superman can't just be a normal person, so he puts on a suit and glasses and he pretends to be a reporter, in order to show up in an important way in his life. Today's guest for The Copywriter Club Podcast is Anna Rosa Parker. She's adopted an alter ego that she describes as a viking in heels, and it helps her to accomplish big things in her business. Actually, it's not fair to say that she's adopted that alter ego because, like Clark Kent, Superman is the real person, and Anna is the real Viking showing up as a brand strategist most days in her business. We'll hear more about that in a minute, but first let me introduce my guest commentator to for today, Justin Blackman. Justin, welcome. Justin:  Man. It is fun to be here. I always love talking with you guys. Rob:  Yeah. For anybody who hasn't heard you, which if you've listened to the podcast more than a handful of times, they've probably heard you mentioned or be a guest. Justin's a copywriter, brand voice expert. He's been a guest on the podcast twice before, episode 59, where he talked about his 100 headline project, the thing that kind of put him in the map, and episode 216, when he came back and shared his approach to brand voice. And if I'm not mistaken, I don't have these episodes in front of me, Justin, you've come back and you've asked Kira and I questions on one or two episodes. Justin:  I did. Rob:  I feel like maybe it's your fifth time here. Justin:  I think this is the fourth, actually. Yeah. Rob:  Yeah, fourth appearance. All of those episodes are worth a listen, when you finish this interview. Justin's also spoken at our event, The Copywriter Club in Real Life. I should just mention really quickly, there are still a handful of tickets left to next year's event, the end of March, 2022, in Nashville. If you're interested in those, there will be a link in the show notes. And finally, you can find Justin and his brand voice programs at Pretty Fly Copywriting. Again, Justin, I'm happy to have you here. Justin:  I am so excited for TCCIRL. I cannot wait to get down to Nashville. Rob:  Yeah. And actually being together in person after two years, hanging out with friends. We actually just had a meeting this morning, talking about what's going on and some of the speakers and what we're putting together for swag, and walked through the hotel and all the food options. I'm really, really stoked. I can't wait to make this thing happen. Yeah, we're going to together again. This'll be fun. Justin:  Yeah, pick up right where we left off. Rob:  Exactly. Also, before we get to the interview, let me briefly mention that this episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Accelerator. If you're listening to this episode on the day that it comes out, The Accelerator closes to new members tonight. The Accelerator is our 16-week program that helps you make the switch from struggling freelancer to booked out business owner. That's kind of a catchy way to say we help you set up your business so that you can succeed. We focus on things like nailing your x-factor, creating processes and boundaries so that you can serve your clients better. You also learn how to create service packages that clients want to buy and price them, so that you're paid a fair value for the value that you create. And we show you lots of ways to attract those clients to your business. We've actually revamped all of the content, and it's brand new this year. It's the perfect program if you want to make your 2022 more successful than 2021 was. And Justin, you actually went through that program? Justin:  I did. I was in the beta round. Rob:  Yeah, the very first time. And it's changed a lot since then, but you're one of the success stories. Justin:  Yeah, man. And I still use the templates that I got in that original program. That's where I got my contracts. That's where I got all my official programming and set up my business, before I even really thought that I needed one or that I'd have one. I was so happy that I did that and everything was in place, for when I finally made the jump to full-time freelance. Rob:  Yeah. It's been helpful to a lot of people. We shared a bunch of success stories last week on the podcast. Be sure to check that out. Now let's just get into the interview with our viking, Anna Rosa Parker. We'll be back in about 20, 25 minutes to chat about some of the stuff that stands out to us. So, here's our interview with Anna. Anna:  I started freelancing in New York for advertising agencies and some fashion in-house, as a freelance copywriter, but it didn't start there. I started writing, just writing in general. I started writing plays, early after I graduated from University of Washington, with a BA in drama. I was an actor by trade and became a playwright by default, from not liking or connecting the work that I was being offered and not getting the work I wanted, kind of a thing. So, I started to write my own material. I did that for a while. Then I came to that place where you wonder what you're doing, if that is what you should be doing. You know, that ongoing struggle, like, "Should I stay in the theater or not?" And so, I eventually left, and I got my first marketing job at Nordstrom in 2007. I did that for three years. I started just in the store, selling couture. Nordstrom had an open door policy. I was in the corporate store, and I knocked on the door of the owner, Blake Nordstrom. He's passed since. And I said, "Hey, I love your company. I can't be on the floor selling those dresses." He introduced me to the PR director of Nordstrom and they were just all such lovely people. I was knocking on a few doors, and one sent me to the next, and all of a sudden there was this job that was kind of created, as I was knocking on doors. I was a marketing coordinator. I did that for three years. That was probably my marketing school, because I came from the arts. I mean, I went to university, but I have a BA in drama, so that was my marketing ... I learned a lot there. There were cool people, a lot of women. Then eventually, I just couldn't ... I wasn't ready for it. I left and went back to the theater. Eventually we, my husband and my daughter, we moved to New York in 2011. And it took me a minute. Back then, I was hustling, just working in advertising agencies and in-house. I never signed a full-time contract, but some of these freelance gigs were up to a year, nine months. But I did this for a while. For some reason, I think because of the Nordstrom background, that's why I wanted to tell you that, the luxury background, that just took me straight into luxury hospitality. I worked on a lot of different accounts, some very exciting hotels, 1 Hotels and Baccarat, some pretty high end stuff. And I worked with some cool clients, athletes, Venus Williams and some really cool people. Cut to 2020, when the pandemic hit, and my business was evaporated. That year was crazy. But I found you guys in December, 2020, and everything has up-leveled since then. Rob:  That's all she wrote it. You have this very glamorous background, as an actress, and then working with all these famous people, these amazing brands. I like it all. But I want to go all the way back to when you were trying to make that decision of leaving acting. Will you just kind of walk us through that decision process? What was not working, and what were you considering?