TCC Podcast #225: Paying Things Forward with Chima Mmeje

One of the things we love about The Copywriter Club Facebook group is that we have members all over the world… in just the last 60 days, members from 99 different countries on every continent except Antartica—places like Bulgaria, Colombia, Lithuania, Nigeria, India, and of course the UK, US, Australia, and Canada—have stopped in to read posts, ask questions, comment or just learn from the advice and wisdom shared in the group. Our guest for the 225th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is SEO copywriter and content strategist, Chima Mmeje, who like so many others, joined the group and used the information she found there to hone her business as she started looking for clients. And now, she’s paying it all forward. She talks about: •   studying LinkedIn for lead generation (then landing her first client with her very first post!) •   the reason we should focus on human content just as much as expert content •   articulating her process in order to raise her prices •   blogging to generate organic leads and answer frequently asked questions •   her initial struggle of finding her value — and building her authority as an African copywriter...and so much more •   Chima also spoke about The Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries — the initiative she started to pair experienced copywriters, marketers and creatives with their counterparts in developing countries. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. And if you haven't yet, subscribe with your favorite podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Chima's webpage Chima's LinkedIn Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:   One of the things we love about The Copywriter Club Facebook group is that we have members all over the world. In just the last 60 days, members from 99 different countries on every continent except Antarctica... Places like Bulgaria, Columbia, Lithuania, Nigeria, India and of course, the UK, U.S., Australia and Canada, they've all stopped to repost, ask questions, show up in the group, comment or just learn from the advice and wisdom shared in the group. Our guest for the 225th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Chima Mmeje, who like so many others, joined the group and used the information she found there to hone her business as she started looking for clients. And now, she's paying it all forward. Rob:   We'll share Chima's story and how she's paying her experience forward in just a minute but first, this podcast episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Underground, that's the incredibly valuable membership for copywriters who are ready to start investing in their business, improving their sales skills, their proposals and building a network that supports them with ideas, leads and more. As a member of the Underground, you have access to a full sales training course, our proposal training course, the persuasion training course plus dozens of other trainings to improve your copywriting, your mindset and marketing your own business. To learn more, visit the thecopywriterunderground.com. Kira:   As we like to do, we started off by asking Chima how she ended up as an SEO copywriter and content strategist. Chima Mmeje:   I used to work for a company that are based in the UK. I worked with them remotely from 2017 until April 2019 and while I was working with them, most of the content we're creating was for these big SEO agents in the UK, they were the biggest SEO agents in the UK at the time. And I realized that I always had the most fun when I was writing content for them, as against writing content for clients in other industries. And my boss used to have a background working with Google, so he was always very helpful in answering questions and my interest kept growing. So by the time I left, I played around with several industries, landing pages, printer's copy and other stuff but it just felt natural going towards the route of SEO than anything else I'd ever done, it just felt easy. So that was decision made for me or rather, SEO finding me and not me finding SEO. Rob:   So Chima, tell us a little bit about how you decided to become a copywriter and how you got that first gig. Chima Mmeje:   Yeah, that first gig, it was by chance to be honest because I was just scrolling through... I was looking for a job and I was just scrolling through a job board and then I found this gig saying they are looking for a remote copywriter. I applied, I got it and that was it. There was no moment where I decided that I wanted to be a copywriter. I was blogging for a few years, I think five years. My own blog where I was writing... So it was a way for me to express myself about the issues we have in Nigeria and I was doing that for five years, just like a hobby blog. So I already had a background in writing but this was the first time that I was going to use that skill to earn money. So I just found a gig, applied for it and the rest, as they say, is history. Kira:   And because I always like to know the timing, when did you get that gig? Chima Mmeje:   Yeah, 2017, 2017. Kira:   2017, okay. Chima Mmeje:   I got it. Kira:   And when did you leave that gig, or do you still work with them on occasion? Chima Mmeje:   No. I left that gig in April 2019, it wasn't the best paying gig. It was like, get your experience, get a few works for your portfolio, learn what you have to learn and then get out. Because what people don't understand is that when companies hire writers from Africa, they are not hiring us because we are good, they are hiring us because we are cheap. So I was writing around 5000 words a day, it was crazy work. I only did it till, yeah, I could get the skills I needed and once I got the skills I needed, I got out. Kira:   Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask you, how did you know when it was the right time to leave and move on to the next opportunity? Chima Mmeje:   That's an interesting question, I joined TCC in September 2018, yes. And I would see some of the work that people were doing and I would hear how much they were charging for the work and I was like, that's crazy. I write better copy than these guys and I'm getting paid less than one cent per word. And that was when I started thinking about leaving because I realized that I could be making 100 times more money working on my own than working for that guy, where I was writing 100,000 words a month and earning $500. And I was comparing my work with other people and I was seeing I was better than them, so I started looking at how people were getting clients, reading about how people were sending pitches. I followed TCC for three months to prepare myself to leave and then once I felt like I had enough information about getting started as a freelance copywriter, then I left. Rob:   So, can we talk about that a little bit more in depth? What were the steps that you took? And what was it that you did in order to find the clients as you went out on your own? Chima Mmeje:   Okay, so before I left that gig, I made sure I had two clients because I did not want to leave the gig and then be empty like that, without a job or without many clients. So what I did was I joined LinkedIn. While I was studying how freelancers worked in TCC, I was also doing the same thing on LinkedIn. So I was looking at how people were posting content on LinkedIn. The kind of content that got the most likes, the kind of content that people did not engage with. And I followed LinkedIn for six months to see how I could use it as a lead generator and then I joined LinkedIn in February 2019, made my first post. I got lucky because the day after I made my first post, I landed my first client. The next day, I landed another client and then in one month later, I landed my first U.S. based client and then two weeks later, I landed my first Australian client. So I already had a lot of traction in the early days, enough traction for me to say I could leave this gig and I will still be okay. Kira:   Okay, so I want to hear about what you were doing on LinkedIn because you took the time to really observe and see what's working and what's not working and then you did it and you just landed client after client. So what were you doing that was better or different than the average LinkedIn user or LinkedIn copywriter user? Chima Mmeje:   Okay, so the first thing I did was optimize the heck out of my profile. People don't understand but your profile is like your CV. When you're asking a girl or a guy out and then you go online to go and do a little bit of background digging on them, to see if the face matches what is behind the brain and that's what LinkedIn is about. People are going to start by looking at your profile. So my profile is really optimized, the headline, the about section, the future section. Every part of my LinkedIn profile, a lot of thought went into it. And then when I optimized my profile, I reached out to several experts, people who have been on LinkedIn for a few years, then I asked them to review my profile, they gave me some feedback and I used that feedback to make sure that my profile was really good. Chima Mmeje:   And then the most important thing I do on LinkedIn I think really, really helps me generate leads is content. I don't just post educational content, content about SEO because people find SEO boring. So I have a mix of content, I talk about everything from poop to not wearing clothes during LinkedIn calls. Sorry, during Zoom calls. To my nephew jumping in on a LinkedIn call, again, sorry, Zoom call. And a lot of funny stuff. And the truth is, it was a funny post I made about watching my dad grow his business that landed me my first clients and then landed me a gig with a nonprofit in the U.S. it's all of these posts that humanizes you,