TCC Podcast #73: How to stand out online with Blair Badenhop

Wellness copywriter and online branding strategist Blair Badenhop recently made her way to our studio for episode 73 of The Copywriter Club Podcast. We were excited to talk to Blair because we’ve had a ring-side seat as she’s launched her new podcast and built her soon-to-launch course. In this interview, we asked her: •  how Blair went from ad sales to non-profits to health coaching to copywriting •  whether writing in the health and wellness space is really different from writing for other niches •  how she helps her clients get clear on their positioning and branding with her discovery process •  why Blair takes three hours to get to know her clients BEFORE she starts to work •  what she did to create a steady flow of clients from the very start of her business •  how she got herself to the top of Google for her main key word •  the difference between “getting clients” and “making friends” •  her thoughts about what copywriters should do to stand out online •  the place red lipstick plays in her personal brand •  her experiments with Pinterest and Instagram to grow her list •  how other copywriters can use Instagram more effectively •  how she gets it all done—social media, client work, her own course, a podcast and more •  why she launched a podcast and the effect it’s had on her business We also asked, as we often do, about where she sees copywriting going in the coming months and why more people will start investing in it. It’s another info-packed episode. Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times... and have fun! Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Sponsor: TCCinNYC Dress for Success Harper’s Bazaar Parsley Health Nitika Chopra Wellness Copywriter Blair on Instagram Blair on Pinterest Your Wellness Brand (coming soon) 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 73 as we chat with freelance copywriter Blair Badenhop about her path into copywriting, writing for clients in the health and wellness niche, creating a podcast and a course to reach her audience, and developing a brand that stands out from other copywriters. Kira: Welcome, Blair! Rob: Hey Blair. Blair: Hey, thank you guys so much for having me! Kira: It’s great to have you here. So, Blair, let’s start with your story: how did you end up running your own business? Blair: Oh man. It has been such a crazy, winding road to this point. It’s kind of funny to look back on. So, the reason I started was kind of by accident. I wound up losing my last full-time job and I got a severance package that kind of tided me over for four months and so I was like, okay! What do I want to do with my life? And I’d been working in the marketing department over at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition for three years and before that I worked for a non-profit called Dress for Success managing partnerships, and before that, I worked in magazines, most well-known would be Harper’s Bazaar as a sales assistant, learning all about sales and marketing. So I had this kind of like, marketing background and I had a lot of knowledge to leverage but I was really interested in utilizing my health coaching certification because I had gotten it from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition a few years before, so I was kind of like, you know, torn between these two things that I loved, so I started consulting as a way to make money and then I started to build my health coaching practice. And you know, I had no clue where I was going with anything. I was also still interviewing for other full-time positions at other wellness companies. And I kind of had to surrender, like, and just allow things to unfold the way they would, so I wound up getting a part-time position at Parsley Health as a health coach, where I worked two days a week and on the side of that, I started growing this consulting business, which started as like kind of a branding, strategy, social media strategy and support and content development... and soon I just started to you know, get asked by fellow, you know, friends in the wellness industry to help them with content development specifically. And that was really what i loved to do and I should mention that I’ve been a writer, personally, my whole life! And I’ve used my writing talent in all of my jobs and specifically copywriting, I learned a lot about when I was the head of a marketing department at Dress- ah, Institute for Integrative Nutrition. So, anyway, I was just kind of playing around with it, and then copywriting became the area that I was getting the most opportunities and I had a lot of connections in the wellness space because of my full-time job; I was a more public-facing figure, so this whole community of health coaches and graduates of the Institute for Integrated Nutrition knew who I was; I’d spoken at conferences in front of thousands of people, so I had this face that was already recognizable. So it became pretty easy for me to connect with these people, reconnect with people I hadn’t been in touch with in a while, and just start to build these relationships. And over time, I ended up working with influencers in the industry who, then, were referring me to all of their friends and so it kind of all just happened by accident. And I trusted how it all kind of came to fruition—like I just went with it all! Suddenly, I was realizing that this could be a business and that I could actually write for a living, which was a dream of mine because it was what I loved in my life and loved to do and it was how I expressed myself in the best way possible. I’ve journaled my whole life and I’ve enjoyed writing stories and I’ve written articles for different publications over the years... and I just didn’t know that it was possible for this to be a thing. So that’s kind of how it happened and it all started in 2014, and now, here we are in 2018! And it took me 3 years to really make it a really successful, strong, steady business, and having a side source of income, of working as a health coach at this functional medical practice, Parsley Health, really helped stabilize me as I was starting to really put myself out there and had I not had that stability and like, an income stream that was consistent, I don’t know that I would’ve stuck through all the ups and downs of creating it, the business itself. But that’s kind of how it all happened! Rob: So listening to you describe your path, Blair, it makes a lot of sense that you’re writing in the health and wellness space, just because that’s where your experience has been. Have you noticed that there’s a difference in writing for this space versus other kinds of copywriting? Is there some special kind of knowledge that you really need to have to break into the health and wellness area? Blair: Yeah, I think that my background and passion for health and wellness gives me an edge because personally, I live a healthy lifestyle, I kind of walk that talk of, you know, eating really clean; I meditate; I move my body; I put a lot of time and money into investing in my own personal growth. So I think that kind of approach to how I live my life and just kind of perspective on life and the knowledge and education I have has allowed me to really easily step into the shoes of my client’s target audiences and kind of the challenges they might be having, and how to translate where they are to where they want to be, and I just love writing about that kind of stuff so much. It just is part of me. It’s like in my DNA. So it’s really easy for me and I think that, as far as it being different than other kinds of copywriting, I mean, I don’t think it’s really different because we all, no matter what the business is, knowing that target audience and what they need, what their issues are, their challenges, getting into the psychology of that and then making that product or business the solution is the same formula, really, across the board. But if you have kind of a passion for health and wellness and you really love that topic and you have the knowledge, I think that gives you more of an edge and making it more your specialty as a copywriter. Rob: And who is your typical client? What kinds of copy are you writing for them? Blair: So I primarily write website copy and people come to me who are wellness entrepreneurs of some kind, so they might be a health coach or a life coach or an author or a yoga instructor or somebody opening a wellness studio of some kind, or they might have a product that’s maybe really delicious, organic granola, or chocolate, or something like that... and they either are either launching their brand for the first time or they are rebranding. So I help them first get crystal clear on what that brand is, and I really enjoy that discovery process. I’m such a—I don’t know—I’m such a strategist at heart, too, like I really love being a part of the beginning of something and helping somebody craft their vision from the very bottom. And I find that a lot of people don’t spend enough time getting really clear on what they want to put out there and how they want to position themselves and what makes them different and unique. So I do a lot of discovery work to help us both get really clear on that and then, you know, getting clear on their target audience and all that so it really helps me prepare to write the copy for their website in their voice and kind of step into their shoes to create all of that.