TCC Podcast #46: Comedy in Copy with Lianna Patch

For the 46th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, our friend, copywriter and comedian, Lianna Patch stops by to tell her story (she starts at the very beginning) about making copywriting her career. During the next 40ish minutes share also shares: •  Why she chose humor as her “hook” for copywriting clients •  her snarky answer to the dumbest question Rob has ever asked •  the enormously helpful life hack that would freak out AA •  how the rules of comedy can improve your copywriting •  how to be funny without being nasty •  what she did to land her first (and second and third) speaking engagements •  how she deals with projects that scare her And we cover a whole lot of other ground too. Like what brands are doing a good job with humorous copy and the advice she has for new copywriters. Plus, Lianna is the first guest to tell a joke on the podcast. As you’ve come to expect, this is another solid episode packed with ideas you can put to use in your business. To hear it, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Sponsor: AirStory The Copywriter Mastermind Boxed Wine CTA Conference Lianna’s Sustainable E-Commerce Post Aaron Orendorf Unbounce New Orleans Entrepreneur Week Conversion World DeepDyve Amy Harrison Boomerang for Gmail Snapcopy.co James Turner Foot Cardigan Jennifer Havice Wistia Dropps PunchlineCopy 5 Ways to Be Funnier in Your Copy 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 talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failure, their work processes, and their habits, then steal an idea or two 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 the club for episode 46, as we chat with freelance copywriter, Lianna Patch about the challenges of leaving an agency job to strike out on her own, getting attention at conferences, her copy optimization service called Snap, and whether there’s a place for rubber chickens and whoopee cushions in copywriting. Kira: Hi, Liana. Hi, Rob. Rob: Hey, guys. Lianna: Hey. Kira: How’s it going? Lianna: Good. Thanks for having me. Kira: You’re welcome. I think a good place to start is just finding out if you were funny as a kid, and what you wanted to be when you grew up. I feel like that’s the question I want to know. Lianna: Oh, okay. Rob: Did you always have a buzzer in your hand for handshakes? And rattlesnake eggs to hand the kids at school? Lianna: I think I was the unintentionally funny kid. I still have this expression, like I still have serious resting bitch face. My parents used to call me Little Miss Thundercloud because my resting face. I would say things that I thought were very serious and they would laugh at me, and then I would go, “Don’t laugh.” So, it’s kind of like a 180 from there. Rob: Tell us your story. Lianna: My story? Well, my dad loved my mom very much and so after they had my brother they were like, “This one’s a dud. We should probably try again,” and then I was born. Fast forwarding to now, I’ve worked in a couple agency settings, it didn’t seem to stick. I was doing my own stuff on the side throughout, and then everything kind of gelled when I took the first Copywriter Mastermind with Joanna Wiebe and I started to figure out that I should pinpoint humor, and that I should focus just on copywriting because I had noticed that I was getting way too deep into editing, especially publications editing, and I hated it so much. But, then I looked at my work schedule and it was like, “All I’m doing is editing magazine and I’m not writing anything.” So, I sort of refocused, rebranded, and I’ve been writing fun, and funny stuff, and much more conversion copy oriented stuff since then. Rob: So, Lianna, you said that during the Mastermind you sort of figured out that you wanted to focus on humor. What was that process and why did you land on humor as opposed to something else? Lianna: I think there was some of that soul searching stuff that all of the online gurus are always telling you to. Like, “What do you love doing the most? What makes you happy? What doesn’t feel like work?” I had also just interviewed one of the people who runs the comedy theater here, that I eventually got involved in, and I had a good time chatting with him and then he said, “Why don’t you come take a class?” so, I did that and then i ended up taking all the classes and graduating from the Conservatory, and I’ve been doing improv, and sketch, and stand-up since then. It was like, “Okay, I’m already doing comedy in my life, why don’t I try to make my work more fun? Who says I’m not allowed to do that? Why isn’t anyone doing that?” There are people, for sure, already doing humor copy, but I thought there was a little bit more room for me to squeeze in. Kira: So what has the evolution been like for you to really create these services and almost like prove to the market that it’s important? I imagine it hasn’t been easy. Lianna:  I’m still figuring it out. When I think about where humor copy works best ... obviously when you’re right in the call to action it’s probably not a good place for humor because you don’t want to distract anybody, you want them to just click through, you don’t want to be clever over clear. But I think there’s a lot more room for humor in emails, obviously social posts, and lately I’ve been doing a lot more funny content. So, when people come to me for long form content, I make sure ahead of time that they’re okay with me being kind of weird and a little bit ... I think, not offensive, but occasionally a little bit borderline. One time I did a long form content piece that I worked so hard on and then I saw the edited draft and they had just cut out all my jokes. Kira: Oh, no! Lianna: Yeah, and I had checked with them ahead of time to make sure. It was like, “Did you come to me for my style?” And they were like, “Yes.” They came to me, so when I saw the final draft I was like, “Wait, what happened?” Now I try to make sure ahead of time that people know that they want me, they don’t want just regular old- Kira: Well, it’s all so obvious on your website. It should not be a surprise. Lianna: Yeah, hopefully. Rob: Anybody that lands on your website and then wants serious copy, there’s some serious understanding issues, right? Lianna: Exactly. Rob: Let me ask this question: What’s so wrong with boring copy? For 99% of copy out there is boring, or at least plain and simple. What’s wrong with that? Lianna: Boring inherently is terrible, isn’t it? Who’s like, “You know what I want to do? I want to read a really boring book. I want to watch the worst movie.” If you can make it better, why not? If there’s an opportunity to entertain along with educating and informing, and building a relationship, why not? I think there’s different ways to do it, you don’t have to be kind of obnoxious and absurd about it. But that’s my favorite way. You can be sweet and helpful and still lighthearted. There’s a lot of different ways to approach it, but all of them I think are better than just corporate robot copy. Kira: Yeah. Do you think that we are all funny in our own way? Or are there shades of gray? I feel like we almost put ourselves into these categories of like, “Lianna is funny, but I’m not funny so I can’t even approach this with a sense of humor.” Lianna: Oh, man. This is the question, “Is everybody funny? Can everybody be funny?” I think so because everybody laughs, right? Some people laugh more than others, everybody has a different sense of humor. But if you spend a couple weeks mindfully paying attention to what you find funny, and what makes you laugh, then you can start to find patterns in that and maybe emulate it, you know? Not everybody thinks the same things are funny but everybody has a sense of humor. I hope. God, I hope. Rob: If we were thinking, “Hey, The Copywriter Club website I pretty boring,” it’s just transcripts or whatever. Or my own personal website is maybe a little bit plain, it doesn’t bring out my personality. What sort of things could I do, or could Kira and I do, or another writer do to start to be funny in a way that’s natural? Lianna: Starting with that process of figuring out what is funny to you, that’s the good baseline. Then, looking at your favorite movies, and books, and podcasts, and comedians, and figuring out ... I know I’m just repeating myself, but what you find funny and then taking a risk. Take a calculated risk somewhere in the copy where you say something that is gonna be divisive, and see how people react. I’m sure that I get tons of people coming to my site who take one look at it and they’re like, “Nope. Not for me.” But then the people who do get in touch with me say things like, “I loved your website copy.” I finally added that question to my intake form. You know, “Why are you interested in working with me specifically?” It’s the last question on the intake form and most people who answer it say, “Because I like your website copy. Because you’re funny.” Someone wrote to me the other day and they’re like, “You seem warm and friendly, and it feels like you’re approachable.” And that is 100% what I’m trying to accomplish. So, I think you know just being you, which is the advice that everybody gets, “Just be you. Don’t be afraid to be yourself.” But, really, do. Make a joke that you think is funny. Be self indulgent and see who it attracts. Kira: It seems like there’s some confidence in there, too,