TCC Podcast #160: Awkward Marketing with Rachael Kay Albers

Brand expert and one-woman SNL skit, Rachael Kay Albers is our guest for the 160th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Fitting all the characters Rachael plays on her YouTube channel into the TCC studio wasn't easy, but we managed. In addition to meeting several of the characters from her show (hey, Rachael's mom and Brad!), we also talked about: •  how she went from law school to business comedian and content writer •  how Rachael found her first clients (it has to do with cam shafts and pepper spray) •  going from small clients to internet sensation (wigs played a part) •  what she did to grow her authority and get attention •  how her internet show has helped her grow her business •  the time required to produce a high-quality video show •  the simplicity of her earlier shows and how she evolved as she got better •  the different characters who show up on Rachael’s show •  the truth about how comfortable Rachael is on every show •  how to use comparison, exaggeration and specifics to be funny •  brand strategy and what Rachael does for her clients •  how she helps clients discover a brand that reflects who they really are •  the questions to think through as you develop your own brand •  the tools she uses to help her clients develop really good content •  how she collaborates with the different people on her team •  the other tactics she’s used to grow her business (besides the web show) •  the mistakes copywriters are making when it comes to marketing We also talked about speaking on stage, the change she’s making to her business moving forward, and the future of copywriting. Want to hear it? Click the play button below or subscribe with your favorite podcast app. Prefer to read? Scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Upwork Awkward Marketing Laura Belgray Justin Blackman Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Basecamp Dubsado Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, 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 Rob and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Rob:   You're invited to join the club for episode 160 as we chat with content strategist and business comedian, Rachael Kay Albers about how she became the One-Woman Saturday Night live of business comedy, what it takes to build an unforgettable brand, the different kinds of humor that copywriters can tap into for themselves and their clients and creating content that people want to see. Kira:   Hey Rachael. Rob:   Hey Rachael. Rachael:       Well, hey there. How are you doing? Kira:   Welcome. I feel like I ever wrote the same for recorded that. I feel like I'm in the room with the celebrity, like an SNL celebrity. Rob:   Or 10 celebrities. 10 different celebrities. Rachael:       It's so mutual. Yeah, there's about 30 of us here. I got wigs and for every voice I do I'm putting on in different wigs. So just imagine that. Kira:   You've got great wigs and great costumes, which I definitely want to talk about. But let's kick this off with your story. How did you end up as a creative director / digital strategist / business comedian? Rachael:       Well, I kind of came at it backwards. Because, the whole thing these days is... The dream is to quit your day job and go live in a beautiful place and drink Margaritas in a hammock. But I actually did kind of the opposite way. I was in law school, 10 years ago and it wasn't working out. It was a bad move. It was the wrong choice. And I had done an internship in Southern Mexico, where I kind of learned about this type of theater that was being used as a tool for social change. And I was really attracted to that. So I decided to move to Mexico. And in order to do this non-profit work with theater and the arts and youth, and while I was there, I'm like, okay, so how do I stay here? I do I get some tacos. How do I keep doing this thing? I had a background in marketing, I had a background in coding and design. And so, I decided to kind of hang my shingle. But it wasn't because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It wasn't because I was wanting to be a digital nomad. It was because I wanted to keep living in Mexico doing that work. And kind of fell in love with entrepreneurship. In the beginning I did not care about my business. I was like, whatever. I didn't care about the online marketing world. I did my things, shut off my computer and I was done living my life. But along the journey, I kind of fell in love with doing this work and running my own, what became a mini agency and... So that's all she wrote. Here we are today. Rob:   Yeah. So before we jump all the way to where we are today, I'm really curious the switch and how you found your first clients. I can totally relate to the, law school was a mistake thing. I didn't actually get into law school, but I took the LSAT, I had applied and fortunately my career took a different direction. Obviously, there's something big that happens there as you decide to do something different. What did you start doing and how did you find your first clients? Rachael:       Well, before there was Upwork, there was something called Elance, where you could go on and find various odd digital jobs. And that's exactly what I did. And in the early days, I was doing everything from copywriting and ghost writing to transcribing classic car videos. I learned a lot about cam shafts and torque and doing these weird jobs. I wrote back when it was popular to write these keyword-stuffed articles. I wrote keyword articles about mace and pepper spray. And I mean, I did it at all and I designed websites and I wrote courses for my clients and scripts for their webinars. And so, it was on Elance, just various odd jobs. Rob:   That's awesome. Okay, so how do you go from lancer then to business comedian? Because, there's another big shift there. Rachael:       You know what? I don't know. So I got a few... As happens with these types of sites and kind of getting your first class, you get a few clients, the ball starts rolling, they start telling their friends. And then I was able to quickly stop getting jobs like that. Stop getting those $20 for a hundred keyword articles or stuff like that. And started really niching down into focusing on brand strategy and web design and development and overall content strategy. And that's what I started to focus on. And that's what I did up until I left Mexico, which was end of 2016. When I got to the States, suddenly this whole world opened for me, that I didn't have when I was working remotely out overseas. Because the internet speed is just a totally different universe down there. I think I have 10 megabytes per second or less. I was working on down there, it was like training in high altitude. Because I come back to the States where everything is lightning speed. Now suddenly, I can do video, I can access tools and things that I wasn't able to do down there. So I just started messing around with Facebook Live and my Facebook Live show was like me hopping on as a talking head, just chatting about marketing for 20 minutes every Wednesday. I started playing around with some different kind of funny formats. I did a live musical couple of years ago, Facebook live, the musical jumped on and literally performed a One-Woman Musical. I had costume changes, all of it was live. People freaked out. They loved it. It got tons of traction. And that's when a little bell road gate went off for me and I said, okay wait, wait, wait. It's not enough to just be talking about marketing, It's this entertainment value that really is the key to getting people to come back and share and comment and engage. So, that's when I started... That's when I bought a bunch of wigs. Bought a bunch of wigs, just got a green screen and decided to play around with bringing some characters into the show and people loved it. And that's how I decided to pivot this show to becoming kind of like a little sketch comedy business show my show Awkward Marketing and gave myself the, business comedian. I just decided, that's what I am. I am a comedian that talks about business. So, let's put a ring on, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah. Kira:   So once you realized that you wanted to take the show to the next level and you bought all your wigs, what else did you do to really put it out there and put more attention into that show? Rachael:       Well, when I first brought the wigs out for their first walk around the catwalk, I did a huge big... It was actually two years ago, or was a couple of years ago. It was during Halloween. I did this huge five day promotion and I ran a giveaway and I put a ton of energy behind. I put ad money on it because I wanted to make sure if I was putting a ton of production into the videos that I was actually getting eyeballs on them, and I wasn't just relying on the organic stuff. And that was enough to get people's heads turned, so that when I debuted a full new season in this format, people were ready. Because I was building my list through giveaways and promotions and that kind of thing. So that when I kind of came out as, all right, this is the new format of the show formally, I had people kind of ready and waiting for it. Rob:   Awesome. So as you do the show, how does that impact your business? Do you find the... Clients see the show and they come to you or does it go the other way? How do they all come together and how does that play such a... I guess, what is the place that that plays in your marketing for your business? Rachael:       Yeah, so Awkward Marketing serves a few different purposes for me.