TCC Podcast #80: What’s Going on in the Club with Rob Marsh and Kira Hug

In the 80th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob share their take aways from the recent TCC In Real Life event in New York City, what’s going on in their businesses right now (and how they’re dealing with it) and what’s coming up in The Copywriter Club—the next Copywriter Think Tank and the new options we’re offering with The Copywriter Accelerator. We talked about: •  how some of the best parts of a conference aren’t at the conference •  a couple of highlights from the incredible presentations •  who won the scavenger hunt (and how well they did) •  what we’re working on and why we're suddenly feeling overwhelmed •  what mastermind groups have done for us and a few of the reasons you might want to consider one •  the changes we’ve made to The Copywriter Think Tank •  the new, more affordable, option for The Copywriter Accelerator To hear all about it, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Hillary Weiss Parris Lampropolous Brian Kurtz Allison Comotto Katz’s Deli City Hunt The Copywriter Think Tank The Copywriter Accelerator Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity   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 80 as Kira and I talk about a couple of our favorite moments from our event, The Copywriter Club In Real Life, why masterminds have been an important part of our personal and business growth. What’s happening in our own businesses and what’s happening in the club in the next few weeks. Kira: Hey Rob! Rob: Kira, how’s it going? Kira: It’s great. I feel like we haven’t chatted about our businesses and the club in a while. It feels like a while. Rob: Yeah, it’s been a while since we shared anything publicly anyway. I mean obviously, we talk every once in a while about what’s going on but it has been awhile since we shared what’s going on so we should definitely catch people up. Kira: Yeah, so big event ... Rob: Huge event. Kira: ...recent event. So, what did you think about TCC In Real Life? Rob: When you organize an event there’s all kinds of things that are going on. We were so busy in the weeks running up to it. In addition to the stuff we’re doing on the side with our own clients just trying to make sure that this event was going to come off swimmingly and I was so afraid that we were going to drop the ball or something was going to go wrong and after it was all said and done I kind of walked away and said okay we did an okay job. It was fun. It was like so gratifying in the way that so many speakers came to support us. The things that they shared were incredible and even the stuff that happened outside of the room. We just had a total blast. It was so much fun and I wish that it was the kind of thing we could have had more people there. How about you? What’d you think? Kira: Yeah, I think I remember you saying something about before the event about how this even might break us up or something... Rob: Yeah. Kira: Or cause us to get divorced and I was like yeah this is definitely testing our relationship, but we ended up making it through. It wasn’t that bad. So, I felt like for me, it was exactly what I envisioned in my head especially stepping into Hotel 50 Bowery months beforehand and kind of picturing it all and it surpassed what I envisioned and so yeah, I was really excited about it. I know how people say oh events feel magical and I’m like that sounds really woo-woo, but that’s the only way I can describe is it did feel magical and a bit surreal. Yeah, so I mean we had a bunch of speakers, like 15. Did any of their presentations really stand out to you? I feel like every presentation was so good. What did you take away from it? Rob: Yeah they were all so good. Without mentioning everybody, everything that was said there is definitely worth listening to and we’re going to make the tapes available and hopefully everybody can have the opportunity to watch and listen for themselves, but I just want to pick out like three or four highlights for me, you know, as I was sitting in the room. The one hitch of the entire show happened when I was trying to get Hillary Weiss’ slides loaded up and there was a change at the last minute of which slide deck was the right one. And I had the wrong one on the laptop. So, she was getting started I’m trying to pull up the slides and you know, I’ve got it there in the download and it’s downloading and of course it’s downloading over hotel WIFI. So, it’s like 150 megabyte file and it’s going at like 15 kilobytes a second, right? I’m sitting there just like I’m sweating just trying to get this thing to download and she starts going and she was awesome. Like without any slides for the first, I don’t know, 10 minutes of her talk she killed it. Then her entire presentation on personal branding, I was just so impressed with how good she was at just going and knowing her stuff. She’s just so sharp. She’s been such a great part of the community and that was for me, it was like a low light, because I’m up there sweating. But she just like killed it. Kira: Yeah. Rob: It was great. Kira: You should have seen your expressions during that 10 minutes. 10 or so minutes you were making all... I forget who I was sitting next to... Rob: Everybody’s laughing at me. Kira: ...just laughing as we watched you sweat up there and we’re like what’s happening, but yeah I mean credit to Hillary who just delivered without slides. I know when I presented in the past I rely heavily on slides. Many of us do, so that just speaks to who she is in business and in life. She brings it every time. So, thanks Hillary for not falling apart on us. Rob: Yeah it was incredible and then you know, other speakers that really jumped out for me, Paris Lampropoulos, of course he’s sort of an icon in the field. We were so excited when eh said that he wanted to speak on stage and we were just thrilled that we were able to have him be there. He talked a lot about the idea that what gets you to level one as a copywriter isn’t the thing that gets you to the next level. The thing that gets you to level two isn’t the thing that gets you to the next level and he even shared the letter that he wrote to get his first clients. He shared the processes that he’s gone through as he’s leveled up his business to the point now where he’s one of the guys that legitimately makes millions of dollars a year doing copy and the other thing is that he’s not a prima donna. He’s just such a genuinely nice guy and it was so cool having him there to share his story. Kira: Yeah and I think everybody could relate to his presentation because so many of us feel like we plateau at a certain point and we’re like why am I not moving forward? Well it’s because I’ve been doing the same thing and it’s no longer working. So for him to break it down and really share what he did at every stage to move forward, that’s definitely worth watching when the video content’s available. Rob: Two others I just want to mention, Brian Kurt, who’s been a mentor to both of us over the past year and has given so much. He donated the books, some of the books that we gave away in the SWAG bag. Really talked about what it’s going to take for copywriters to continue to perform well into the future and he talked a lot about masterminding and connecting with other writers and improving yourself. His whole presentation just really resonated, I think, with a lot of people but with me in particular. I love Brian, he’s just such a great guy. We appreciate his support as well. Kira: Yeah I mean the cool thing about Brian, I think what impressed me so many people. Of course, you and I know him pretty well at this point, but for people who didn’t know him well. They commented and said I can’t believe you’re sitting in the audience with us and learning with us and asking questions, but that’s who Brian is. He is a lifelong student and so passionate about continuing to share and teach what he knows, but also to continue to learn. And I think that’s why we all love him. I will say that what seems to resonate with our audience that he talked a lot about was going deep, you know, going deep in your niche. Just really staying super focused, which Rob, we talk about that all the time. Really choosing your niche wisely and focusing from there, but that really stood out to me too because I’ve gone through stages where I felt like I should jump into financial copy or health copy and just kind of sample everything. It’s become really clear from hearing presentations like his and others that it’s really good to just stay focused on what you do best until you truly have mastered it and are ready to move on. Rob: He was there the entire time taking notes in his notebook. He’s always learning. He’s always growing, one of the things I really admire about him. And then, finally, the last speaker who was Allison Comotto, we had her on the podcast a little while ago, she brought the roof down at the end. She was so energetic and so passionate it was almost unbelievable she’s only been a copywriter for the past eight or nine months. Her presentation was incredible. All about hustling and how that’s the secret to really taking your career forward and what she’s accomplished at Agora is, in my opinion, is incredible because of her hustle. Kira: Yeah we’ll link to that interview in our show notes because I don’t know which number that one is. Rob: Yeah, but yeah a great presentation. So, tell me,