TCC Podcast #185: Building a Healthy Copy Career with Darren Hanser

Health copywriter, Darren Hanser, is our guest for the 185th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. We recently met Darren at an event in Las Vegas, then again at The Copywriter Club In Real Life and after chatting, we knew we had to have him on the show. Darren has built a solid copy business and we got him to share how he did it. Here's what we talked about: •  why he may have been destined to become a copywriter even as a child •  the google search term that led him to a career as a copywriter •  how he made more than $98,000 in a weekend… to prove he could write •  how he learned to come up with lots of good ideas •  the importance of the mechanism and how Darren uses it in his copy •  his “double down” approach to finding more copy assignments •  his “leap frog” approach to investing in the next thing •  how he got a client to pay for his first copy coach •  what his business looks like today and where his income comes from •  his writing process from research to delivery •  depression, darkness and overwhelm and having to ask for help •  why he attends events and masterminds when his business is already doing well •  his take aways from The Copywriter Club In Real Life •  the three things you must do to succeed as a copywriter •  how Darren structures his fees—a lesson he learned in the insurance industry •  what it’s like to look like Seth Rogan •  what’s next for Darren in his business this year This is another good one. To hear it, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. And consider subscribing on your favorite podcast app so you don't ever miss an episode.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Ask by Ryan Levesque Dan Ferrari Justin Goff Stefan Georgi Dean Jackson's Naked Truth Letter Copy Chief Live Kim Krause Schwalm Kaitlyn Parker Darren's website darrenhanser.com 15minuteemails.com Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira Hug:   This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Accelerator, the 12-week program for copywriters who want to learn the business skills they need to succeed. Learn more at thecopywriteraccelerator.com. Rob Marsh:   What if you can 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 to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Kira Hug:   You're invited to join the club for Episode 185, as we chat with health supplement copywriter Darren Hanser about writing for wellness and info products, how he commands high fees for the work he does, what he's done to grow his business, and what it's like to be Seth Rogan's doppelganger. Welcome, Darren. Rob Marsh:   Hey, Darren. Darren Hanser:   Had to throw that in there, right? Kira Hug:   You gave that piece of information to me. Darren Hanser:   It's great to be here. Rob Marsh:   That's probably where we should start. Kira Hug:   Yeah, exactly. Darren, we met you in Las Vegas not too long ago. We were fast friends and then we saw you again a couple weeks later at TCC in real life before the world shut down. Today, I'm excited to just dig more into your story and what you've done to grow. Why don't we kick it off with how you became a copywriter? What's your story? Darren Hanser:   What's your story? It's funny, because that's the question I ask people and it gets them talking. But when people ask me that I stumble sometimes. Kira Hug:   It gets you talking, it's going to get you talking, yeah. Darren Hanser:   It's gets me talking. The earliest I remember I was always in a sales mentality, just in my own mind. Even as a young child, I was always trying to persuade my parents to do things and I would come up with these arguments, I would come up with these very logical and emotional appeals to them. I'd come into their bedroom at night and sit on the foot of their bed. And they knew that this was the start of a pitch. But they humored me and they allowed me to go through this and that. That grew over time where I enjoyed the art of not changing someone's mind, but helping them to the place where I know that the best result is going to be. I became enthralled with that idea. I got started in the marketing space on the side. I was in the financial services industry and there was a company that was ahead of the game. They were doing a lot of direct response marketing style work for our local insurance agents. They would help them come up with presentations, unique ideas to present to their customers, really help them differentiate themselves in their local market when everyone else is doing the same thing. I learned how to find really unique ideas in mundane, everyday products, right. I loved doing that and eventually, it got to the point where I didn't really know how to excel in that specific career. I was looking at ways to make some money on the side, start my own thing. I always had this entrepreneurial outlet that I wanted to have in my life and I found online ways to make money and that's ultimately how I found copywriting. I started looking for ways to make money on the internet. I wanted to do it in a way where I didn't have to talk to people all the time. I didn't have to be face to face in all these situations, getting customers, I wanted a way to make money on the side where I didn't have to work a lot. That was the appeal that got me into this universe. The one thing that I started learning was the way I was being taught how to make money online was to learn copywriting, it was to learn how to build an email list. It was to learn how to speak to my customer, it was to learn how to find an offer that resonates with the customers problems and find a way to communicate to them. That's what I was learning and it was just wrapped up in how to make money on the internet. But ultimately, it was how do you start a business that is driven by direct response copywriting. Once I started learning that, I got connected with people in that industry, and one of the offers that I was promoting as an affiliate saw what I was doing, and they said, "Why don't we give you a shot? You're actually pretty good and you're getting good results. Why don't you run a promotion for us over the weekend?" It was a live event. Let's say it was an event like yours, where there's a few hundred people in the room. At this time I think there was around 1,000 people in the room, and they were doing the live stream tickets and they said, "Take over our email list, do what you want to do. And then by the end of the weekend, we'll see what results we get. If you reach a certain level, we'll give you a bonus and if not, then there's no fee." It was a do or die situation. At the time I needed the money, I didn't really have the money to be at that event. I stayed up the whole weekend, over 72 hours, I ran their email list. I think we did $98,000 in sales over that 72 hour period. That showed me that I could get results when I was under pressure, but also showed someone else that I could get results for someone else, not just myself. That proved to me that there was something to this skill that I was learning, that was highly valuable to other people, not just like myself earning a few thousand dollars a month as an affiliate. That's how it started and then it just grew from there and then yeah, that's my start. Rob Marsh:   I like it. As you started talking, you mentioned that you were really good at finding ideas. I wonder if you talk a little bit more about that. Is there a practice or something that you were doing that makes you particularly good at coming up with good ideas? Darren Hanser:   Yeah, for example, I think the main thing that I left out is, when I was a kid I would watch infomercials, right. At night, I would come home when everyone was turning on, like Law and Order or whatever they were watching, I was turning on infomercials and trying to... That's what I would watch late at night. What I found in those infomercials, which I know now was very specific and on point and on purpose was that they were coming up with very cool names for very normal things, right? They had like OxiClean and things like that, where the oxygen was the mechanism that was being used, and I saw this happening. And then it was intriguing to me because I thought this is exactly the same as everything else. But this one has some special supportive ingredient. Then when I got in the financial service industry, the same thing happened. We were talking about let's say things called... We had this strategy was called the yield enhancement strategy. And all it was, was it would help people pass money to their children without paying taxes. It would help them earn a better yield than they would if they just put it in a bond market or some guaranteed investment. It was a very boring concept. But the way that it was packaged was that it was super unique, it was made just for them, and it had a very specific application in their life. Their answer to that was, "Of course, I'm going to use this strategy because it is made just for me." I started to see this. And then once I started actually doing marketing, the first time that I actually saw this was when I did a little bit of work with Ryan Levesque, back when he was launching his Ask book, the first time that he was launching his Ask book. I remember what he used to do in his emails and all of his copy, he would always try to isolate the real reason why someone was having a problem and I can hear it in my mind, and I can even see it because he would review my emails. And he would say, "This is how we need to structure things." Every time it was basically showing people what the situation is,