TCC Podcast #266: How to Push Through Writer’s Block, Transitioning from Copywriter to Coach, and Writing Million Dollar Launches with Angie Colee

Angie Colee is our guest for the 266th episode of The Copywriter Club podcast. Angie is a copywriter and copy chief turned business and confidence coach who took a while to find her way into the copywriting role she is the best fit for. No matter where you are in your copywriting journey, you’ll leave with notes filled front and back. Here’s what we talk about: How Angie went from working for the Oprah Winfrey network to underpaid copywriter. Do you have to have a degree to become a copywriter? Feeling stuck with projects and clients but using every project as a learning opportunity. How learning on the fly can make you a better writer. The power to walk away from toxic work environments and open the door to new opportunities. The different levels of copywriting. Where might you fit in? Shifting into a lead role and managing other copywriters. The difference between a full-time corporate copywriter and per project roles. Finding a team that respects your value, time, and expertise. How to deal with comparisonitis and feelings of not being where you think you should be. Why it’s a good idea to take on challenges before you think you’re ready. The importance of swallowing your pride as a writer and receiving criticism. Tips on being a better copy chief. How to look at what you can bring to big, successful businesses as a small business owner. Hint: Don’t assume you have nothing to bring to the table. Why you shouldn’t be intimidated by launching. Steps you can take to create stronger launch campaigns without exhausting yourself. How you can help others in copywriting communities even if you’re not an expert. The switch Angie made from copywriter to coach. Time management between clients, students, and your own business. How to get over writer’s block when the muse isn’t striking. The mindset blocks many face when they’re trying something new in their business. Hit the play button or check out the transcript below. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Angie's website The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman Mindset by Carol Dweck Episode 208 Full Transcript: Rob:  Becoming a great copywriter doesn't happen overnight. In fact, most of us have stumbled around a bit to get where we are. I spent time at a web startup and running my own SaaS business while Kira learned how to sell and clean cars at Enterprise Rental Service, she picked you up. So stumbling around a variety of jobs to find your way into copywriting is pretty common. But the good news? Through the missteps and the struggles, most of us finally arrive at something resembling a successful copywriting career, and our guest for this episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Angie Colee. Angie is a copywriter and a copy chief turned business and confidence coach who took a while to find her way into the copywriting role that she's the best fit for, and the advice that she shared in our interview is fantastic. We think you're definitely going to want to stick around to hear what she had to share. Kira:  But before we dive into this episode, TCCIRL is the sponsor of this episode. TCCIRL, our big event, our big annual event, is going back to in-person stage in 2022 and we couldn't be more excited. It's a two and a half day event where you get to connect and hear from other copywriters and marketers about the best tools and strategies you can use to grow your copywriting business and to enhance your own skills and mindset, and one of the best parts is connecting in real life with other copywriters that maybe you've bumped into online and you finally can connect in-person over lunch, over dinner, over coffee, over drinks. Tickets are limited and this is not like a faux scarcity thing. We actually have a venue that can only hold a certain amount of people so if you do want to attend this year, if you're missing hanging out in real life with fellow copywriters, grab your early bird ticket. Now is definitely the time to do that. Rob:  Yeah, I am so excited to get back in-person live with everybody. We were I think the last conference before the virus shut everything down and - Kira:  We were. Yeah. Rob:  It's going to be fun, so the event will take place on March 28th through the 30th. It's in Nashville, Tennessee and I'm not a tax expert but The Copywriter Club In Real Life likely qualifies as a business deduction for your taxes so it's a little bit like getting the government to pay you to come and hang out with us which is a pretty good deal. If you want to learn more or get your tickets, you can go to thecopywriterclub.com/tccirl-2022, that's 2022. Kira:  And Rob, we haven't seen each other since then, have we? Rob:  No. We haven't. Not in person. Kira:  I haven't seen you since March 2020. Rob:  So yeah, this might be the first time that we see each other in two years in person anyway, so ... Kira:  Weird, okay. Rob:  It's going to be good. But I mean, we've done this before. People come from all over the world, literally from Europe, from India, from Australia, and all over the United States and Canada. Even South America, it's just a great place - Kira:  D.C. Rob:  To build a killer network, so ... One or two people from D.C. All right, let's get into this episode. We started by asking Angie how she ended up as a copywriter. Kira:  Angie, we want to know everything about you. We want to know your story, we want to know how you ended up as a copywriter and now a confidence coach. Share the path please. Angie:  Hmm well, it's long and windy, so buckle up. I wanted to be a screenwriter. I really thought I was going to be like Shonda Rhimes, creating worlds, Grey's Anatomy, running things. I even worked for NBC Universal, CBS Films, Warner Brothers, TNT, TBS, like all of the majors. I was working down in Hollywood after I got my master's degree, and then I got laid off from The Oprah Winfrey Network. Don't hate Oprah though because it was in a moment of desperation after I got laid off that I remembered this one book from a random screenwriting class two years earlier called The Well-Fed Writer, and I still can't explain to this day what made me go spend $20.00 I didn't really have on a book at Barnes & Noble back in the day. Picked up this book, read it in an afternoon and thought, "I could probably do that," and then proceeded to stumble my way and fail my way forward into eventually this career. That's why you probably see that I'm a big proponent of you don't necessarily need a degree to become a copywriter. I quite literally fell into it and decided this was something I could do and every bit of experience, I took that and leveraged it into the next level up and to the next level up and eventually I was running teams and eventually decided I didn't want to necessarily be a copywriter anymore, I wanted to be a coach. Rob:  Okay, so what exactly were you doing for Oprah? Angie:  I was a digital production assistant, which is a fancy title for someone ... You know wen shows solicit videos from you for a contest and 500 million people submit a video? Someone on the other end has to go through all those videos. That was what I did for The Oprah Winfrey Network. Rob:  You also mentioned The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman. That's a great book by the way and we'll link to it in the show notes. But what specifically did that book help you to do? Angie:  Well, that's the funny thing. Like I tried just about every prospecting method that he suggested. I mean I did cold calling, I dropped flyers, I sent letters, I went to ... What is it, chamber of commerce meetings locally back when you could still meet with people. I joined online sites like Elance which I think is now Freelance.com but ... Or Upwork. Joined all those sites, I tried everything and just kind of slowly but surely found clients, like through the online platforms I wound up writing the production script for Miss Black USA Pageant for a few years in a row. I took any writing project that somebody would pay me for, and then just basically kept leveraging that slowly and surely towards direct response which was where I felt really called the more I learned about copywriting. Kira:  And roughly what is the timing of this because I know many copywriters look at you and they're like, "Hey, Angie is a top copywriter." So did this take ten years, did it take five years, less? Angie:  So, I got my master's degree in May of 2010. November of 2010 is when I decided to make a serious go at this business. Then I freelanced a little bit, largely unsuccessfully, with the help of generous unemployment funds until about April of 2012, which was when I got my first part-time junior role, and that was on the back of all of this freelance experience that I had just stumbled my way into, not knowing what I didn't know. Which I thought was pretty cool, so I got a good foundation for about a year and a half working there part-time and I hit a wall with that role. Like I really am just somebody that just wants to go fast and figure this thing out and I was feeling a little bit stifled. It was a good role, it taught me a lot, but I had a set number of blogs, a set number of emails, and as many product descriptions as I could fit into the remaining hours, and after a while, that just got to be boring. I love them, it was a fun team, I don't want to crap all over any opportunities, but ... So, I started applying for a full-time role. I found a hardware retail chain that was looking for a full-time copywriter. The interesting thing was the person that connected me to the job thought that I didn't have enough experience, and I pushed back on her and was like, "I disagree with you and here's why,