Raise your hand if you’ve ever told someone you’re a “copywriter” and 5 minutes later you realize they think you’re a copyrighter. 🙋🙋♂️🙋♀️
We want to help you avoid that situation and ALL the others like it. That’s why Kate and I had the brilliant-beyond-brilliant idea to put together not one podcast episode this week but five super-short episodes that answer the most common questions copywriters get asked.
These are questions, frankly, you may get asked not just around the holidays (though there’s a higher probability!), but really *any* time you’re interacting with family and friends who don’t know what you do.
So, take a listen while you’re driving to holiday dinner, running a turkey trot, or walking around on a Tuesday in July (hey, if you’re like me you save a lot of episodes to come back to later!). You’ll have ready-to-go responses to scenarios like:
👨What do you say when Uncle Phil asks, “what even is copywriting?”
🧑🦰What do you say when sister-in-law Kelsey shouts, “OMG isn’t freelancing is so risky?”
👴 How do you respond when Grandpa Stan asks, “Can you even make money as a writer?”
👶 What do you say when your nephew Tyler says, “Isn’t AI destroying copywriting?”
👩🦳 How do you navigate cousin Diane asking, “Can you look over my resume?”
TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher
Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch all five episodes on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
1. What do you say when Uncle Phil asks, “what even is copywriting?”
[02:00] What we have prepared for you is answers to five questions you’re gonna get from relatives this holiday season. We have five mini episodes for you. Here’s our first one answering Uncle Phil, when he says, what do you do for a living again?
[03:00] I’m a copywriter in advertising. Your response should not be that. I’m starting there because that would be the easy thing to just say what it is that you do.
[03:24] I highly recommend saying I am a copywriter. A writer for marketing or advertising. What we do is connect people who have a challenge, want or a need with the right solution.
2. What do you say when sister-in-law Kelsey shouts, “OMG isn’t freelancing is so risky?”
[01:25] Your sister in law, Kelsey, says to you, I’ve heard that freelancing is really, really risky. Are you sure that this is something that’s a good idea for you to do?
[01:47] We’re going to say, freelancing is much safer than full time employment because with freelancing, you have multiple clients and your eggs are in multiple baskets. So if one client, one business does do well, one client moves on, you want to leave a client even, I can do that.
[02:13] If I worked full time in a business. Can’t get raises whenever I want. I can’t control my rights. Can’t control my time off. It’s actually very liberating to be a freelancer.
[02:25] What if she comes back with saying, yeah, but aren’t there like lots of feast or famine? Isn’t there like a lot of dry spells?
[02:25] Mostly that’s because most freelancers don’t actually have a system for going out and finding clients and landing clients. A lot of freelancers rely on those job bidding sites or rely on referrals.
[04:35] There’s just so many misconceptions around it. People think of freelancing a gig work. For example, Uber driving, Lyft driving, food delivery services. But that’s just one piece of the freelance puzzle.
3. How do you respond when Grandpa Stan asks, “Can you even make money as a writer?”
[01:53] Grandpa Stan says, but you’re not making any money, right? Writers don’t make any money. How much money are you making? So what do we say to Grandpa Stan?
[02:19] It’s personal finance for a reason. You can give as much or as little as you want in this situation. I’m doing just fine, Grandpa. Thanks for asking. And call it a day. But, if you want to educate people, Writers can actually make great money.
[03: 08] It’s a specialized skill that directly tracks to revenue and therefore businesses are willing to pay us. How much? You can say, well, potentially six figures. Let me direct you to this episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast.
4. What do you say when your nephew Tyler says, “Isn’t AI destroying copywriting?”
[02:21] Maybe he’s genuinely concerned for you. Maybe he said it. His tone was less, destroy your job, and more just, oh hey! are you worried about AI? We hear these questions so often it’s easy to get our defenses up. That’s all these questions. This is healthy.
[03:00] AI is going to be, it already is a very, very helpful tool. As we saw over the past year, companies that tried to use AI to actually serve their copywriting needs. It didn’t work out. You still need a human putting something good into the AI to get anything of value out. It’s a great brainstorming tool.
[03:53] Writing is really only a portion of what a copywriter does. There’s also a lot of strategy, a lot of collaboration with clients. Sometimes clients come to me and want to write a project for them. AI can’t fundamentally create something new.
5. How do you navigate cousin Diane asking, “can you look over my resume?”
[02:24] Cousin Diane, she’s been waiting for her opening. Could you write my resume for me? Write my cover letter for me. Could you write this email to my boss? Maybe she owns a business and she wants to know if you could write her a brochure. I would love a flyer for this sale I’ve got coming up for Black Friday.
[03:26] So here’s the first thing you need to know before we even give you a response, because we’ll give you some, a couple of options. You don’t have to do anything for free. You can if you want to. But you don’t have to.
[03:54] Remember that this is your career. The time that you spend working on a project for free for a family member or a friend is time that you could be spending working on a project for a client, who pays you and pays you a lot of money.
[04:00] First part, if you’re thinking, I don’t actually want to do this, which is totally also valid as well. Here’s what I would say. Why don’t you let me know what the project entails a little bit more, send me over some details and then I’ll send you over quote for how much I would charge for that.
[06:42] I don’t have time to do it, but if you’re interested in hiring somebody else to do it, I can see if I can connect you with someone.
[07:00] If you want to do the work, I would say, Hey! I would love to talk about this more, but it’s the holidays and I’m finally taking a break from my business. Can we touch base on Monday? I’ll shoot you an email.
[08:35] I really don’t want to talk about work. If you want to learn more about what copywriting is, and what copywriters do, and how much they can make? Here’s the Build Your Copywriting Business Podcast. We’ve got you.
[09:13] If you want to give them, friends and family discount. Just make sure you’re really clear on the parameters just like you would be with a business client, right? You’re going to do it just like any other project. You want to create a brief.
[10:05] If you’re thinking, well, I’m just starting out, I would love Cousin Diane has a project for me. I get a portfolio piece. You can say, hey! email me the details, push the conversation to the following week. Come into the CCA Facebook group. We’ve got you, follow up, ask questions to us, we’ll help you.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“Let them know that you’re a marketing advertising writer. You can also give them examples. Say websites, emails, billboards, banner ads. Somebody writes all of that.” Nicki
“Most people just jump right in without training as a freelancer and that’s why they don’t find success. You are running a business as a freelancer.” – Kate
“But when you have a system for outreach that’s very predictable and very reliable, then you’re actually in control. You can have as much and many opportunities as you want, and as many clients as you want.” – Nicki
“Unlike other writing professions, like journalism or, even content writing, copywriters, we actually make a great living. Our services are so valuable to businesses. We directly help contribute to sales within an organization. And so our work is extremely valued.” – Kate
“AI is a great research tool, but it is not a great writing tool. If you’re trying to create something new and create something unique, AI is not the tool for you. So it has its place.” – Kate
“Writing is really only a very small part of what we do. Part of what makes us so valuable and why companies are willing to pay us so much because it’s not just about sitting down and putting words on a page. There is a lot of creativity and strategy involved.” – Nicki
“Until I win the lottery, I just don’t have hours in my day that I can work for free.” – Kate
“When it comes to copywriting. Any client, whether it’s friends, family, or whether it’s a business, you don’t have to take any work that you don’t want to do.” – Nicki
“Put a dollar sign to your time because you deserve it. Everything you’re doing has value. Just coming out, valuing yourself, your profession, and not discounting it.” – Kate
Mentioned in the Episode
- What Is Copywriting?
- BONUS Laser Coaching: Breaking the Feast or Famine Cycle, Nailing a Discovery Call, and Getting Replies on Pitches
- Ep. 25: How Much Can a Copywriter Earn?
- Ep. 96: Artificial Intelligence Copywriting: Do You Need to Worry?
- 3 Ways to Deal With Friends and Family Copywriting Rates
Related Links
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About the Build Your Business Podcast
Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.
