Ever struggled with finding your “thing” in life?
(But really…who hasn’t?! I know I have several times!)
That’s the place John was in before he discovered copywriting.
For years, John was a monk in Japan before returning to the US and becoming a middle school teacher. But after seven years, as many teachers can relate to, he was incredibly stressed.
The “ah-ha” moment came when John realized a book he was using with his students—Designing Your Life—was just as relevant for this stage of his life as it was for theirs.
And, you guessed it, it led him to copywriting.
John was kind enough to join Kate and I on this episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast and not only share his story, but share some fantastic tips for finding your passion—whether you are pursuing copywriting or not!
I am SO excited for you to hear this conversation—Kate and I left this conversation feeling so inspired and we hope you do, too.
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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[03:00] As great as being a monk is not a job in America. I needed to figure out how to do job stuff. I ended up going back to school and becoming a middle school teacher. I did that for about seven years. It was great in certain ways, but it’s a hard time to be a teacher.
[03:00] I’d never had a job as an adult. I ended up going back to school and becoming a middle school teacher. So that was after a couple of a little bit of trial and error with some different things. I did that for about seven years. It was great in certain ways, but it’s a hard time to be a teacher.
[03:48] I was just kind of at the end of my rope and I needed to rethink what I was doing. I was using this book with my students for their career search called Designing Your Life. What is it that I like doing and what is it that I enjoy about?
[04:56] I just started that four point process. Get curious about what your interests are, talk to people that are doing it or are interested in doing it, and try stuff like set the bar low and clear it often.
[05:20] I’d always considered myself a writer. Ever since when I was in high school, I was writing zines and that was just always part of my life until I went to the monastery. That was a big part of my life. And I had to put all that creative stuff away. And I’d sealed it up pretty good. It was hard to get out.
[06:28] I started looking into it and pretty quickly I feel the algorithm found me, your Facebook found me. I kept reading through it and thinking about it. I pulled the trigger and I did it. And I started talking to people about the possibility of being a copywriter and why they know about it and freelancing.
[08:13] I started doing something that felt safe and then it immediately went away. So that gave me the opportunity to get started. I was really scared of taking the next step of going freelance on my own. So I started getting web design clients and I was not a web designer. I had to learn how to freelance and I had to learn how to design websites all at once.
[14:54] I will say my average has gotten a lot better though. The average day five years ago when I was a teacher, it was just not as good as my average day is now. That has slowly changed over time I think by making a lot of positive choices that align with my thinking and who I wanna be and how I wanna be in the world.
[16:36] One, is just the quality of my day. I can work from a coffee shop, not every day. It’s like it has to be a lighter day to do that. I can talk to people and I can be out during the day, which was not a reality for me before. I can take time off whatever I want without having to worry that somebody’s gonna be mad at me. I spend more time with my cats.
[17:53] The second thing is the amount of creative time that I have. So I get to be creative at work. I’m talking to a lot of solopreneurs. Things that they don’t know how to say themselves and they need somebody to help them bring it out. And being able to shine that light of people is really cool.
[21:09] We design websites and we write them, or sometimes people would come to us and they don’t really need a redesign, they just need a rewrite. Or maybe they don’t need a rewrite, they just need a redesign. So now that we’re kind of fully split. We have this web design business that’s sort of on its own. And I’m focusing on the copy and building that.
[23:34] I went $40,000 in debt to be a teacher and had a year that I couldn’t work at all ’cause I was in school full-time. Basically double time and that’s normal for a career change. It’s important to give oneself the grace of having a period where you’re getting into it. It’s like going back to school ’cause it’s a craft. There’s a lot to learn that you’re never done.
[25:35] The first thing that I wanna say is you gotta train your brain to think differently. Like if your brain is kind of set towards seeing the worst possible scenario, which I feel like some people have an easier time.
[26:00] It was just about a year ago, where partner and I had just like happened upon this manifestation exercise. It was three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon, nine times a night, write down what you want your life to look like.
[28:00] All of them were so close, like it was right there. It was just going to happen. I don’t even wanna say necessarily as a result of doing manifestation, but it was just like I was able to see where I was ’cause I was looking at a false reality.
[29:14] Just being able to have gratitude, I have a lot of free time. I get to do way more of the things that I want. I see myself as a creative, which I didn’t before, and now that is clearly a part of my life. It’s almost the first thing that I would say to somebody when I’m introducing myself.
[30:37] When you see somebody that’s doing something that you find interesting, even if you feel like it’s impossible that you could ever do it. It’s like this person has some kind of special story that makes it impossible for them, but it’s impossible for me.
[30:48] It’s worth asking and finding out how they got into it and what do they do and what is it like. And in that process of asking people about it and trying little things, before you know it, you’re actually doing it.
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:
” You lay out the steps that you take and you just take them and you just do it one day after another. And things just gradually get better.” -John
” The biggest thing that keeps them from taking action, from doing the things that they need to do and even the things that they want to do is what’s going on in our minds. It’s that element of no matter where you are heading, there’s always that part of your brain that’s gonna kick up and go, oh, I dunno if that’s a good idea. It’s hard to overcome it when it’s in your own head.” – Nicki
” The idea of that overnight immediate success, can you imagine what a shock that would be to our systems if you go from, I’ve got nothing to now you’ve got 10 clients and they all wanna work with you immediately. I think that the gradual is probably what’s best for us anyway.” – Nicki
” Unlocking and admitting that these were things that you wanted and being okay with that and look at what’s possible. The lock I think is such a good visual image. If you keep it locked away, then it’s never gonna be able to come out and be a thing.” – Kate
” No matter what the career is, there are opportunities to try it out and get a feel for it. It doesn’t have to be, well, I’m jumping right in. I think that trying is so important and so many people forget that that’s an option. We don’t have to know everything before we do it.” – Nicki
” You just gotta build the plane as you’re going. There’s just no other way to do it because humans are humans and life is life. And there’s way too many variables to know that far ahead. So waiting until you understand the situation perfectly so that you can make a perfect plan. It’s a waste of time ’cause you start on day one and you carefully build plan is already out of the window.” – John
” Anything that you wanna do, just start asking anybody that is even sort of related to it. Just start taking steps in that direction and see what happens. So if maybe they’re not a writer, but maybe they’re a freelancer, or maybe they know somebody, maybe they work at an ad agency. Ask them about how they got there. So one little step at a time and before you know it, you’re up to your waist in it, without having really taken it.” – John
Mentioned in the Episode
Related Links
- Episode 160: How This Teacher Doubled Her Salary and Decreased Stress—Amanda’s Story
- Episode 176: How This Ex-Teacher Joined the Filthy Rich Writer Team—As a Copywriter – Rebecca’s Story
- BONUS Laser Coaching: Transitioning to Freelance
- BONUS – Laser Coaching: A Copywriter’s Guide to Creative Thinking
- Episode 189: Before Starting a Copywriting Side Hustle … Listen to This
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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.
