Imagine juggling full-time teaching, full-time parenting, and a five-year-long divorce.
Exhausting doesn’t even begin to cover it.
That was Vikki’s reality until she realized one thing: no one was coming to change her life for her. If she wanted something different, she’d have to create it.
On this episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Vikki was suuuuper generous with sharing her story and how she went from burnout to building an entire new career.
Vikki has not only doubled her income, she’s also working less hours. Normally I’d totally get if you were like, “Nicki, spoiler alert!”
But the magic is in the way she got to this point.
Vikki is sharing all her best tips (Kate and I walked away with some new ones!), including how she kept moving forward, even when the big picture felt overwhelming.
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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[02:18] My life was actually completely different. I actually was a teacher and had quite a full on stressful job teaching. It was actual chaos. Looking back, I think, how did I actually do it? So full-time parenting, full-time teaching, going through a five year long divorce.
[03:24] I already had that idea in my head that I needed to make some changes, and I definitely realized that nobody’s gonna come in, nobody’s gonna come swooping in and make those changes for me.
[04:00] I used to work in sales before I was a teacher, loved writing and being creative. I was just exploring ideas where I could use writing or creativity. It was just a process that I was going through internally.
[05:18] I’m sure we’ve all brought lots of courses that we then haven’t finished. I found CCA really useful because I just wanted to feel as though I had the confidence about what copywriting was. Started the course and just saying to people,’ I’m a copywriter’. I just started putting it out there.
[14:18] I need to create a life that fulfills me. And brings a bit more joy into my life, which is kind of what I’ve done.
[14:54] In the beginning, my work was really doing website projects. I’ve done work with a national children’s charity website. I have organically attracted clients because of my educational background. At the moment I’ve just taken on a retainer, which is with Aston University which I got through a referral. A business school in the top 5% in the world.
[16:14] Because I love LinkedIn. I’m quite visible on LinkedIn. That’s where I get most of my business for now.
[22:47] I write about all sorts of things I write online about starting over midlife. I write about career changing about wellness and mindset showcasing my writing skills and that really works.
[24:38] I cannot put into words just how transformational both becoming a copywriter and obviously the CCA involvement in that has been my life. My time is my own. I just feel such a sense of freedom.
[25:10] I go to the gym a lot and I walk a lot and I see friends all the time. I would say my income is probably about double of what it was when I was teaching, but I probably work about a third of the hours in terms of actual work.
[28:40] Sometimes when you’re in a dark place or when life’s difficult, if you feel like that’s your ultimate goal, I feel that could be a bit too overwhelming because it’s so far away from where I am.
[28:50] So my thing was in the beginning, What can I do? I just need to do one thing to feel like I’m in control. And it’s the same with the copywriting. Just do one thing to do one piece. Just keep doing those things and then what happens is you start to see the positive changes.
[30:26] Focus on the actions and the habits. The results just start to evolve naturally. Just choose what is it you’re going to do.
[31:39] There’s always going to be something new to learn. Trying to simplify it and take a step back and just think about what are the things you are gonna focus on, because there’s just so much that you could do that it can be too much sometimes.
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:
“I just looked at my life and thought, is this what I want my life to look like? Of course the answer was a resounding no because I just didn’t have no social life. Everything was really tough.” – Vikki
” Do I really want to just spend every day just filling time ’cause I’m too scared to try something new?” – Vikki
“There was no real kind of light bulb moment. but I knew I needed to do something differently.” – Vikki
“What’s the worst that could happen? and the best that could happen is that it all takes off and is really successful. And I get these changes in my life that I want, which thankfully so far is what happened.” – Vikki
“I have organically attracted clients because of my educational background.” – Vikki
“I just feel really empowered. I look at what my life was like five years ago to how it is now. It’s like a different world.” – Vikki
Mentioned in the Episode
- Victoria Burton Copywriting LinkedIn
- Earning More As a Freelancer than On Staff – Catching Up With Stuart
- Aston University
- How to Elevate Your Profile & Land Copywriting Clients on LinkedIn
Related Links
- Teacher Burnout, Guilt, and Getting Into a New Profession
- This Teacher Now Leads a Team of Copywriters – Catching Up with Charlotte
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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.
