79: An honest look at being a copywriter and entrepreneur in 2023 and 2024
The excitement and intrigue of the new year is waning a little bit, and as I’m looking ahead to the coming year, I wanted to reflect on the wins and challenges I had in 2023.
In this episode of ill communication, I’m sharing a candid look at being a copywriter and entrepreneur in 2023 and 2024.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid and say: 2023 was harder than I expected. However, I do have a lot of things I’m excited about in the new year that I can’t wait to tell you about.
So grab your favorite drink, have a seat, put your feet up, and get cozy.
I’m getting a little personal today.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The struggles I and many other entrepreneurs faced in 2023
The wins and highlights in my business, despite the hardships
The experiments I tried last year and what I learned from them
The types of projects I am focusing on in 2024
My goals for my business and offers in the new year
Upcoming events and workshops you do not want to miss
That’s my honest look back on 2023 and a peek at what’s coming in 2024. I truly want to thank you for continuing to listen and share the podcast with your community. Your ratings and reviews help to grow the reach of this podcast so please leave one! I really appreciate it.
If you’re interested in working with me on your copy this year, check out the links below to learn more!
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[00:00:03] Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hello there, my sweet friend. I want you to grab a cup of tea. Or in my case, a double espresso macchiato. Have a seat. Put your feet up and get cozy. I'm getting a little personal today. I want to reflect on the year that was and share some insights about what's coming up ahead over here at the Ill Communication Podcast and Kim Keil copy headquarters. And by headquarters, I mean my messy little office in the home I share with my two teen boys and my hubby, Chad. And for rigid Edmonton, Alberta. And when I say frigid, I mean it. It's been -40 here this week. Yes, -40. As I'm prepping for this episode, the laundry machines are thumping away against my office wall. It's super glamorous. Anyway, the excitement and intrigue of the new Year is waning a little bit, and as I'm looking ahead to the coming year, I wanted to reflect on the wins and challenges I had in 2023.
[00:01:48] I kind of want to give a realistic look at what it's like to be a copywriter in today's market, in this economy, and to have a look at what's coming up ahead. So let's just rip off the Band-Aid and say 2023 was freaking hard. It was harder than I expected. And I'm talking from a personal and a professional level here. First, when I look at my numbers, my revenue was way down like 20% down over the previous year, which has been pretty stressful and I know I'm not alone. 2023 kicked the shit out of a lot of service providers and small business owners. I've seen lots of local businesses shuttering their doors. I've seen lots of copywriters moving into in-house positions, and a lot of small business owners just full on, like clearing out their team, shrinking their businesses, and even taking a sabbatical. All of which is to say, it's been rough. And despite that, I know I still fared better than a lot of people, and my net revenue and take home pay is still very, very good. But we recently took on a second mortgage for a vacation property at the height of the market, just before the interest rates went up and up and up, and it's honestly sickening. We've had to pivot and rework our household finances a little differently. We chose to get semi-permanent renters in our vacation condo so that we would have more consistent income covering some of those costs, but it's been a huge stress, so it really didn't help that my business revenue dropped.
[00:03:26] At the same time. It was like inversely proportional. The costs went up, the revenue went down. Fun times. But when I see how other families have really struggled over the last year and how many small businesses have closed down, I still really am grateful for how fortunate I am. And while my business slowed in 2023, in hindsight I realize it may have actually been for a good reason because I ended up needing extra time and emotional energy to deal with a few things. On the personal front, some of my family members have been dealing with some pretty significant health issues, both physical health and mental health, which meant that I had to take some time away from my business to attend appointments. But I also had a lot of sleepless nights and days where I could hardly work because of the stress and emotion of it all. And while some of those family situations are gratefully improving, new ones are popping up. So the universe may, in fact, have been looking out for me by sending me only as much work and clients as I could handle last year. You see, I'm firmly sandwiched between raising my kids, helping address some growing elder care needs, and looking after myself in my business. Which is why one of the best investments I made in 2023 was absolutely not business related.
[00:04:48] It was related to my own personal health and wellbeing. I started seeing a therapist who's been helping me understand and shift some of the recurring patterns and themes in my life, and I've been investing in fitness and working with a trainer and doing more group fitness classes. Since starting both of these wellness investments, I've been better able to manage all the other things. So while there were a few difficult things happening in my life and business in 2023, there still were a lot of wins and highlights, and I want to share a few of those with you now. I worked with some truly outstanding clients doing amazing work in the world last year. I worked with 16 different private clients in 2023. I helped a few eight figure online business coaches who needed Pitch Perfect brand voice guides, new website copy, or sales copy for their live launches. I was able to help them clear these massive projects that had been on their to do list in one case for several years, and get them advanced to the point where they now have a new website, they have fresh launch copy, they have a brand voice guide that's helping them be more consistent among their team and across all the channels in which they communicate. I also took on quite a few fun VIP day rate projects. One was with a fun new clothing company called Cord Crew and one with Anytime Baseball, which sells baseball gear to colleges, leagues and players.
[00:06:22] Both of those clients came to me because the copy that had been initially created for them by another copywriter didn't hit the mark. It did not reflect their brand voice. It was just off. So in a day or two, I was able to infuse more of their fun voice and personality into their website, copy product descriptions and some emails. It was really fun to write about products for a change. I have to be honest, my favorite offer last year still is the Joy of Copy Club. I worked with 12 remarkable business owners throughout the year inside the club, and many of those people renewed their enrollment and are still hanging with me in 2024, the Joy of Copy Club helped therapist's fitness coaches, marketing managers, consultants, business coaches, product businesses and photographers discover and hone their voice, send more emails and generate more revenue. And speaking of the copy club, I did experiment with a few things in my business last year, and one in particular had to deal with the copy club. I tried following a bit of a launch model with the Joy of Copy Club, which meant for a couple of months I promoted it really hard, and then I kind of backed off and didn't really promote it for a while, but it really didn't work for me. I didn't like the pressure of selling over that short time and then not focusing on selling it for the other months.
[00:07:46] You see, in 2021 and 2022, I had really good success with using very simple, low key monthly marketing moments. I'd host a simple workshop, an open coaching call, and I would keep the doors open to Joy of Copy Club. People could enroll any time, and I liked being able to keep my foot on the gas, albeit pretty low, but keep the foot on the gas all year to welcome club members in 2024, I'm going to be going back to that model. What I see now is that my email list and community isn't large enough to make that quote unquote launch model work for me. So I'm going back to open enrollment, hosting monthly marketing moments just to kind of keep growing my community, growing outreach all the time instead of in these big, heavy, stressful, energetic launch moments. All of which is to say, if you want to join a safe and supportive copy mentoring and coaching community where you have me by your side as you brainstorm, strategize, write, and send your copy, the Joy of Copy Club is open and waiting to welcome you as our newest member. So check out the details and reach out to me for more information and you can get those details at Kim Dotcom Slash Copy Club. Another thing I experimented with this year was being an affiliate for Marie Forleo's B-School, which actually went okay. I sold only four seats, but it ended up being this really nice little boost of revenue here and there.
[00:09:20] I'm not actively promoting it again this year because again, my email list is too small and I just don't have the numbers to make a big push or promotion work. However, I'm still listed as an affiliate, and if you're listening to this in real time and you're interested in joining B-School in the spring launch in 2024, please reach out to me. I'd love to have a. Personal chat with you and create a special bonus suite just for you. The other thing I experimented with in 2023 was I hosted my first paid workshop, the Sales Email sprint. Over five days. I had a few dozen women joining me to write a five email sales sequence to sell something that they wanted to sell, and it worked super well. I made some revenue, but more importantly, I tested the model of a paid workshop series and participants loved it. And I loved it too. So I will be planning a couple of these in 2024 for sure, and stick around to the end, because I'll tell you when the next one is. Another offer I tried in 2023 was called a Copy Quick Fix. It's a 90 minute strategy session where I'd hop on a call with a business owner and we would jam on a few things, but this kind of worked and it kind of didn't work because I'm a copywriter, I kind of naturally default to focus on deliverables, and a couple of times I overcommitted what could be achieved in a 90 minute session.
[00:10:48] Really, these are supposed to be very high level strategic sessions or a place where you can bring copy you've already written, and we can live review it and optimize it together. However, what ended up happening for a couple of these quick fix sessions is I probably suggested that I could help actually write some fresh copy during our time together, and that didn't work so well. After the 90 minute session. I would continue working, sometimes for several hours, to create that deliverable, like a mini sales page or a few emails. So in 2024, I will still offer these, but I'm going to rename it to something like a messaging strategy session and take out any reference to writing copy. There will be zero promises of writing copy, so if you want a thought partner, a brainstorming buddy, if you have some copy that you want optimized and reviewed together with me, then these 90 minute strategy sessions will be ideal for you. Looking ahead into 2024, I am quite clear on the types of projects I want to focus on and namely the Pitch Perfect Brand Voice Guide. I love nerding out about voice and helping clients understand the nuances of their verbal identity. It is so rewarding to me to create a document that distills the brilliance of your voice, and then reflect that brilliance back to you.
[00:12:14] I have four pitch perfect voice guide spots available for 2024, so if you or if you know of any businesses who could use one, please reach out to me. I'll drop the link to the Brand Voice Guide miniseries I ran here on the pod last year, just so you can refresh your mind about what a brand voice guide is and why they are a critical asset for you in your business. Another copywriting service I am super excited to add and expand on in. This coming year is a prelaunch playbook. This is a strategic plan that maps out what your brand and business should say, and how to say it. In the six weeks leading up to those big launches and promos. I just delivered a pre-launch playbook to a new client this week, and they were so floored to see how different they could be, messaging and what they should be sharing in these critical weeks leading up to a live launch. Pre-launch playbooks are a game changer for businesses who operate on a launch model, and especially in today's economy. People are taking more time to make their investments, and the pre-launch phase gives your audience more time to consider you your offer and enroll themselves when you finally open your doors. I can handle about one pre-launch playbook client per month, and I have availability starting in March, so reach out to me as soon as possible if you think you want this in your business.
[00:13:47] Of course, I'm going to continue offering website copy because honestly, I think after brand voice work, this is my second zone of genius writing high converting web copy that captures your brand and personality calls in your ideal clients is really my sweet spot. I have space for five more website clients in 2024, and if updating your website has been on your to do list for a year or more, I'd love to help clear that off for you. Another one of my goals I have in the business is to speak on more podcasts and stages, provide guest trainings or workshops inside other communities, or at events. I really love delivering live workshops in person or on zoom, and I've done this throughout my 20 year career, and often I'm told my sessions are among some of the best. So if you host a podcast or if you have a community who would benefit from a messaging brand, voice or copywriting workshop or guest speaker, please keep me in mind. And in between my private client work and supporting the members inside the Joy of Copy Club, I'll continue to host free and low cost workshops, and please grab yourself a pencil or open your notes, app or your calendar so that you can pencil in these next two events. The first event is an open copy coaching Ask Me Anything session. This is going to be on Monday, February 26th at 11 a.m. Mountain Time. You can bring any copy your homepage, your about page, a sales email, a webinar registration page and I will live review it with you and share some ideas for how to improve or strengthen it.
[00:15:26] If you have any other questions about messaging or copywriting for your business, you can bring those questions and we can jam on it together. So please make a note of Monday, February 26th for that free open copy coaching session. The second event you'll want to make a note of is a 4 or 5 day bootcamp to help you write or refresh your welcome email sequence that's tentatively set for the week of March 11th. Please make a note of that one in your calendar and watch for when I start promoting it. Because if you know you need to refresh your welcome sequences here, you definitely need to attend that bootcamp. And in general, my friend, I want to create content or host events that you'll find valuable that would help you in your business or in your life. So I'd love to hear your opinion. What do you want to hear more of on this podcast? Do you have a question you want me to answer here in this format? Or maybe you wish there was a simple training or a template to help you write a specific piece of copy or suite of assets in your business if you have a need, I want to hear about it. So I've set up a feedback portal for you to provide thoughts, ideas, feedback on the podcast, on my newsletter, what you'd find helpful, or anything else you want to share with me.
[00:16:44] So to share your questions, ideas or thoughts with me, please visit Kim Kilcommons feedback. I can't wait to hear from you! Well my friend, that's my honest look back on 2023 and a peek at what's coming in 2024, I mostly want to thank you for continuing to listen and share this podcast with your community. Your rating reviews help to grow the reach of this podcast, so please leave one if you haven't done so yet or it's been a while. I really, sincerely appreciate it. And thank you for being here with me on this crazy journey of entrepreneurship. It's so nice to know I'm not alone for this bumpy ride, and I hope you know that I'm here bumping along with you. I'll see you next time. And that's a wrap on today's episode of. Ill communication. Hey, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, I would love if you would leave a rating and a review to let me know. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss out on the tips, prompts, and strategies I share in every episode. They're designed to make you an ill communicator too. As always, you can check out all the links and resources from this episode on the web page. Just head over to Kim Keel compered cast. I'll chat with you again next week.
Resources Mentioned
Listen to the Brand Voice Series starting with Episode 71
Save your seat for February’s open copy coaching sesh
Check out my copywriting services
Share your thoughts and ideas about the podcast
Additional Resources
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