5 insights from being the dumbest person in the room (TCC irl 2019)
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What can you learn from a room full of copywriters who are 1-10 steps ahead of you in your journey? Find out what happened when I attended The Copyriter Club In-Real-Life event. #TCCIRL
5 insights from being the dumbest person in the room (TCC irl 2019)
I attended the TCC IRL event in Brooklyn New York in March 2019.
Two days in an incredible venue, listening to 20 speakers give you everything you need to skyrocket your freelance career.
Yes there was a lot about how to write better copy and build a copywriting business but I would bet my house (well, my future house) that any entrepreneur or business owner would walk away with actionable information to up-level their game.
So here are my 5 insights from the event (These ideas might not actually be what the speakers talked about BUT this is what landed with me… from my very own perspective 😉):
1. Joanna Wiebe - Copy Hackers
Joanna’s talk was titled “How To Be Me At My Own Game”. Her company, Copy Hackers, is a beast turning over multiple millions of dollars a year mainly from her 10x suite of products teaching business owners and copywriters how to write better copy in a variety of forms.
She also continues to take on projects (not that it adds to her bottom line) so she can see what’s working and what’s not.
She mostly runs the business herself, and she openly admits that it would be quite easy to beat her (hence the title of her talk). Basically she said, if you’re willing to put in the work, then there’s no reason why you can’t succeed to epic levels.
THE TAKEAWAY: OUT-WORK EVERYONE ELSE
2. Bonus pricing panel
6 working copywriters sat on stage for an early morning session (for Early Bird Ticket Buyers… aka moi and several others). These copywriters are in the trenches doing the work and have real experience on pricing challenges so were able to answer all our questions.
THE TAKEAWAY: THERE ARE ALWAYS MORE CLIENTS OUT THERE WHO ARE WILLING TO PAY YOUR HIGHER RATES AND BE AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE TO WORK WITH. DON’T STRESS!
3. Kira Hug - The Copywriter Club
A great talk about how you can tear down your business and start again to renovate it from the inside out. She cleverly (as is Kira’s style) used the metaphor of (America’s) HGTV documentaries to DIY your own renovation to rebuild your business anytime you want.
THE TAKEAWAY: NOTHING IS STATIC, YOU CHOOSE HOW YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS TO BE AND YOU’RE ALLOWED TO CHANGE DIRECTION ANY TIME, IF YOU WANT.
4. Tarzan Kay
I love Tarzan. I have been a subscriber of Tarzan’s for many years and love getting her emails. She’s frank and upfront about money and is an open book on her business and what she’s up to. Her talk was about how to position yourself and she used this crazy story about shopping in Thailand.
In a nutshell, if you don’t barter for what you’re buying in Thailand the shopkeeper gives you your purchase in a white bag so that all the other shopkeepers know you’ll pay the asking price. If you barter and haggle, you get a black bag, showing that you know how the system works and can’t be fooled. It’s a signal or insider communication for shopkeepers to know where you're positioned in the market.
Tarzan says we need to be “The Black Bag Copywriter”. Position yourself as the expert, show yourself to be the one that takes things seriously (and the opposite way round from the story) you don’t barter or discount your services.
You send a signal to the marketplace that you’re serious, that you know what you’re doing and that you’re worth the price tag.
THE TAKEAWAY: POSITION YOURSELF AS THE BUSINESS OWNER YOU WANT TO BE AND PEOPLE WILL START TREATING YOU LIKE IT.
5. Michal Eisikowitz
Michal was a true pro on stage and even though she admitted this was her first speaking engagement, you wouldn’t have known it. She was calm, considered and her talk had me waiting on her every word.
Her talk was her story of how in 18 months she went from being an overwhelmed and overworked mom, juggling three part-time jobs earning just $2k a month... to being an in demand copywriter with a waitlist and the courage to charge high fees that net her $25k a month.
She shared her three strategies for getting there, which included investing in a great website, mastering LinkedIn and taking a risk to become the dumbest person in the room by investing in a high level mastermind with Rob and Kira of The Copywriter Club.
THE TAKEAWAY: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. TAKE RISKS AND BE WILLING TO BE THE DUMBEST PERSON IN THE ROOM.
Bonus insights:
There are so many more insights that could take me an age to write about but here are a few snippets.
Parris Lampropoulos - absolute gold from an A-list copywriter... breaking down a winning sales letter that has been a control for more than 10 years which brings him $100k in royalties each year.
Keli Chevalier - don’t be a booty call brand!
Joel Klettke - an absolute storming talk about how to conduct sales calls. Not something I can break down but everything he said was brilliant, on-point and super helpful but also Joel has a fantastic presence on stage.
Rob Marsh - how business is like playing a video game - there are different levels you play at in your journey and different players all with their strengths and skills.
Kate Toon - a great talk on SEO... which unfortunately went over my head because it was the last talk at the end of a very long day and I was still suffering from jet lag. I’ll be catching that one again once I get my hands on the recording.
Lianna Patch - her talk was worth just the entertainment let alone the content she shared about how to inject humor into copy.
All the other speakers were amazing too and just because I haven’t mentioned them doesn’t mean they didn’t pack a punch.
So the biggest takeaway is that it's worth investing to be in a room full of people just like you (only a few steps... if not light-years... ahead). And I’m not just talking about an event, I’m talking about the power of community…
Find your tribe, invest with people ahead of you … and give it all you’ve got!! That’s all from me. Over and out.