“VIP Copywriting days mean there are definitely fewer amends, and you don’t lose enthusiasm for the project.”
– Cathy Camera
VIP days are a relatively new thing in the copywriting world.
Back in the old days there was no such thing, I’m pretty much sure of it.
But then someone, somewhere started banging on about VIP days and now everyone has jumped on this copywriting bandwagon.
And I get it, they’re a great way to overcome the eternal problem of projects dragging on for months and months and months.
One day, done. Love it.
But are VIP days all they’re cracked up to be?
Does that idea of working live with your client for an entire day make you feel queasy?
How on earth do you charge for that?
What if the copy turns out crap?
What if you don’t have the mojo when the big day comes?
Today we talk with our Member of the Year Cathy Camera, about her copywriting career and how VIP days perfectly suit her business model, her temperament and her cash flow goals.
We’ll also talk about the types of clients VIP days suit as well as passing on some great tools, tips and advice for working copywriters.
Tune in to learn:
- Cathy’s career path before becoming a copywriter
- How Cathy discovered her niche of construction copywriting
- Cathy’s biggest copywriting career win
- Cathy’s worst copywriting fail
- How Cathy has embraced VIP days and VIP packages
- How Cathy structures her VIP days
- How Cathy won Member of the Year in TCCS
- Cathy’s top tool to improve communication with clients
- Cathy’s top tip for current and up-and-coming copywriters
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And big thanks to Lizzie.jc from Australia for their lovely review:
“Refreshingly real conversations.
Kate sources one of her greatest achievements for this podcast – her own copywriting community. As always with Kate’s interviews, the conversation is witty, honest and full of great tips – but the best bit about this podcast is that it showcases a community of working copywriters, not just the fancy pants ones.
Also love the bite size copy tips – no fluff just actionable hints to improve your writing. A great insight into copywriting and into a supportive community.”
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About Cathy Camera
Cathy Camera is known as The Construction Copywriter. She specialises in writing SEO web copy, case studies and capability statements for those in the construction industry.
Cathy also offers VIP Copywriting Packages for those in the industry looking for quick, quality copy without having to wait weeks or months.
In 2022, she was a finalist in the Business Professional category of the Awesome Women in Construction Awards and was voted The Clever Copywriting School’s Member of the Year.
Fun fact: Cathy once politely informed a car thief he was in the wrong car – hers! That one incident proved to her that you never know how you’ll react in any given situation.
Connect with Cathy Camera
Useful Resources
Transcript
Kate Toon:
VIP days are a relatively new thing in the copywriting world.
Back in the old days there was no such thing, I’m pretty much sure of it.
But then someone, somewhere started banging on about VIP days and now everyone has jumped on this copywriting bandwagon.
And I get it, they’re a great way to overcome the eternal problem of projects dragging on for months and months and months.
One day done. Love it.
But are VIP days all they’re cracked up to be?
Does that idea of working live with your client for an entire day make you feel queasy?
How on earth do you charge for that?
What if the copy turns out crap?
What if you don’t have the mojo when the big day comes?
Today we talk with our Member of the Year Cathy Camera, about her copywriting career and how VIP days perfectly suit her business model, her temperament and her cash flow goals.
We’ll also talk about the types of clients VIP days suit as well as passing on some great tools, tips and advice for working copywriters.
Hello, my name is Kate toon and I’m the head copy beast at the clever copywriting school, an online community in teaching her but all things related to copywriting. Today I’m talking with another award winner from our inaugural copywriting awards this time it’s Cathy camera, who won a member of the year. Hello, Cathy.
Cathy Camera:
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Kate Toon:
It’s good to have you here. Let me tell everyone a little bit about you. So Cathy is known as the construction copywriter. She specializes in writing SEO web copy, case studies and capability statement for those in the construction industry. Cathy also offers VIP copywriting packages for those in the industry looking for quick quality copy without having to wait weeks or months in 2022 She was a finalist in the business professional category of awesome women in construction awards. And as we know, was voted the Clever Copywriting School member of the year fun fact Cathy wants politely informed a car thief he was in the wrong car hers that one incident proved to her that you never know how you’ll react in any given situation. So did, he was trying to nick your car?
Cathy Camera:
He was, that was that was back when I was working as a junior solicitor so I was racing to court walked out into a car park and was looking for my car and did a double take there was someone sitting in there trying to start it and I was like Excuse me I think you’re in the wrong car.
Kate Toon:
Did he just get out?
Cathy Camera:
Yes he bolted luckily for me, it’s a silly thing to say.
Kate Toon:
Very polite way of handling it it’s a good lesson you know good communication skills. There we go. And also interesting to hear that you are an extra legal person seems to be a lot of people leave the legal profession to become copywriters. Why is that? What is it, just because it’s a hideous job?
Cathy Camera:
For me, it was it just didn’t align with my values. Like now I realized like back then I was quite young. But even if I had done the sort of law that did align with my values, I think it would have been emotionally taxing on me. And I think I would have left anyway.
Kate Toon:
All that effort to get a law degree.
Cathy Camera:
I know I know, I went from that to teaching and then I did teach him for quite a number of years. Yeah. Yeah. So but I figure both careers that I did previous to these were beneficial to what I’m doing now. They taught me lots of skills.
Kate Toon:
Well, let’s talk about that, you know, what was your journey towards being a copywriter? You know, like, tell us like two or three things that led you to be towards being a copywriter?
Cathy Camera:
Well, yeah, I’d always loved variety. So when I left school, those were the three things like teaching, law and writing that I wanted to do. And I couldn’t decide. And now I’ve ended up doing all three sort of come full circle. But yeah, I always Yeah, I just I don’t know, I’ve ended up writing, writing has always been my passion. Always loved it from the time I was a small girl. So I stuck when I would always been thinking about it. And then I finally did a freelance writing course. Love that. And I started doing just freelance writing opinion pieces, and so forth. But I realized that a it didn’t pay very well. And B, I had to go looking for the work. Like I had to be constantly pitching story ideas. So that’s when I discovered copywriting and I thought, this makes much more sense. Like clients can find me I can make a business out of this. And that’s how I ended up copywriting.
Kate Toon:
Wow, there you go. So how long have you been sort of what do you plan to serve as a working freelance copywriter? What year are you in?
Cathy Camera:
I’ve been doing that for about five, five and a half years now. So yeah.
Kate Toon:
Wow. When did you niche down into construction? When was that decision made?
Cathy Camera:
Sort of early on, maybe a year or two into it. It just made sense to me because I’d always loved everything to do with construction. I’ve gone through for home builds of my own with my husband, everyone I knew like my husband, other family members, everyone worked in construction. So I’ve always been surrounded by it. It was always something I was interested in. And they were actually my first jobs like someone I knew worked for a large company, a large well-known brand in construction and their PR person left and they needed someone to write case studies. And I’d never written them, didn’t know what to charge, didn’t know what I was doing. But I sort of left in and loved it. And I thought this is what I want to do. So yeah, the niching decision wasn’t too hard.
Kate Toon:
And has it worked out well for you. Has it been good?
Cathy Camera:
Yes, I think niching was the best thing I did because it really narrows your focus. And you can really target the audience that you want, and bring in the clients that you want. And it doesn’t mean you can’t do other things like occasionally I’ll write for other businesses that aren’t in the industry. But yeah, I enjoy working with people from that industry.
Kate Toon:
And I’ve noticed I’m straying from the path of the interview questions now, just to terrify Cathy, I’ve noticed recently, you’ve been really pushing hard on LinkedIn, and also doing a lot more video. So what was that all about? What’s driven that?
Cathy Camera:
Um, I don’t know. Like, everyone loves video, even though, myself, I don’t watch a lot of videos I prefer to read. But I know everyone loves the videos and just put in your face. Like, I know, I trust people more when I get to know them and hear them speak and so forth. So that was the driving force behind it. I just thought, get out of my comfort zone, take the leap. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But at least I’ve given it a go. Yeah, so I’m doing that. cringy Lee, but
Kate Toon:
How’s it going? I mean, how do you know, gosh, like to go from doing no videos to putting videos up on LinkedIn? I mean, that’s that would make most people kind of quiver in their boots.
Cathy Camera:
I know. I don’t know, I’m enjoying like, it becomes more second nature, the more you do it. So I don’t hate it. I batch them at the beginning of or the end of a month. So I have my month planned out. I do them all in one day. Just you know, one time.
Kate Toon:
You have to like do your hair and makeup.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, do my covers for YouTube, everything all in the one day, and then it’s done. They’re just sitting there, and I just have to post them. So that makes it easier. Yeah, and I think I’m hoping it’s cutting through like I don’t have, you know, huge amount of viewers or anything at the moment, but I’m giving it a good go. And I’ll see how it ends up.
Kate Ton:
Yeah, yeah. Have you had much- So yeah, it’s at the moment you just kind of keeping going. And you know, there’s a few people that we both know, on LinkedIn, who, you know, those early days, they just got no traction whatsoever, but you have to keep on pushing through and then all of a sudden, someone notices. It’s kind of weird, isn’t it? Yeah. So hopefully, that will turn into a big win for your business. But so far in your business, what’s been one of your biggest copywriting wins, what’s been one of your success stories?
Cathy Camera:
Um, yeah, I was thinking about this. And it’s not a particular project or anything like sometimes the first, you know, you consider wins, so that I remember the first time I was discovered on Google, I knew my SEO was working. The first time I ranked for my keywords and so forth. Like, they’re all exciting, but I think the real wins for me are the times I’ve stepped up like this video thing, done something a bit different, taken a chance, and it’s sort of elevated the business a bit. So the last, apart from the video, the last thing I was pivot to the VIP days, and then mainly for my websites, because I was doing a lot of website work. But I found that I wasn’t loving it. And I think the reason I wasn’t loving it was because they were taking forever, like people wouldn’t get back to me. And the one that saw that the straw that broke the camel’s back was one at the end of last year that ended up taking like eight, nine months. And I thought,
Kate Toon:
Oh my Lord,
Cathy Camera:
I know, the client had a baby by the time we finish a project.
Kate Toon:
Absolutely no excuse like, let’s dig into that a little bit. Because I mean, I don’t know, you know, VIP days are very in vogue. But I know a lot of American copywriters are pushing it. And you know, we debate this a lot, don’t we in a Clever Copywriting School membership? Because for me, I can’t think of anything worse. But can we talk through a little bit of the mechanics of a VIP day cos I think that’s interesting? Yeah.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, I had to make it work for me. So it’s not the traditional VIP day, like a lot of the American ones, like your client sits with you during that day, and you work on the project.
Kate Toon:
Like physically? On the same chair? How hideous.
Cathy Camera:
Even by video, I think I would not. I would not cope with that. So I had to make it work for me. So you know, I did a lot of research, read a lot of bad how other people were doing it, and then decided, you know, I am a fast writer. So that’s something I can tap into. And I like being focused on one project, and you know, going all in on something. So what I do is do all the legwork beforehand. So the briefing process, meeting with the client, all that happens before the VIP day, the writing day, and then we just scheduled that day and all they have to do is be on call in case I have a question. But even that’s not a central and then I just write like that day, deliver it by that afternoon or the following morning. And it’s done and because it’s so intense, and you’ve gone through everything, if your briefing is done well, there are hardly any amends, people are happy because they’ve got their website quickly their copy, and they can deliver it to their web developer. So I just find it works. But you have, you have to be the sort of person that either likes to write quickly, you know, and can do that and can sit there for a day and write, and the client has to be right for you as well. Because if they’re a client that you know, likes to, what’s the word nice word, like.
Kate Toon:
Dither?
Cathy Camera:
And like, they need to have their say in everything, and they don’t trust you, as a copywriter, you have to find someone who trusts you to do your job. And then you can do it, like they have to allow you.
Kate Toon:
Gosh, that must be hard though, so how do you find people who trust you to do your job? That’s my next question.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, I keep putting it out there. This is the sort of client that’s suited to this VIP package. So far, I’ve been lucky. I’ve, you know, managed it. You know, I have terms and conditions that say, you know, like, they’re allowed one amends with a VIP package. But if you if the copy was to go, like completely haywire, you know, they would have to book in another day, like for me to sort of deal with it. And, yeah, so far, I haven’t come across it. Because I think people, you know, they know they’re invested, and they put everything into it. They’re the sort of people you just don’t know, they know.
Kate Toon:
You’ve kind of defined some parameters legally, you know, your terms or conditions. But also, in your messaging, you’re saying this project suits this type of person.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, like you have to know your business. You know, you have to be willing to hand it over like hand over the information trust a copywriter. Yeah.
Kate Toon:
just how many of you think you could do in a month? I mean, it would be pretty exhausting, I’m assuming?
Cathy Camera:
Yeah. First, they were, I’m getting better at them. Like, I could easily like, I think I could do one a week. I don’t usually because you know, my weeks are filled with other things as well, like, case studies and things aren’t usually VIP projects. But I think I could do one a week.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, okay, and how nice that would be. I assume. I assume that you charge a fair premium for that. Like, it’s not your regular pricing? It’s a little bit extra? Or.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah. Although for some people, I think it works out better.
Kate Toon: Yeah, yeah, more cost effective.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, more cost effective for them. Because, you know, they’re just paying for a day. And if I were to charge it, like I was before, like, it could be a lot more.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, totally. But I guess the satisfaction for you is, you know, one of the hard things about as you said, being a copywriter is it dragging on and on. And obviously, you can mitigate that with business rules and setting firm deadlines with your client, you know, the nine month one, probably I would have said, hey, you know what, let’s call this project to a stop. And you and I’ll bill you to where we’ve got to and then you come back to me when you come back to me. Because there’s something kind of hideous about having that project niggling in the back of your mind. And you need to get closure, copywriting closure, and advice, sort of, but that’s challenging. So what I love about your VIP days is, you know, they I’m assuming they pre pay a certain amount, you do the work in the day, and then they pay very quickly. And that money is in the bank, and it’s not spread out over three months. You know, I think even the most simple copy projects is gonna take about two weeks I find even a blog post by the time we have sent it proposals all got the invoice Bibbidi Bobbidi. Boo, it’s two weeks. And so how nice to just do a day’s work and get a day’s money. I love that.
Cathy Camera:
I know, that’s the nicest part.
Kate Toon:
Yeah. So you put those VIP days in your marketing. Is that the main thing that you’re trying to push at the moment?
Cathy Camera:
Yep. I now I started off saying you know, I offer the VIP days. But now I say every website is a VIP project. So I won’t do a website –
Kate Toon:
Oh I love that.
Cathy Camera:
Unless it’s done that way. That’s the only way to work with me if you want a website.
Kate Toon:
I love that. So talk to me just through again, again, what type of copywriters Do you think it suits suits copywriters? Who can work quickly? Yeah, who? What else? What else?
Cathy Camera:
They have to be very organized with their briefing. And they have to get all that information down.
Kate Toon:
Good brief. Yeah.
Cathy Camera:
So I have a written brief, and then I have a video call with the client. And we go through the brief, because oftentimes, they haven’t written everything down, or there’s little gaps. And just by talking to them, you get extra information. So that’s really important. And then once that’s done, you have like, if that brief is good, you have most of the information.
Kate Toon:
So yeah, yeah. And I like the fact I think as well. The thing I would struggle with is I make a lot of typos and mistakes. I’d probably need someone to check my copy before I could give it to the client. But what I also like and I think what you’d mentioned there is that because it’s also too close together, it sounds really bad, you’re not giving the client too much time to think about the copy to send it to 17 friends to show it to their partner, you know, they get what they’re given, as you said, then they can book a second session if they want it. Because I often think that clients feel sometimes like they have to find problems to get their money’s worth. And the longer they have to sit with that copy, the more problems they’re going to find. So I feel like, you’re also setting yourself up for fewer amends, basically, as you said.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, it is, yeah, there are definitely fewer amends, and you don’t lose enthusiasm, like you were saying, for the project. Because when you’re picking up and dropping a project, even if you’ve closed it temporarily, to have to pick it up again, and go through it all again, like, the enthusiasm is really not there and you want to be enthusiastic about projects. And when they finish, share them and be really, you know, I don’t know, what’s the word like, you know, promoting your clients, I like to do that as well. I share their websites, and I share their products and so forth. And you kind of lose that when it takes too long.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, you absolutely do. You know, especially if a project, like if you don’t have those business rules in place, and you do let it drag on the client comes back, really, it’s so much more work as well, because you have to re familiarize yourself with the brand with everything coming, get your brain back into gear. And that can take a lot of time. And also, it’s just, there’s something really uncomfortable about it as well. Like I hate going back to stale copy. You know, it’s really hard to kind of, say when you’ve started a book, but you only got one chapter in. And then months later, you start again, you kind of have to read the first chapter again. But it’s kind of, I don’t know. It’s hard, isn’t it.
Cathy Camera:
I’m exactly the same. I can’t pick up a book that I’ve put down like months ago because reason. Like, did again.
Kate Toon:
I did that with Life of Pi. And if you’ve read Life of Pi, like I read the first chapter, the first chapter is a bit weird, and I didn’t get it and I put it down for like three years. And then I forced myself to go through the first chapter, and then read it like in a day. So you know, it can, it can work. So if someone’s thinking about sort of starting with VIP days, you know, how would they put it out there? Like you said, yours is nontraditional in the way that you do it but like, you know, imagining, you know, is it like eight hours of your abnormal array? Is it six hours of your normal array? And
Cathy Camera:
That’s another thing some people specify the time that they spend, I don’t I purposely didn’t because you know, some people say you know, it’s five hours or six hours and you know, I only take a toilet break and a lunch break. I’m not that specific. I just say a day of my time. Like I’m assuming nine to five like a business day you know, but I’m gonna take breaks in the day that’s me like I’m a bit of a I don’t know if I should say procrastinating. You know, I need my little break. So if I get up and wander off away from my desk, that’s only going to help the copies so.
Kate Toon:
Okay, I like that. That time on the toilet, that time eating your lunch.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, I’m not timing everything.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah, I mean, I think that would be the other challenge. You know, if you’ve booked that VIP day in and then you wake up that morning you’re like I really don’t feel like doing this today. I can’t be bothered you know, because we can’t all just kind of phone up and switch ourselves on like a machine we’re not AI yet you know, okay, here we go make a copy. And I think that I think we ought to be, I mean that’s the big problem with a lot of copywriters is they wait for inspiration, they wait for motivation, and when it doesn’t come they don’t do any work and it doesn’t work. That’s not the way to be financially successful. Unfortunately, in real life, you have to sit at your desk, do the work even when you don’t feel like you when there’s no inspiration, zero motivation. So I guess, you know, maybe VIP those suit copywriters who are a bit more able to project manage themselves and self-motivate, like, if you’re a bit of an airy-fairy, sit in a café, beret, a type of copywriter, it might not be for you. What do you think?
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. Although a deadline, like I’m a bit like, like at home, but a deadline makes me you know,
Kate Toon:
A deadline makes everybody, yeah totally.
Cathy Camera:
So I have that deadline. And I’ve written into my terms in case because the other worry was what about if I wake up sick?
Kate Toon: Yeah. Yeah, or something’s wrong with the kids.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, something happens. So I’ve written that in and I’ve said, you know, I will do it as soon as possible after that VIP day, at no extra charge to you apart from you know, the initial charge. So like, that’s just part of being-
Kate Toon:
I like that, I like that you’ve got some caveats and I assume that goes both ways. You know, like maybe the clients allowed one delay, so that you know, if they wake up feeling sick that they have one opportunity to delay because the other thing I’d worry about is I booked this VIP day in and the client would not turn up and then I’ve not geared any other work for that day because I was expecting them. So I think it would be like a one strike and out. And then if they if they canceled twice, I would do give them their money back minus an admin fee or minus time spent. And they would know that I’m just talking about these business rules, because this is where people fall down. Oh, great idea, I’m gonna do VIP Day I’m gonna charge this much client doesn’t turn up, okay, then they book again, then they don’t turn up again. And then you’re out of pocket. So, so important. You know, people often ask me in the community, you know, what’s the best app to use to charge clients and how, and it’s not about the app, doesn’t matter if you take cash in hand, it’s about the business rules around how you work and not hiding those in your terms and conditions, making them super clear. So it sounds like you’ve done that. And I love that you’ve got that leeway for yourself. So we want a bit wildly off track, then. What is it? What’s one of your favorite copywriting tools that you kind of use on a regular basis,
Cathy Camera:
I would say Loom is my favorite. That’s made a huge difference to amends as well, I find that clients always told me they love it. It makes the long email redundant. So I don’t have a long email trying to explain the copy to the client or trying to explain bits and pieces. And when you’re talking them through the copy, they understand why you’ve made certain decisions. And so then they’re not coming back to you saying, you know, I want this changed. Why have you written don’t instead of do knots and you know, that sort of thing? So yeah, I find that that has cut down my amends as well. It’s good communication with the client.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I love it, it’s one of the things I always recommend is to Loom yourself talking through the copy explaining your rationale, because you’re still selling, this is the thing, you know, we talk about this a lot in the community, but you’re not just selling when you send your proposal off, and they agree to that. You’re selling what you’ve created. You know, if you go buy a piece of art, you know, you have a much more likely would you be to buy that piece of art, if the artist was there saying, Well, I was inspired by the sunset and blah, blah, blah, you know, I think you just worked. Yeah, the sales patter works. But also, it’s about practical rationalization. The reason I didn’t use your suggested facts was because I felt, yeah, whereas if you just get the copy, a client can feel like, wow, she’s ignored everything I asked her to do. Don’t get it, you know, like, it doesn’t make and then you’re just on the backfoot feeling awkward. So I think so important with copywriting to give the client an opportunity to not like it. I think that’s super, super important. You know, rather than being offended and making them feel comfortable.
Cathy Camera:
Yeah, and I think that gets easier with time. Like, I think when you first start, like every bit of feedback, like hits you. Yeah, that’s another thing. Yeah. But, you know, as you go on, there was a member of our group back in the day who said, It’s, uh, he came up with
Kate Toon:
It’s not your skin.
Cathy Camera:
It’s not your skin. Yeah. And I put that up on my wall. And I really, I took it to heart because it isn’t like, you know, it’s not me, it’s just writing that I’m doing for a client. If they don’t like it, that’s their business. It’s, you know, their baby. And so they have a right to not like it.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I mean, the skin thing sounds freaky without context, I think it was about tattoo artists. Yeah, but also on the flip side, it’s not your skin, but also you’re not their mom, like if they want you to do a certain thing. And you’ve pushed back and said, you don’t think it’s gonna work. But they push back again, you have to kind of shut up and get on with it. Because they’re the client, you know, you’re like, you want an Oxford comma, they don’t, it’s their copy. They’re the ones that have to live with it, you move on to your next project. So I love that. So Loom is your favorite copywriting tool. I want to be you know, there’s lots we could talk about. But I want to talk about why you think you won member of the year. I was, you know, it’s an interesting one to win because we had the general copywriter award, you know, for things like you know, best content writer, whatever, but obviously the member of year a funny one, isn’t it? It’s yeah, it’s not based on skill or business, business profile, it’s based on kind of being a good human, but what what do you think you Why do you think you want?
Cathy Camera:
Yeah. I think because I am very active in the membership. And also because I just share not only the wins, but you know, the things that go wrong. So I’m a bit vulnerable that way, maybe I overshare sometimes, like sometimes I step back and think, oh, gosh, like I’m going a bit fast lane. But I share all those things that go wrong. And I think people you know, it’s just like you said, part of being human, everyone goes through those things. Even the people we hold in high esteem, like I know, you know, there are ambassadors who sometimes come on, and they say, you know, this happened and I think oh, wow, you know, they’ve been in business 10 years and it’s still happening. Like so sometimes things just happened and you realize that when people share so I think being a sharer in the group.
Kate Toon:
I think it helps I mean I you know I watch him ridiculous amount of reality TV, and I’m so invested Did in their stories, your love story, and and we invest in the highs and the lows. So, you know, I don’t think you’re an oversharer at all and actually think that you’re sharing enables other people to feel that they can share, you know, so you need someone you know, it’s that whole thing of someone gets up and dances, yeah, comparison gets up and dances then everyone else feels they can get up and down. You actually allow people to feel comfortable about sharing their highs and lows. But also what because you do sometimes share a low or you ask a question or you ask for advice, then when you come back and you’ve won, or you’ve dealt with, that’s it, we’re like, yes, because we’re all invested. We’re like, what happened to me what happened? And I noticed now a few more people are doing that in the community, you know, the other day, yeah, there’s a member talking about like, a client that had done something rather than we all gave her advice. And then we all like on the post the next day, and what did she say? What did she say? And then she’s like, well, she said this, and then we’re like, Well, will you send this and it went on and on and on. And I was going back into the community way more than I should to see the next installment. But I think also you do jump on other people’s posts and offer support and ideas, you know, so it kind of what goes around comes around is bit kind of good karma, isn’t it? So you know, I’m very proud of you for winning member of the year.
Cathy Camera:
Thank you.
Kate Toon:
You know, it was wonderful.
Cathy Camera:
Thank you, it was a great honor.
Kate Toon:
It was great to do the awards in person and be able to handle that was fantastic at copy. Con last year. Look, we’re gonna wrap up. Because we I think, you know, I’m so glad that we got to discuss VIP days, I think that was something that we needed to discuss. If you were talking to maybe Cathy five or six years ago, or a newbie copywriter, what would be some wise sage advice you would pass on to them?
Cathy Camera:
Apart from joining TCCS.
Kate Toon:
Oh, you have to say that, thank you.
Cathy Camera:
I have to say- but I really really mean it because the group is invaluable. But apart from that, just have a go at things that you haven’t done before, like, because there are people in the group who can help you out. You know, I always think that capability statements are one of the main things I do now. And I still remember the day when I went into the group and said, I’ve just had an inquiry what is a capability statement, I didn’t even know what one was. Now I’m writing them all the time. So you just sometimes have to put yourself out there have a go and see what happens.
Kate Toon:
I love that. I mean I’m very into iterative learning like I you know, obviously everyone loves a copywriting course, but I like to learn things when I need to learn them, like I know how to write copy, but today I have the right capabilities statement, great, I’m gonna go into the TCCS shop, get the template, and then I’ve got a complete guide of how to do it. I’m gonna ask in the group, I’m gonna see if there’s anybody in the group that has done them before who’s willing to have a chat most people are, which is bizarrely uncompetitive of them, but they are. And you know, my first one, I’m gonna maybe charge at the lower end of it, and then I’m gonna get better and better and better. And as my samples and testimonials build up, that’s how I think you build a copywriting business, not by learning everything before you start, but by learning as you go. Yeah, you can’t. You can’t. There’s always new things coming along. Cathy, I love it. I think you’re a pioneer. If you don’t follow Cathy already on LinkedIn, I highly recommend that you do, you can watch some of our videos. You can find out more about Cathy on her website construction copywriter. She has a YouTube channel. She’s on LinkedIn. She’s on Instagram, and Facebook. And I’ve included links to all of those in the show notes. So Cathy, thank you so much for coming on the show today member of the year.
Cathy Camera:
Thank you and thank you for having me.
Kate Toon:
So that’s the end of this week’s show. If you want to grab more tips, head to the clever copywriting school website where you can sign up for our free pricing guide and also get a copy of our call script for dealing with clients on the phone. Thank you Cathy Camera, and also thanks to Lizzie JC from Australia for their lovely review. They said refreshing real conversation Kate sources. One of our greatest achievements for this podcast, her own copywriting community. As always case interviews. The conversation is witty, honest and full of great tips. But the best bit about this podcast is it showcases a community of working copywriters, not just the fancy pants ones. I love that I’m gonna Nick that and use that as a testimonial on my Instagram. Thank you, Lizzie. I also love the bite sized copy tips, no fluff, just the actionable hints to improve your writing and your business. Great insight into copywriting and a supportive community. Thanks, Lindsay. Thanks to you for listening. If you liked the show, we’d love a review. If you have time, it will help others find the show and help more. Learn more about the lovely word of copywriting. So yes, you can head to clever copywriting. school.com. To learn more about Cassie check out her useful links. So until next time, happy happy happy writing. Bye bye
