Hello and welcome to this special festive episode of the Hot Copy Podcast. Belinda and I have come back together to roast some chestnuts, neck some egg nog and talk all things copy.

So if you’re ready to put up your stockings with us and wait for Father Christmas to slip down your copy chimney, this is the episode for you.

Did you know we've been creating this podcast since 2015 -- never missing an episode?

Well, not until 2020.

2020 has been the year of "the surge" for us both.

In this special episode, we go through how we've handled working through the pandemic and what's happening with the Hot Copy podcast.

Spoiler alert: we're mixing things up in 2021!

Have you ever felt cooped up in a corporate office, staring outside at the trees, wishing you could leave the hustle and bustle of city life behind?

Waking up mid-morning, taking a coffee onto the veranda, and staring out at wide-open pastures with birds chirping?

While it’s a nice daydream to have, many of us stick it out and stay put.

Others, like our guest today, put in the tough hours to make it a reality.

It’s not all lazy sleep-ins and fresh country air, but it IS freedom from the constraints of the city, and as far as copywriting goes - it’s a whole new demographic.

We’re excited to find out the difference location can make to your writing strategies from The Rural Copywriter herself!

Tune in to learn:

• How Sarah Walkerden became The Rural Copywriter
• Common misconceptions about country-living
• City VS Country copy
• The secrets of writing in a “down to earth style”
• The challenges of working with rural businesses
• How Sarah’s workday changed.

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and big hugs to Kate Crocker for her lovely testimonial.

“I love the Hot Copy Podcast. It's engaging, funny, and informative. It covers a huge range of copywriting topics, always with practical tips.

Belinda and Kate also interview some legends of the biz and obviously enjoy themselves.

This podcast is a must for any copywriter.”

The Rural Copywriter helps rural and regionally based businesses (including the agricultural and equestrian industries, boost their Google rankings and win over scores of adoring customers, through effective digital marketing messaging and strategy.

Specialising in writing SEO-friendly website copy and sales funnel copywriting, Sarah also helps businesses to develop effective content marketing strategies for blogs and social media.

Fun fact: Sarah also loves the smell of leather and horse sweat!

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• The Rural Copywriter

Figuring out what makes you unique is a tough but essential part of marketing your copywriting services.

What if you’ve written for every type of business? What if you’ve seen it all and written the copy? Can oodles of experience be your USP?

The answer is yes and we’re excited to talk to a copywriter who celebrates not only her age and experience but her knack for reinvention… and how that’s shaped her copywriting business.

Tune in to learn:

• Life and writing experience – when you’ve seen it, done it, made it work (even when ‘it didn’t’)
• The process of reinvention and how to know if you need one
• The new dimension of imposter syndrome (aka ‘how can I possibly still be here doing this at my age?!’)
• Wrinkles and grey hair in the era of Facebook live
• Advice for grey-haired word nerds contemplating freelance copywriting The joy of nailing your brand

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and / or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and big hugs to kazzaround from Australia for this lovely testimonial.

An old dog learning new tricks and really enjoying this podcast. Presented so well by Kate who is engaging, entertaining and informing on all things on copywriting. This is the best podcast in a while and I can’t get enough.

Mary Cameron is an SEO Copywriter, Kiwi with Scots roots, now living ‘la vie bretonne’ in regional France.

A writer of clear, convincing words for exacting humans for over 40 years.

Distance runner turned endurance cyclist. Saltwater enthusiast. Bossed by a ginger cat. Wife to darling husband and mother to a lovely lad. Grumpy loser of board games.

• The Wrinkly Writer
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Writer Helen Garner on the insults of age

SaaS copy, is it a super sexy sassy form of copywriting? No! It’s Software as a Service copy. Huh? Well you know big brands like Stripe, ConvertKit, Slack - well yes they need copy.

And a particular type of copy.

When we write for SaaS companies we’re writing easy to understand words for potentially highly technical products. We need to write copy that shows that this software, that you've never heard of, is absolutely essential for your life.

We’re digging deep into the world of SaaS today.

Tune in to learn:

• How Kat got started in copywriting
• When and why she decided to niche into SaaS copywriting
• What kind of copy SaaS clients regularly ask for
• How Kat found her first SaaS copywriting client
• How Kat stays up to date with SaaS trends
• Whether Kat’s clients tend to be one-off or ongoing work
• Kat’s SaaS copywriting process
• Key SaaS copywriting techniques

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and thanks to F N AWESOME Game for this great review of the show.

“I’m not even a copywriter, just a marketer, and I can’t stop listening to this podcast! The hosts and guests are amazing and I learn volumes from each episode!

My three other podcasts are on hold until I listen to every episode of the Hot Copy podcast (including the ones on their website too)!

They say this podcast is for copywriters, but in my humble opinion, it’s also for entrepreneurs, marketers, and salespeople too because each episode is packed full of gems of information.

Thanks, ladies and to all the guests for this valuable podcast and copywriting gold. I absolutely love it!”

Kat Ambrose is obsessed with stringing words together, especially for SaaS companies.

She’s written for companies like Stripe, Keeping, and GoLinks, just to name a few. After a few years of cutting her teeth in the agency world, she left to pursue her writing career and hasn’t looked back since.

When she's not writing or keeping up with trends in the SaaS space, she's out for a run, paging through a thriller, or trying to pet the nearest dog.

Fun fact: Kat and her middle brother are 364 days apart!

• SaaS Copywriter - Kat Ambrose
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Being a guest on a podcast is a fantastic way to increase your reach and boost your visibility and skyrocket that authority. Right? You're a really important person who knows what they're talking about when you're been on a pod.

But getting on a podcast is not quite as easy as just asking the podcast host.

Today's guest is a podcast guesting specialist and we're digging into how to get on podcasts but so much more.

Tune in to learn:

• How Mai-Kee niched into podcasting pitching
• How podcasts rank against other means to boost visibility and authority
• How to get over your own fear of being a podcast guest
• How to choose the best podcast to get on
• The secret of a solid podcast pitch
• Equipment needed if you don’t want to be rejected as a podcast
• Other essentials you need in place
• How to leverage the pods we’re on to get in front of our ideal clients
• The power of intentional podcast guesting

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and huge props Lizzie Macaulay for this review on Facebook.

As a mum of 2 youngsters (1&3), I am usually saddled with Wiggles-filled car journeys at every turn. Discovering the Hot Copy podcast has been a game-changer in more ways than I can count. Goodbye Wiggles, hello smart, witty, professional advice that has really shaped how I approach setting up my own service in regional Queensland. We have worked through nearly the entire catalogue in the last month or so, and it is my suspicion Kate and Belinda's tips are shaping two mini writers as well! ;-) Thank you both for all you do, and keep up the fantastic work!

Mai-kee Tsang is a Podcast Guesting Mentor and Trainer who helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs to expand their reach, share their message, and grow their businesses to make a bigger impact on the world.

She does this by training her clients and their teams to build a self-sustaining podcast guesting system in their biz - so they can land brand-aligned podcast interviews without having to outsource to an external agency.

This helps to position her clients as guest experts who focus on Value-Driven Visibility™, intentional relationship building, and creating a loyal audience.

• Website
• Podcasters Resource Guide
• Instagram
• From Pitch to Podcast Guest group program waitlist
• Quiet Rebels Podcast

Do you want to know a secret?

Kate never actually wanted to be a copywriter. Her dream was to be a magazine writer. In fact, she was voted “Girl Most Likely To Write For Smash Hits” when she was at school.

But there's more. She was also a feature editor for her uni newspaper interviewing Blur and Bob Monkhouse.

She interned at several sexy music mags in London.

And she was accepted onto a prestigious magazine journalism course. Whaaaat?

But she couldn’t afford it. So she didn’t go.

So she spent the next 10 years wandering in the wilderness of digital production... until she found copywriting.

But Kate still yearns to be a REAL Writer.

(And we're all nodding here, right?)

Today we’re talking about writing for magazines and more specifically how to pitch them and we have a very special guest to give us the lowdown.

Tune in to learn:

• Where to start with magazine writing
• A peek behind-the-scenes with Rachel
• Emailing the perfect pitch
• Whether you should write an article or pitch the idea first
• The first point of contact when pitching articles
• How to hear back from potential writing jobs
• Pay rates in the world of magazine-writing
• Kill fees - what they are and how to obtain them
• Handling rejection as a writer.

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and please leave us a review and we'll read it out on the show!

Rachel Smith is a freelance journalist and copywriter with over 20 years' experience (most of that in isolation by choice, ha). She writes for magazines, websites, and corporate clients and has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Good Health, Woman’s Day, CHOICE, Foxtel Mag, TV Week, Inside Out, and many others. Rachel is also the founder of Rachel's List, a jobs board and community for writers – and she co-hosts The Content Byte podcast with fellow journo Lynne Testoni.

• Rachel’s site
• Rachel’s List
• Content Byte
• Google doc of Aussie publications still commissioning

As copywriters, we get to hide behind our keyboards – writing the words that put our clients in the spotlight.

And for many of us, it’s just where we want to be.

But are we doing ourselves a disservice?

Today we’re going to be talking to Mike Kim about building a personal brand and what it can mean for us as copywriters and business owners.

His own podcast Brand You is where he talks about all those things and more..

But today, he’s all ours.

Tune in to learn:

• The surprising start to Mike’s career
• Whether having a personal brand means we have to be a celebrity
• The elements of a strong personal brand
• How to start building your personal brand
• How a personal brand will compete or complement your business brand
• How a copywriter can develop a personal brand that genuinely stands out in an internet of copywriters
• How to communicate core brand values through content
• Mistakes most people make when it comes to their own brand
• What we need to get over in order to have a strong personal brand

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and huge props Lizzie Macaulay for this review on Facebook.

“As a mum of 2 youngsters (1&3), I am usually saddled with Wiggles-filled car journeys at every turn. Discovering the Hot Copy podcast has been a game-changer in more ways than I can count. Goodbye Wiggles, hello smart, witty, professional advice that has really shaped how I approach setting up my own service in regional Queensland. We have worked through nearly the entire catalogue in the last month or so, and it is my suspicion Kate and Belinda’s tips are shaping two mini writers as well! 😉

Thank you both for all you do, and keep up the fantastic work!” – Lizzie Macaulay

Mike Kim is a speaker and marketing strategist who specializes in brand strategy and copywriting.

He’s been hired by some of today’s most influential thought leader brands including John Maxwell, Donald Miller, Suzanne Evans, and Catalyst.

For years he was the Chief Marketing Officer of a successful multi-million dollar company near New York City.

Nowadays you’ll find him speaking at conferences, looking for the next great place to scuba dive, and sipping a glass of Macallan 15 — all while teaching everything he knows about branding, entrepreneurship, and life through his hit podcast, Brand You.

• Website
• BrandYou Bootcamp
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Human-centered design is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors and usability knowledge and techniques.

The point? To create a better experienced for real-life people.

On today’s podcast, we have a veritable whizz at all things human-centered, Anita Siek.

She’s going to explain what Human-Centred design is, how it applies to content and copywriting, and how we can use it to help our clients. Thank goodness!

Tune in to learn:

• Anita’s journey to where she is today
• How she grew Wordfetti and the challenges that she faced
• Human-centred copywriting and content
• Creative vs strategic copywriting
• Diverse income streams and not scaling by humans

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Oh and big hugs to ANITA ASHLOCK for her lovely testimonial.

"This podcast has truly changed my career. There's zero fluff, 100% personality, and actionable advice. I've learned more from Hot Copy than anything else––grad school, previous jobs, online courses, etc. The hosts always talk about defining how you add value in your business and that's exactly what they do here. Added bonus? Now, this American knows what "whinge" means."

Anita Siek is an ex-lawyer with a background in psychology who did a 360 in her career by becoming a brand strategist and copywriter. She's the founder and director of Wordfetti, a human-centered brand strategy and copywriting studio specialising in helping brands stand out through the power of psychology and words.

She is also the host of Brandfetti the podcast, a no-fluff weekly podcast dedicated to sharing bite-sized content marketing, verbal branding, and value-bombs on the science of words, as well as stories of brands who are creating a dent in their industry through the power of words. Some of Wordfetti's clients include Australia's largest insurer brand IAG, Lack of Color, Luna Bronze, Libby Trickett, and Mia Freedman.

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

• Brandfetti on Apple
• Brandfetti on Spotify

We are surrounded by art every day. And artists struggle with many of the challenges that us copywriters do…

• How to create a sense of perceived value around their work.
• How to market their work to audiences who will not only appreciate it but pay for it too.
• How to create a successful business without disrupting their creative process.

That’s where today’s guest comes in.

We’re talking to Ali Strachan, digging into how artists can create a successful business and how copywriters can be successful in this niche.

Tune in to learn:

• What an Arts Advocate does
• The big struggles artists face, and how Ali helps to overcome them
• How important strong personal branding and storytelling is for artists
• The kind of copy an arts copywriter writes
• The conflict between art and marketing: the artist and the customers
• Whether artists care about SEO, blogs, and mailing lists
• What gets Ali cross about arts marketing

Have you ever written for an artist? Share your thoughts on Twitter (@hotcopypodcast) or our Facebook page!

If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks!

Thanks to thatsmekq from the UK for a fantastic review of the show.

“Really enjoying your podcast and am going to be putting a lot of these tips to use in my new marketing manager role. I listen to a lot of marketing-related podcasts and this is my new favourite. Thanks for your high-quality content. Kay (Glasgow).”

Ali Strachan helps visual artists promote their work, make an impact, and earn more from sales and commissions.

She’s a passionate, knowledgeable, and honest advocate of the arts, who supports her clients to achieve success on their creative journey.

She regularly works with arts organisations and local council to promote and educate local artists and engage them in events to give them every opportunity to build their profile within the community.

As a fellow creative, she understands the challenges artists face when building their business – and has the tools, experience, and know-how to help artists be more profitable, so they can keep doing what they love.

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn