For the 175th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob talked with copywriter Derek Hambrick about his path to freelance copywriter... including his first failed attempt and what made him successful the second time he gave it a go. We also talked about:

•  the path he followed from communications to copywriting

•  the surprising emotions Derek felt when he was laid off… panic and excitement

•  how he relies on relationships to find clients for his business

•  what he did to step up his copywriting game as he went out on his own

•  the importance of giving and altruism to Derek’s ROI

•  the process he follows as he works with his clients

•  why he chose his niche and the impact its had on his business growth

•  the pros and cons of working in the higher education niche

•  how he moves from one client to the next and gets referrals

•  the changes he’s made to his mindset in order to think bigger

•  his experience in The Copywriter Underground and what he gets from it

•  how to get the most from a course or community you belong to

•  the mistakes he’s made as he moved from full time to freelance

•  what comes next… how Derek keeps growing

To hear what else we talked about, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. Or better yet, subscribe with your favorite podcast app and never miss an episode.

 

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

Ry Schwartz

Joel Klettke

The Copywriter Underground

Cantilever Creative

TCCIRL Copywriting Event

Kira’s website

Rob’s website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

The Copywriter Underground

 

Full Transcript:

Kira:   This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Club In Real Life, our live event in San Diego, March 12th through the 14th. Get your tickets now at thecopywriterclub.com/tccirl.

Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast.

Kira:   You're invited to join the club for episode 175 as we chat with copywriter Derek Hambrick about moving from full time work to freelance, choosing his niche and what that did for his business, what he did to find his first clients and how he finds people to work with today, his experience in The Copywriter Underground and what he's doing differently in 2020. Welcome, Derek.

Derek:            Hey guys, thanks for having me over.

Kira:   Yeah, I feel like we have wanted to have this conversation with you for a while. We've been able to hang out with... Well, I was able to hang out with you in person not too long ago and chat with you then, but we really wanted to record this and find out more about you and your business and what you've done because it's worked well. So, why don't we kick it off with your story? How did you end up as a copywriter?

Derek:            Yes. So, I always knew I wanted to work with words for a living, but didn't know exactly how. Long story really short, I found myself working at Delta Airlines, not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life, but I figured Delta was a big enough place that I'll probably find it there and get paid as well along the way as I figured that out. I remember working on the International Concourse, writing a few articles for newsletters, that kind of thing. Nothing big.

But one evening the last flight pushed out to Santiago, Chile. That was done. Went back to the break room, working on an article, looked at the clock and an hour had gone by. And at that point I realized, ‘My God, I must really enjoy this.’ And that's when I realized I've got to find some role, some place capacity for me to write for a living.

So I applied for a bunch of corp-comm jobs, marketing roles and that kind of thing. Nothing really panned out because I didn't have a degree is wha...