I covered a lot of ideas in this episode with copywriter Grace Baldwin. We talked about product marketing, building an agency, conducting research (including one research technique you’ve never heard before) and the importance of community in growing your copywriting business. This is a good one. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.

Grace’s Newsletter

Rob Marsh: Hidden inside this podcast are a couple of ideas that will take your research game to another level… and I promise at least one of these you’ve never heard before.  This is The Copywriter Club Podcast.

I’ve interviewed close to 350 different copywriters and close to another hundred or so other experts on this podcast over the past eight years. And you would think that by now, I’ve heard just about everything there is to learn or know about copywriting, research, persuasion, finding clients and the many other topics we talk about every week. Often the topics we cover are good reminders of things I already know but maybe don’t apply to my business the way I should. Other times I hear ideas that I have implemented and what we talk about is a confirmation that what I’m doing in my business is helpful to my clients.

And yet, I am constantly surprised by new ideas, new ways to do old things, and new insights that guests share that have never occurred to me before.

That happened as I was recording this episode. My guest today is my friend Grace Baldwin. Grace is a copywriter with a background in strategy and product development. She’s in the process of building her own design agency. Grace has constantly leveled up as she’s built her business, working with bigger clients, taking on bigger projects and helping to create more impact for the brands she works on.

While we were talking, she shared one way she does brand voice research—something I have never heard other copywriters doing and something that has never occurred to me before… and yet it’s the kind of idea that may help you as you conduct research for your clients, especially if they are in early stages and don’t yet have a lot of customers to intervew or survey. 

After hearing that, I shared my favorite research technique for getting a founder to share the features, benefits and other details about a product in a way that helps me capture these for my sales copy.

If you want to hear either or both of these ideas, you’re going to have to listen to the rest of the podcast.

Before we do that though, since one of the topics we touch on in this podcast is research, I want to share with you all of my research secrets… the 4:20+ research method that helps copywriters like you uncover the ideas and insights you need to write great sales copy. I’ve shared them all… more than twenty different techniques for capturing ideas, plus all of the questions I use to learn more about my client, their product, their customers and their competitors as well as the documents you need to capture your research and several tutorials on how to use A.I. to speed up your processes and even help with your research itself.  You can learn more about this unique resource at thecopywriterclub.com/researchmastery … research mastery is all one word. Check out thecopywriterclub.com/researchmastery.

I’ll link to that in the show notes so you can easily find the link if you can’t type the URL into your browser right now… thecopywriterclub.com/researchmastery

And now, my interview with Grace Baldwin.

Hey, Grace, 

Grace Baldwin: Hi Rob. 

Rob Marsh: I am so excited to have you here, so let’s let’s start with your stories. You were in the think tank. We hung out so much together a few years ago, but it’s been a little while. So catch me up and catch up our listeners. How did you get to be marketing consultant, copywriter for B to B, Tech brands, branding specialists, like all these things that you’re doing, and now you’re building an agency.

Grace Baldwin: Yeah. So okay, the story starts kind of while I was still in school, so I kind of became a copywriter on accident, like everybody or like, I think most of the people that are on the show, right, never really imagined that this is kind of what life would look like. But when I was in high school, I would always really had fun writing like flyers, and, you know, I threw parties in my basement, and I loved writing the invitations. And then around my senior year of college, I kind of realized, Okay, wait, people will pay me to do this, which was amazing. 

And then after school, I moved to Amsterdam and fell into the world of B to B technology. I started working in ed tech. Then I went to e-commerce tech, and then finally ended up in, like, in a space tech company, which was really interesting. And that’s kind of when I came into Think Tank. I was working at a space tech company. I knew I always wanted to be freelance, and so I was really building the foundations through the Think Tank while I was still there, and then, since 2022 I’ve been out on my own, and now I’m building a branding agency.

Rob Marsh: So let’s talk about that. Because, yeah, building an agency. I mean, on the one hand, it’s pretty easy to say, Oh yeah, I’m building an agency. On the other hand, there is so much work that goes into it. So yeah. Tell us about that.

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, I tried starting to build an agency last year, and I kind of burned myself out on it because I didn’t have any of the processes or anything in place. And to be fair, it’s still a fairly new thing this time around, but this time, I have a co-founder who has some experience with building agencies and managing people, and so that’s making a big difference. And we’re working with, we’re going to be working with a coach to help us avoid some of the big mistakes that I think I started to make last year when I was trying to do it by myself. Yeah,

Rob Marsh: That makes a ton of sense. So who are you trying to serve? And like, What is the vision for the agency? What does that look

like? 

Grace Baldwin: Yeah. So the vision for the agency right now is to be really working with innovative technology companies. So and when I say innovative, I mean kind of like deep innovation. So my background is in space tech and in the energy industry as well. And we want to be working with companies that are supporting we’re calling it planet tech, right? So within agriculture, within space, within Climate Technology, just people that are making really interesting solutions that are kind of what I like about beauty is like, it’s kind of the back doors of the world, and I want to help them tell their stories. 

Rob Marsh: I love that, and I love the idea of planet tech, that’s just a really unique way to talk about it.

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, we’re kind of kicking around different names and everything right now, but that’s kind of what we keep coming back to.

Rob Marsh: Okay, I want to come back to this, but I want to kind of jump back to as you were getting started as a writer. Obviously, you had some in house experiences, but your goal was always to be freelance, and you were freelancing on the side. Tell us just how you launched that side of your business. You know, how you got started, how you found your first clients…

Grace Baldwin: So the first clients, so I discovered the copywriter club, actually, when I was still in school, and I joined the free Facebook group then and listen, I binged every episode of this podcast. And maybe, maybe it wasn’t when I was still in school, but was within the first year. And I’ve kind of found my first clients through these Facebook groups, and maybe not necessarily the copywriter club one, but through another writing Facebook group. And that’s kind of how it all got started. 

And then for two and a half, three years I was I ended up working in house, but I always had this. I was very tapped into the copywriting club community in the backs, in the back of things, and continued trying to build up a brand while I was doing it, which then helped when I got laid off,

for sure. 

Rob Marsh: And as far as like reaching out to clients, were you pitching clients individually? Were you posting content and clients were finding you like, how did that all work?

Grace Baldwin: In the beginning, it was pitching and just connecting with people on, yeah, in these Facebook groups and just saying, hey, you know, I’m looking for work, anything I can help out with. And then eventually, eventually, when I got more serious about my business, I started posting content on, posting content on LinkedIn, and people were coming

to me, 

Rob Marsh: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of your content on LinkedIn. You seem to be pretty, pretty good at the whole LinkedIn game. I mean, spill your secrets on that as well.

Grace Baldwin: I don’t really have any secrets. So whenever I have talked to Chris Collins about this too, but I say that the one of the best things about my business, and one of the worst things is that whenever I have an idea, I can put it on the internet, and that’s kind of how I write content.

Rob Marsh: So you’re just like, oh, it’s Tuesday morning. You’re not thinking, I’ve got to get a post up. It’s just whenever an idea occurs to you, you share it, 

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, or whenever I see something that one of my clients is struggling with, and if I am able to see kind of a connective thread between what client is struggling with and what client B is struggling with. I’ll post about my thoughts on it, not obviously naming my clients names, but just talking about the larger problem that I’m noticing or the different trends that I’m seeing across whatever is happening the different conversations that I’m having. 

Rob Marsh: I like that approach because it immediately suggests that you’re the expert working on big problems. And I think when readers see it, they’re like, oh, wait, I have that problem. As opposed to so much of the other content that’s on LinkedIn, it’s like, you know, well, I mean, all the listicle type stuff that’s just, it has been out there and is over, but even a lot of the shared templates that we have for hooks and that kind of stuff. Just, I don’t know, so much of LinkedIn just feels templatized and un-useful.

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, and I think that that’s a trend I’m seeing, you know, online in general, in LinkedIn specifically, is that people want to hear your stories and your experience. It’s very easy to for anybody to, especially with chat GPT or with AI to, you know, create a post that’s like three messaging tips, but I think people want to hear more about what you did and what the lessons that you learned and how you applied them moving forward, and that’s kind of what I’ve embodied. 

Rob Marsh: And do you take the same approach then, like as you’re thinking about your clients with your agency or for freelance. Are you ever helping them talk about that stuff too? Or are you 100% in on branding?

Grace Baldwin: We’re kind of 100% in on branding right now, but that might, you know, might evolve. But as part of the branding, what we’re trying to do is give people, give these companies a perspective on the world, or, like, a point of view on the world. That’s a big pillar of what we do, and then they can use that as a filter for whenever they’re creating content.

Rob Marsh: So let’s talk about that process, because that’s really interesting to me. I mean, again, so many of us work with our clients. We touch their brand. Sometimes we even help them develop their brand, voice or, you know, give them input on their the visuals that they’re working on. But I mean, it’s a, it’s a really involved process to get this right. So will you walk us through the process that you go through, and so we can see, kind of, like, how that all comes together? 

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, definitely. So it kind of, it’s a it’s evolving now that I’m working with a design partner, but historically, what I have done in, like I when I was working in house, I discovered the world of Product Marketing, and I realized, okay, a lot of the foundations of conversion copywriting overlap with product marketing and, um, so, and that means really starting with, you know, the positioning of the business and understanding where they sit, where this business sits in the product sits in the eyes of the consumer, right? And what is unique about the product, and what is the story about the product that we can tell, rather than the story that we want or that we you know, the client wants to tell. Because sometimes what the product does and what the client wants to tell the world are two different things. And you know, if you want to sell the product, you have to find them the angle that works for that product. So that’s what we start with, that positioning, and from that a message usually kind of develops, and we also create the next step is like personality and perspective. So we try and create a brand archetype and point of view through which they can filter all of their business making decisions through, and then only after all of the positioning messaging, and then kind of messaging concept is done. Do we move into the brand? And that’s where we take the message, take these two couple different messaging ideas, and combine them with the brand so it’s a unified concept. Because what I’ve learned is that it’s very easy for companies to do positioning, do messaging, and they’re these kind of islands, and then brand comes in afterwards and tries to retrofit onto the strategy. But what we’re trying to do is align strategy, or bring brand into the strategy side of things.

Rob Marsh: Okay, I want to go deeper on this, if we can. 

Grace Baldwin: Yes, I’m rambling a little bit, but yeah, 

Rob Marsh: It’s not even rambling. It totally makes sense. But I think we’re covering a lot of really deep ground, really fast? Yes, yes. Can we? So it sounds like we can kind of break down the process into three major steps. One is front end research. And then there’s some some strategy around identifying the archetype and what that strategy looks like moving forward. And then there’s branding beyond that. Is that? Is that correct?

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, so that’s a much better way of saying what I was trying to say. But what we call it the brand stack, and we have the three it is exactly three parts. It’s first is like positioning strategy, then it’s personality, and then it’s presentation. So the actual, you know, visuals and how it actually looks out in the world.

Rob Marsh: Awesome. I like that. So let’s talk a little bit about your research process then, because this is obviously where all of those ideas come from. What are you doing that helps you surface the unique things to help you identify things like voice archetype, the different things that become part of that brand? 

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So a lot of my clients, if I can talk to customers, that’s amazing, or if I can listen in on recordings with customers, recordings with customers, that’s amazing. But I have found with my clients, it’s sometimes more useful to try and find I’m a big fan of using podcasts for voice of customer research, and when I say podcasts, I mean like peer to peer podcasts for their target audience. And I like this because often I find that if you’re interviewing a customer, they’re gonna their natural tendency is to try and be helpful, and that is skewed, or that they’ll provide a skewed perspective. But when you listen to a podcast that says that’s all about you know how to be the best Customer Success Manager of the Year. You find out what their deeper values are and what they really are focused on in their work. And so that’s kind of where I start in terms of desk research.

Rob Marsh: That’s a really good idea. I hadn’t actually ever thought of that before, but I mean, that feels like a game changer in some ways.

Grace Baldwin: So that really emerged a couple of years ago. I was working with a client on a landing page, and I was doing research, and I didn’t have access to their customers. So I started, it was around the end of the year, so I started listening to a couple of these podcasts, and I realized that what we were trying to put out into the world about this product was wasn’t actually matching what our what in this case, it was like what a customer success managers actual KPIs are, and what they really cared about. And so. We were able to tweak the messaging a bit to be way more powerful, just because we were a fly on the wall, rather than, you know, trying to have direct conversations with the client. 

Rob Marsh: Yeah. I mean, I’m just kind of like thinking through how I could use that same idea on my own, with my own clients as well. Because again, I think it’s kind of a game changer. So when you’re doing that, what are the kinds of things that you’re looking for, or that you’re pulling out? Is it just stuff that feels unfamiliar, or like, how do you, how do you identify the ideas like, oh, wait a second, that’s something that I can build on.

Grace Baldwin: That’s a good question. Normally, it’s just kind of intuitive, you know, like just actively listening and trying to see, okay, what is you what is the pattern that’s emerging? What is the thing that they keep bringing up? And it’s nice if I can find, like, two or three podcasts that are in the same realm, and you can hear, okay, this, this idea is echoed across a couple different spaces, and that’s where you’re able to find something. But then from there, you take that research, plus whatever research you have from your internal workshops with the client. And then that’s kind of you start iterating on concepts from that, okay.

Rob Marsh: And then as you start to move into step two, how does your process sort of evolve so that you’re turning ideas and insights into strategy?

Grace Baldwin: So what we do, we take, we try and approach it from a messaging concept perspective, which is something that I learned from, really, from reading breakthrough advertising Right? Which the whole what we try and do is we look at the market sophistication, the customer stage of awareness. They’re like mass desires, which is what we identified in the first stage, along with the product capabilities. And then we create, we’re trying to create two to three different concepts from there, and each concept will be have a slightly different flavor. And then we, at that point, we also introduce the beginning of a design concept as well, because what we want is that the brand’s visual design matches the overall message and positioning. And then from the client, then kind of picks from there, and whatever concept they go with is how we start building out the personality. Rob Marsh: So I know I’m putting you on the spot here a little bit with this question, but can you give me an example of how that works? 

Grace Baldwin: We did this with a client recently where what we did there in the energy industry, and so we kind of worked with them, and we did some research in their early stage. So we didn’t have time for a ton of research. They didn’t have any customers or anything. But we presented a couple different options. And said, Okay, we can go basically in this direction with your brand, or we can go in this direction with your brand, and the messaging is slightly different here, because it might be, for example, you might have, like, more cool, toned, like, precise design, you might have cool, more cool tone, precise designs, and then your tone might also change slightly there. Or you could have something that’s a bit warmer and a bit more of a like a lover brand archetype. But we gave them two options, and then they picked one, and we went with

Rob Marsh: And when it comes to the kinds of clients that you’re working with, it seems like there’s some real trade off opportunities for, you know, again, we’re talking planet tech. So, you know, you want people to like you, or to see that you’re doing good things for the planet, but at the same time your tech and so you’ve got a side of the brand that is scientific and functional and delivers results, right? And so there’s, it’d be interesting to balance the two.

Grace Baldwin: Exactly. And a lot of clients that we talk to don’t, they don’t want to scream necessarily that they’re eco friendly, right? I mean, that’s not their main purpose. You also want to be able to avoid greenwashing if that’s not the main driver. A lot of times, I’ve worked on products where the main driver and the main value of the product is not about reducing carbon emissions, it’s about helping the team operate more efficiently, which is then a business outcome, rather than, like a climate outcome. 

Rob Marsh: And obviously, if you’re showing up and accused of greenwashing, that can hurt your brand. Tell me about the last stage, which is really design and copy. How does that all come together?

Grace Baldwin: So from that point, it’s just a matter of refinement. Once we kind of pick a direction, my design partner, he goes and he, you know, works his he’s like the creative genius, and so he works with magic on that. And then I will create the brand voice guide, and we bounce each one of the nice things about having a co founder is that we can bounce the ideas off of each other and make sure that it’s all aligned. And then we put it together in a final presentation. And then from there, we can work with the client on web copy and any other assets. 

Rob Marsh: Okay, so I love this process, and right now the agency is just you and your partner, but like, What is the vision as far as team goes?

Grace Baldwin: That’s a really good question. You know, we’d like to keep it pretty small, but you. We’re still kind of in the early stages of defining what we want the vision to look like, okay, but we both want it to be something that feels easy and fun. 

Rob Marsh: Yeah, exactly the kind of business that I want, too. So what has copywriting taught you about building brands and branding?

Grace Baldwin: That’s a really good question. I think the answer is everything. I think that you know, and admittedly, I’m biased, right, like, as you know, I’ve worked for 9, 10 years as a copywriter, and I really think that copy is the foundation. And I think that what it’s taught me is that copy needs to be involved earlier on in the process. I think that often copywriting, and specifically, tone of voice gets kind of added on afterwards. But really, copy is how you shape your messaging. It’s how you shape the presentation to the world. It’s how you shape your you have to come up with slogans and headlines and things like that. And it should be leading. It’s strategy incarnate. And it should be leading kind of the crusade,

Rob Marsh: I think a lot of copywriters see it this way. Sometimes designers don’t see it this way. And yeah, it’s interesting. You know, when you’ve got a design partner, really, the real answer is that both design and copy should be in the meeting from the beginning. And that strategy impacts both copy and design, although it tends to show up in the copy more obviously, at least to me.

Grace Baldwin: We’re biased that, yeah. I mean, if we had my designer on the phone, he might be like, he might have something different to say, but, but, but no, I agree. I think that, like, I have a massive respect for design, and I think that that’s why we work very well together. He also has a huge respect for copy, and we both think about it strategically, and that’s why we’ve moved towards this kind of concepting, idea of presenting the ideas together and then so that our clients can sort of see how they work together.

Rob Marsh: Yeah, I like that. I’ve been and I’ve seen so many situations where design and copy, it’s not that they’re necessarily at cross purposes, but because one, you know, person is advocating for the importance of copy, and the other is advocating for the importance of design, you end up with, you know, a designer saying, well, the copy’s got to fit in this space or or The copywriter demanding that there’s got to be, you know, additional space for storytelling, and it just can create conflict in ways that are detrimental to finishing a project.

Grace Baldwin: Totally, yeah, and I’ve just learned that it’s all about compromise. And I’ve been blessed to work with amazing designers when I was in house, and, you know, just throughout my career and the great ones, see you as a teammate.

Rob Marsh: So I asked about copywriting, teaching you about brand, but you’ve also got, like, a massive amount of experience on the product side and on product development. So how does that impact what we do with brands?

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, I think that kind of I said, what I think product marketing has taught me is that branding really needs to be around the product right? And I think that too often there’s a disconnect between what the brand is saying and what a product actually does. And so it’s the same thing, like your product team also needs to be involved in the branding process because they are understanding, or, you know, they’re shaping what it actually is, and they know the technical details about it, and they’re able to give insights that other people on the team can’t, or, like, a commercial team can’t,

Rob Marsh: Have you brought some of that into your process as well? Again, because that’s your brain is in that process. You’ve done it so much. How does that show up in in the process that you do as you develop copy and and design together?

Grace Baldwin: So one of the things we really do is we try and always start with a product demo. And for my clients, you know, I’m working with on client, working on projects where with clients who are truly experts in a very specific thing, right? And there’s no way that I can match that. But so what I tell my clients in our process in general, is that it’s very collaborative, and I can help with the strategy and I can help with the words, but I really need their help with all the nuance.

Rob Marsh: I like that. One of my secrets for writing sales pages, I like to start with a product demo also, because to me, if you have the person who build the thing try to sell it to you, they’re talking through what they think are the most important points, features, benefits, whatever it is. Now, they’re not always their best their own best customer, but like that as a starting point. So you understand, you know what the founder or the developer or whatever, like this is the thing that I built for the thing that it solves is immensely helpful, absolutely, and it helps with products. You know, if you’re talking to somebody that, or if your audience is very technical, they want to know all the technical details. It’s important to get that insight from, you know, the person developing it. But it’s also important to get the sales pitch from sales and sort of see where there’s overlap. But yeah, having those technical details and the stories behind, behind specific features, that’s where you can those are opportunities for differentiation. Yeah,

one of the things that you know, as we’re chatting, I realized, obviously, you’re doing way more than writing copy, your leading strategy. And there may be a lot of people who are listening, thinking, Okay, how do I go from the person who’s asked to develop, you know, a couple of emails or to write a blog post or a sales page to the point where I’m actually advising my clients on what to do? How did you jump from copywriter to strategist?

Grace Baldwin: That’s, I think my honest answer is that I mean, working in house for several years was really, really helpful in that, because I got to understand how, how, and I worked in house at startups, right? So, I mean, where I was on a marketing team of maybe three people, I was the only writer, and so I was doing all of the writing. And I think understanding kind of how my clients businesses operate, helps, helps a lot. But then I also think that just time and, like, really digging into the principles of conversion copywriting has helped me be able to leverage strategy so much more.

Rob Marsh: So do you think it takes time then, like, does it? Is there a short cut to learning strategy or to being a strategist? 

Grace Baldwin: I think just doing it, you know, over and over, you learn every time that you do something new, and I’m continuing to learn, right? But, yeah, this is it. I do think that experience helps.

Rob Marsh: That’s probably an obvious question, because I was thinking the same thing as you’re answering that I’m like, I was just working with a copywriter or marketer who’s building her business, and, you know, is talking about the things that she wants to help do. And the her biggest problem is that she hasn’t actually done a lot of this stuff, you know, at this point. And we see this a lot, where people try to step into a role that they haven’t actually had any success in, but they’ve read about it, or they’ve learned how to write a prompt for AI to tell them what to do, and the outcomes are just not the same.

Grace Baldwin: And in that case, you know, if you’re freelance too, something that I learned from Annie Bacher actually, is to just subcontract for other copywriters that are where you want to be, right? And that’s something that I subcontracted for Annie I’ve subcontracted for Aaron Pennings. I’ve subcontracted for several people, and I did it because at the, you know, at the time, I didn’t have time to manage my own clients, and I was also just kind of burnt out. But I also learned a ton from their processes as well. Also subcontracting for agencies helps me understand, help me understand and get that experience, because agencies are just doing it so frequently.

Rob Marsh: I think a large part of mastering anything, obviously, is the doing. And I love that approach, working with a variety of other copywriters who are a couple steps ahead of you, who can offer coaching. You can see their processes, you can learn from them, and agencies like you said, this makes it’s, it’s almost understating it to say, Oh, that makes sense, yeah, because it’s almost like, No, this is the path. This is actually how you get great.

Grace Baldwin: It’s really easy to say, but then, I mean, you have to actually do it, which takes. I mean, I’m in year three, year three of doing my business full time, and I’m only now just kind of getting to the point where I, like, am able to put all the puzzle pieces together. But yeah, it just takes. If I could go back and tell myself, you know, give myself advice, it would be just relax and enjoy the journey. 

Rob Marsh: And so when you talk about subcontract for copywriters, one of the things that makes that happen is that you were able to build relationships with copywriters, other copywriters. How did you do that? Grace Baldwin: Think Tank. Think Tank, The Copywriter Club. I mean, I’m in a Slack group now with like seven other people that I met through the copywriter club, and I talked to them daily I commute. I cannot emphasize how important community has been to me over this journey.

Rob Marsh: This is one of the things that I’ve come to really late in my career. That is one of those no does, but I tried for so long to be the the solitary copywriter. You know, I can do it. I can find my clients. I can do the work. And when I got into my first mastermind, surrounded by other copywriters as well, I’ve mentioned the story on the podcast in the past. But I just remember in that first meeting, kind of having an aha moment where I was like, Wait a second. I have so much to learn from, from these other people in the room. Like I thought I was good, I was good, but when I could see their advantages, what they were doing differently from what I was it was, I mean, it was like, I turned the dial from, you know, three, where I was playing around, to like, nine or 10.

Grace Baldwin: I am just leaving a mastermind right now, actually, where, you know, I joined wanting to be the dumbest person in the room, which is the same thing that happened when I joined Think Tank. I really wanted to be, you know, the youngest person, or like, the least experienced there. But with both of these experiences. I saw where other people were operating at and I knew that there was a path to get there, and it was just eye opening. And then you also, you just meet people and you can who can empathize with your daily struggles.

Rob Marsh: Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, it was a total game changer for me as well, yeah. So tell me about some of the things that maybe you do outside of work that actually influence the way you think about business or make you a better writer.

Grace Baldwin: Well, I run a lot. I just signed up for my first ultra marathon last night, actually, so that’ll be happening in October. But yeah, running and endurance sports is something that I never did that as a kid. I only got into it. I got into it in like, 2018 and fell in love with it, but it’s just taught me a lot about, like, slowing down and pacing myself and not burning myself out.

Rob Marsh: So I also have taken up running the last few years. I used to think of myself as a cyclist, but getting my bike out and, you know, pumping the tires full of air and putting on the kit and road biking has become a lot more dangerous with cars that, you know, don’t seem to be looking for bikes. So I’ve run a lot more. I don’t know that I call myself a runner. I’m more of a plodder, maybe a jogger. I can’t even envision running an ultra marathon like that is so beyond me.

Grace Baldwin: Me either Rob That’s nervous about it

that seems that’s I back in my biking days like I could knock off 100 miles, you know, in a day, or whatever. That was no big deal. 

Rob Marsh: But an ultra marathon is a whole other kind of torture…

Grace Baldwin: It’s the same thing that we were talking about, right? Like, when you’re just getting started, or think there’s no way I can. Mean, I remember, I had some friends who ran a half marathon when I was I think we were 19, and I remember thinking, I will never do that. And then, you know, here I am now getting ready to run an ultra marathon. It’s just something that’s slow, and you get better at over time, and you slowly improve, and your endurance grows, and it just gets easier, or it doesn’t get easier, but you get better at it.

Rob Marsh: I actually saw somebody mention that yesterday. It’s like, hard things. Hard Things don’t get easier, but your strength increases your ability to do hard things increases. Yeah, totally. So maybe marathons is a good or races, whatever is maybe a good place to start developing some of those discipline skills that we need to succeed as copywriters. 

Grace Baldwin: 100%. For me, at least, it has been an amazing way to learn all learn all those lessons in like a safe container, right? And learn to trust myself, and also be able to tell the difference between when something is tough but manageable but or tough but unmanageable.

Rob Marsh: Let’s talk a little bit about working out of the states, being a being an expat copywriter. Oh my gosh, yeah. Obviously, there’s some challenges with that. How have you made it work? 

Grace Baldwin: Well, challenges is kind of an understatement. There’s a lot, you know, I can tell I moved abroad before my prefrontal cortex developed, because I didn’t, never considered international retirement planning, which is a whole minefield of regulations. But we won’t. We don’t need to get into that. Maybe we should get it. My advice for anybody, if who wants to move abroad, or at least out of the US, is find a good tax attorney to talk to before you do it. But beyond, beyond that, I mean, it’s I just, I moved here for love. I’m still with my boyfriend, and just, yeah, it’s been an amazing adventure.

Rob Marsh: I’ve talked about this on the podcast in the past as well, but I am all in on travel. My wife and I, we kind of have a motto, you know, experiences over things. Experiences are better than things. And so every chance we get it’s like, hey, let’s hop on an airplane. You know, who cares about the new car or whatever? You know, let’s do that. And so part of me is jealous that you get to have this full time experience in Amsterdam that you know so many of us, and when we travel for vacations, you know, it’s a totally different experience as well, because you’re trying to hit the three or four highlights. You’re always in a hurry, you’re standing in lines. And when you can actually do it slow, you know, actually experience the culture in the way that you are. I’m, I’m so insanely jealous of of your experience there, Grace Baldwin: Yeah, but then at a certain point, it just becomes kind of normal every day, although, as an, you know, I call myself more of an immigrant than an expat, but I still discover new things about the country on a weekly basis, especially if I like I was at a family reunion for my boyfriend’s family, and I was around a bunch of more Dutch people than I normally am around, and I learned, and there’s just all these like small little things that you never will learn unless you’re actually. Surrounded by that culture,

Rob Marsh: When we were living in France, I’m as I’m saying this. I’m like, nobody wants to hear Rob. I want to hear this. I didn’t know this. Yeah, when we were living in France, I realized how different FedEx is in in France than it is in the States. You know, when you would order something from FedEx? Well, here it shows, you know, sometimes, like, place the order by four o’clock in the afternoon. It’ll be there by 7am right in France, you know, you had, we at least had to go to the shop to pick it up. And oftentimes the shop was closed because, yeah, they just decided to spray off. Yeah, like, like, the immediacy of American culture is just not a thing. And nobody cares, you know? And so sometimes it would take us two or three visits to the place where our package would be delivered just to get it. So those kinds of culture differences, I mean, they’re kind of funny to talk about, but also when you experience them, it’s in some ways, like when you’re talking about being in a community of copywriters, it opens your minds to just different things, different ways that people do things. And in some ways, it’s like a creative playground that just gets you thinking in different ways,

Grace Baldwin: Absolutely, and I think, you know, something that I related when i My first job was, you know, in a Dutch company, and I had a Dutch manager, and my my manager was Dutch, it was me, and then our designer was Canadian, and there we were working on a website project, and my design, my designer, who’s a very dear friend of mine, now, we were stressed out about getting it done on time, because, I mean, we were very deadline driven, and my and it caused, it caused tension in the group. And my manager said to us, guys, like, we can always move a deadline, which was something that she and I were not we’re not. There was a concept we were not familiar with, right? Because we had grown up in these cultures of, okay, there’s a deadline. We have to hit it. And one of the things that I like about Dutch culture, in which I have tried to embrace in my work life, is that Dutch people believe that you have eight hours to work and that’s it, and if you’re working beyond eight hours is a sign that you weren’t efficient with the time that you have, rather than a symbol that you’re going over, above and beyond, which is something I really appreciate,

Rob Marsh: Yeah, something I probably should adopt into my life when I’m sitting at my desk, you know, seven o’clock at night trying to finish something up. 

Grace Baldwin: I mean, it’s 630 in the afternoon for me, or in the evening right now for me, so I’m totally guilty of overworking as well, but it was nice when I was there were more boundaries when I was in house and like, salaried.

Rob Marsh: How much? How much does fun play into that kind of thinking as well? Because oftentimes what I find is, if I am still at my desk at 630 or seven, it’s because I’m actually enjoying the work, and not because it’s a deadline I’ve got to hit tomorrow. Is that like part of the consideration as well, or is it just like, nope, you’ve got your seven and a half eight hours, and then you’re done.

Grace Baldwin: I think it’s a consideration of you know? I mean, if you’re having fun with something, nobody’s gonna say no, but, but I have found that managers will reprimand you for working overtime. Even if you are having fun, they’ll say, Okay, well, go, you know, take a half day off, then if you were working on this on Saturday. 

Rob Marsh: So for those of us who manage ourselves, then we just need to be better managers. Give ourselves the hardest part, though, right? Grace Baldwin: Yeah, I’m a very bad manager of myself, not a bad, not a very bad one, but I’m always learning to be a bit kinder, yeah.

Rob Marsh: So what are the biggest things that you’ve struggled with as you’ve, you know, gone from, you know, moving over, taking that first job, you know, product management, copywriting now, launching your agency. What have been the biggest challenges that you face now,

Grace Baldwin: You mean right now, or through the process? 

Rob Marsh: Through the process…

Grace Baldwin: I think a big I mean moving abroad, you, there’s always a kind of a sense of loneliness that you have to content, you have to contend with because is your you’re very obvious the minute I open even though I speak Dutch, the minute I open my mouth, people know that I’m not Dutch, which is a bit isolating at times. So that’s all about, like, you know, I’ve been, I joined run clubs. I’m trying to build more community here. And so that’s, that’s something that has been a struggle, and that’s also, you know, in terms of business, building those, realizing that’s just a big theme for me, is okay, it’s about finding the right people who can support you. So that’s been a challenge and a learning lesson, but also, yeah, lots of freedom and room to play and explore and try out new things. So the upsides as well. 

Rob Marsh: There’s definitely a part of me that’s very jealous of the business that you’ve built. It sounds like a ton of fun. The projects that you get to work on are game changers. So, yeah, just listening to you talk about what you’ve built since the last time we hung out together, which was, you know, five years ago, it’s amazing to see how far you’ve come.

Grace Baldwin: Yeah, thanks. Sometimes, sometimes it feels like I haven’t made it that far, but then I’ve had. Look back at where I was five years ago when I first joined Think Tank, it’s a world of difference.

Rob Marsh: So as you think about your business now, what’s next for you? What are the big challenges that you have coming up with the things you’re most excited about?

Grace Baldwin: I’m definitely excited about building out this agency and building it up and turning it into something recognizable and that, you know, my co-founder and I, we really just want to focus on doing great work and delivering awesome results. And I’m just excited about leaning into that, and, yeah, exploring leveling up in a new way.

Rob Marsh: So for those of us who want to watch what you’re doing and hear about, you know, the successes as you move forward, where should we go? Where should we be looking for your latest writings?

Grace Baldwin: So LinkedIn is one place. I also have a sub stack where I’m trying to just kind of document what I’m learning. It’s not, I call it a semi regular missive, because I don’t promise to put it out every week, but I’m trying to do every other week, minimum. But those are probably the two places and

Rob Marsh: I’ve seen some of what you’ve put on sub stack, documenting, you know, what you’re learning a lot of the process that you’re going through. So I highly recommend hopping on Grace’s newsletter, checking out what she has to say, because I promise you’re going to be inspired.

Grace Baldwin: Thank you. Yeah, those are good words, yeah.

Rob Marsh: Well, it’s and it’s been awesome catching back up with you grace and seeing what you’re up to in your business. So thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

Grace Baldwin: Thank you for having me on Rob. I mean, I was telling my business partner that it’s such an honor to be on this podcast, because I hope you recognize how big of an impact you have had on people’s careers and with the copywriter club. I mean, I’m just one example, and I’m really grateful for the work that you do. 

Rob Marsh: You are so kind to say that I really appreciate it. I may just have to take that clip out and play it for me every morning. 

Grace Baldwin: Make it your alarm to wake you up to every morning. 

Rob Marsh: Well, people have been listening to me prattle on for so many years, so it’s only fair.

Grace Baldwin: That’s only you know only fair, I guess then,

Rob Marsh: Thanks Grace for sharing the details of your career journey and what you’re building at your agency today. I want to echo what Grace said about finding a community of copywriters who can help you on your own career journey.

I’ve told my own story several times, but it bears repeating the lesson, surrounding myself with several other good copywriters who were willing to read my work, share leads and clients, and even just talk about what is working in their busineses right now was a complete gamechanger for me personally, and I’ve seen it have the same effect in hundreds of other copywriter’s businesses too. If you’re missing that, you should check out The Copywriter Underground at thecopywriterclub.com/tcu where we are focusing on creating more opportunities for copywriters to come together and share these kinds of business changing ideas. 

Coming back to our interview, I’ve linked to Grace’s newsletter  in case you want to follow her journey. You should also check out Grace on LinkedIn where she shared other ideas she’s working on with her clients.

And finally, I mentioned this at the top of the show, our course, Research Mastery will give you the ideas and insights you need to write better copy, get more impressive results, and increase sales and conversions that will keep clients coming back to you for more. You can learn more about this course at thecopywriterclub.com/researchmastery … research mastery is all one word.