Copywriter, marketing strategist, and CMO-for-Hire, Myrna Begnel joins us for our second episode of the week (our 69th overall) to talk about her copywriting business and how she became known as “the client whisperer” among the members of The Copywriter Think Tank. In this episode we cover:

•  how Myrna went from selling elevators to agency strategist to writing copy

•  what she learned from her career in sales that applies to copywriting

•  how you create a relationship with a client so your projects succeed

•  how to recreate the “sales conversation” on your sales page

•  the questions she asks to understand her client’s customer needs

•  what a discovery call with her looks like

•  how her processes help her repeat and scale her business

•  the “grandma’s house” approach to setting boundaries with clients

•  how to get started with processes, then how to improve them

•  the lessons she has taken from working with agencies inside and out

•  what it’s like to completely start over in business

•  why it’s important to focus on mindset and not just skillset

We also asked Myrna about what her projects look like as a “CMO for hire” and how she packages her services, and charges a high price for them. Say this next line in your best stadium music voice: “Are you ready for this?” Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.

 

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

Sponsor: The Copywriter Club IRL

Doberman Dan

Amy Porterfield

Artessa Marketing

Kira’s website

Rob’s website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

Intro: Content (for now)

Outro: Gravity

 

Full Transcript:

Rob: What if you could hang out with seriously copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea 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 69 as we chat with copywriter and marketing consultant Myrna Begnel managing clients so they want to keep working with you, what we can learn from the agency world, how she has structured her business and her time to get more done, and what it’s like to start over after building a business with others.

Kira: Welcome, Myrna!

Rob: Hey, Myrna!

Myrna: Hey, guys! Thanks for having me!

Kira: Or should we call you Kitty?

Myrna: Kitty! Yes. You can always call me Kitty.

Rob: I'm not sure why I can't get over that. It's like, to me, you're Myrna, and to Kira, you're Kitty! I guess we're just going to have to live with that.

Kira: You know what, though? It fell apart, so Myrna joined our think-tank and I was trying to stick with Kitty and now you have become Myrna and I can't go back to Kitty, so... I'm sticking with Myrna.

Myrna: I know. You know, my high school friends all call me Myrna B. My maiden name was actually Beals, but... as if there are other Myrna's, you know... Myrna A, Myrna Z...

Rob: (laughs) Yeah, we have to make sure we don't get you confused with Myrna D and Myrna J.

Myrna: Yeah, exactly. When you have a unique name like mine, you know, you kind of got to overcome it.

Rob: I love it.

Kira: So, Myrna, let's start with your story! How did you end up here, and I'm pointing at the spot where you're sitting right now.

Myrna: (laughs) Well, it's kind of a convoluted story because I come into copywriting, a lot of the people that I know, they've always known they wanted to be a copywriter, they've had a very direct path into owning their own business and being a copywriter, and I think I come from a very convoluted path just based on my history.

Probably my third career. So I started off selling elevators and escalators right out of college and I did that for 6 years. I was the first female sales manager in the company's 150-year history. One of the things that—you know, I'm starting to date myself—we didn't have digital back then...