Jenn Prochaska is our guest on the 307th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Jenn is a copywriter who specializes in message strategy and websites. This episode is truly an inspiring journey as we hear how Jenn has navigated her way through addiction, motherhood, and scaling a thriving business. This episode will leave you with wisdom, practical business advice, and even a email marketing strategy…

Here’s how the episode goes:

Jenn’s 25 year background in sales and marketing and why she went from LA back to Cleveland.

The journey to getting sober and realizing the “cushy” job didn’t bring happiness.

Going back to school to get a Masters in creative writing and rediscovering old passions.

Making big changes in adulthood and investing in yourself.

Working for agencies, being a lead copywriter, and diving into freelance copywriting.

How tires helped her learn about educating an audience, urging them to care, and how to incorporate benefits.

Why is addiction misunderstood?

Doing better vs. doing different – is there a difference?

Jenn’s systems and processes to make hard decisions and being a successful integrator.

Being a good parent vs being a good business owner?

The aha advice Jenn got from Rob about writing expectations.

Getting permission to shut Shirley up (who the heck is Shirley?)

Mapping out workflows and finding holes in your process.

How Jenn created her unique framework and niched her business.

How Jenn’s support, community, and mentors have helped silence her limiting beliefs and strengthened her mindset.

Jenn’s morning routine as a parent and business owner.

Communication and boundaries – and how it helps Jenn become a better entrepreneur.

The power of the Think Tank community.

Jenn’s FORTY-week drip sequence? How did she do it?

Tune into the episode by hitting play or reading the transcript below.

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

The Copywriter Think Tank

Kira’s website

Rob’s website

Jenn's website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

The Copywriter Underground

Free month of Brain.FM

Episode 82

Episode 270

Episode 301

Erin's website

Juliet's website

 

Full Transcript:

Rob Marsh:  Life is messy. Sometimes life is really messy. And it can take a while, sometimes even years or decades to figure things out. And as we've interviewed copywriters on this podcast, many of them have described long winding, sometimes really messy pathways that they followed to get to where they are today.

Today's guest on the Copywriter Club podcast has a path like that. Jenn Prochaska shared how she went from LA's music scene to a somewhat more sedate and fulfilling role as a mom copywriter and brand strategist, and how it took more than a decade to figure it all out. We talked about a lot of things in this episode. Everything from addiction to creating and scaling a business that fits the life you want to mindset and a lot more. We think you're going to like it.

You're also going to hear a lot of voices in this episode. That's because Kira interviewed Jenn while I was on vacation. And invited copywriter, Erin Pennings, to join her to ask questions. So, you're going to hear Erin, you're going to hear Kira. And now as we're recording a few additional comments to go along with this interview, Kira's on vacation and I've invited copywriter, Juliet Peay, to join me to share her thoughts. Juliet, thanks for your help. Welcome to the podcast.

Juliet Peay:  Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to jump in and hope Kira is having a blast. She deserves it.

Rob Marsh:  Yeah. She definitely deserves it. I mean, we should all take more vacation, I think. So, this is fun. Before we get to our interview with Jenn, we just want to make you aware of a new copywriting business training available from the Copywriter Club and Jamie Jensen. We mentioned this a week or two ago on the podcast.

The first program that we are presenting from Jamie is called Create Your Six-Figure Copywriting Business. And if you're tempted to join the copywriter accelerator, but you held off because maybe the timing wasn't right or something else got in the way, this might be a fit for you. So, check it out at thecopywriterclub.com/learn, and that will take you directly to that page.

Juliet Peay:  Okay. Let's get into the interview with Jenn Prochaska.

Jenn Prochaska:  So, I have been in sales and marketing, traditional sales and marketing for 25 years, which if you do the math, I was here before Google. I was here shortly after Yahoo. There was still AOL. And I worked in the music business out in Los Angeles for about four years after school, after college. And came back to Cleveland. Stayed in the music business, doing a variety of things.

And then ended up as an account manager for a digital marketing agency and had a really great experience. Learned so much about websites and the online world and all of that good stuff. And then in 2006, I got sober. And I'll go into a little bit more detail here. So, I had to call, as part of my 12-step recovery, I had to call somebody every day. So, I would call on the way home from work.

And about six months in, she's like, "All you do is complain about your job. Is this really what you want to be doing?" And it was like, silence. Oh, I didn't realize that I was doing that. And because I was making really good money. I had big-name, NFL, NHL clients, all that good stuff. And I was like, "Oh, I'm not sure."

Meanwhile, I had another conversation with somebody on a Saturday afternoon as I'm sitting in my apartment. And I'm like, "I don't know what to do. I'm really bored." I didn't have any hobbies. All I did was work and drink. And she was like, "Well, what do you like to do?" And I'm like, "I don't know. Drink." And she's like, "Okay. Well, now that you're not drinking, why don't you make a list?" And at the very top of that list was writing and reading. And I was like, "You know what? I really liked that."

So, through a process of about a year, I took a creative writing course at a community college and fell in love with that. Did some soul-searching, did some research. And about a year later, I quit my well-to-do job. And I went back to get a degree in creative writing, much to my mother's dismay. She was like, "You're going to what?" I mean, because I'm 32 years old at this point. And I was like, "I'm going to be a writer." And she was like, "Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay."

And I did, and it was great. And I got my master's in creative writing, which doesn't mean much except that I got to leave the world for a little while and explore something that I had gotten away from. When I got out of school, I had to earn a living. And I discovered copywriting and content writing and all that.

So, I got hooked up with a personal agency, The Creative Group. I think they're owned by Robert Half International now. It's a temporary agency that hires creative people and then places them in various places. So, I worked at the Cleveland clinic and got some fantastic experience there. Great marketing group of people. And then got hired in-house as a copywriter team lead. Worked in-house for a little while. Well, for a long while, actually. Six, seven years writing about tires, which is actually a lot more fun than that sounds.

And I went to a shopper marketing agency for a little bit. And they fired me because it was a super toxic environment. That's a long story short. We'll leave it at that. And I was three months pregnant. And I said to my husband, I was like, "I've been wanting to do this freelance writing thing." And I think the universe just gave me a huge shove out the door to try it. And he fully supported that.

I found this podcast by a group called The Copywriter Club. And then I found the Facebook group called The Copywriter Club and truly, TCC kicked off my freelance career four years ago. I knew how to write. And I knew some, obviously, and I knew some best practices, and I had all this marketing and sales experience, but I didn't know things like conversion copywriting existed. I was executing on that, not knowing. I didn't know that you could be a launch copywriter or all these different kinds of writers.

And so, as opportunities would come, I would sell myself. "Hey, do you do this kind of writing?" "Yes, yes, I do." And then I would come to the Facebook group and I would say, "Oh my god, I just sold this. I don't know how to do this." And your community would, and this is a free Facebook group. And your community would give me direction, and it snowballed. And here I am today. That's a super long story, but that's how I got to where I am today.

Erin Pennings:  There's so much that you say that I can relate to. So, I want to know more about writing about tires. Of all the amazing things that you just dropped, I have questions about writing about tires and what that looked like. And I mean, it's an important stepping stone in getting you to this point.

Jenn Prochaska:  I love that that's what you pulled out of that entire story. I love that. This is amazing. It's awesome. So, I wrote for a fantastic company called Dealer Tire, and they sell tires solely through the dealer chain. That's their market; that's their niche. They support dealers.

What I loved about writing about them is that, first of all, the general population, they don't know about tires. I didn't know about tires. I had no idea. They don't care either and they're ridiculously expensive. So, to be able to educate people on one, why you need to care. Two, why they're so expensive and the benefit to you. We talk a lot in copywriting about features and benefits. I mean, this was really benefits oriented, and then why you should go to your dealer to get them on.

And there's such a commodity,