I’ve coached over 10,000 people to become freelance copywriters. When you coach that many people, and you watch what they do with the information you give them, it’s fascinating to see what happens. Some people take the tools and run with them and create wildly successful copywriting careers – and get all the requisite benefits that come from being a successful copywriter – freedom to work where they want, when they want, with whom they want and the satisfaction of getting paid very well to do something they love.
And some people don’t take the information – they find reasons as to why that tool, or tip or template won’t work for them, and they go back to doing what they were doing, and they kind of forget that they ever had a dream to do something they really loved. And they never get the chance to flex that writing talent and become the copywriter they so desperately wanted to become.
And that’s sad. Because they have the potential to be brilliant but it’s just confidence that is letting you down. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
Success leaves clues so I want to distil my 20 years of coaching into just 10 top tips that will help emerging copywriters find the confidence you need to get started so that you get to live the copywriting life of their dreams. In this podcast you’ll learn:
How to change your mindset so that you believe you deserve success
Why business cards are the fastest way to generate a new lead
How to choose the right name and logo for your new business
The best place to work
How to rewrite bad advertisements, turn them into high quality portfolio pieces and use them to get work
Where to find your first client – hint: they’re sitting real close to you now
How to apply the ABC of copywriting to build your database quickly
The top software you should use to manage your email database
How much to charge
Why you should write your own content before you start writing for others
About Bernadette Schwerdt:
Bernadette is an award-winning Australian entrepreneur, author, TEDx speaker and advertising copywriter. She was former senior account director and copywriter for global advertising agency Young & Rubicam Advertising and worked on campaigns for clients such as Apple, Amex, Optus and Colgate.
In 2001 she founded the Australian School of Copywriting, and has since trained over 10,000 people to become freelance copywriters. She’s also the head copywriting tutor at the Australian Writers' Centre.
She was the producer and host of The Age newspaper’s online video series, Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs, which subsequently became a bestselling book of the same name.
Her second book, How to Build an Online Business went to #1 on Amazon and her third book, Catch of the Decade, ghost-written for the billionaire brothers behind Catch.com and Menulog, was a #1 bestselling business book on Booktopia and was a finalist in the 2021 Australian Business Book Awards.
Her fourth book, Find. Build. Sell, edited for pub baron Stephen Hunt comes out in March 2022.
Her fifth book, How to Build a Business Others Want to Buy, ghost-written for Kobi Simmat comes out in July 2023.
She has a Bachelor of Business in Marketing, is an accredited MBTI and NLP practitioner and has lectured in marketing, consumer psychology and digital marketing at Melbourne University, RMIT, Swinburne and Victoria University.
In her spare time, she teaches meditation and was the in-house mindfulness coach for the Carlton Football Club. (She takes no responsibility however for their recent on-field performance!)
She was recently named in the Top 50 Small Business Leaders in Australia.
