For the 170th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob do something they haven't done in awhile and that's chat about what's going on in their lives and The Copywriter Club. Plus, they talk about the most popular episodes of the podcast this year—and of all time. Both of them listed a few of their favorites from the past 12 months... if you haven't listened to all the past year's episodes, this is a great way to find a few you don't want to miss. Here's what they covered:
• what’s happening in our lives right now
• the goals we have for the coming year
• the amazing speaker line-up at The Copywriter Club In Real Life
• what makes TCCIRL different from other conferences
• what you’ll walk away with if you come to the event
• another great resource for reaching your goals—The Copywriter Underground
• the new Underground Case Studies
• a few specifics about the print newsletter that goes out to all members
• the top podcasts from 2019—these are the most listened to episodes
• our favorite podcasts from the past year—and a few of our take aways
You won't want to miss this one. Click the play button below to hear it now, or download episode 170 to your podcast app. Want to read it? Scroll down for a full transcript.
The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:
The Copywriter Club In Real Life Event
The Copywriter Underground Case Study
Kira’s website
Rob’s website
The Copywriter Club Facebook Group
The Copywriter Underground
Full Transcript:
Rob: This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Club In Real Life. our live event in San Diego this March 12th through the 14th. You can get your tickets now at thecopywriterclub.com/tccirl.
Kira: Hey, Rob.
Rob: Hey, Kira.
Kira: Happy 2020.
Rob: It's always a little awkward starting these when we don't write an intro for ourselves to read about ourselves. But this is an episode where we don't have a guest. We're just going to talk amongst ourselves. Yeah, let's do it. Happy 2020 to you, too.
Kira: Yeah, it's been a while since we've chatted and recorded it, even though we chat just about daily. So let's talk about some podcast episodes that were our favorites from 2019, some of the top most downloaded episodes, some of the ones that have resonated the most with us. But first, let's just catch up a bit. What's been new with you, Rob, since, I don't know, last time we recorded anything? I don't know what episode that was, but it's been a while.
Rob: It's definitely been a while since ... It's been even longer since just you and I talked. It's been a while since we had anything to talk-
Kira: It's been a year. Has it been a year?
Rob: Yeah, maybe. It's been a long time. So you would think that there would be some really big changes over the course of a year. I haven't done anything as exciting as, say, move, but this year is the first year that I am the only male person in my household. My oldest son is away to college and my youngest son is living in Phoenix on a mission. So the dynamic in my house has changed dramatically without any boys around. It's a lot quieter.
Kira: You're the only dude.
Rob: That's true.
Kira: How has it changed? How is it different at home?
Rob: It is a lot quieter. I miss my sons when they're not here. Obviously, my oldest son comes home from college quite a bit. And so, he's around. It's great having older children, but I definitely miss the rowdiness. I didn't ever think that I would, but I do. I miss the noise and the rowdiness. On the other hand, it's a lot quieter around here, and so I'm able to get more work done during the day. That is awesome.
Kira: Yeah, I'll send Henry. Henry can spend some time at your house if you need some extra rowdiness. He'll bring that.
Rob: I will take him any day. We can hang out and do Lego and whatever. So what big changes happened for you?
Kira: So the biggest change for me over the last year was just moving, moving from New York City to Washington, D.C. So still on the east coast, but it was a pretty big move. I think I always underestimate the toll it takes to move your family and your house to a different city and how long it takes to actually get settled. We're still getting settled, but it's been a nice change. It's been really exciting and just a different energy in the city, and more space in our home too compared to our shoebox apartment in New York City. Overall, I feel like it's been a really good move.
Rob: Yeah. It's funny, we think about moving day, but there's no such thing as moving day. It's like moving year. I moved, I think, 15 years ago at the house we live in now, and there are still boxes in our basement that have stuff stored that we just don't open.
Kira: Yeah, our living room is full of boxes. Even as I'm thinking about the new year, I'm like, ‘Oh, there's still that. I still have to take care of all of that,’ which I'm not great at because I'd rather work on the business than unpack boxes.
Rob: Talk to podcast guests, true.
Kira: But it will be done. It will be done eventually. But it's been a really fun change and also just good, because I was in New York for 12 years. So it just felt like it was time to switch it up and explore a new city.
Rob: Yeah, I totally get that. Now that you're in a new city, you've probably got a few new goals, new things that you want to do. It's the new year. How do you approach your resolutions or goals?
Kira: Yeah. I guess I have stopped making resolutions, but it's just more, okay, what are my goals? I have a couple sheets of paper with just random notes, so I won't bore you or anyone listening with all of those ideas. But some of the top ones for me are more travel-focused, which travel has been a big priority the past few years. We went to Indonesia last summer for a month.
This summer I'm looking forward to more travels. I already am looking at a conference in Iceland. I've never been to Iceland. Then we have a family reunion in France, so we want to spend time in France and explore for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Yeah, travel takes precedent, and it's fun to think about that.
Then I would say another goal that I pulled from you, because, Rob, you inspire me, is to read for 30 minutes every day, which I know you do that and it's something that I think it sounds so easy and simple, but it's easy to step away from that. It's really easy to think that you are doing that, especially if you love books and you love to read. You collect books like I do. It's easy for me to trick myself into thinking I'm reading more than I'm actually reading. I think having that time, around 30 minutes, and really sticking to that every day will help me make more progress in my reading than ...
What typically happens is I get distracted or my kids call me and I read a couple of pages, and then that's it for the day. That's a big one, a big achievable, easy one. That shouldn't be too hard. I have a couple other ones, but what about you, Rob? What are some of your goals?
Rob: First of all, I'm going to have to send you my list of places to go in France, because just spending some time there, it is ... But that's awesome. Maybe I'm going to have to think a little bit more about what we're going to do travel-wise this summer.
I have this love-hate relationship with goals and resolutions. I know this is maybe popular right now, but I've been trying to think about these more as habits than goals, things that I'm trying to achieve, but rather trying to just change different things that I do on a daily basis.
One of the things that I have gotten away from over the past year that I definitely need to get back to is just building a better habit of healthy eating. I know when we first met, Kira, I think I was off of sugar. I didn't eat any sugar for a long time. I've gotten away from that.
Kira: I thought you were still off sugar. I just assumed that you never ate sugar.
Rob: No. Well, and you know we've had some visitors from the UK who brought a suitcase full of Cadbury's chocolates, and every kind of candy bar that we can't get here they've brought over. And so, I need to get back to that habit. So that's on my list is I'm going to be eating healthier in the coming year.
Then, also, I mean you mentioned my habit of reading. I haven't been as deliberate and purposeful in choosing the books that I want to read. Oftentimes I'll just default to fiction or things that are maybe a little bit more mind candy. And so, I'm going to be a lot more purposeful in choosing the books that I'm reading this year. In fact, I posted a short post in The Copywriter Underground Facebook group just asking for people's favorite nonfiction books because I'm going to be adding a few of those to my list. So I'm definitely going to strengthen that habit as well.
Then you and I have some business goals, and we won't get into the details of what those are. But we're going to be doing some pretty different things in The Copywriter Club and maybe even introducing a new product or two, and growing The Underground and trying to improve and just make all of the resources that we offer for copywriters that much better, that much more available, and hopefully help inspire more writers to become better at what they do.
Kira: Yeah, I wrote down for a bit a lot of business goals, but one of them is around building a team. I feel like I'm someone who maybe even five years ago, maybe less than that, the idea of growing a team, building a team just turned me off completely. I was like, ‘That's not why I went into entrepreneurship. I just want to be solo.’ Then here I am with a business partner and excited to grow a team and to mentor team members and figure out how we can grow and expand. That's just always surprising when you change your mind so dramatically about something that you're excited about.
