For the 210th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Rob and Kira are guest-less, which means it’s just us, talking about what’s going on in our lives and in the club. Here’s what we covered this week:
what we’ve done to create a routine during the “shutdown”
an update on the new podcast format—what we think about the extra work
what else we’re working on as we update other parts of The Copywriter Club
how we’re trying to make everything we do more helpful for copywriters
what we’re doing differently with our email today
trying to create a better separation between work and “life”
how we spend our “CEO” time and what we’re doing differently
what we’re reading right now
why you should ask Kira to do something crazy right now
how we’ve adjusted our mastermind to virtual—and the success we’ve seen
To hear what we shared on this episode, click the play button below or download the episode to your favorite podcast app. There’s a full transcript below as well.
The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:
Kirsty Fanton
Liz Green
Rosie
Theresa
Brandon
Fina
Perry Marshall
The Copywriter Accelerator
The Copywriter Think Tank
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
Ian Stanley
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
Kira’s website
Rob’s website
The Copywriter Club Facebook Group
The Copywriter Underground
Full Transcript:
Rob: Never a clever way to start when it's just you and me.
Kira: On a rainy Monday. It's raining here. I feel like I just want to curl up in bed, but instead we're going to start this podcast. And so, Rob, how are you?
Rob: I am doing great. Before we get into how we're actually doing, we should say, this is the 210th episode of the Copywriter Club Podcast, and if you're wondering why there wasn't a funny or story based intro, it's because we don't have a guest today. It's just you and me. And we just want to give a little bit of an update and maybe a review of what's been going on over the last couple of weeks. So then to answer your question, I'm doing great. How are you?
Kira: I'm good. I was just thinking it would be fun to do our new commentary that we've added to the last 10 episodes. If you all haven't noticed and add that to this episode, so we can add commentary on top of our commentary and just go really meta with it.
Rob: It could get a little meta. It also might get annoying. This is where we break in to say that was actually totally wrong, what you just said, Rob.
Kira: But we're jumping in here. It's been a while, I think, since we've really shared what we've been up to in our worlds and in the Copywriter Club and our copywriting businesses. So when you reflect back over the last few months, Rob, how are you dealing with world craziness, recession, all this stuff, COVID? How is your family doing? How are you doing?
Rob: At this point end of summer, middle of the fall, we're doing pretty good. I think we've figured out a routine. I was one of the lucky ones who, very early on, got the virus and I spent a whole week being kind of sick and very tired.
Kira: I forgot about that.
Rob: In fact, I was watching a video that we recorded back in April and I saw myself. I was like, oh my gosh, I look half dead. I look horrible. But yeah, we've gone through the school cancellations and summer, and then my kids are actually back in school at school. At least they've had one short break because the number of infections rose to whatever the level is that it hits and then they cancel school for a week or so. They've actually gone back now the second time and things are pretty good.
Rob: We do better with routine at my house, especially when it goes around school. My kids are older. I have teenagers. And so there's not a lot of supervision that needs to happen other than just sort of getting kids out of bed, which is a teenage challenge. I was that way, I think, when I was a kid and my kids are definitely that way, but yeah, I think we've adjusted our family life and are doing okay. How about you? You've got littler kids, so I'm guessing maybe some slightly different challenges.
Kira: Yeah, I think the spring was rough for so many people. And so I agree having, I mean, structure and schedules help with kids at all ages, and adults. And so not having that in the spring just was quite difficult. But starting this school year, knowing what was ahead for us with online learning in DC public schools, so we were able to plan ahead and just figure it out and figure out what it was going to look like. And so it's been going well for us with online learning. The first week was awful because we didn't have any help or support, so I have experienced how hard it is when you don't have support. And it's impossible. I don't know how parents are supposed to work and do online learning. It's just really difficult.
Kira: But we've been lucky enough to have some help with a bunch of other kids who come to our house every day. So we have a school in our downstairs with four kids total, and then we have more of a facilitator who comes in. I don't want to call her a babysitter because she does so much more than that. She's really helping the kids with online learning so that they make it to their classes on time from 8:30 until 3:15.
It's been going really well since we have that support and we have other kids around, because the socialization really helps with them. And it's allowed me to finally work those hours without having to check on the kids and worry and feel stressed out the entire time. So that's been huge for running a business and having that space now in the fall, and has been such a game changer as far as my sanity levels. Just having kids who are happy now because it's working and they're learning and they're doing pretty well given that it's online learning. So I think it's as good as it could be right now in the current situation.
Rob: I think as we think about everybody who listens to this podcast, we know that there are a lot of people that are in different situations. Some people have great support systems, some people are lacking that. Some people have the school systems are open and others are trying to do homeschool. And I just, I think, as people have tried to figure out the way to move forward with their own situation, with their own family, it's just nice to know that there's a group of people here that are all sort of suffering through the different things together and we support you. We know that you're fully capable of doing it and we're cheering you on.
Kira: Yeah, definitely. It's not easy. All right, so other than that, we updated the podcast recently. Has it surprised you, as far as feedback on the podcast changes that we've made so far, or has it been what you expected?
Rob: I think it's probably been what I expected. We've heard from several people telling us that they really like the new format. Kirsty Fanton just emailed us this morning saying that she likes it. We've heard from others. I think it was Liz Greene, might be remembering this wrong, who said that it was the update she didn't realize that she needed.
I was expecting that it would be better just because it gives us a little bit more opportunity to talk and to share some of the things that we know and do. But I've been gratified to hear that from people who have listened and just think that now that we're in this 10 episodes, maybe we're committing for a little while longer. I think when we announced the change and said, hey, we'll try it for 10 episodes and if it's not working, then we'll call an end to it. But I think it has been working. I do think my one concern was that it has made the podcast quite a bit longer, maybe 20 minutes longer per episode, which so far, nobody has said that that's too long, but definitely want to keep an eye on that, because we don't want to bore anybody and hopefully what we've done has improved the podcast. What do you think? Have you heard anything different
Kira: I heard people hate it.
Rob: Oh, no.
Kira: No, I haven't really heard much. I've heard a couple of positive comments. I wasn't sure how it was going to go with the first few episodes because you and I scripted it a little bit more, we scripted our commentary, and we were just getting into our groove with it. And so I think as we figure it out episode by episode, we get a little bit more clear on how we can add more value, add a little bit more of us, but also more value, so we're not just talking for the sake of talking and adding 20 extra minutes to every episode. So I think it will continue to get better and I'm just being patient with the process. But I do think it does satisfy that need that you and I had, where we felt like we were missing from the episodes for 200 episodes.
It was great, and I've loved interviewing people, but I just felt like it wasn't really a dialogue. It was purely interviewing and putting spotlights on other copywriters, which is a wonderful thing. But I do think that we cut ourselves out of those conversations and we had more we wanted to say, so this new renovation has allowed us to share more of what we have learned and seen and observed from our own businesses and from other copywriters. And so it feels more satisfying to me now. I'm more excited about it. And I think it's just a good reminder that we're all in charge of our own business and we can make these changes, and even if something is you've been doing it for 200 episodes or more, you can always look at it and figure out how you can change it to make it meet your new needs and excite you more and become more fun. Because if it's not really that fun, I do think it's important to start questioning it, which we did.
Rob: It has added a lot more time to actually producing the podcast. You know,
