#1 Trait of a succesful copywriter

Guess what the #1 trait of a successful freelance copywriter is?

And by successful, we’ll just say those who reach $5,000-$15,000+/month.

Is it their copywriting skills?

Nope.

Their outreach skills?

Nope.

Sales skills?

Nope.

So what is it?

It’s their ability to
PROTECT THEIR TIME LIKE THEY’RE AT WAR

That sounds a little intense, Brandon…

Yeah, I know. It is. You have to be intense with your time, or you’ll never make it.

I know this first hand…

You see, back in 2019, I was a copy cub.

Fresh out of the copy womb.

Had no clue how to write copy. No clue how to outreach. No clue how to build an internet business.

But I desperately wanted to make six figures per year from my laptop. To quit my job. Travel the world. Retire my wife. Work when I want. Play when I want. Provide for my parents. Live life on my terms.

But there was one looming problem:

My day job. I was working 12 hour days Monday-Friday. 8-9 hours at work with a 1.5 hour commute both ways.

I often worked overtime at my job too.

How on earth would I build a business when 12 hours of my day was GONE?

I had to get extreme.

I had to get systematic.

I had to become organized.

So I did a few things to make it work:

#1 I set a clear income goal

My first goal was to make $5,000/month within 6 months.

Once I hit that, I’d be able to provide for me and my wife so I’d never have to work a 9 to 5 again. I set the goal in January 2019 when I first started learning copywriting. I had a numerical objective. That gave me a concrete goal to work towards.

A north star.

You need one to reverse engineer a successful game plan.

#2 I broke it down into bite sized pieces

I knew that to hit $5,000/month…

I had to get 1 client at $5k, 2 clients at $2.5k, or 3 clients at $1.7k. That would get me to $5k.

So I just had to focus on getting client #1 first.

Then I could get #2, and #3. That’s doable.

#3 I figured out the 3 main things I had to do daily to get client number one: write daily, outreach daily, and learn daily

So how do I get client #1?

Writing, outreaching, learning. I knew I couldn’t slip up on any of these 3.

Of course, for the first 2-3 weeks I wasn’t bothering with outreach. I was just learning and writing. But around week 3-4 I started focusing on outreach. I gave myself 1 hour to each of the 3 categories each day.

Writing for 1 hour would ensure my copywriting skills were fresh.

Outreaching for 1 hour would ensure I was actually getting that skill in front of potential clients.

And learning for 1 hour a day made it so even if I started with terrible writing and outreach… investing time into learning made sure I was always improving 1% every day in both categories.

#4 I gave myself a set schedule

I didn’t just tell myself what I had to do each day: write, outreach, learn.

I told myself EXACTLY when I had to do each task.

This is where you will make or break your time management… and ultimately determine if you will be productive (and successful) or you’ll spend months wondering why it’s not working. THIS one thing will force you to be consistent. And will force you to actually get results.

So my day would look something like this:

5:30 am wake up

5:30-5:45 am read the Bible

5:45-6:45 am do a Power Writing session/copy practice

6:45-7 am Get ready for work.

7-8:30 am Drive to work (learn from audiobook, course, podcast, YouTube)

8:30 am - 5:30 pm work.

5:30-7 pm Drive home from work (learn from audiobook, course, podcast, YouTube).

7-8 pm Outreach

8-8:30 pm hand copy sales letter or more courses

8:30-10 pm hang w/Jenny

10 pm sleep for 7.5 hours.

#5 Did you catch that bonus time management tip from the previous section? I turned passive daily activities into learning time

How on earth can someone working 12 hour days build a six-figure business on the side? They take any passive hours they have and transform them into learning time.

Any time I was driving to work, working out/going for a walk, doing dishes/cleaning, etc…

You know, the things you already have to do daily… I would learn something new.

I’d turn on a podcast, listen to an audiobook, or listen to a course I was taking. My commutes to work transformed from the most dreadful times to one of my favorite parts of the day. My car rides evolved into copy university for me.

You need to see what parts of your day you can repurpose into business time. Start with those passive activities you’re already doing. Heck, you could even turn “getting ready for work” time into learning time.

Listen to a course, audiobook, YouTube video, or podcast while you eat breakfast, shower, get ready, etc. There’s probably 10-30 minutes sitting right there.

Imagine 30 minutes x 30 days a month = 900 minutes of extra learning. What would that do for you?

#6 I set sleep and wake alarms to make sure I stuck to the schedule

I found this to feel impossible at times.

I’d set morning alarms. But that usually wasn’t enough.

Waking up at 5:30 am doesn’t feel very good at first. Especially when you’re up watching Netflix till 12:45 am on a Tuesday.

So I started giving myself a bedtime. And when that wouldn’t work. I set alarms for bedtime.

Like a child.

I set my alarm for 9:45 pm so I’d sleep by 10 pm. If I was in the middle of a show with Jenny, or scrolling YouTube, well, too bad. Time to sleep.

I didn’t always follow this perfectly. But it dramatically improved my ability to stick to the schedule.

#7 I crushed it on weekends

Saturday morning was a dream come true.

I had the entire day to MYSELF and MY BUSINESS.

No commute. No 9 to 5. No boss.

Beautiful.

I could spend all the time in the world building my business.

It was a little taste of what it would be like when copywriting would take off. I get to wake up and work when I want, how I want, or stop and play if I want.

So I’d take Saturdays and typically work 4-6 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Then spend the afternoons/evenings with my wife Jenny to do a date, hang with friends, etc.

(Yes I still had a life!)

Sunday I spent most of the day off, but I’d usually still get 1-2 hours of learning/writing practice in.

AND THAT’S IT

I was stuck in a 12 hour day job.

And I somehow made it work.

I always made time for my business. I would always prioritize my writing before my day job (because your business deserves your brain before your day job).

1.5 months after I started, I got my first client.

Within 3 months, I had enough clients to quit my job (and for my wife to quit hers).

At the 6 month mark, we sold everything and moved halfway around the world to Thailand (after a month long trip up the east coast of Australia).

By month 7 I was making $5k/month.

By month 12 I was making $9k/month.

And since then $10-$15k months.

How did I do it?

I was meticulous with my schedule.

I didn’t have time with my 12 hour days.

So I MADE the time - You can do the same

If you don’t make the time for your business every day…

Nobody will.

Your boss won’t do it for you.

Your parents won’t do it for you.

Your coworkers won’t do it for you.

Your wife or husband won’t do it for you.

YOU are the only one who can build your business. Set your schedule. And manage your time.

If you fail, your business will never take off.

But if you intentionally carve out a bit of time each day to build your business…

Eventually, it will take off.

And when it does… you’ll end up with a calendar that you can choose to fill with anything your mind can imagine.

When you’re faithful in managing your time, you’ll eventually be rewarded with all the time in the world.

Brandon “time management is freedom” Storey

P.S. Your call to action today is to write down your daily action plan for Monday. I’ll give you some slack because it’s Sunday tomorrow. Be meticulous about your schedule. Write down exact tasks you will do. And exact timeframes you will do them.

Then? Stick to it.