TCC Podcast #261: Being a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur with Annabel Landaverde

We’re talking all things multi-passionate projects on the 261st episode of The Copywriter Club podcast with Annabel Landaverde. Annabel is a Launch Copywriter who doesn’t let big dreams scare her away from taking action. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I can't take on something new because I’m already doing so many things,” then this is the episode for you. Here’s how it breaks down: When your dream job doesn’t meet your expectations. How finding a group of like-minded people can spark new passions. Can sales and empathy go hand in hand? How to connect with your ideal client and meet them where they’re at. Is it all about sales? – How to be clear and ethical when someone isn’t a good fit. The ins and outs of internal branding and marketing for large companies. Maintaining a full-time job and building a freelancing business. How morning routines and monthly check-ins keep you on track. Do we only complete 10 projects in a lifetime?! What goes into creating a 7-figure launch. The first piece of copy needed when creating a launch plan. How you can go from copywriter to launch strategist. What copywriters can do to make their client launches more successful. Where you should start when e-commerce business is on your mind. How to deal with the little voice in the back of your head. Creating practices that will keep your big goals alive. When your ideas seem to be circling you, be sure to tune into this episode. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Influence by Robert Cialdini Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkey Annabel’s Instagram Annabel’s website Episode 234 with Linda Perry Episode 241 with Daniel Lamb Episode 70 with Joe Schriefer       Full Transcript: Kira:  The great thing about tapping into your entrepreneurial side as a copywriter is you can control your career and fate. You can grow and evolve personally and professionally over decades. You can chase any vision, as long as you don't lose sight of it. Today's guests for the 261st episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Think Tank member, Annabel Landaverde. Annabel is a clear example of a multi passionate copywriter and entrepreneur who doesn't let big dreams or goals scare her away from building her dream eCommerce business. Rob:  Before we jump into our interview with Annabel, which is much better than last week's interview with our guest, this podcast is sponsored by the Copywriter Think Tank. That's our mastermind for copywriters and other marketers who want to think outside the box and build new offers or revenue streams into their business. There's a couple of reasons that I like the Think Tank. Number one, you're surrounded by a bunch of other ambitious copywriters, doing copywriter E-things. Not just copywriters though, marketers and experts trying to grow businesses using copywriting as a superpower. Number two, it's built around your goals. A lot of times with masterminds you join, the person that's leading the mastermind has a specific way that they built their business and they teach everybody to do that same way. That's not how the Think Tank operates. We focus on your goals and what you want to achieve, and then figure out how best to get there. Number three, if you joined the Copywriter Think Tank you get everything included in the Copywriter Club, including free ticket to the event that we'll be talking about in the very near future next year in Nashville. If you want more information about the Copywriter Think Tank, go to copywriterthinktank.com Kira:  Okay, let's dive into the episode and find out how Annabel started her journey. Annabel Landaverde:  It was a windy road, I definitely didn't graduate college thinking, "Oh, direct response." In fact, I graduated college with a political science degree and thought that I was going to go government or nonprofit. What I ended up doing actually was becoming an admission counselor for my alma mater. I didn't know it at the time but that was my first introduction to direct sales, really, because what I did was, I would recruit nationally. I'd go to different high school fairs or just high school or college fairs and meet with kids and tell them why, Gustavus Adolphus College is where I went in Minnesota, was a great place to go. Then, I would guide them through the application process. Through that, I was learning email marketing, I was learning face to face sales and then as soon as people decided, they got the financial aid package, they tried to figure out what's the right choice, then it's really closing the deal. I did that for about three years, which took me to my next spot in San Francisco, which was working as a digital marketing associate for the World Affairs Council. I thought it was my dream job. Again, I was a pol-sci major and here I was, basically leading all the digital communications for this international nonprofit and come to find out, I just dreaded it and that was my first time experiencing what I thought was a dream job. I was downtown San Francisco. I was working with all these touring artists ... well, authors who were like ex-journalists, ex-government employees and I was like, "You know, this really isn't what I thought it would be." It's not as exciting and it just didn't light me up anymore. At the time, I was in a long distance relationship. That relationship brought me to Austin, where I ended up leading communications for Whole Foods Market's newest nonprofit called Whole Cities Foundation. Again, dream job scenario and I was able to really lead the branding there. It was internally focused, so that meant that I was really mostly focused on working with employees of Whole Foods Market and getting them aware that there was this new foundation and how they can get involved but I wasn't putting to practice external marketing, right? It was really putting the foundation, communication plan together and really getting it out to an internal audience, but what I wanted to dip my toes into next was, how do I really grow this and get foundation money from the outside world. So, at this time, again, I was in Austin, Texas, I started going to, by chance, a networking event called the Internet Marketing Party. I say it's by chance because I happen to live in the same apartment complex as the person who was running the event. His name is David Gonzalez. My boyfriend was holding a book, which I highly recommend you read, called Influence by Robert Cialdini and David goes, "You look like you might be in marketing because of the book you're reading. I run this club, you should come," and it has been a game changer for me because what the Internet Marketing Party does is it brings together entrepreneurs, honestly, from all walks of life and people will fly into the event too and they'll bring a speaker on stage to talk about whatever expertise they have and then you get to network afterwards. So it like kind of cuts the ice of just going blind into a networking event, like you actually have a training to go to and then you can talk about that. That's really where I first discovered direct response copywriting. I had been in the world of branding, of communications, of really being a generalist. The Internet Marketing party really opened my eyes to what does it mean to be in direct sales online, right? I had some face to face experience and I had ... prior to going to college I actually used to sell Cutco. So that's how I paid for my first year of college, was basically going door to door selling knives, totally. I was able to really channel what I had learned from Cutco, what I had learned from being an admission counselor and really bringing empathy into sales to you. I think that's one of the things that I learned as an admission counselor, is you're listening for what people want and then you're also seeing, is this a good match, right? It's one thing to be able to do that when you're in a face to face conversation but what I learned with copywriting is to be able to do that even when there's no face to face interaction. Even if it's just you listening to someone, by doing research, listening to what their pain points are, listening to what their desires are and really being able to speak to that online to move them to move, action. Rob:  Okay. Yeah, so I've written down like six different questions that I want to ask or six different things I want to ask about. I want to go all the way back to like that first job because it's really intriguing to me, selling kids, 17, 18, 19 year olds on going to a college, it's maybe not a name brand, it's not Stanford or it's not Harvard, or whatever. So obviously, that takes some serious persuasion. Tell us a little bit more about ... and maybe you started getting into this when you were mentioning empathy, but tell us a little bit more about how you did that, how did you connect with them to convince them to come to a place that's pretty dang cold? It's not USC. It's not Florida. How do you get them to make that choice and sell them on something that's maybe not as good as some of the alternatives, at least in their minds is not as good? Annabel Landaverde:  Yeah, well, I think the biggest thing was I believed in the product and I believed in my experience there. I mean, one lesson is to just only ever take on work that you believe in, like the product is great and you can easily sell it because it doesn't actually even feel like selling at that point. You're really sharing your experience and why it's been life-changing for you. So my background, I totally ... like I'm one of the rare kids who is like, I'm moving to this college, sight unseen, sign me up. I had grown up in San Francisco and I just wanted something completely different. I was thinking about going to school on like ... well,