13:00:29 From Beth : howdy 13:00:31 From Gabrielle : Hello :) 13:00:40 From Gabrielle : Baking! 13:01:10 From Sam Freedenberg : Bicycling through my local park 13:01:15 From Daniel Lona : I listen to vinyl records all the time :) 13:01:36 From Daniel Burch : Hello everyone! Having a great day. 13:03:36 From Daniel Burch : Are there connection issues with the microphone? it seems to be going on and off sometimes. 13:04:04 From Beth : (my connection seems good) 13:04:53 From Gabrielle : Session 1 13:04:54 From Daniel Burch : Apologies, but it still seems to be happening. 13:05:23 From Daniel Lona : I just finished session 6 on qualifying prospects. 13:05:27 From Gabrielle : Thanks :) 13:05:49 From Daniel Burch : I'll try that, be back in a sec. 13:06:21 From Sam Freedenberg : Session 1 - Positioning - Section #1 13:07:11 From Daniel Burch : I'm back. 13:08:14 From Daniel Burch : I've only just started 13:09:41 From Daniel Lona : W: This week I got back on track with studying the program. There was about a 2-week period where eI got really busy and wasn’t able to take time for it. But I’ I’m ready to try to finish all the sessions within the next 7 days. 13:10:29 From Daniel Burch : W - I have bought my own domain and set up my website (*also found this amazing course!). 13:11:13 From Beth : W: I’ve been super sick. My doctor actually suggested I put business building aside and go get a day job… I’m too close to launching to think about that. But I do need to get better. I know I can do it. Thanks for the encouragement, Susan. 13:11:18 From Gabrielle : W - I set a goal to finish session 1 ahead of this call and I did. I have questions, but I’ve worked through all the exercises. 13:11:24 From Sam Freedenberg : W: Worked through all of the Background, Knowledge, Passions, Talents section. Spent a lot of time on it. Great way to review my career, but I also know I have to really focus on a few key possibilities. 13:12:15 From Beth : (my doctor had a ton of strange feedback! :) ) 13:15:07 From Daniel Lona : QUESTION: As a new copywriter, does it make sense to reach out with warm emails to sizable businesses? Sizable to me means a business that may have a marketing department or are making at least $500K to 1mil per year in revenue? How do we aim for businesses that are proportional to our humble beginnings? Thank you! 13:20:12 From Daniel Lona : That’s SO helpful, Susan! Thank you! 13:20:19 From Gabrielle : Q: I haven't had a career to date, but I've consistently worked in writing (internships, freelancing), have taught at the university level and worked as a food tour guide. Between my paid work and the creative projects I've done for fun (digital magazines, blogging, documentary, podcast) one consistent thread is distilling complex information, typically after research and interviewing. The potential target industries I've identified are education (which seems uninteresting) nutrition companies (no idea where to go with that one) and tourism or foreign investment companies focused on the Caribbean. I feel out of my depth with that one too, so I'm curious if you have any suggestions? At the moment I'm thinking to just position myself as a long form writer of things like case studies, articles, white papers, even ghostwriting. 13:30:18 From Daniel Burch : Question: When you are writing for B2B, how experience as a writer do you need to be? Are we talking about "you must know how to strings a sentence together and edit it well" or "you must have some prior experience, be it from writing for a newspaper, magazine, blog etc." It almost seems as it writing for B2B is on a harder level as it requires more than writing a humble blog post, as your job experience, knowledge and qualifications almost seem required. Would a business risk taking you on if you don't have that much experience? Especially if they are willing to pay more and might be expecting to receive good quality for what they pay. My background is that I have little writing experience and I haven't spent a long time working for a specific company. I'm not sure if this is an incorrect perspective or not. 13:38:16 From Daniel Burch : Thank you very much! 13:39:27 From Beth : Q: raising rates. do this annually? tell existing clients in advance you will be raising rates, or keep them at the rate they began at in the hope of getting further business (and inform them that they’re getting a discount for the next year)? raise them across the board, or only for the larger clients? would appreciate your thoughts on this, if it’s not too broad. thanks. 13:48:02 From Beth : it’s great. thanks. 13:48:55 From Gabrielle : Can I ask another question? 13:49:08 From Gabrielle : Q: I tweaked one of the value statements I wrote before you answered my question. How does this sound? “I’m a seasoned writer who works with small businesses and professional service firms that need internal and client-facing documents. I've worked with companies in the public and private sector to create clear, engaging content.” 13:50:03 From Gabrielle : Great! Thank you :D 13:50:43 From Gabrielle : It does! 13:52:28 From Gabrielle : Web development. 13:52:49 From Gabrielle : Yea it was great because he was so happy afterward and saw immediate results. It was very rewarding. 13:54:55 From Gabrielle : Cool. Thank you. 13:55:02 From Gabrielle : haha 13:56:33 From Beth : V: the “mix” of business sizes we can try at the outset. loved that advice. 13:57:24 From Gabrielle : V: Aside from your help with my question, hearing the idea of working on a pro bono basis fleshed out made it a lot clearer to me. I’d read it before but it didn’t sound as attractive until this call. 13:58:49 From Daniel Burch : V: Knowing where to start. As a beginner, it's easy to get confused and not know where to start. The pro bono one is also helpful (even if I had to Google the word). 14:01:59 From Sam Freedenberg : V: You said something like “Don’t focus on a craft.” I came into this program thinking I was going to be doing one kind of writing, but I am already seeing how limiting that can be. Starting with uncovering my best target audience(s) and differentiating seems far more sensible, strategically. 14:08:14 From Sam Freedenberg : So helpful. Thank you! 14:09:14 From Gabrielle : A: Looking forward to beginning Session 2 :) 14:09:21 From Beth : A: crack open session 5 14:09:51 From Daniel Burch : A: Being laser focused on working my way through this course and putting time consuming stuff to the side. 14:11:36 From Sam Freedenberg : A: In Session 1, focusing on Contacts/Relationships. Some of them will be surprised to hear from me! 14:11:49 From Daniel Burch : One last question 14:12:44 From Daniel Burch : Are the sessions meant to be available from the start? Most of the sessions are locked out for me and some people are saying that they are starting with session X for example. Is it because they have been on this course for longer? 14:13:39 From Daniel Burch : Ah, I see. 14:13:51 From Daniel Burch : Thank you! 14:14:33 From Gabrielle : Thanks very much Susan.