EPISODE 95: STABLE: Your Next Steps for a STABLE Writing Business

Jessi:
Welcome to the copywriter collaborative podcast, where we're digging into how you can build a sustainable writing business. We're your hosts, Jessi...

Marie:
...and Marie. We're the co-founders of North Star Messaging + Strategy. When we started our business in 2010, we had no idea what we were doing. We just knew we wanted to write. Since then, we've learned a lot and we've grown into a successful multi-six-figure copywriting agency with a talented staff of writers and project coordinators. We've served hundreds of clients and we've seen it all. We wish we could have had a resource like this way back then. So we created it for you.

Jessi:
We're here to share our stories and top tips to help you achieve personal and professional success in the copywriting industry. Every week, you'll get valuable insights from us, members of our team, and special guests. Whether you wanna write better copy, create a stronger copywriting business that can support you financially or both, grab your earbuds.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. And we are excited for our episode that really wraps up the stable framework that we've been spending the last six episodes talking about. So if you miss them, definitely go back and give them a listen. We talked about the stable framework, which stands for: strategic, targeted, appreciated, boundaried, lucrative and energized. The six things that in our experience, every writing business needs in order to be stable and sustainable. So if you've listened to those episodes, you now have a better sense of what a stable business looks like, but that's not enough, right? It's not just about knowing what a stable business looks like. It's about actually creating one for yourself. So we're gonna talk a little bit today about how to take everything that you've learned in these last few episodes and create a stable business for yourself and how we can help you to do that.

Marie:
Yeah. And you know, one of the things that- Hi, wow. Hello everybody. I have spoken today. Yes, I have. One of the things that we have been doing as this episode airs is our stable writing business challenge, which is a chance over the course of three days for you to figure out which area you need to focus on to create that sustainability in your business. But if you didn't get a chance to join that challenge, no worries. We are going to make those challenge materials available to you through our email list. So all you have to do in that case is subscribe. So you can check out the link in the show notes, and this will help you identify where to start for your writing business and to make sure that it is stable, streamlined, and sustainable so that you can feel awesome doing it for the long haul.

Jessi:
Yeah. We've found that, even though all six of these areas are important, trying to focus on all of them at once is not helpful. It actually just adds a really big pile of stress to your things to do. So we really are huge proponents of being aware of all six of these categories, but focusing on one at a time. And it doesn't matter which order you tackle these in because the order that it needs to be tackled in will be unique to each business and where each business is. So you don't have to start with the S in stable and work your way through the E. You might be in a situation where you need to start with the B for boundaries or the L for lucrative. The free challenge that we're running currently, and that you will have access to the materials for, will tell you where to start. It will tell you, oh, Hey, I need to start with making sure that my audience is more targeted because that is the biggest pressure point in my business right now. So make sure you get access to those materials so that you have a starting point. Otherwise, you're just going to add a bunch of activities to your to-do list, and that will not help you with the last letter in stable, which is the E for energized. It will very quickly reduce your energy.

Marie:
Exactly.

Jessi:
Then, on top of that, knowing where to start is kind of the first step forward, but then you actually need to start, right? Let's say you decide, through these materials, that you need to focus on building a more boundary business. Okay. Well, how do you do that? And how do you make sure you're being held accountable to doing that and really taking the best practices from people who have been there and who have experienced what a boundary and what a very not boundary business look like.

Marie:
Yeah, I mean, we did not learn this stuff ourselves overnight by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, just a few days after this episode airs, our company will be celebrating its 12th year in business. So as you can imagine, we've learned a lot through trial and error, a lot of error. We've also had a lot of support along the way. Those times in which we moved faster and made progress in a smoother fashion it's because we had the support to get us there. We have hired a number of business coaches over the years and business mentors and strategists who've been invaluable for us. And you know, one of those things about that is they've always been great. Like every single time. We've been, I guess, really fortunate. I know not every single coach or business consultant out there is as wonderful as the ones that we've had, but they've always been worth it. But one thing that we always kind of wished we had was a mentor like that who had the type of business that we did.
So that's something that we never had. And we feel really passionately about providing that for the next, uh, I guess, generation of businesses run by writers. Because when you have a mentor and a coach, and a consultant who understands the ins and outs of your type of business, because they've been there. Who understands not just the business side of things, but the work side of things, the actual writing, who understands the unique challenges that writers face. And I don't mean just like, you know, oh, you know, you gotta, you gotta know how to write a sales page or whatever it is, but also like there's a lot of like mindset stuff around writers and creatives. There's some preconceived notions around, for some people, for some clients, around the value of this service. So we understand all of that. We understand what you're facing. And so it's really a pleasure of ours to provide that support to our fellow writer business owners because you know, it's not something we had in that way and we wanna change that.

Jessi:
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, anyone who is out there starting their own business as a writer, or who has been in the writing business for a while and feels like they're heading up against a wall, they're getting a little stuck, really needs kind of two things in the support that they get in order to build a stable writing business. They need someone who understands the business side of things, but someone who also understands the practical, what does it mean to be a writer side of things. Because the two are so intertwined you can't really separate them. And the fact of the matter is there are things that writers and writer business owners face that other types of businesses do not. Other service-based businesses may come close, but writing in and of itself is unique and it comes with its own unique challenges. And so what we believe is that you deserve the support of experienced writer business owners who can help you take practical steps that will allow you to build a sustainable and stable business, starting with identifying where in the stable framework you need to work, or do you need to start rather. But then also creating an action plan for moving that needle forward, creating the accountability to make sure that you are taking the steps in that action plan, because it's a plan is useless unless it's actually put into action, unless it's evaluated unless it's updated periodically. And so that is one of the reasons why Marie and I love working with writer business owners to create that stability in a really, really practical way and in a small container where we can just hash out the realities of running a writing business.

Marie:
Absolutely. So if that is something that appeals to you, if this is something that feels like it's missing for you and you feel like you could also use that accountability and that loving nudge in the right direction and challenges that really can help you take the next right steps, we would love to chat with you. Please feel free to reach out to us@ at northstarmessaging.com/writercontact to get personalized support or to explore what that might look like for your business. That link is gonna be in the show notes as well. So you can always just head over to northstarmessaging.com/podcast to grab that. But we would love to have that conversation with you about the type of support you need and see if it is a match for the type of support that we can provide.

Jessi:
Yeah. At the end of the day, we wanna make sure that you have the tools and resources to succeed. And so we'll be honest with you about whether we feel like we are able to support you in that way. And it's going to start by having a conversation around where you are in the stable framework and what kind of area needs to be focused on first. So when you go to that site, northstarmessaging.com/writercontact, you'll fill out a brief form and then you'll be invited to schedule a 20 minute call with one of us. And during that call, we will talk about your business. We will ask you some questions and you'll have the chance to ask us some questions too. So if this sounds like you, definitely go to that link. And in the meantime, while we are really dialling in on helping writer business owners build stable, sustainable businesses, we are going to be taking our own advice.
So we did our own homework. We went through the stable framework and we identified which area we need to be personally focusing on in our business because it's never over guys. The business is always growing and changing and shifting. And there's always going to be one of these things that need to have a little more love and attention than the others. And so right now for us, the area of stable that we are working on at North Star is the E for energy and energized. And we want to make sure that we have the energy to serve those clients of ours, who are trying to build more sustainable, stable writing businesses.

Marie:
Exactly. So, you know, we are doing more of what fills us up and reducing our energy on things that may not be strictly necessary. So it's been a difficult decision for us because we've been releasing podcast episodes every week for two years. You all have been faithful, wonderful listeners, and we appreciate you so much. But we are going to put the podcast on hiatus so that we can focus on that stuff that fills us up. But I want you to know that we are not gone from our business. So we are still very much working. We're working with also our clients that we write for. So we are very much keeping our head in the game in terms of what is important for writing business owners to know, and to do so we're keeping our knowledge current on that. And we're very much interested in you and how you're doing and how we can support you.
So, if you are interested in getting personalized support from us, this can include various things. We can offer one on one coaching and consulting. We have some DIY worksheets and our stable curriculum that we can share with you. And we also have copywriting templates and trainings. These are all paid resources that we've put a lot of time and energy into that we use ourselves and we really stand behind. And so we'd love to hear what's up for you. And like I said, too, you know, if there's anything that you feel you need support around that we feel equipped to help you with, we will let you know that. So that's your homework is to reach out to us at northstarmessaging.com/writercontact if you want some more information.
But I have one other bonus piece of homework, which is go ahead and hit the subscribe button because we don't know when we're coming back, but when we do, we want you to see us in your podcast feed so you can get caught up with us as we kick back up again in the future.

Jessi:
Yeah, absolutely. So when you go ahead and fill out that form, part of the conversation we have will be, which of the resources that we have available will be the best fit for you. And if there's something else that we don't offer that we think would be a good fit, we'll also direct you towards those resources. We have a wide network that we've built over the years, and we wanna be able to support our fellow writer business owners in as many ways as we possibly can. So definitely reach out to us. That address is again, northstarmessaging.com/writercontact and hit that subscribe button so that you can get alerted when we come back from our hiatus.
In the meantime, thank you so much for being a loyal listener. It has been a wonderful two years, incredible experience and experiment with this podcast which we had backburnered for a long time. It took us a long time to actually start this podcast. And I can't believe we've been doing it for almost two years. It feels unreal, but I think this hiatus is much needed for us to focus on the energy that we need in our business to put towards our clients. And also for us to make sure that when we come back, we're giving you the best content possible for the work that you are doing.

Marie:
Absolutely. And, you know, don't miss out on our backlog of episodes. That information all still stands true. So there's two years, almost a hundred episodes of information all about writing, some great interviews, all about running a business that is sustainable, you name it. If it's about being a professional writer in terms of copywriting for clients, there's probably an episode on it. So yeah, go check out that backlog. And that is at northstarmessaging.com/podcast. But yes, I just wanna echo what Jessi said, and say thank you for listening. Thanks for being part of our community. And we really hope to have a chance to work with you personally.

Jessi:
Absolutely.

Marie:
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Copywriter Collaborative Podcast. Make sure to visit our website, northstarmessaging.com/podcast, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, and more.

Jessi:
If you found value in this episode, we'd love for you to leave us a review on your favorite podcast app and share it with your friends. Thank you, and happy copywriting.