Ashlyn is a calligrapher and copywriter fueled by grace, coffee and a fantastic pen collection. She and her husband have two beautiful German Shepherd puppies. Don’t miss her amazing launch copy needs checklist that you can use to hammer out copy for your next product, service, course or conference launch!
Don’t miss her free checklist that will walk you through copy needs for launching your next product, service, course or conference!
SHOW NOTES
For Ashlyn it has always been words that have inspired her, and she entered into the PR world of communication (1:25).
“I love people, I love talking and that’s a strength of somebody that works in PR.”
She moved to Atlanta and started her career in PR and writing email copy for Fortune 500 companies (1:35).
After her PR day job, Ashlyn enjoyed doing her side job, which was filling orders for her calligraphy work (2:44)
She got engaged to her now-husband, but was living a lifestyle of working constantly (2:50).
“Work was probably an idol in my life and just something that I absolutely adored a little too much.”
Because of this hectic work life, Ashlyn developed an eating disorder and was partially hospitalized for her eating habits and general anxiety and depression.
This experience gave Ashlyn and her new husband of only three months time to step back and think about how they wanted their lives to look (3:00).
“I wanted to learn what is was like to work from a place of rest.”
It was then that Ashlyn decided to go to work for herself and is thankful for the opportunities that have come her way, and others believing in her (4:00). As a result, she’s been able to match her income and make a living doing something that she absolutely loves.
She went ahead with starting her full-time calligraphy business, but discovered right away there was a gap in the market (6:15), which led her to starting another side of her business doing copywriting for creative entrepreneurs in the wedding community.
“Words are the scaffolding of your business.” (9:00)
Ashlyn believes that in the end, it is not your imagery in your business that sells it but the words that make the sale.
There are many different kinds of writing, but Ashlyn talks about copywriting as being the words that “pack punch” (9:38).
“They are words that are persuasive and they make someone take action on something.”
Ashlyn give tips on how to find your online voice and building a business starting with an email list. (11:00)
She feels that there is a need to serve the people on your email list by adding value, knowledge and inspiration to your weekly emails (20:45).
“If you are serving (your email list) you deserve to sell at some point. People make the biggest mistake when it comes to their email list; they only use it to sell” (21:03).
Be sure to write how you talk. If you want people to get to know you and what you do, communicating with them authentically is key to building a relationship. (26:00)
“If you can’t hire a copywriter and you are writing for yourself, read everything out loud, if it doesn’t sound like you, backspace it” (26:48)
When it comes to writing a post or a sales page, it is fine to have it long form but as Ray Edwards advises:
“There is not such a thing as too long, but there is such a thing as too boring.” (28:00)
To prevent this, you have to break it up with bullets and subheads, as well as using bold, italic copy and underlining copy (29:19).
“Make it visual”
When it comes to hiring people to help respond to your emails or posts it is important to identify words or phrases that you say or don’t say. How do you generally say hello or sign off? Keep your brand on point to have that connection with your audience. (36:40)
LINKS:
“Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin
Initially I ranked this podcast lower because I didn’t think it would benefit me but it has been by far the most helpful!
Thank you 🙂
[…] I’m choosing which episode I listen to and recently I heard Episode #6 with Ashlyn Carter. Once again, I found a few things that resonated with me – the perks of choosing the ones […]
[…] On Saturday we had two speakers, Ashlyn Carter of Ashlyn Writes and Ashley Lemieux of The Shine Project. I could sing praise to these women all day and if I had Jillian’s voice I probably would! Ashlyn so famously works to “hook women up with words” and spoke about “The New Rules of Perfectionism”. If you haven’t been to her website go now! She has so many helpful resources to help you rest in the excitement of a growing business! You can also hear her interviewed by Jenna Kutcher in the Goal Digger Podcaster here! […]
[…] PR job. Since then, she’s worked with really awesome people like Jenna Kutcher (I loved her interview on The Goal Digger Podcast) and Hillary Rushford. She even created a great course called copywriting for […]