Copywriter Adam Bensman is our guest for the 147th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. We've gotten to know Adam over the past few months and are very impressed with the business he's built. While so many copywriters struggle to find decent paying clients, Adam has built a great business working with a few, high-paying clients—and still has plenty of time at the end of the day for recreation and fun. We asked Adam about:
•  how he went from door to door sales to copywriter (with a few stops in between)
•  how he compensates for the “missing advantages” of face to face sales when you’re writing email (or sales pages)
•  why you need to couple empathy with pain when you “agitate the pain”
•  how to join the conversation in your prospect’s head
•  the template he uses when he sits down to write for clients
•  establishing boundaries and how it can change your business
•  how Adam defines his niche (it’s not the regular way)
•  the connection secret he used to find clients that fit in his niche
•  the value he creates for his clients (and how he presents it)
•  pricing… what Adam used to do and what he does today
•  what a typical project looks like (and what Adam does to complete it)
•  success fees and how it makes it work for his clients
•  how to think bigger about your business

We say this a lot, but this is a good one.  To hear everything Adam has to share, click the play button below or download this episode to your favorite podcast player. Rather read? Scroll down for a full transcript.



 
The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:
Joseph Sugarman
Sales Email Formula
Adam’s website
Kira’s website
Rob’s website
The Copywriter Club Facebook Group
The Copywriter Underground
Intro: Content (for now)
Outro: Gravity

 
Full Transcript:
Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes, and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast.

Kira:   You're invited to join the club for episode 147 as we chat with copywriter Adam Bensman about his approach to finding high-paying clients and building a business to support his lifestyle, making the time to value switch, how he finds the right clients and prices his projects, and what all copywriters can do to think bigger about their businesses.

Kira:   Welcome, Adam.

Adam:            Hey. Thank you, Kira and Rob. It's great to be here.

Rob:   Yeah, it's good to have you here.

Kira:   All right, Adam. So let's start with your story. How did you end up as a copywriter?

Adam:            My original background was in psychology and natural medicine, and when I moved to Madison, Wisconsin to pursue that venture, I was making no money in that field. And I set out to put food on the table, literally. I mean, I was that broke.

So, I fell into door-to-door sales selling roofing, and from there worked my way up to be the COO of a multi-state roofing and storm restoration company. And when I left that space from burnout, I started in the consulting world. And I was writing all of our direct mail at that company when I was COO, and then when I was doing consulting, I was providing some of those service for clients, not really even understanding that there was a copywriting profession in existence.

And I went on to co-found kind of an email marketing-type SaaS for the niche that I came from. And we went six months with zero sales. It was me and one partner. And I was sending emails out to our list that I had built, to past clients. I was posting on LinkedIn, posting on Facebook and engaging all the Facebook groups. We literally went six months with zero sales.

And when I kind of reached this breaking point, it was like, we needed to turn the ship around. So, I found an opportunity to joint venture with someone in our space,